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السلام عليكم ورَحمة الله وبركاته,

We’re looking at the seven situations when a noun will be in the state of رَفْع (raf’), and this is the second one: the نائب الفاعِلِ (substitute for the doer).  You’ll know what that means after we explain it…

بابُ المَفْعُوْلِ الَّذِيْ لَمْ يُسَمَّ فاعِلُهُ: وَهُوَ الاسْمُ الْمَرْفُوْعُ الَّذِيْ لَمْ يُذْكَرْ مَعَهُ فاعِلُهُ

The section on the “object whose doer is not named”, and it is the noun in raf’ whose doer is not mentioned with it.

Sometimes a sentence will have a verb, a doer and an object.  In the examples below, you have a verb, followed by a doer in رَفْع (raf’), followed by an object in نَصْب (nasb).  This is the normal way to have a verb in a sentence, and it’s called مَعْرُوْف (active), because the doer is mentioned.

• قَطَعَ مَحْمُوْدٌ الغُصْنَ (“Mahmood cut the branch”)
• حَفِظَ خَلِيْلٌ الدَرْسَ (“Khaleel memorized the lesson”)
• يَقْطَعُ إبراهِيْمُ الغُصْنَ (“Ibrahim is cutting the branch”)
• يَحْفَظُ عَلِيٌّ الدَرْسَ (“Ibrahim is memorizing the lesson”)

Other times, someone will leave out the doer, and he’ll just mention the verb and the object.  When you leave out the doer this is called مَجُهُوْل (passive), and the verb and the object will have to change form.  We’ll talk about how the verb will change in a little bit, but first let’s see how the object will change.

The object, which should normally be in nasb, will have to be put in raf’ and follow the same rules that the doer would follow.  It’s going to step up and fulfill the rules that the doer was going to meet.  We covered these rules in The فاعل (Doer), but I’ll repeat them here:

1. It has to be a noun
2. In the state of raf’
3. Comes after the verb (doesn’t necessarily have to be immediately after)

That’s why “the object whose doer is not named” is also called “the substitute for the doer”, because if the doer isn’t there, something has to step up and assume its place.  Now let’s see how the verb will change …

[Read more…] about The نائب الفاعِلِ (substitute for the doer)

السلام عليكم و رحمة الله

In 7 types of nouns in رفع, we learned that they are 7 situations when an Arabic noun will be in raf’.  Today we’re going to look at the first one: the فاعل (or doer) of a sentence

The فاعل (doer)

الفاعِلُ هُوَ: الاسْمُ المَرْفْوْعُ المَذْكُوْرُ قَبْلَهُ فِعْلُهُ

The فاعِل (doer) is: The raf’-ized noun whose verb is mentioned before it.

The word فاعِل has two meanings, one that goes back to the normal meaning in the language and one that is specifically when we’re talking about grammar.  In the language, it just means “whoever made the فِعْل (action) happen”.  When we’re talking about grammar, the meaning is exactly what’s above: “The raf’-ized noun whose verb is mentioned before it”.

That means three things when we’re looking for what could be the doer in a sentence:

1. It has to be a noun (so it can’t be a verb or a particle).  It can be:
   • an outright noun, as in قالَ نُوْحٌ (“Noah said”) and وَإذْ يَرْفَعُ إبراهِيمُ (“And when Abraham raised”)
   • something that’s not a noun, but can be interpreted as one.  Three quick examples:
     • أوَلَمْ يَكْفِهِمْ أنَّا أنْزَلْنا (“Hasn’t it sufficed them that we sent down…?”  – The word أنَّا (“that we”) together along with the verb أنْزَلْنا (“We sent down”) could be understood as the verbal noun إنْزالُنا (“our sending down of …”).  If we set that as the doer, then the we can understand it to mean “Hasn’t our sending down sufficed them?”  If you don’t understand this one fully, just move on because we’ll be talking more about the إنََ family more when we talk about the situations when a noun will be nasb-ized.
     • يَسُرُّنِيْ أنْ تَتَمَسَّكَ بِالْفَضائِلِ (“It makes me happy that you adhere to virtues”) – We see the nasb-izer أنْ along with the verb تَتَمَسَّكَ (“you adhere”).  Together they are understood as the noun تَمَسُّكُكَ (“your adherence”), and that will be the doer.  The meaning can be “Your adherence to virtues makes me happy”.
     • أعْجَبَنِيْ ما صَنَعْتَ (“What you manufactured amazed me”) – We can take ما (“what”) and صَنَعْتَ (“you manufactured”) together to mean صُنْعُكَ (“your manufacturing”) and set that as the doer.  The meaning can be “Your manufacturing amazed me”.
2. It has to be in raf’ (i.e. it can’t be in nasb or jarr)
3. Its verb has to be before it (i.e. the doer has to come after the verb) – If you find a raf’-ized noun before the verb, then you’re not looking at a verbal sentence.  It’s a nominal sentence, which has a mubtada` (or whatever modifies it) and a khabar.

