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Four types of status

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السلام عليكم and welcome back!  By now, we’ve touched on the concept of how words show their status (explicitly or implicitly) through changes in their endings.  Now we’re going more into what statuses are possible for a word to be in.

َوَ أقْسامُها أرْبَعَةٌ: رَفْعٌ وَنَصْبٌ وَخَفْضٌ وَجَزْمٌ, فَلِلْأسْماءِ مِنْ ذَلِكَ الرَفْعُ وَالنَصْبُ وَالخَفْضُ وَلا جَزْمَ فِيْها, وَلِلْأفْعالِ مِنْ ذَلِكَ الرَفْعُ وَالنَّصْبُ وَالْجَزْمُ, وَلا خَفْضَ فِيْها

The four divisions of grammatical status are: رَفْعٌ (raf’), نَصْبٌ (nasb), خَفْضٌ (khafdh) and جَزْمٌ (jazm). From that (list), اسم’s have raf’, nasb and khafdh, and no jazm, and فِعل’s have raf’, nasb and jazm, and no khafdh.

Altogether, there are four possible states for the ism and the fi’l:

  1. الرَفْع (Raf’)
  2. النَصْب (Nasb)
  3. الخَفْض  (Khafdh), also known as الجَرّ (jarr)
  4. الجَزْم (Jazm)

Each of these has a linguistic and grammatical meaning.

الرَفْع (raf’)

Linguistically, it means “to be high and to rise up”. In grammar, it is “a specific change whose sign is ضَمّة (dhammah) and what substitutes for it”. By “what substitutes for it” we mean that the even though the dhammah is the default sign of this state, some words show this state using something else.  Raf’ occurs in both the اسم (ism) and the فِعْل (fi’l). For example:

  • يَقُومُ عَلِيٌّ (“Ali stands”)
  • يَصْدَحُ الْبُلْبُلُ (“The nightingale sings”).

Each of these sentences has a verb followed by a noun, with dhammah at the end being the sign of raf’ for both.

النَصْب (nasb)

Linguistically, it is to “stand straight and upright”. Grammatically, it is “a specific change whose sign is فَتْحَة (fathah) and whatever substitutes for it”. It also occurs in both the اسم and the فعل, as in:

لَنْ أُحِبَّ الْكَسَلَ (“I will not like laziness”)

The word ّأُحِب is a verb that is in nasb because of the particle ْلَن, and the word الكَسلَ is in nasb because it’s a noun that is the object of the action.  Both of these words show that using fathah.

الخَفْض (khafdh), also known as الجَرّ (jarr)

Linguistically, it is “to sink low”. Grammatically, it is “a specific change whose sign is كَسْرَة (kasrah) and whatever substitutes for it”. It only occurs in the noun, as in:

تَألَّمْتُ مِنَ الكَسُولِ (“I suffered due to the lazy one”)

The word الكسول is in khafdh because the word before it (مِن) is one of the particles of خفض , and it shows status using kasrah.

Note:  Another name for this state is الجَرّ (“dragging”), which kind of makes sense because when you drag something you drag it low.  Khafdh and jarr are interchangeable and mean the same thing when we’re talking about grammar.  So if you see me calling it khafdh in some places and jarr in others, please don’t freak out!

الجَزْم (jazm)

Linguistically, it means “to cut”. Grammatically, it is “a specific change whose sign is سُكُون and whatever substitutes for it”. It only occurs in the فِعل مُضارِع (the present tense verb), as in:

لَمْ يَفُزْ مُتَكاسِلٌ (“A lazy person has not won”).

The word يَفُزْ is in جزم because of the particle ْلَم before it, and shows it using سكون.

So, the types of إعْراب fall into three :

  • Shared between isms and fi’l‘s: raf’ and nasb
  • Exclusively for isms: jarr
  • Exclusively for fi’l’s: jazm

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Implied status and fixed words

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السلام عليكم و رحمة الله و بركاته

Implied status

Last time we went into I’rab and how words commonly show their status using vowels.  This kind of change is called لَفْظِي (“pronounced”) because its’s explicit and is heard clearly.  Today, we’re going to “look beyond the obvious” and cover something called “implied status”.  There are some words whose endings do not change even when they move between states due to one of three obstacles preventing that change (explanation to follow):

  1. Impossibility of pronouncing it
  2. Difficulty/heaviness in pronouncing it
  3. Association with something that brings another vowel on it

Let’s look at a sentence that has examples of all three in it:

 يَدْعُو الفَتَى وَ القاضِيْ وَ غُلامِيْ (“The youth, the judge and my servant boy call”)

  • The word الفَتَى (“the youth”) ends with an alif (which is impossible to put a vowel on)
  • When we used the the word يُسافِرُ (“he travels”), it had a dhammah at the end in its original state of رفع.  Likewise, the word يَدْعُوْ (“he calls”) was originally يَدْعُوُ (with a dhammah at the end).  In this case, it is possible to put a vowel on the last letter (و), but it’s just harder to pronounce that way, so it’s يَدْعُوْ (with a sukun at the end) instead.
  • القاضِيْ was originally القاضِيُ (with a dhammah), but to make the pronunciation easier, the dhammah was dropped.
  • The word غُلامِيْ (“my servant boy”) is really two words attached together:  غُلام (“servant boy”) and the ي that means “me”.   It’s not impossible or difficult to pronounce the vowels on the letter م here.  What happened here instead is that the ي of the “me” comes with a kasrah on the letter before it(م), so there’s no room to put a dhammah on it.

