15 types of nouns in نَصْب

السلام عليكم ورحمة الله وبركاته,

الحمد لله, after completing the 7 types of nouns in رفع, we’re in the final stretches of our discussions on Arabic grammar, based on the Ajurroomiyyah.  After a few more lessons about the nouns in نَصْب (nasb) and جَرّ (jarr), we’d have a pretty solid understanding of the entirety of Arabic grammar إن شاء الله

 

ِمَنْصُوْبات الأسْماء (The nouns in nasb)

المَنْصُوْباتُ خَمْسَةَ عَشَرَ، وَهِيَ: المَفْعُوْلُ بِهِ، وَالمَصْدَرُ، وَظَرْفُ الزَمانِ، وَظَرْفُ المَكانِ، وَالْحالُ، وَالتَّمْيِيْزُ، وَالمُسْتَثْنى، وَاسْمُ لا، وَالمُنادى، وَالمَفْعُوْلُ مِنْ أجْلِهِ، وَالمَفْعُوْلُ مَعَهُ، وَخَبَرُ كانَ وَأخَواتِها، وَاسْمُ إنَّ وَأخَواتِها وَالتَّابِعُ لِلْمَنْصُوْبِ، وَهُوَ أرْبَعَةُ أشْياء: النَّعْتُ، وَالْعَطْفُ، وَالتَّوْكِيْدُ، وَالْبَدَلُ

The nouns in nasb are fifteen , and they are: the مَفْعول بِهِ (direct object), the مَصْدَر (infinitive), the ظَرْف الزَّمان (frame of time), the ظَرْف المَكان (frame of place), the حال (state/condition), the تَمْييز (specification), the مُسْتَثْنى (exception), the noun negated by “لا”, the مُنادى (vocative/thing or person called), the مَفْعول مِن أجْلِه (object of reason), the مَفْعول مَعَه (object that the action is done along with), the khabar of “كان”َ and its sisters and the ism of “إنّ” and its sisters, and the تابِع (grammar follower) of something that is in nasb, and it is four things: the نَعْت, (adjective) the عَطْف (conjunction), the تَوْكيد (emphasis) and the بَدَل (substitute).

 

There are 15 reasons why a nouns will be in nasb.  Between raf’, nasb and jarr, nasb is the most exciting part.  Why? Because the default state of a noun is in raf’, and there are only three reasons why a noun will be in jarr (we’ll cover that in the lessons on when a noun will be in jarr إن شاء الله), so it’s relatively easy to get those right.  I think the area of nasb is the real proving ground for your knowledge of grammar, because it shows that you accurately know when and why things will deviate from the normal state of raf’.  If you learn these and apply them correctly, you’re on the path to greatness!

Below are the 15 situations when a noun will be in nasb.  Each will have its own discussion, but first a quick example for each (notice how the words in red all have fathah on them):

