Zaynab Ansari – A Community Of Learning Fawakih

			My name is Zayna Bensary, and I am
		

			really happy to discover that Fawakay Institute has
		

			recreated
		

			communities of learning around the Arabic language in
		

			a way that's really fun and engaging for
		

			Western students
		

			of the Arabic language.
		

			Spending time at Fawakih House and Fawakih Institute
		

			brings back cherished memories,
		

			memories of my own journey studying Arabic. So
		

			my journey actually begins in Atlanta, Georgia,
		

			when my parents decided to move to the
		

			Middle East so that we could learn Arabic
		

			and Islam. Now, despite the fact that my
		

			family on my father's side is Lebanese, I
		

			actually did not
		

			learn Arabic as a heritage learner. I actually
		

			had to learn Arabic as a second language
		

			as a teenager.
		

			And what's so interesting is that, my introduction
		

			to that language took place in a Persian
		

			speaking country. But remember the history, everybody. One
		

			of the first grammarians of Arabic was the
		

			very famous Persian Sibyl way.
		

			So,
		

			I had the chance to be introduced to
		

			Arabic grammar, and that really fun project of
		

			diagramming Arabic sentences in Iran with fellow students
		

			from various parts of the world. We had
		

			our own little community of learning going there.
		

			And that community of learning made the whole
		

			process, I think, a lot more enjoyable.
		

			As any student knows, studying can sometimes be
		

			a very solitary enterprise. So I was happy
		

			when we moved to Damascus,
		

			and we were in an immersion environment, and
		

			we had
		

			bigger communities of learning. Sisters from all over
		

			the world who
		

			were studying together and diagramming Arabic sentences,
		

			and all of us were united in our
		

			love for this language, the language of the
		

			divine text. So how amazing is this that
		

			now in the 21st century or in 15th
		

			century, Hijri,
		

			we as students in the United States can
		

			have our own communities of learning
		

			around the Arabic language. We can learn Sarf,
		

			we can learn Nahu, we can learn tafsir,
		

			and in our love of Arabic, be connected
		

			to communities of learning all across the world,
		

			all the way back to the prophet sallallahu
		

			alaihi wasallam.
		

			And again, my journey
		

			began in Atlanta, took me to Iran,
		

			Damascus,
		

			and now at Fowakki Institute. So I encourage
		

			everybody to just come on by, experience the
		

			classes, and the communities of learning here at
		

			Fowakki.