Arabic in respect to other languages is like the human form in respect to living beings. The human form is the last phase of development of all living beings. Likewise the Arabic language is the perfection of all languages and its script is the perfection of the art of calligraphy." (Ikhwaan us Safa Vol 3).

Linguists classify Arabic in the family of languages known as the Semitic languages whose origins trace back to Shem. What they term the "Semitic family" we name the "Arabic family". We do this not merely to be different but to assert a historical fact referred to and endorsed by other linguists. All these languages including Cannanite, Aramaic, Akkadian etc., which are classed as Semitic, were in fact the forms of communication used by the tribes that migrated from the Arab peninsula to the Fertile Crescent in the distant past.

Syedna Abu Hatim Ahmed bin Hamdan Al-Razi, learned scholar and Fatemi Dai of the period of Imam Al-Qaaim (AS) writes in his learned treatise "Kitab uz Zeena":

"Mohammed bin Salaam narrates that - Misma bin Abdil Malik informed me that he heard Imam Mohammed ul Baqir (AS) state, "The first one who spoke Arabic is Ismail (AS), son of Ibrahim (AS)."

Kitab uz Zeena is considered the first treatise of its type in linguistic studies and an important source of work for later scholars.

It would seem, therefore, that the idea that Arabic - rather than being subservient to other ancient languages was in truth the root source for languages and dialects in the Semitic (or Arabic) family.

The oldest Arabic text is the inscription of Nimaara South East of Damascus. The oldest texts in classical Arabic date to 512 AD and 568 AD. Soon the language of pre-Islamic Arabic poetry had attained a stage of perfection such that it could receive the inimitable Arabic of the Quran.

Since then, over the vicissitudes of fourteen centuries, and in spite of European influences and despite the rise and fall of Baghdad and Granada; Arabic has enjoyed a continuity unknown to any other language.

From "Arabic as a Language"
Dr Y. Najmuddin, Rector Al-Jameatus Saifiyah
1976, Wilson Lecture, University of Mumbai India.