Taking a closer look a the sentence, we see why the words don’t have dhammah at the end like they should normally do:

Word in the sentence State and reason Intended vowel and reason for implied status
يَدعُو رَفْع – There is nothing else that forces it to another state Dhammah – Heaviness of pronunciation
الفَتى رفع – Doer of the action يَدْعُوْ Dhammah – Impossibility of placing the dhammah at the end
القاضِيْ رفع – Joined by و to الفتى Dhammah – Heaviness of pronunciation
غُلام رفع – Joined by و to الفتى Dhammah – The place for dhammah already has kasrah due to the ي that associates word to the speaker

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The grammatical status of words (إعراب)

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السلام عليكم و رحمة الله و بركاته

Alright, so we’ve gone into the different kinds of words one will find in Arabic and signs that tell us which kind a word is.  Now we’re going to talk about something called “grammatical status” (إِعرَاب).  Remember how back in the signs of the اسم, we said that we’d cover grammatical status in a “later segment”?  Well, this is that segment 🙂

The word إعراب means to make something show and to clarify it.  In Arabic grammar, it’s defined as (explanation to follow):

الإعرابُ هُوَ : تَغْيِيْرُ أَوَاخِرِ الْكلِمِ لاِخْتِلاَفِ  الْعَوَامِلِ الْداخِلَة عَلَيهَا لَفْظاً أَوْ تَقْدِيراً

It is changing of the endings of words due to the differences in influences that enter them, whether it happens explicitly or implicitly

“Changing of the endings of words” doesn’t mean changing the actual ending of the word itself (e.g.. the last letter), because the actual ending itself won’t change.  What we’re changing here is the condition of the ending of words, which means that words transition from one state to another, regardless of whether that happens explicitly or implicitly. This transition happens due to switching between different influences, such as:

  • one that might force a word to be in رَفْع due to the word being the doer of an action
  • one that demands that a word be in نَصْب due to the word being any other detail of an action
  • and so on

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The sign of the حرف

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السلام عليكم,

By now we have tools to help us quickly identify اسم’s and فعل’s .  One last thing before we move on to meatier stuff, and that’s how to tell if a word is a حرف.

In a nutshell:
و الْحَرْفُ ما لا يَصْلُحُ مَعَهُ دَلِيلُ الاِسْمِ وَ لَا دَلِيْلُ الْفِعْلِ

“… and the حرف is whatever evidence of the اسم or فعل does not apply to…”

The حرف distinguishes itself from the اسم and the فعل, in that it doesn’t make sense for a sign of the اسم or فعل to come with it.  In other words, whatever doesn’t make sense for a sign of اسم or فعل to come with is a حرف.  

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Signs of the فِعْل

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السلام عليكم و رحمة الله,

We’ve looked at the signs of the ism and even taken a slight detour and looked at some special حرف’s that come with them.  Now we’re going to continue on and look at some signs that tell us that a word is a fi’l (verb).  If you remember from here, a فِعْل (fi’l) is something that happens in time.  From the Ajurroomiyyah are 4 signs that tell us that we’re looking at a fi’l:

وَالْفِعْلُ يُعْرَفُ بِقَدْ وَالسِّينِ وَسَوْفَ وَتَاءِ التَّأنِيْثِ السَّاكِنَةِ

The fi’l is recognized using:

  1. قَدْ
  2. The letter س
  3. سَوفَ
  4. The silent ت used for the feminine

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Two Names for the Quran

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السلام عليكم ورحمة الله و بركاته,

We’ve been looking at some of the finer details of grammar.  Let’s switch gears a little bit and take notice of some subtleties in the Quran.

Today we’re looking at two names that are used for the Quran: قُرْآن (recitation) and كِتاب (book)

We see the word قُرآن used by itself, as in

ان هذا القران يهدي للتي هي اقوم ويبشر المؤمنين الذين يعملون الصالحات ان لهم اجرا كبيرا

Indeed, this Qur’an guides to that which is most suitable and gives good tidings to the believers who do righteous deeds that they will have a great reward. (17:9)

 

We also see the word كِتاب used by itself, as in

ذلك الكتاب لا ريب فيه هدى للمتقين

This is the Book about which there is no doubt, a guidance for those conscious of Allah – (2:2)

 

We also see them come together, as in

[79]انه لقران كريم[77] في كتاب مكنون[78] لا يمسه الا المطهرون

Indeed, it is a noble Qur’an. In a Register well-protected; None touch it except the purified. (56:77-79)

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