This post is greatly based on information and text taken from the book called Arabic Reading and Writing made easy by Dr. Bilal Philips. The Arabic alphabet is the second most widely used alphabetic writing system in the world. However, the Latin alphabet is the most widespread. Arabic language was carried across much of the eastern hemisphere by the spread of Islam. Arabic alphabet script has been adapted to such diverse languages as Persian, Turkish, Hausa, Malay, Urdu, Spanish, and Swahili. Although, it probably developed in the fourth century as a direct descendent of the Nabatean alphabet, its origins and its early history is vague. Some scholars believe that the earliest extant example of the Arabic script is a royal funerary inscription of the Nabataeans dating from CE 328. In my opinion it maybe a updated version of Aramaic. The Arabic alphabet has 28 letters, all representing consonants and is written from right to left. 22 of the letters are known as connecting letters which means they connect the letters that come after them.
Six letters are known as non-connected letters which means they do not take a modified connecting form. Sometime after the rise of Islam in the first quarter of the seventh century CE and the emergence of the Arabian Muslims as the founders of one of the world’s greatest and most advanced empire the world has ever seen, which literally lead the way to our modern science today. Without them the US and Europe would still be living in mud huts in candle light, the term Arab was used by these Muslims themselves and by the nations with whom they came in contact with, to indicate all the people of Arabian origin. So, when the Arabic language replaced the local languages in many countries of the middle east and north Africa the term Arab came to refer to anyone who spoke with Arabic alphabet as their native language. The Arabic is the fifth most common language in the world. The reason being because the Koran is written in Arabic. A question that some atheists have posed as to why would god reveal his holy text in Arabic language rather than all languages of the world. They pose that isn't god able to reveal the holy text in any language that he so chooses. The answer to that is of course you can reveal the text in any language that he chose, and since the Koran is the main miracle or sign of the evidence of Islam then it should be accessible to all people of all nationalities and languages. Then why is it revealed in only the Arabic language?
I will be answering this question in detail in one of my videos on my channel but I can tell you that God can surely reveal the Koran in all and any language he chooses and he could have revealed one for each language but the miracle can still be witnessed even by non-Arabic speakers, for example the science miracles like this fact in verse of the Koran which says: "And it is we (God) who created the heavens and we are continually expanding it" verse 51:47 of the Koran. When I first read, this I was shocked and scared because this fact took billions of dollars to find out and modern science only recently found this out in our own time and spent billions to discover that, yet a book preached by a illiterate Arab already spoke about this over one thousand years ago? And as I said when I read this I was shocked and scared. You may ask, why would you get scared if you were already taught the Koran is a miracle? The reason I got startled and scared is because although I was taught the Koran is a miracle and I read a few of the science miracles but I never really felt it's so amazing. But with this fact, I could understand for myself how huge the universe is and how hard it is to find this fact out, so when I found it in the Koran I got scared because it no longer was simply blind faith but now I am seeing damning evidence and that really scared me. Because when you accept religion, much of it for most people is blind faith, simply following what our parents taught us. So, for now you can view around 5 Arabic lessons that I posted on this forum for easy access:
http://www.ummah.com/forum/showthread.php?493311-Arabic-alphabet-Pronunciation-and-Language