Kozhikode: Love for the language made Rachel Silpa Anto G.S. to tread the less taken path of a non-Muslim pursuing a degree in Arabic, and five years down the lane, she is quite happy. There are many non-Muslims who completed the two-year preliminary course (bridge course) in Arabic, but none had done BA Afzal Ul Ulama. “I studied Arabic as the first language from fifth standard itself. My dad’s love for the language propelled me to choose it, and gradually I fell in love with Arabic,” says Ms Anto, who studied at Rouzathul Uloom Arabic College, the first institution on the well-known Feroke College campus in Feroke. The Thiruvananthapuram girl reached here as her father Surendran was in the government service in Malabar.
“Nizamuddin Sir, my teacher at the UP level, taught the basics of the language and I thought I should study it,” Ms Anto, who is now awaiting the result, says. She joined the course after completing SSLC from the state capital. After studying the language for five years, she wants to go for MA Afzal Ul Ulama and do research in Arabic. “It is a wrong notion that Arabic the language of Muslims alone," she tells DC. "It's the mother tongue of many Jews and Christians as well.”
According to the college principal, Dr P. Musthafa, he cannot identify a non-Muslim who completed a degree in Arabic. “Silpa was a darling of the college, and all the staff and students provided wholehearted supported to her,” he said. She has only beautiful memories of her campus, and she hopes the people to perceive Arabic as an independent and authoritative language without religious colour.
