Stories of the Prophets

I have found teaching Stories of the Prophets, Qasas un-Nabiyeen, to be incredibly rewarding. It is the perfect resource to develop ones vocabulary and see basic grammar concepts in action.

Two students of mine had studied Arabic in part-time courses for years. They were venturing into quite advanced areas of grammar and yet they had never had the chance to apply what they had learned.

Reading the Stories of the Prophets, starting with the story of Ibrahim (peace be upon him), showed them just how far they had come.

It gave them a boost of motivation to see that all the time and hard work they had put in over the years meant they could open an Arabic book and understand its pages.

Studying the Arabic language purely from grammar textbooks is a noble but tiring pursuit. It’s those moments of joy as an Arabic student, where you listen to a song or read an article with understanding, that sustains us on the journey.

Qasas un-Nabayeen integrates Qur’anic ayat (plural of ayah) to tell the stories of the Prophets. Arabic students can have their first go at making linguistic sense of revelation, the first step in their ultimate goal of understanding the Holy Qur’an.