It is 1,600 years old.. The story of choosing December 18 as International Arabic Language Day

In the context of supporting and promoting multilingualism and multiculturalism in the United Nations, the United Nations Department of Global Communications, formerly known as the Department of Public Information, adopted a resolution on the eve of the celebration of International Mother Language Day, to celebrate each of the six official languages ​​of the United Nations.
Accordingly, it was decided to celebrate the Arabic language on December 18 because it is the day on which General Assembly Resolution 3190 (XXVIII) of December 18, 1973 was issued to include the Arabic language among the official and working languages ​​of the United Nations.

Oldest living languages

The Arabic language is considered the oldest living language on the face of the Earth, and although there is disagreement among researchers regarding the age of this language, the Arabic language that is used today has been around for more than 1,600 years.
God – Glory be to Him – has taken care of preserving this language until God inherits the earth and those on it. The Almighty said: {Indeed, it is We who have sent down the Reminder, and indeed, We will preserve it}.

The spread of the Arabic language

The importance of the Arabic language stems from several aspects: The most important of which is its close connection to the Islamic religion and the Holy Qur’an.
Since the early ages of Islam, Arabic has spread throughout most parts of the globe, reaching what Islam has achieved, and being linked to the lives of Muslims, becoming the language of science, literature, politics, and civilization, in addition to being the language of religion and worship.
The Arabic language has been able to accommodate different civilizations. And to make it one civilization, universal in orientation and human in vision, for the first time in history.
Under the Holy Qur’an, the Arabic language became a global language and the mother tongue of many countries.

450 million people

The number of Arabic speakers exceeds 450 million people, and according to the United Nations website, it has official language status in about 25 countries.
The Arabic language is a pillar of the cultural diversity of humanity, and it is one of the most widespread and widely used languages ​​in the world, as it is spoken daily by more than 400 million people on the planet.
The United Nations added: Arabic speakers are distributed between the Arab region and many other neighboring regions, such as Türkiye, Chad, Mali, Senegal, and Eritrea.

An incentive to produce knowledge

The United Nations website confirmed that Arabic is of utmost importance to Muslims, as it is the language of the Holy Qur’an, and prayer and other acts of worship in Islam are not complete without mastering some of its words.
In addition, the Arabic language also represented an incentive for the production and dissemination of knowledge, and helped transfer Greek and Roman scientific and philosophical knowledge to Europe in the Renaissance.
It also made it possible to establish dialogue between cultures along the land and sea routes of the Silk Road from the coast of India to the Horn of Africa.