The intent of “verb” here also includes whatever resembles a verb such as the:

• اسم الفعل (noun that acts like a verb), like هَيهاتَ العَقِيق (“how far off is the canyon!”) and شتّانَ زَيدٌ وَعَمْروٌ (“How different are Zayd and `Amr!”) – The words العقيق and زيد (along with عمرو who’s connected to زَيد) to it are all doers.
• اسم الفاعل (noun with the meaning of the doer of an action), like أقادِمٌ أبُوكَ (“Is your father standing?”) – The word أبوك is the doer of قادِمٌ (“one who stands”)

[Read more…] about The فاعل (Doer)

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. [Read more…] about 7 types of nouns in رَفْع

السلام عليكم,

We’ve looked into why a verb will be in the state of nasb.  Today, we’re going to see what can change it into the state of jazm.

The Jazm-izers of the present tense verb

وَالْجَوَازِمُ ثَمَانِيَةَ عَشَرَ, وَهِيَ لَمْ, وَلَمَّا, وَأَلَمْ, وَأَلَمََا, وَلامُ الأمْرِ وَالْدُعاءِ, وَ ((لا)) فِي النَهْيِ وَالْدُعاءِ, وَإِنْ, وَمَا, وَمَنْ, وَمَهْما, وَإِذْما, وَأَيٌّ, وَمَتَى, وَأَيْنَ, وَأَيَّانَ, وَأَنََى, وَحَيْثُما, وَكَيْفَما, وَإِذا فِيْ الشِّعْرِ خاصَّةً

The influences that cause jazm are 18, and they are:

1. لَمْ
2. لَمَّا
3. أَلَمْ
4. أَلَمَّا
5. The ل of commanding and beseeching
6. لا in prohibition and beseeching
7. إِنْ
8. مَا
9. مَنْ
10. مَهْمَا
11. إِذْمَا
12. أَيٌّ
13. مَتَى
14. أَيْنَ
15. أَيَّانَ
16. أَنَّى
17. حَيْثُما
18. كَيْفَما

And in poetry only: إِذْا

There are 18 tools used to put a verb in jazm, and they are divided into 2 groups below.  If a verb is attached to a pronoun, I bring it out.  Otherwise, you should be able to figure out how it looked like in raf’ before becoming jazm-ized.

