Arabic Language Courses for Students at the Faculty of Law UKM - Importance and Challenges

AbstractOne of the objectives of Law Faculty of National University of Malaysia known as Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia (henceforth UKM) is to produce trained and capable graduates in multiple fields of law and practice, including Islamic law. UKM uses two medium of instruction in teaching; Malay language and English. Arabic language is not directly used in teaching law students but they will be exposed to Arabic terms and references in Islamic law courses. In four years of study, students of the Law Faculty at UKM have to sit for 8 Islamic law courses such as Introduction to Islamic Law, Islamic Criminal Law, Islamic Family Law, Islamic Jurisprudence and Evidence and Procedures in the Syariah Court. To enable the students to master the Islamic law courses, they have to learn the Arabic language in 3 semesters within the first two years of their study. Many questions have been posed as to the relevance of studying the Arabic language for students in FacultyofLawat UKM. This paper serves to answer such questions. The purpose of this paper is to explain the importance of teaching Arabic language to the students of Law Faculty UKM. A brief overview of the implementation of teaching Arabic to the law students in UKM is provided. The relevance of studying Arabic language is explained and discussed. This paper also identifies some of the challenges faced in teaching Arabic to law students especially to the non-Muslims. The paper concludes with some recommendations for future improvement