People

Now we know that people come in all sorts of different colours and shapes and sizes,

but that doesn't always tie them together.

People with a certain shape of nose aren't usually found in a country that is all their own.

Very tall people don't have their own place to live.

But there is one thing that does often go with living in a certain place,

and that is the language that the people there speak,

and the poems and stories and songs that go along with it.

Of course, as people have moved around the world, they have taken their language along with them.

And as armies from Europe sailed around the world and conquered other countries, they took their language with them.

So along with their local language, people in Africa might speak French,

and people in South America speak Spanish,

and all around the world,

no matter what the local language,

you can usually find people who can speak some kind of English.

The more people that speak a language, the more useful it is,

because it means that if you know it you can speak to so many more people,

to trade with them, and learn the things they know.

But languages have much more to them than just being useful for trading.

The music and stories of a language will carry the history and feelings of a people,

the things that make them their own family or community,

with its own way of seeing the world.

And those different ways of seeing the world can be valuable to other people,

because, as we know, God tells us in the Qur'an

that we have been made in different colours

and speaking different languages

so that we may know one another

and learn more about this world that God created.

And that learning is passed from one people to another

in stories that explain the meaning of life,

and how humans work.

And some have become famous because they have meaning for everyone.

Arabic Mother tongues Music

Mulla Nasruddin Khalila wa Dimna