1. Puts one verb into jazm – All of these are harf‘s by consensus
   1. لَمْ – Used for negation and changes the meaning to the past tense (i.e. something didn’t happen in the past)
      1. لَمْ يَكُنِ الَّذِيْنَ كَفَرُوْا  (“The ones who disbelieved were not…”) [Quran 98:1]
      2. لَمْ تُؤْمِنُوْا (“You have not believed”) [49:14]
   2. لَمَّا – Like لَمْ, but a key difference is that it means something hasn’t happened yet (i.e. till now)
      1. بَلْ لَمَّا يَذُوْقُوْا عَذابِ (“Rather they have not yet tasted my punishment”) [38:8]
   3. أَلَمْ – It’s the same as لَمْ, but with a أ used to ask a yes/no question
      1. ألَمْ نَشْرَحْ لَكَ صَدْرَكَ (“Have we not opened your breast for you?”) [94:1]
   4. أَلَمَّا – Same as لَمَّا, but with the added أ
      1. ألَمَّا أُحْسِنْ إلَيْكَ؟ (“Haven’t I yet been good to you?”)
   5. The ل of commanding and beseeching –  You’re seeking that someone do something
      • Commanding is from the higher one to the lower
        1. فَلْيَقُلْ خَيْرًا أو لِيَصْمُتْ (“Then he should say good or keep silent“) [al-Bukhari and Muslim]
      • Du’a is from the lower to the higher
        1. لِيَقْضِ عَلَيْنا رَبُّكَ (“Let your Lord put an end to us!”) [43:77]
   6. لا in prohibition and beseeching – You’re seeking that someone not do something
      • Like the command, prohibiting is from the higher to the lower
        1. لا تَخَفْ (“Don’t fear”) [20:68]
        2. لا تَقُوْلوُا رَاعِنا (“Don’t say Raai’inaa”) [2:104]
        3. لا تَغْلُوْا فِيْ دِيْنِكُمْ (“Don’t commit excess in your religion”) [4:171]
      • Du’a is from the lower to the higher
        1. رَبَّنا لا تُؤاخِذْنا (“Our Lord, don’t punish us“) [2:186] – تُؤاخِذْ (“you punish”)
        2. لا تَحْمِلْ عَلَيْنا إصْرًا (“Don’t impose on us a burden”) [2:186]
2. Puts two verbs into jazm – The first is called shart (condition) and the second is called its jawaab (response) and its jazaa (consequence). There are 12 jazm-izers in this group, and it breaks down into four sub-sections:
   1. There is a consensus that it’s a harf (particle):
      1. إنْ – For example: إنْ تُذاكِرْ تَنْجَحْ (“If you revise, you will succeed”).  إن is a particle used for conditional statements.  The condition (تُذاكِرْ – “you study”) and the consequence (تَنْجَحْ – “you succeed”) are both in jazm because of إنْ
   2. There is consensus that it’s an ism (noun) – These are nine:
      1. مَنْ (“who”) – used for intelligent beings
         • مَنْ يُكْرِمْ جارَهُ يُحْمَدْ (“Whoever honors his neighbor is thanked“)
      2. مَا (“what”) – used for non-intelligent beings
         • ما تَصْنَعْ تُجْزَ بِهِ (“Whatever you do, you will be rewarded for it”
      3. أَيٌّ (“which”) – you might see ما after it
         • أيًّا ما تَدْعُوْا فَلَهُ الأسْماءُ الحُسْنَى (“Whichever you all call, for His are the most beautiful names” [17:110]
      4. مَتَى (“when”) – it can come with a ما after it
         • مَتَى تَلْتَفِتْ إلى وَاجِبِكَ تَنَلْ رِضا رَبِّكَ (“Whenever you attend to your duty, you’ll earn the pleasure of your Lord”
      5. أَيَّانَ (“when”) – it can come with a ما
         • أَيَّانَ تَلْقَنِيْ أُكْرِمْكَ (“Whenever you meet me, I’ll honor you”) – تَلْقَ (“you meet”)  and أُكْرِمْ (“I honor”)
      6. أَيْنَ (“where”) – it can come with a ما after it
         • أَيْنَمَا يُوَجِّههُّ لَا يَأْتِ بِخَيْرٍ (“Wherever He directs him, he brings no good”) [16:76] – يُوَجِّهْ (“he directs”)
         • أَيْنَمَا تَكُونُوا يُدْرِككُّمُ الْمَوْتُ (“Wherever you all may be, death will overtake you”) [4:78] – يُدْرِكْ (“it overtakes”)
      7. أَنَّى (“where”)
         • أنَّى يَكُنِ السَلامُ فاشِيًا يَأمَنِ الناسُ (“Wherever peace is widespread, the people will feel safe“)
      8. حَيْثُما (“where”) – Needs to have ما after it to work as a jazm-izer
         • حَيْثُما تَسْتَقِمْ يُقَدِّرْ لَكَ اللهُ نَجاحًا (“Wherever you stand firm, Allah will ordain success for you”)
      9. كَيْفَما (“however”) – both of the jazm-ized verbs have to be from the same verb.  In both of the examples below, the condition and the consequence are both from the verb يَكُوْنُ (“to be”)
         • كَيْفَما تَكُنِ الأُمَّةُ يَكُنِ الْوُلاةُ (“However the nation is, its rulers will be“)
         • كَيْفَما تَكُنْ نِيَّتُكَ يَكُنْ ثَوابُ اللهِ لَكَ (“However your intention is, Allah’s reward for you will be“)
      10. إِذا – I know I said “9”, but the Arabs cheated a little bit and allowed إذا as a jazm-izer in poetry only.  You won’t find it like that otherwise, so it’s not really considered a jazm-izer.
          • إذا تُصِبْكَ خَصاصَةٌ فَتَجَمَّلِ (“If destitution befalls you, then adorn yourself”)
   3. Difference of opinion, but the majority say it’s a harf (particle)
      1. إذْما – Used for conditions.  Must have a ما after it to be jazm-izer
   4. Difference of opinion, but the majority say it’s an ism (noun)
      1. مَهْمَا – Used for conditions
         • وَقَالُوا مَهْمَا تَأْتِنَا بِهِ مِنْ آيَةٍ لِّتَسْحَرَنَا بِهَا فَمَا نَحْنُ لَكَ بِمُؤْمِنِينَ (”And they said, ‘No matter what sign you bring us with which to bewitch us, we will not be believers in you.'”) [7:132]

[Read more…] about 18 Jazm-izers of Verbs