FIFA in Arabic, here we come!

Can we make Arabic and FIFA come to life? Puzzled why are we talking about the Fifa World Cup here?

Arabically is all about connecting creatively and we don’t want to miss any chance to learn Arabic as you enjoy the World Cup 2022.

How is the World Cup going to help my child learn Arabic? This year the World Cup is taking place in an Arab country. We come across a lot of Arabic words in the news and not to forget the running commentary in Arabic. Ya Salaam!

 

Let us seize this opportunity and make it an educational moment. When asked why most parents want their children to learn Arabic the most common reply is “I want him/her to understand the Quran. There is this constant doubt prevailing among us on how Arabic Storybooks will we help our overall Arabic Language understanding and by extension, the Quran. What am I even going to benefit by learning the words used in daily life when all I want is to understand the Quran?

There are loads of practical examples around us but we just fail to comprehend them. 

 

Let’s explore some FIFA vocabulary;

 

 كأس العالم – World Cup

كأس – cup 

العالم – world. 

 

You must be wondering about the term “world cup”, and how is it relevant to our religious texts. 

The word كأس does appear in the Quran and so does the word العالم which we read in every rakah of our Salah. 

 

Al-Fatihah 1:2

ٱلْحَمْدُ لِلَّهِ رَبِّ ٱلْعَٰلَمِينَ 

[All] praise is [due] to Allah, Lord of the worlds .

 

An-Naba’ 78:34

وَكَأْسًا دِهَاقًا 

(And a full cup)

There is an amazing concept of “root words” in Arabic. To put it in simple words, a group of words has common letters that give the same meaning.

Eg: The term انتصار means “victory”. What are the 3-part root letters for this word?

انتصار – ن ص ر 

Where else do you see a word with the 3-part root construct?

 

An-Nasr 110:1

إِذَا جَآءَ نَصْرُ ٱللَّهِ وَٱلْفَتْحُ 

(When the victory of Allah has come and the conquest)

 

The same root letters are found in

ن ص ر – victory, help. 

 

How about the word for winners;

 

 فائز – winner  

How happy we are when our favorite team wins the match. Let’s be one of those winners in Aakhirah 

Al-Hashr 59:20

لَا يَسْتَوِىٓ أَصْحَٰبُ ٱلنَّارِ وَأَصْحَٰبُ ٱلْجَنَّةِۚ أَصْحَٰبُ ٱلْجَنَّةِ هُمُ ٱلْفَآئِزُونَ 

(Not equal are the companions of the Fire and the companions of Paradise. The companions of Paradise – they are the attainers [of success].)

 

 

دفاع – defense

Al-Ma’arij 70:2

لِّلْكَٰفِرِينَ لَيْسَ لَهُۥ دَافِعٌ 

(To the disbelievers; of it there is no preventer)

 

These words are not just repeated once in the Quran but several times.

 Instead of making the child memorize the word without any connection only to forget the word in a few days. If the child is introduced to a word by the topic which sparks their interest they will remember it forever.

In this way when the child comes across the words while reciting Quran and finds it by themselves they feel a sense of achievement and motivation which will make them love the language and the Quran. 

Are there more FIFA-related Arabic words you have heard in the last few days? Share them below and we can find connections to better your learning.

Follow us on Instagram to join our upcoming programs: https://www.instagram.com/arabically_official/

You can also follow this Instagram page for amazing Arabic-related content for FIFA vocabulary.