'Java Archipelago',[4][5] which means that long before Indonesia's independence, Arabic was already becoming familiar to the indigenous peoples.

[9][10] Arabic in Indonesia is generally spoken by Arab descendants in Bogor (Empang and Cisarua), Surabaya (Ampel), Bangkalan (Kamal), Jakarta, Gresik, Pekalongan, Kediri, Pasuruan (Bangil), Bondowoso, Banjarmasin, Surakarta, Palembang, Palu (Talise), Ambon, Martapura, Yogyakarta, and other areas with a significant Arab-descendant population in Indonesia.

A prominent example is Betawi, where the majority of Arab descendants in urban Jakarta currently use this language.

[14][15] Arabic-Malay script (Jawi) was also quite often used by the indigenous people of Condet in East Jakarta, especially during the Dutch colonial era.

[17] Indonesian Arabic began to mix with native languages in Indonesia to form Para-Arabic or Pseudo-Arabic varieties, because the grammar mostly deviates from Arabic rules and looks very small, but its influence can be seen especially in terms of the vocabulary used, especially also mixed with the native languages that are more dominant in the region.

[3] It has been revealed that the use of Arabic is significantly influenced by syntax in Indonesian, particularly among santri in pesantren.

Phrases such as lâ mâdza-mâdza (لا ماذا ماذا, meaning 'it's okay') or maujûd-maujûd faqath (موجود موجود فقط, meaning 'seriously') are examples of syntactic errors in Arabic among santri that result in word reduplication.

The correct expression in Modern Standard Arabic for 'it's okay' is lâ ba’sa (لا بأس) or laisa musykilah (ليس مشكلة).

Meanwhile, the expression 'just there' essentially responds to something considered a joke or something unusual, and it can be translated into Modern Standard Arabic as laqad mazahta (لقد مزحت, meaning 'you are just joking') or hâdzaâ sya’un jadîd (هذا شيء جديد, meaning 'this is something new').

[28] Ferguson (1970) in The Role of Arabic in Ethiopia: a Sociolinguistic Perspective explains that the area where Arabic is used includes Morocco in the west to the Persian Gulf, across the Red Sea to Ethiopia and Somalia in the Horn of Africa, then to the Gujarat in India and a small part of Xinjiang in China, up to the Southeast Asian region including Indonesia.