Ihsan Circle · Fall 2026 Syllabus · المنهج
Unlocking Arabic
How does the structure of Arabic carry the meanings of revelation?
- Instructor
- Irslan Ahmad
- Format
- Online, live cohort
- Schedule
- Saturdays & Sundays, 8:00–10:00 AM Central
- Term
- August 22 – Dec 19, 2026
- Length
- 16 weeks
- Class size
- 8 students maximum
- Age
- Young adults, 17–25
- Outside class
- 2 hours a week — written grammar exercises, pen in hand
- Tuition
- $400 for the full course — sponsorships available
- Prerequisite
- Students should already be able to read fully vowelled Arabic script, even if slowly. No previous study of grammar or morphology is required.
About This Course
Arabic grammar is studied because every change in a word, an ending, a pattern, or a sentence can carry meaning. Learning how the language works allows a student to begin seeing dimensions of the Qur'an, hadith, supplications, and classical texts that a translation alone cannot preserve.
This course is a structured introduction to Arabic morphology — sarf, how words are formed — and syntax — nahw, how words relate inside a sentence. Students move through accessible English and Arabic introductory materials before concluding with a guided reading of al-Ajurrumiyyah, one of the most influential primers in the Arabic grammatical tradition.
From the first weeks, every concept is applied to selected Qur'anic phrases and short sacred texts. The aim is not conversational fluency, and not the whole of grammar in one semester. It is the vocabulary, concepts, habits, and analytical tools a student needs to begin reading Arabic deliberately and to continue into more advanced study.
Objectives
By the end of the term, a diligent student should be able to:
- 01Distinguish nouns, verbs, and particles within an Arabic sentence.
- 02Recognize the basic features of Arabic nouns — gender, number, definiteness, and grammatical case.
- 03Understand how Arabic words are formed from roots and morphological patterns.
- 04Conjugate common sound verbs in the past, present, and command forms.
- 05Distinguish nominal from verbal sentences and identify their principal components.
- 06Recognize common grammatical operators and the effects they produce.
- 07Explain the concept and the signs of grammatical inflection, or i'rab.
- 08Perform a guided grammatical analysis of short Qur'anic passages.
- 09Read the central divisions of al-Ajurrumiyyah with understanding.
- 10Continue into intermediate Arabic study holding a coherent map of the language.
The Shape of the Term
Phase One · Weeks 1–4
The Architecture of Arabic
The categories from which Arabic speech is built — nouns, verbs, particles, phrases, and sentences — and the features that allow Arabic words to relate to one another.
Phase Two · Weeks 5–8
How Arabic Words Are Formed
The study of sarf: roots, patterns, conjugation, verb forms, verbal nouns, and participles — seeing how a single root develops into a family of related meanings.
Phase Three · Weeks 9–13
How Arabic Sentences Carry Meaning
The study of nahw: nominal and verbal sentences, grammatical roles, governing elements, case endings, agreement, and the principal constructions met in sacred texts.
Phase Four · Weeks 14–16
Entering the Grammatical Tradition
Everything learned so far is gathered through a guided reading of al-Ajurrumiyyah. Rather than meeting the text as an unexplained list of rules, students arrive with the concepts already understood and apply its framework to Qur'anic examples.
The Term, Dated
- 01Weekend of Aug 22
How Arabic Works
- 02Weekend of Aug 29
The Arabic Noun
- Weekend of Sep 5Labor Day weekend — no sessions
- 03Weekend of Sep 12
Pronouns and Reference
- 04Weekend of Sep 19
Building Phrases
- 05Weekend of Sep 26
Roots and Patterns
- 06Weekend of Oct 3
The Sound Verb
- 07Weekend of Oct 10
Derived Forms and Word Families
- 08Weekend of Oct 17
Weak Verbs and Midpoint Integration
- 09Weekend of Oct 24
The Meaning of I'rab
- 10Weekend of Oct 31
The Nominal Sentence
- 11Weekend of Nov 7
The Verbal Sentence
- 12Weekend of Nov 14
Particles That Reshape Sentences
- 13Weekend of Nov 21
Expanded Grammatical Roles
- Weekend of Nov 28Thanksgiving weekend — no sessions
- 14Weekend of Dec 5
Al-Ajurrumiyyah: Speech and Inflection
- 15Weekend of Dec 12
Al-Ajurrumiyyah: The Nominative and Accusative
- 16Weekend of Dec 19
Al-Ajurrumiyyah: The Genitive, the Jussive, and the Road Ahead
Assessment & Completion
There are no letter grades here. Formation is not ranked — the work is designed to make growth visible to the student first.
- Weekly written work: conjugation drills, sentence-building, guided parsing (i'rab), and vocabulary drawn from recurring Qur'anic words.
- Periodic cumulative reviews across the term.
- Midpoint checkpoint (week 8): a cumulative reading and analysis exercise integrating the first half of the course.
- Final checkpoint (week 16): an annotated passage demonstrating morphology, syntax, and meaning together.
Completion asks for consistent attendance (no more than three weeks missed across the sixteen), the written exercises completed most weeks, and both checkpoints.
Texts & Materials
Primary sequence: Introductory Arabic and English grammar materials, culminating in al-Ajurrumiyyah.
Provided: Instructor-prepared charts, morphology tables, vocabulary sheets, parsing exercises, and selected passages from the Qur'an and other sacred texts.
The student brings: a notebook and a pen — grammar is learned with a pen in hand; a quiet place to join the live session.
The course closes with a final annotated passage in which a student demonstrates morphology, syntax, and meaning together.
Policies
Attendance. Sessions are live, and attended — a student can ask his question the moment he has it. If he has to miss a session, a recording can be shared on request; it is a fallback, not a substitute for being in the room.
Tuition help. No sincere student is turned away from our student programs for inability to pay. If tuition is the obstacle, write to us before applying and we'll find a way forward.
Refunds. Full before the first session, prorated after the first session but before the second, and none once the second session begins — see our Terms of Use.
Where the Term Leaves Him
A diligent student should be able to look at a short vowelled Arabic passage and begin explaining how its words are formed, what roles they perform, why their endings change, and how their grammatical relationships carry meaning. He will not have completed the study of Arabic. He will hold a genuine foundation from which direct access to sacred texts becomes possible.