7 types of nouns in رَفْع

السلام عليكم و رحمة الله,

Things are starting to pick up now in our Arabic grammar series.  We’ve gone through all the status indicators and how words look like in their different statuses.  Then we started looking at why status changes will happen, starting with what causes nasb and jazm in a verb.

Today, we’re going to move on to what causes an اسم (noun) to have a particular status.  As a refresher, a noun can have one of three possible statuses:

1. رَفْع (raf’) – Usually represented by a dhammah at the end
2. نَصْب (nasb) – Usually represented by a fathah at the end
3. جَرّ (jarr), otherwise known as خَفْض (khafdh) – Usually represented by a kasrah at the end

Each of these positions has influences that demand it. We start with raf’, because it is the most honorable.

عَدَدُ الْمَرْفُوْعاتِ  وَأمْثالُها (The number of  nouns in رَفْع and their examples)

بابُ مَرْفُوْعاتِ الأسْماءِ – المَرْفُوْعاتُ سَبْعَةٌ وَهِيَ: الْفَاعِلُ وَالْمَفْعُوْلُ الَّذِيْ لَمْ يُسَمَّ فَاعِلُهُ وَالْمُبْتَدَأُ وَخَبَرُهُ وَاسْمُ “كانَ” وَأخَوَاتِها وَخَبَرُ “إنَّ” وَأخَواتِها وَالتَّابِعُ لِلْمَرْفُوْعِ, وَهُوَ أربَعَةُ أشْيَاء: النََعْتُ وَالْعَطْفُ وَالتَّوْكِيْدُ وَالْبَدَلُ

Chapter on the nouns in رفع status – The nouns put in raf’ are 7:

1. الفاعِل – the doer of an action
2. المَفعُولُ الذِي لَم يُسَمَّ فاعِلُه -The object of an action whose doer has not been mentioned
3. المُبتَدَأ – The Subject of a nominal sentence
4. خَبَرُه – Information about the subject
5. The اسم of كان and its siblings
6. The خَبَر of إن and its siblings
7. A grammatical follower of a word in رفع status, which can be a:
   1. نَعْت – Description
   2. عَطْف – Conjunction
   3. تَوْكِيْد – Emphasis
   4. بَدَل – Substitute

A noun will be in raf’ in the following seven situations.  Each of them is going to be covered in detail in a later post إنْ شاء الله, so don’t worry if you haven’t come across them yet.

