Bismillahir Rahmanir Raheem,
I figured I’d share some advice on how to begin reading Arabic if you have no prior experience and are not able to get a teacher. of course it’s always best to have a teacher if possible.
I’ve done it by simply printing out a sheet that has the arabic alphabet and shows each letter in its different forms (isolated, initial, medial, final), and a sheet that shows the different diacritics and their sounds and putting them on my wall. Then I sit in front of it with a portion of Arabic text open on my phone and I try to read using the reference in front of me. At first each sound takes half a minute and no doubt it would make no sense to an Arabic speaker. But wallahi by the end of the Hadith I was reading I had already improved and was able to recognize letters and sounds without having to reference the sheets, Alhamdullilah. My progress is still very small but insha’Allah I will set aside time for this everyday and soon I will be able to read Arabic script insha’Allah. And of course the most important thing is to have the correct niyyah and to ask Allah to put barakah in your learning.
