Reading without harakaat
The question that I get asked the most is “how can we read Arabic without harakat (short vowels)?”and the answer that I usually give might seem a bit frustrating to some, especially those were hoping for a quick way to learn to read without the harakaat (especially knowing that most advanced books don’t have the harakat).
But really, the reason why I myself as a native speaker can read without them is simple, I’ve read so many words (ever since I was a kid and until now) and they are stored in my mind. I’ll explain to you how the process goes, I’ll take an example of a word that I saw on a small brochure last week
الصيام جنّة
The moment I saw this sentence, my brain began filtering the possible readings for the word الصيام and the word جنة and at first glance I read it as
الصِّيامُ جَنَّةٌ (assiyaamu jannatun) ??
This means that fasting is heaven which seems a bit off then I remember that the word جنة has another reading which is جُنَّةٌ (junnatun) which means protection so this way the sentence makes more sense.
الصيام جُنَّةٌ (assiyaamu junnatun)
The word جنة can also be read as جِنّة (jinna) which means madness but the meaning would be completely off so I didn’t even consider it.
The thing is, the word that my mind immediately associates with جنة is janna (heaven) which is the word that I’m used to seeing most of the time and in most sentences so it’s natural to have that reading here at first,and I assume that any learner would make the same association when they see that word, but as we learn more and read more, the list of vocabulary we have in our head will expand which will help us be able to “eliminate” the incorrect possible reading for the word and be able to read it.
This doesn’t need years and years of practice, you can get closer to your goal with every new word that you learn just don’t give up!
