Ladies and Gentlemen!
It is not only surprising to me but rather it hurts me to the core of my heart to see that the people of a nation after having for full fourteen centuries kept the Arabic Koran in the depths of their heart, generation after generation, century after century, age after age, should today in this hall be seen beating their heads to find some means and some methods to achieve the possibility of implanting some hope, some interest of the Arabic language in the heart of the followers of the Koran, that the Arabic Language be studied and that it should not be treated with injustice, and that this language be propagated, nay but further to find means of saving the existence of this great language with which our past has had keen association; and which had moulded every phase of our life even our destiny, for the past fourteen centuries, and which strangely enough stood today at the verge of its annihilation, breathing its last and saying good by to its own children; with sad disappointment in her eyes.
It pains me to go into the details of that historical back-ground which so logically and so naturally ended into this catastrophe; but rather let me assure you gentlemen that I, even I am feeling a heartfelt, in-expressible delight at this spirit of revival, for therein I see a ray of hope, much magnified by your determined faces and your undeniable abilities. Yet the goal at present is far ahead, and the situations worsening every moment. But when men gird up their loins and put their shoulders to the task even the mountains give them way.
The English language bestowed on the benefits of this present transient world, we therefore learn it with rear ambition; even to the standards where we could look down upon and cast a shadow over the great English writers themselves. But there is stimulus and uncontrollable urge through the hope and certainty of getting the desires of our heart and the necessities of our life and the means of our territorial defence. Yet we completely forget the other side of the picture by ignoring an equally forcible motive which is about our life in the next world in which the people of faith and understanding have an unshakable faith that is the desire of our welfare in the next life after we have been dead. And to achieve that end we have to learn the Koran, and the Koran being in Arabic Language, we are obliged to learn Arabic. It therefore is as essential to learn Arabic language as is the English.
Yet it is not all, the Arabic language does not leave the field of the worldly unattended and all those benefits which we derive from the English language to-day, we can without fail derive from the Arabic language. The Arabic language has yet another role to play in your life and this role wholly concerns this present life. It has to give you and you have to take from it a complete scientific language in due course. Thus all the benefits, social and scientific could most easily be united. We may think that English would perform that role more easily; moor naturally and more properly. Yet it is another fact that which needs consideration. English is a foreign language, STUCTURALLY and it shall therefore forever remain foreign, whether taken in a mixed form or whether taken up in a state quite pure and unmixed. We could borrow it but our borrowing of it is not quite natural, and this every-body knows despite the unique and most commendable virtues of that language and the great services which it has done to us and the whole of the world. And therefore due merely to that incomplete union of a language with our mind it shall become quite impossible for our generations to achieve the desired mark in the fields of practical studies or to make the best of their intellect and endeavour. No people could really advance to the deserved limits in accordance with their natural capacities in the realm of science until and unless they possessed a language inborn and inherent in their minds to the levels of unconscious.
But pray look not only about the present situation and the present state of the affairs, and look not only into your own feet, but rather look upon and see far into the future and with your own eyes you shall see the glaring truth that to make a real advancement in the scientific matters needs a native language, a language taught by the mother, and in your case the Islamic mother, to ensure the Islamic unity as well.
To borrow from the English language is the easiest matter at present and the complete swerving from that language today as the matters stand, is a well-nigh impossibility; but do we look in the terms of the present only or do we also include the future in our view? If then we discard the future, then let us be content with the things as they are moving at present, but if on the other hand we have some least consideration for the future of our generations then indeed we must necessarily give utmost attention to this question of the healthy development of a language, for a dumb nation as our nation is like a dumb individual is bound naturally to lag behind those who are endowed with a tongue of their own. And the tongue of a Muslim community no matter in what part of the world they reside is no other than the ARABIC.
Gentlemen! Only a decade ago, to think of English-man’s quitting India was no more than a dream. But that dream you have with your own eyes seen come true, and on the other hand those who ridiculed or opposed the idea of PAKISTAN you have also seen subjected to shame, and this country PAKISTAN has by the grace of ALMIGHTY ALLAH you have with your own eyes seen progressing in every field and contributing to the peace and prosperity of the general mankind. Make therefore these facts a criterion and base upon them the investigation of future trends of the world affairs, and see through the telescope a united Islamic world with a common language capable of serving all their needs.
A foreign language gentlemen even if mastered remains foreign to the end, but fortunately the Arabic language is not at all foreign to the followers of the Koran, no matter wherever they live, it is their own mother tongue. But to reach that state where we shall have imbibed the true spirit of the Arabic language and have found and coined a scientific language from the Arabic origin, we shall have to pass through may stages by trial and error coupled with a mad enthusiasm for the Arabic tongue until we have reached a state where that language may impart us instruction as well as give us pleasure. But it is a long and a laborious way and it demands sacrifices on the part both of the scholar and the student. Many a Mirza Ghalib and Mir Taqi Mir shall have to sacrifice themselves in the scientific Rekhtah and many a student shall have to pass sleepless nights cudgeling their brains in understanding the complicated and ambiguous Rekhtasized scientific terminology of the language under development, before the pleasure giving sweet and melodiously over flowing verse of an Iqbal. There should therefore, be two branches shooting up in parallel, one receiving the English instruction, and the other perspiring and sweating to formulate a new language receiving its diet from the Arabic. The Arabic language therefore is even more essential for any Muslim community than the English language itself, for whereas the English can afford to better this present material life only, the Arabic language on the other hand has the ability to better both the lives that is this present life and the next life which is permanent and eternal. Although our past record in the field of the propagation of Arabic language has been, I am so sorry to remark extremely miserable; no proper attention has been paid to this so important a matter and there has been more of the empty talk and hollow sentiment on the part of every-one , that any real work.
But why do we say, the one or the other that is the English or the Arabic, and why not the both language be given equal attention. If a student is expected successfully to read a two donkey-load of books about the different branches of knowledge and also that the English language be made compulsory whey not then the Arabic language be also made compulsory implying the addition of a few more books. Believe me, the Arab language shall leave no field of activities, whether Divine or temporal unattended. And your progress in every line is ensured receiving its verdure from the English instruction and the other from Arabic. The latter from shall be achieved wholly through public spirit. The Arabic language therefore is even more essential for any Muslim community than the English language itself.