A special Suhbah gathering was held at Madinat al-Zahra, Bradford, where His Eminence Shaykh-ul-Islam Dr Muhammad Tahir-ul-Qadri delivered a profound and far-reaching address examining the relationship between language, faith, identity, and religious continuity across generations.
Bradford has long been a heartland of British Muslim life. His Eminence used the address to speak directly into that context. Language, he said, is not neutral. It carries a worldview. Losing a mother tongue is not merely a cultural loss; it interrupts the transmission of the deeper vocabulary of faith, family, and public conduct.
He set out a practical vision. Families should speak the heritage language deliberately with children. Centres should teach it seriously. Scholars should write in it, publish in it, and refuse to allow it to become the language of only the elderly. And in every case, the aim is not nostalgia but continuity: the next generation should be able to reach directly into the tradition, in its own words.
The address was received with visible gratitude in Bradford. Local leadership, including senior representatives from Madinat al-Zahra, committed to expanding programming for young families and to strengthening the education pipeline across the city.