Sorry to dispute a major premise of this posting, but there is indeed a directly-stated Past Simple tense in Arabic, which corresponds exactly to the Past Simple in English, a finished action in the past. The Past Continuous (Progressive)in Arabic is formed by the use of a past tense auxiliary-substitute (in Arabic, referred to as an "incomplete verb") with a Present Simple main verb. This is no more or less complicated than tense formation in English. True, no Present or Past Perfect tenses exist directly, (which indeed causes some problems for some learners)but the intended sense of all past forms, including present perfects (simple and continuous)is transmitted perfectly in Arabic.
Transliterated examples:
Present Simple:
I play football: Alaabu kurata-alkadami.
Present Continuous:
I am playing football: Alaabu alana kurata-alkadami.
Past Simple:
I played football: La'abtu kurata-alkadami.
Past Continuous:
I was playing football: Kuntu alaabu kurata-alkadami.
alaabu: (I)play la'abtu: (I)played kuntu: (aux)(was) kurata-alkadami: football
In various past tenses, sentence modification by the use of prepositions conveys the appropriate intent of time expression.
All languages,with one problematic exception,have a past tense. The Ayamara Indians of the Andes mountains refer to the past in terms of the future, and the future as the past.Somehow, it works, for them at least.