A Grammica Student's Story to Islam and Arabic (Maryam Harvey)
Like most of the rest of the kids in my class in primary school, I grew up brainwashed by the prevailing values of the time to believe myself an atheist, and we used to whisper about the Catholics behind their back, in a mixture of wonderment and contempt, 'He believes in God...!'
As a sixth former I would spend whole nights at a time with my sister and cousin, in a hangover from Sixties Western indoctrination, attempting to tackle the seemingly most utterly baffling question of all; What is meaning of life?
A degree in Philosophy left me none the wiser as we were literally taught that all questions regarding 'God' or the 'soul' were meaningless.
It was not until I picked up a copy of The Bhagavad Gita in a second-hand bookshop that I glimpsed at, and fell I love with, the possibility of God and Truth and a vision of every soul having a unique journey of self-realisation to the Oneness of the Divine.
It was another decade of searching through contemporary and ancient religious teachings before I finally ended up reading a copy of the translation of the Quran.
I felt I had found the 'Truth' written down in words on pages in a book in front of my eyes alhamdulillah...
I set about consuming books on Arabic grammar almost immediately and have read many since. I bought and learnt to use the Hans Wehr dictionary.
I can honestly attest to the fact that books of Arabic grammar are basically next to useless without a teacher. But feeling compelled to understand at least some of the Arabic of the Holy Quran, I spent many happy hours looking up words and trying to figure out rules for the different forms of the verbs.
Studying with Grammica has been a decision that I could not recommend enough and I would encourage this as a 'must' for any serious student. The ability to comprehend some of the Quran and ahadith in the original Arabic is something that can move your soul like nothing else. The journey is literally endless, but one reaps the rewards every step of the way.
—Maryam has completed all 3 Grammica certificates: Essentials, Intermediate, and Advanced.