السلام عليكم ورحمة الله وبركاته
The مَفْعُول مَعَهُ (object of accompaniment) is the 11th of the 15 types of nouns in نَصْب and tells us who/what an action was done along with. First, its definition from al-Ajurroomiyyah:
وَهُوَ: الاسْمُ المَنْصُوْبُ الَّذِيْ يُذْكَرُ لِبَيانِ مَنْ فُعِلَ مَعَهُ الْفِعْلُ، نَحْوُ قَوْلِكَ: جاءَ الأمِيْرُ وَالْجَيْشَ وَاسْتَوى الْماءُ وَالخَشَبَةَ
It (the object of accompaniment) is the nasb-ized noun that is mentioned to clarify who the action was done along with, like your saying جاءَ الأمِيْرُ وَالْجَيْشَ (“The leader came with the army”) and اسْتَوى الْماءُ وَالخَشَبَةَ (“the water became level along with the wood”)
The object of accompaniment is :
- An اسْم (noun) – Just like for the تَمْيِيْز (distinction), it must be an اسم صرِيح (outright noun) – not a verb or a particle. It also cannot be a sentence that is re-interpreted as a noun like how we saw when studying the حال (condition)
- An extra addition to the sentence – It’s not an essential component of the sentence like the doer of a verbal sentence or the mubtada’ or khabar of a nominal sentence.
- In nasb – either using a verb (e.g. حَضَرَ الْأَمِيْرُ وَالْجَيْشَ – “The leader came with the army”) or another word from the same root that has the meaning of the verb (e.g. الأمَيْرُ حاضِرٌ وَالْجَيْشَ – “The leader is present along with the army”)
- The entity in whose company the action occurred
- Preceded by a و that is textually used to indicate the accompaniment – It probably would have been more precise if the definition was given as “the nasb-ized noun that is mentioned after و with the meaning of ‘with'”
Now, the noun that comes after the و as a مفعُول معه can be one of two types:
- Has to be in nasb because it must be a مَفْعُول مَعه – This is when it doesn’t make sense for what’s after the و to share with what’s before it in doing the action, as in أنا سائِرٌ وَالْجَبَلَ (“I’m a traveler along the mountain”) and ذاكَرْتُ وَالْمِصْباحَ (“I revised along with the lamp”). Mountains don’t travel and lamps don’t study, so we know that they are objects we are doing actions next to
- Can be either nasb (on the basis that it’s a مَفعُول مَعَهُ) or raf’ (on the basis that و connects it to the doer), for example حَضَرَ عَلِيٌّ وَمُحَمَّداً (“Ali came along with Muhammad”) and حَضَرَ عَلِيٌّ وَ مُحَمَّدٌ (“Ali and Muhammad came”). See just how one vowel change can change the entire structure and meaning of the sentence? Amazing! However, the scholars say that it’s more eloquent to go with raf’ because that’s the base rule
- If you use و after a verb that uses its built-in pronoun as the doer then it’s more eloquent to nasb-ize the noun after it, as in قُمْتُ وَزَيْداً (“I stood along with Zayd”). The verb قُمْتُ (“I stood”) has a built-in pronoun of “I”. If you wanted to use و as a conjunction between Zayd and the doer, you’d bring the doer out as a detached pronoun, as in قُمْتُ أنا وَزَيْدٌ (“I and Zayd stood”)
Note: Every و that is used as a connector can also be made for accompaniment, except if the action requires at least two participants. Then it has to be treated as an عَطف (connector), as in تَشارَكَ زَيْدٌ وَعَمْرٌو (“Zaid and Amr became partners”) and تَقاتَلَ زَيْدٌ وَعَمْرٌو (“Zayd and Amr fought amongst themselves”).
The verbs تَشارَكَ and تَقاتَلَ come in the form that has a meaning of people/things doing something among themselves, so a singular doer for them needs to have something else connected to it using the و as a connector, meaning that عَمْرٌو has to be in raf’ when it’s connected to the doer زَيْدٌ.
From the Quran
Here, we’re going to look at just one ayah from the Quran. It can be understood in more than one way, so pay attention!
فَأَجْمِعُوا أَمْرَكُمْ وَشُرَكَاءَكُمْ ثُمَّ لَا يَكُنْ أَمْرُكُمْ عَلَيْكُمْ غُمَّةً ثُمَّ اقْضُوا إِلَيَّ وَلَا تُنظِرُونِ (“So resolve upon your plan, along with your associates, then do not let your plan be obscure to you”) [10:71]
The word أمرَكُمْ is in nasb because it’s the direct object of the command أجْمَعُوا (“Agree, you all!”). As for the word شُرَكاء (“partners”), it has been parsed in several different ways by scholars, for example:
- It’s in nasb because it is a follower of the direct object أمْرَكُمْ (“you all’s plan”) using و. The meaning would be “Gather your plan and your partners/idols…”)
- It’s in nasb because the agreement is happening alongside the partners (i.e. “Resolve your plan, alongside your partners…”)
- It’s in raf’ because it is connected using و to the embedded doer أنْتُمْ (“you all”) inside أجْمِعُوْا. This is not a strong opinion, as idols cannot see or hear, much less agree on something, but it still exists
Questions
- What is the مَفْعُول مَعَهُ?
- What does it mean that it has to be a noun?
- What does it mean for it to be “extra”?
- How is the مفعول معه treated grammatically?
- How many kinds of مَفْعُول مَعَهُ are there?
The remaining four nasb-ized nouns
ْوَأَمَا خَبَرُ “كَانَ” وَأخَوَاتِها، وَاسْمُ “إنَّ” وَأخَوَاتِها، فَقَدْ تَقَدَّمَ ذِكْرِهِمَا فِي الْمَرْفُوْعَاتِ، وَكَذَلِكَ التَّوَابِعُ؛ فَقَد تَقَدَّمَتْ هُنَاكَ
As for the khabar of كان and its siblings and the ism of إن and its siblings, their mention has come in the raf’-ized nouns. Likewise for the grammatical followers, as they have preceded there.
From the nasb-ized nouns are the ism of the إنَ family, the khabar of the كان family and the objects of the ظَنَنْتُ family. We covered these three in the influences that cancel the mubtada and khabar, which we looked at already when we covered the raf’-ized nouns.
The last of the 15 nasb-ized nouns is the the grammatical follower, which we also looked at already when we covered the raf’-ized nouns. That means we’re done with the nasb-ized nouns and you now have what it takes to identify the reason for why any noun in the Arabic language is in nasb! Next is when a noun will be in jarr and you’ll have covered the entirety of Arabic grammar إن شاء الله.
Until next time, السلام عليكم
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