Malaysia’s Approach to Maintain the Identity and the Civilization of the Arabic Language

Abstract

This study discusses the topic of maintaining the identity and the

civilization of the Arabic language, which has a great significance in the life

of the Malays. Indeed, Arabic plays a big role in the religious and cultural

dimensions of the daily life of malays as they use Arabic words in areas such

as worship rituals, education, trade and tourism. Arabic is also used by

universities and schools in Malaysia as medium of instruction to teach Islamic

studies e. g. jurisprudence, tafsir, hadith, muslim theology, or as a second or

foreign language in other disciplines. Both inductive and historical methods

are used in this study to investigate the role of Malaysia in maintaining this

language and how to take the possible means to preserve this language,

which is confirmed by the state as the language of Islamic civilization and

the language of the Islamic religion. Apart from that, Arabic calligraphy is

still being used as part of Malay writing system. Arabic is also linked to the

cultural dimension, which has a significant in the field of language borrowing

as well as its role in maintaining the political and cultural relations with the

Arab world.