Shariahprogram

Shariahprogram is run by Yusuf Mullan, a Canadian Arabic educator who has been teaching the language for over 20 years. He uses the channel handle @shariahprogram across his online presence while focusing on Classical and Quranic Arabic instruction.

Yusuf Mullan claims students can begin reading authentic Arabic texts with real understanding as early as the third week of class. He achieves this by teaching a small, high-impact core of grammar first rather than working through exhaustive rule lists before touching any real text.

Instead of presenting grammar as disconnected rules to memorize, Yusuf Mullan frames each grammar point as a solution to a real comprehension problem a reader would face in an actual text. The approach pairs that focused grammar core with guided reading of authentic Classical Arabic sources from the start.

Mustafa Lutfi al-Manfaluti was a celebrated early 20th-century Egyptian writer whose prose is widely regarded as a model of clear, expressive Classical Arabic. Shariahprogram uses texts like his as authentic reading material so students reinforce grammar in living context rather than through invented classroom sentences.

مَا (mā) is one of Arabic's most versatile particles, functioning as a negator, a relative pronoun, an interrogative, and several other grammatical roles depending on context — classical grammar manuals enumerate over a dozen distinct uses. Shariahprogram dedicates a full lesson to them because misidentifying which type is being used in a given verse is one of the most common sources of Quranic misunderstanding.

Arabic is built on a root-and-pattern system where a small set of three- or four-letter roots produce large families of related words through predictable derivation patterns. Yusuf Mullan teaches learners to internalize those patterns so they can read and infer unfamiliar vocabulary on their own rather than building a word list entry by entry.

The video is a direct reply to a position associated with Muhammad Al-Andalusi, pushing back on the idea that modern learners should approach Arabic the same way a child growing up in ancient Arabia would have. Yusuf Mullan's premise is that adult second-language learners have different cognitive tools available and should use explicit grammar instruction rather than relying on naturalistic or pure-immersion methods.

Nahw (نحو) is the classical Islamic science of Arabic syntax — the set of rules governing how words function and relate to each other in a sentence. Shariahprogram's entire curriculum centers on nahw because Yusuf Mullan sees it as the lever that unlocks reading comprehension of the Quran and classical texts, not as abstract academic theory.

Yes — Yusuf Mullan explicitly frames much of his teaching around Quranic comprehension, using Quranic vocabulary and verses as both the goal and the primary reading material throughout. Lessons like his breakdown of the types of مَا and his beginner full-course video are designed specifically for learners who want to understand the Quran directly rather than speak Modern Standard Arabic conversationally.

Yusuf Mullan is based in Canada and teaches entirely through his YouTube channel, drawing an audience from the global Muslim community and Arabic language learners around the world. His engagement runs well above the category average for educational channels, pointing to a highly active and motivated student base.