UAE Initiative: Arabic Language As Language of Tolerance
We all know with certainty that the UAE lives in extending shades of tolerance. This situation can be compared to a man who lost his animal in a barren desert, and burned by the scorching wind, and then he found a lush Ghaf tree.
Our language is undoubtedly a language of sublimity and excellence not superiority and discrimination. It is a language of tolerance.
We also recognize, with great understanding, that the Year of Tolerance has come to be an indispensable and reinforcing factor of tolerance. Visions are clear and goals are achieved. Each individual and entity sought to contribute in the Year of Tolerance. The ministries of services put forward their initiatives, commercial entities made their contribution, and educational and cultural institutions also contributed significantly.
Language and interested parties also contributed. The high-end timeless language of originality, revelation, guidance, pulpits, ink bottles, science, painting, certainty, foresight, pride, dignity, logic, virility, richness, miracles, immortality, civilization, rhetoric, significance, grandstanding, the past, the present, the future, demonstration, clarification, funny sayings, wise sayings, proverbs, literature and poetry will be able to make great additions and become the language of tolerance.
Last summer, the initiative of “Arabic, the Language of Tolerance” was launched. It is an initiative to be developed and generalized. It was wonderful that it has gone beyond the framework of the summer initiative that addresses the needs of school students, to be a new approach in education. It goes beyond the field of education to all areas of life, to move the Arabic language from the narrow religious ideologies to the spaciousness of the free and tolerant world.
Our Islamic religion is a tolerant religion and the container and carrier of such religion is also tolerant. Those who rely on the power of language and deem it sacred and superior are undoubtedly right, but they make a mistake when they exaggerate and exceed proper bounds, the matter which is reprehensible. On the other hand, moderation is commendable. Those who love their language see control, superiority, dominance and exclusion in the power of language.
In fact, all languages are beautifully spoken by native speakers. Our ancestor realized such fact as Ibn Hazm Al-Andalusi says in his “Al Ihkam fi Usoul Al Ahkam”, “It makes no sense to think that your language is the best as everyone thinks that their language is the best. The wise person denies comparing languages as the charm of language lies in its function, whether creative or communicative.
There is a wonderful saying for the German philosopher and writer Goethe, “Every literature ends unless a foreign contribution revives it.” In fact, it is a correct saying that applies on all languages. Goethe added, “Translation has saved Arabic literature, kept it up to date and contributed to its renovation by opening up to other new races and using unprecedented forms of writing.”
The subject is debatable, but the most established fact is that our language is undoubtedly a language of sublimity and excellence not superiority and discrimination. It is a language of tolerance.