1. A فاعِل – The doer of an action.  When a sentence starts with a verb it is called a verbal sentence, and there will be a noun after the verb that is in raf’.  That noun is the doer.  For example, ّعَلِي and ٌمُحَمَّد are both doers in the following.  They are nouns that come after a verb and are in raf’:
   1. حَضَرَ عَلِيٌّ (“Ali came”)
   2. سافَرَ مُحَمّدٌ (“Muhammad traveled”)
2. A  نائبٌ عَن الفاعِلِ (grammatical substitute for the فاعل) – It’s also called “the object of an action whose doer has not been mentioned”.  Sometimes an action will be mentioned, but its doer will be left out, so another noun has to substitute and fulfill the rules that the doer was supposed to fulfill.  In the following,  ُالغُصْن (“the branch”) and ُالمَتاع (“the stuff”) are actually objects of actions and would have been in nasb (as we will see later when we cover the situations when a noun will be in nasb), but because the doer has been dropped,  they had to step up and take over the raf’ position
   1. قُطِعَ الغُصْنُ (“The branch was cut”)
   2. سُرِقَ المَتاعُ (“The stuff was stolen”)
3. A مُبْتَدَأ (mubtada`) – It is a noun that begins a nominal sentence (the opposite of a verbal sentence).  It’s like the subject or topic of the sentence
4. A خَبَر (khabar) – A noun that gives information about the topic of a nominal sentence.  In both of these examples, the first word is the mubtada` (topic of the sentence) and the second is the khabar (information about the topic).  Both of them are in raf’
   1. مُحمّدٌ مُسافِرٌ (“Muhammad is a traveler”)
   2. عَلِيٌّ مُجتِهِدٌ (“Ali is a striver”)
5. The noun of كان or one of its siblings – The كانَ family is a special group of verbs that is considered separately from other verbs.  This family is also called “incomplete verbs” because they need a khabar to complete the meaning.  The raf’-ized noun after one of them would be called its noun instead of its doer.  When كان and its noun start a sentence it’s considered as a nominal sentence, not a verbal sentence.  Togethery they work like a mubtada` and the rest of the sentence would be the khabar.  In the following examples, the first word is a verb from the كانَ family and its noun after it is in raf’.  The last word is the khabar and is in the nasb state (we will learn how the khabar of كان and its siblings will be in nasb in a later section).
   1. كانَ إبراهِيمُ مُجتَهِداً (“Ibrahim was a hard worker”)
   2. أصبَحَ البَرْدُ شَدِيداً (“The coldness became severe”)
6. The khabar of إنّ or one of its siblings – The إنَّ family is special group of harfs (particles).  إنّ and its noun will start a sentence and the rest of the sentence would be the khabar.  In the examples below, the first word is a particle from the إنّ family and its noun after it is in nasb (We’ll cover this more in the section on nasb-ized nouns).  إنّ and its noun work together like a mubtada’ and the last word is the khabar, which will be in raf’
   1.  إنّ مُحَمّداً فاضِلٌ (“Indeed Muhammad is honorable”)
   2. إنّ اللهَ عَزِيْزٌ (“Indeed Allah is great in status”)
7. A تابِع (grammatical follower of a word) that is in raf’ – a grammatical follower has to have the same status as the word it follows.
   1. نَعْت (adjective/description) – In these examples, الفاضل (“the eminent”) and كريم (“honorable”) are descriptions.  The words they are describing are in raf’, so they have to be in raf’ also
      1. زارَنِيْ مُحّمّّدٌ الفاضِلُ (“The eminent Muhammad visited me”)
      2. قابَلَنِيْ رَجُلٌ كَرِيمٌ (“An honorable man met me”)
   2. عَطْف – It is one of two kinds
      1. عَطفُ بَيان – An explanatory additive.  It’s like having a comment in parentheses
         • The wordعُمَر in سافَرَ أبُو حَفصٍ عُمَرُ (“The father of Hafs [Umar], traveled”)
      2. عَطف نَسق – a conjunctive addition that joins between words
         • The word خالِد in تَشارَكَ مُحَمَّدٌ وَخالِدٌ (“Muhammad and Khalid partnered up”)
   3. توكيد (emphasis) – For example, ُنَفْسُه in زارَنِي الأمِيرُ نَفسُهُ (“The leader himself visited me”)
   4. بَدَل (substitution)- For example, َأخُوك in حَضَرَ عَلِيٌّ أخُوكَ (“Ali, your brother, came”)

If more than one these grammatical followers comes together, the order of precedence would be:

1. نعت (description)
2. عطف البيان (explanatory addition)
3. توكيد (emphasis)
4. بدل (substitute)
5. عطف النسق (conjunctive addition)

For example, جاءَ الرَجُلُ الكَرِيمُ عَلِيٌ نفَسُهُ صَدِيقُكَ و أخُوكَ (“The noble man [Ali, your friend, himself!] and your brother came”) has all of them together.

• الكَرِيْمُ (“the noble”) is a description of the man
• عَلِيّis an explanatory addition to clarify who is meant by “the noble man”
• نفسه (“himself”) emphasises that it really is Ali who came and not just a messenger from him
• صَدِيْقُكَ (“your friend”) is a substitute for Ali
• أخوْكَ (“your brother”) was joined to  the sentence using و

Some exercises

Let’s take a look at a few simple sentences to get a feel for how to break down some sentences.  For each word, we note its role in the sentence, what state it is, and what it’s using to show it

إبراهِيمُ مُخْلِصٌ (“Ibrahim is sincere”)

• إبراهِيْمُ – It’s the mubtada` (topic of the sentence).  It’s in raf’ because it’s the mubtada`, and it’s showing it using a dhammah.  The topic of the sentence is Ibrahim.
• مُخْلِصٌ – It’s the khabar (information about Ibrahim) and also in raf’, showing it with a dhammah
• Remember, the normal structure for a noun sentence is:
  • mubtada` + khabar = nominal sentence