1. the مَفْعُوْل بِهِ (direct object) – إنّا أرْسَلْنا نُوْحًا (“Indeed we sent Noah“)
2. the مَصْدَر (infinitive), when it is serving as a مَفْعُوْل مُطْلَق (absolute object) – جَذِلَ مُحَمَّدٌ جَذَلًا (“Muhammad rejoiced a rejoicing“)
3. the ظَرْف الزَّمان (frame of time) – حَضَرَ أبِيْ يَوْمَ الْخَمِيْسِ (“My father arrived on [the day of] Thursday”)
4. the ظَرْف الْمَكان (frame of place) – جَلَسْتُ أمَامَ الأُسْتاذِ (“I sat in front of the teacher”)
5. the حال (state/condition) – فَتَبَسَّمَ ضاحِكًا (“So he smiled, laughingly“)
6. the تَمْييز (specification) – تَصَبَبَّ زَيْدٌ عَرَقًا (“Zaid poured out in sweat“)
7. the مُسْتَثْنى (exception) – حَضَرَ القَوْمُ إلا مُحّمَّدًا (“The people arrived, except Muhammad“)
8. the noun negated by “لا” – as in لا طالِبَ عِلْمٍ مَذْمُوْمٌ (“There is no student of knowledge who is disparaged”)
9. the مُنَادَى (vocative/thing or person called) – يا رَسُوْلَ اللهِ (“O Messenger of Allah”)
10. the مَفْعول مِن أجْلِه (object of reason) – عَنَّفَ الْأُسْتاذُ التِّلْمِيْذَ تَأدِيْبًا (“The teacher rebuked the student out of discipline“)
11. the ُمَفْعول مَعَه (object the action is done along with) – ذاكَرْتُ وَالْمِصْباحَ (“I studied, along with the lamp“)
12. the khabar of كان and its sisters – كانَ إبْراهِيْمُ صَدِيْقًا لِعَلِيّْ (“Ibrahim was a friend of Ali”)
13. the ism of إنَّ and its sisters – لَيْتَ مُحَمَّدًا يَزُوْرُنا (“If only Muhammad would visit us”)
14. the objects of  ظَنَنْتُ and its sisters – ظَنَنْتُ مُحَمَّدًا صَدِيْقًا (“I thought Muhammad to be a friend”)
15.  the grammatical follower (which has 4 sub-divisions) of something that is in nasb
    1. النَّعْت (The adjective) – صاحَبْتُ مُحَمَّدًا الفاضِلَ (“I accompanied Muhammad, the honorable“)
    2. العَطْف (The conjunction) – ضَرَبَ خالِدٌ  عَمْرًا وَبَكْرًا (“Khalid hit ‘Amr and Bakr“)
    3. التَّوْكِيْد (The emphasis) – حَفِظْتُ الْقُرْآنَ كُلَّهُ (“I memorized the Quran, all of it“)
    4. الْبَدَل (The substitute) – قُمِ اللَيْلَ إلا قَلِيْلًا.  نِصْفَهُ أوِ انْقُصْ مِنْهُ قَلِيْلًا (“Stand the night, except a little.  Half of it, or decrease it a little” [73:2-3])

Note: Another way to arrive at a count of 15 is by first combining #3 and #4 into one, combining #12 and #13 into one and dropping #14 (since some manuscripts of the Ajurroomiyyah didn’t mention it).  This would shrink the first 14 to 11.  Then the four types of grammatical followers would be counted separately to make it 15.

I prefer to go as I have listed above, because it seems more consistent with the way the raf’-ized nouns (كان and إن are treated separately) and jarr-ized nouns (the grammatical follower of something in jarr is considered one of the three jarr-ized nouns) are counted in the text.  والله أعلم

 

From the Quran

In this page, I’ve highlighted some nouns that are in nasb due to some of reasons above:

• يَوْمَ is a frame of time
• عَذابَ (“punishment”) and وَثاقَ (“binding”) are direct objects of the verbs يُعَذِّبُ (“he punishes”) and يُوْثِقُ (“he binds”)
• رَاضِيَةً (“well-pleased”) and مَرْضِيَّةً (“well-pleasing”) describe the condition in which the contented soul will return (ارْجِعِيْ) to Allah
• جَنَّة is the object of ادْخُلِيْ (“Enter!”) but the fathah on the ة is implied because the ي of “me” already put a kasrah on it
• الإنْسانَ (“the human being”) is the direct object of خَلَقْنا (“We created”)
• مالًا (“wealth”) is the object of أهْلَكْتُ (“I have wasted”) and لُبَدًا (“abundant”) is an adjective of مالًا, so it must follow in status
• The هُ (“him”) in يَرَهُ (“sees him”) is a direct object.  Attached pronouns are fixed, and more details about them come in the discussion on the direct object
• عَيْنَيْنِ is the nasb form of عَيْنانِ (“two eyes”), and is the object of نَجْعَلْ (“We made”)
• لِسانًا (“tongue”) and شَفَتَيْنِ (“two lips”) are connected by و to عَيْنَيْنِ
• هُ (“him”) and النَجْدَيْنِ (“the two ways”) are both direct objects of هَدَيْنا (“We guided”)
• العَقَبَةَ (“the steep path”) is the direct object of اقْتَحَمَ (“he rushed [along]”)
• كَ (“you”) is the direct object of أدرا (“he informed”)
• يَتِيْمًا (“orphan”) is the direct object of إطْعامٌ (“feeding”) – sometimes the infinitive of a verb can act like a verb.
• ذا (“possessor of”) is an adjective of يَتِيْمًا, and shows its nasb using ا, as we saw that the 5 Nouns take nasb using alif
• مِسْكِيْناً (“the needy person”) is connected by أوْ to يَتِيْمًا, so it has to follow in status

 

Until next time, السلام عليكم

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