Now that we’re in the last 10 days of Ramadan, I’ve been thinking a lot about why we have to pray taraweeh and qiyam—and prayer in general—in Arabic, especially since most Muslims don’t understand what they’re listening to or saying.

Yes, we could learn Arabic, but realistically, most people don’t have the time or resources to do this. Also, it’s much easier to learn for native Arab speakers even if fusha/quranic Arabic is not the same as modern Arabic. And most Muslims aren’t Arab—so why was everything revealed in a language that most Muslims don’t speak? People say Arabic expresses things like no other language, but isn’t that also because Allah made it that way? If He wanted, he could’ve made a language like Urdu, for example, which most Muslims today would understand.

Others say we pray in Arabic to preserve the Quran. But preserving the original text and only praying in Arabic aren’t necessarily the same thing. You can still accept that the Arabic Quran is the original while praying in your own language. I don’t see how a slightly imperfect translation would be worse than not understanding anything at all.

Some say it keeps us united, but why does language have to be what unites us? Shouldn’t it be our belief in Allah and Islam instead?

I’m not trying to argue, just looking for a logical explanation. I don’t want to blindly follow rules without understanding some wisdom behind them. A lot of people try to reason this with outrageous mental gymnastics and none of them seem to make sense to me. Would love to hear other perspectives.