What are the Madinah books?
Their real title is دُرُوسُ اللُّغَةِ الْعَرَبِيَّةِ لِغَيْرِ النَّاطِقِينَ بِهَا (Durūs al-Lughah al-ʿArabiyyah li-Ghayr al-Nāṭiqīna Bihā), “Arabic lessons for those who do not speak it”. They were written by Dr. V. Abdur Rahim, an Indian scholar who taught Arabic at the Islamic University of Madinah from 1969 and designed this course for its foreign students. The course has three main books. Book 1 covers the basic sentence, Book 2 brings in verbs and more grammar, and Book 3 goes further into verb forms and more advanced grammar.
Why are they so popular?
The books are written entirely in Arabic and teach grammar through short example sentences rather than long rules. Each lesson adds one small pattern, such as “this is…”, “the…”, or “whose is this?”, and drills it until it feels natural. The vocabulary mixes everyday words with words from the Quran and hadith, so you start recognising Quranic phrases early.
Where can you get them free?
Dr. Abdur Rahim’s own institute, the Institute of the Language of the Quran in Toronto (lqtoronto.com), shares the books and keys as free PDFs with his permission. There are keys in English and in Urdu that explain every lesson. Printed copies are also sold widely, often under names such as “Madinah Arabic Reader” or “Easy Arabic Course”. Harf does not host the books; we write our own lessons that follow the same step-by-step order.
How to study Book 1 with Harf
First learn to read: if you cannot yet read Arabic letters with harakat, spend ten days on the alphabet (three letters a day). Then go through the books and Harf side by side. Harf’s first lessons follow the same path as Book 1: this is (هٰذَا), that is (ذٰلِكَ), the article al-, where?, feminine words (هٰذِهِ), whose? (لِمَنْ), pronouns and my and your. Read the book’s lesson, then the Harf lesson on the same pattern for an explanation in plain English or Urdu, with audio for every word.
A weekly routine that works
Two book lessons a week is a good pace. On day one read the lesson aloud and look up new words. On day two read the matching Harf lesson and do its practice. On day three write out the book’s exercises. Keep a small notebook of new words and test yourself with the quiz and flashcards at the end of each week. When a word comes from the Quran, look up its root in the Quran roots list to see the other words from the same family.
Common mistakes
Do not skip the reading drills: say every sentence out loud. Do not rush to Book 2 before you can make simple sentences without looking. And do not try to memorise grammar tables on their own; the books are designed so that the rules settle in through examples.
