INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF RESEARCH AND INNOVATION IN SOCIAL SCIENCE (IJRISS)
ISSN No. 2454-6186 | DOI: 10.47772/IJRISS | Volume IX Issue X October 2025
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The Relationship Between Arabic Language Skills and Multiple
Intelligences in Teaching the Prophet’s Biography
Sami Abdulkarim Alnazzawi
Department of Arabic Language, Sultan Zainal Abidin University, Malaysia
DOI:
https://dx.doi.org/10.47772/IJRISS.2025.910000209
Received: 10 October 2025; Accepted: 16 October 2025; Published: 01 November 2025
ABSTRACT
This research aims to highlight the relationship between Arabic language skills and multiple intelligences in
teaching the Prophet’s Biography, by analyzing the integrative relationship between learners’ linguistic, mental,
and emotional aspects. The research adopts the descriptive-analytical method by surveying educational and
psychological studies that addressed Howard Gardner’s theory of multiple intelligences and linking it to the four
core Arabic language skills: listening, speaking, reading, and writing. The study concludes that activating
multiple intelligences in teaching the Prophet’s Biography contributes to enhancing Arabic language skills
among non-native speakers and makes learning the Biography deeper and more interactive. The research also
recommends the integration of multiple-intelligence-based teaching strategies into programs for teaching Arabic
to non-native speakers, so that the Prophet’s Biography becomes a practical and integrated axis that combines
linguistic knowledge and Islamic values.
Keywords — Arabic language skills; multiple intelligences; Prophet’s Biography; teaching Arabic to non-native
speakers; learning strategies.
INTRODUCTION
The Prophet’s Biography is among the most important sources of values and knowledge in Islamic education,
and it constitutes a rich field for applying Arabic language skills in realistic and impactful contexts. With the
development of modern educational theories, the theory of multiple intelligences has emerged as one of the
approaches that pays attention to the diversity of learners’ capacities and the uniqueness of their cognitive styles.
From this standpoint, teaching the Prophet’s Biography can be viewed as a suitable field for activating multiple
intelligences, due to its inclusion of events, situations, values, and dialogues that stimulate learners’ linguistic,
cognitive, and emotional dimensions.
Programs for teaching Arabic to non-native speakers face multiple challenges, the most important of which is
the weak integration between the linguistic dimension and the affective or value-based dimension. Accordingly,
the significance of this research lies in exploring the relationship between Arabic language skills and multiple
intelligences in the context of teaching the Prophet’s Biography, as a field that achieves balance between
knowledge, skill, and value.
THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK
Concept of Multiple Intelligences
The theory of multiple intelligences goes back to the American scholar Howard Gardner (1983), who rejected
the notion of a single intelligence and proposed that a human being possesses multiple kinds of intelligence,
including linguistic, logical-mathematical, visual-spatial, interpersonal, intrapersonal, bodily-kinesthetic,
musical, and naturalistic. The theory affirms that every learner possesses a distinct mix of capacities that can be
developed through training and practice. In the context of teaching Arabic, linguistic intelligence is the central
axis; however, the remaining intelligences contribute to enhancing the skills of comprehension, expression, and
INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF RESEARCH AND INNOVATION IN SOCIAL SCIENCE (IJRISS)
ISSN No. 2454-6186 | DOI: 10.47772/IJRISS | Volume IX Issue X October 2025
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communication.
Arabic Language Skills
Arabic language skills are divided into four main branches:
1. Listening: It requires concentration and auditory intelligence to understand meanings through sounds and
context.
2. Speaking: It relies on linguistic and interpersonal intelligences to organize ideas and convey them clearly.
3. Reading: It includes comprehension, analysis, and critique, and is related to logical-mathematical and
visual-spatial intelligences.
4. Writing: It is the organized expression of thought and requires a balanced linguistic and intrapersonal
intelligence.
Each of these skills can be linked to one or more intelligence types in line with learner characteristics, which
makes their teaching more effective.
The Relationship between Arabic Language Skills and Multiple Intelligences
The relationship between Arabic language skills and multiple intelligences is an integrative one, as the
intelligences contribute to developing language skills through diverse strategies that suit each learner. For
example:
• Visual-spatial intelligence can be employed to analyze scenes from the Prophet’s Biography through
images and mind maps.
• Interpersonal intelligence is invested in group discussions about the Prophet’s ﷺ stances.
• Intrapersonal intelligence is activated in writing reflections on the situations of the Biography and its
lessons.
• Bodily-kinesthetic intelligence is used in dramatizing the educational prophetic situations.
Educational studies show that blending multiple intelligences with language skills leads to deeper and more
durable learning, especially in educational environments that rely on interaction and practical application.
Employing Multiple Intelligences in Teaching the Prophet’s Biography
The Prophet’s Biography offers rich opportunities to activate multiple intelligences through varied activities,
including:
• Linguistic activity: Reading texts of the Biography and deriving new vocabulary and their meanings.
• Social activity: Discussing prophetic values in everyday life situations.
• Visual activity: Using visual media to draw a map of the Biography’s events.
• Intrapersonal activity: Writing reflective journals on lessons learned from the Prophet’s ﷺ stances.
• Kinesthetic activity: Dramatizing prophetic situations that manifest wisdom or mercy in interaction.
In this way, the learner becomes an active participant in constructing knowledge rather than a passive recipient,
which enhances the acquisition of both linguistic and behavioral skills.
RESULTS
The research reached the following findings:
1. Integrating the theory of multiple intelligences in teaching the Prophet’s Biography contributes to
improving learners’ performance in Arabic language skills.
2. Teaching the Biography through multi-intelligence activities achieves integration among the cognitive,
affective, and value dimensions.
INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF RESEARCH AND INNOVATION IN SOCIAL SCIENCE (IJRISS)
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3. The non-native learner of Arabic demonstrates higher interaction when allowed to use his or her preferred
intelligence channels.
4. The Prophet’s Biography represents an ideal model for teaching language as a means of human and faith-
based communication at once.
RECOMMENDATIONS
1. Include the theory of multiple intelligences in the preparation programs of teachers of Arabic for non-
native speakers.
2. Prepare pedagogical guides relying on the Prophet’s Biography to train learners through varied
intelligence-based activities.
3. Conduct field studies measuring the effect of multiple intelligences on the acquisition of Arabic language
skills.
4. Develop educational curricula that take individual differences among learners into account in light of
multiple intelligences.
5. Strengthen the integration between teaching the Prophet’s Biography and developing language skills in a
way that serves the building of the integrated Islamic personality.
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INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF RESEARCH AND INNOVATION IN SOCIAL SCIENCE (IJRISS)
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