كانَ رَبُّكَ قَدِيْراً (“Your lord has been all-capable”)

• كانَ – It’s a member of the كان family, that will put a noun in raf’ and the khabar in nasb
• رَبُّ (“lord”) – It is the noun of كان, and it’s in raf’ because of that, showing it with a dhammah.  It is mudhaaf (the first part of a possessive phrase)
• كَ (“you/your”) – It is mudhaaf ilayhi, so it will be in jarr.  Pronouns are fixed (they don’t change their endings, no matter which state they are in), so it will stick to its fathah
• قَدِيْراً (“capable”) – It is the khabar of كان, so it will be in nasb, using a fathah
• When a member of the كان family comes, the structure changes to :
  • كان + (raf’-ized noun of كان) + nasb-ized khabar  = nominal sentence

إنَّ اللهَ سَمِيْعُ الدُعاءِ (“Indeed, Allah is the hearer of invocations”)

• إنّ (“Indeed/verily”) – It’s a particle used for emphasis.  Because it’s a member of the إنَ family, it gives nasb to a noun
• اللّهَ (“Allah”) – It’s the noun of إنَّ, so it’s in nasb, using a fathah
• سَمِيْعُ (“hearer”) – It’s the khabar of إنَّ, so it’s in raf’ using a dhammah.  It’s mudhaaf
• الدُعاءِ (“invocations”) – It is mudhaaf ilayhi, so it’s in jarr using a kasrah at the end
• When a member of the إنَّ family comes, the structure changes to :
  • إنَّ + (nasb-ized noun of إنَّ) + raf’-ized khabar  = nominal sentence
  • It has the opposite effect of كان on the sentence

From the Quran

Below, all the highlighted words from Surah 11:98-108 are in raf’.  From what we’ve learned, we can identify what’s in raf’ and why it’s in that status:

• الوِرْدُ (“place”) and الرِفْدُ (“gift”) – doer of the verb بِئسَ (“to be miserable/wretched”)
• المَوْرُوْدُ (“lead”), المَرْفُوْدُ (“gathered”), مَجْمُوْعٌ (“gathered”), مَشْهُوْدُ (“witnessed”) – descriptions of the words before them and match them in status
• ذَلِكَ (“that”) or any other pronoun at the beginning of a sentence – mubtada’
• قائمٌ – mubtada` that is delayed by مِنْها and حَصِيدٌ is joined to it using وَ
• ءالِهَةُ – doer of the verb أغْنَتْ
• الََتِيْ (“the ones that…”) – connective pronoun that is a description for ءالِهَةُ
• أمْرُ – doer of the verb جاء (“he came”)
• أخذُ – mubtada` that is delayed by كَذَلِكَ
• هِيَ (“they”) – mubtada` at the beginning
• ظالِمَةٌ (“oppressive”) – khabar of هِيَ
• ألِيْمٌ and شَدِيدٌ  – both are khabars of َإن
• يَوْمٌ – khabar of ذلك
• الناسُ (“the people”) – the passively voiced noun مَجْمُوْع (“gathered”) is working like a passive verb and الناس is working as the grammatical substitute for the doer for that passive action
• نَفْسٌ (“self/soul”) – doer of the action تَكَلَّمُ (“it talks”)
• شَقِيٌّ (“wretched”) – mubtada’ of the sentence and سَعِيْدٌ (“happy”) is joined to it using وَ (“and”)
• الذِيْنَ (“those who”) – mubtada’
• زَفِيْرٌ (“sighing”) – mubtada’ of the sentence and شَهِيْقٌ (“gasping”) is joined to it using وَ (“and”)
• السماواتُ (“the skies”) – doer of دامَتْ (“it lasts”) and الأرْضُ(“the earth”) is joined to it using وَ
• رَبَُ – doer of the verb شاء (“he willed”)
• فَعّالٌ (“doer”) – the khabar of إنَ

Questions

1. How many situations call out for a noun to be in raf’?
2. What are the four kinds of grammatical followers?
   • How do you arrange them if more than one comes in the same sentence?
3. Build an example sentence using a mubtada` and a khabar.

Until next time, السلام عليكم و رحمة الله و بركاته

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