The signs of جزم

السلام عليكم و رحمة الله,

We’ve gotten through the indicators of raf’, nasb and jarr.  Now we can look at the indicators of the last remaining state: جَزْم (jazm).

In short,

ُوَلِلْجَزمِ عَلامَتانِ: السُكُوْنُ وَالحَذْف

Jazm has two signs: سُكُوْن (sukoon) and dropping.

You can decide that a word is in jazm if you find one of two things in it:

1. Sukoon – it’s the primary indicator of jazm
2. حذف (omission of something), and it is the secondary indicator

Each of these indicators has situations as follows.

When sukun is the indicator of Jazm

فَأمّا السُكُونُ فَيََكُونُ عَلامَةً لِلجَزْمِ فِي الفِعْلِ المُضارِعِ الصَحِيحِ الآخر

As for sukun, it is an indicator of jazm in the present tense verb (فعل مضارع) that has a sound (صَحِيح) ending.

The sukoon has only one situation in which it shows that a word is in jazm, and that is in the فعل مضارع (present tense action) with a صَحِيح (sound) ending.  What that means is that the ending is not one of the three “defective” letters, which are ا, و and ي.

Some quick examples:

• لَم يَلعَبْ عَلِيٌّ (“Ali has not played”)
• لَم يَنجحْ بَلِيدٌ (“Never has a stupid person succeeded”)
• لَمْ يُسافرْ أخُوكَ (“Your brother hasn’t traveled”)
• لم يَعِدْ إبراهِيمُ خالِداً بِشَيءٍ (“Ibrahim hasn’t promised Khalid anything”)
• لَم يَسألْ بَكرٌ الأُستاذَ (“Bakr hasn’t asked the teacher”)

Each of these actions is in jazm because لمَْ (which is a particle of jazm) comes before it.  Because they are present tense actions with sound endings, we use sukoon at the end to show that they are in the state of jazm.  Before they changed from the state of raf’ to jazm, they all had a dhammah at the end.

When jazm is shown using حذف (leaving something out)

وَأما الحَذْفُ فَيَكُونُ عَلامَةً لِلجَزْمِ فِي الفِعْلِ المُعْتَلِّ الآخِرِ وَفِي الأفعالِ الخَمْسَةِ التِيْ رَفْعُها بِثَباتِ النُونِ

As for حَذف, it is a sign of jazm in the present tense action with a defective ending and in the “five verbs” whose رفع is by establishing the ن.

حَذف (omission/dropping) has two situations in which it is an evidence and sign of a word’s jazm.

1. A present tense action with a “defective” ending
2. The “Five Verbs”

Dropping the final letter from a present tense action with a “defective” ending

What is meant by “defective ending” is that the final letter is one of the three defective letters, which are ا, و and ي.

• Examples of verbs ending with ا are: يَسعى (“He strives”), يَرضى (“He is pleased”), يَهوى (“He likes”), يَنأى (“He is at a distance”) and يَبقى (“He remains”)
• Examples of verbs ending with و are: يَدعُوْ (“He calls”), يَرجُوْ (“He hopes”), يَبلُوْ (“He tests”), يَسمُوْ (“He is elevated”), يَقسُوْ (“He is harsh”) and يَنبُوْ (“He is remote”)
• Examples of verbs ending with ي are: يُعطِيْ (“He gives”), يَقضِيْ (“He judges”), يَسْتَغْشِيْ (“He hides”), يُحيِيْ (“He gives life”), يَلوِيْ (“He distorts”) and يَهدِيْ (“He guides”)

Now some examples of when a defective letter drops:

• لَم يَسعَ عَلِيًّ إلى المَجدِ (“Ali did not strive for glory”) – the final ى in يَسْعى dropped
• لَم يَدعُ محمدٌ إلا إلى الحَقِّ (“Muhammad did not call except to the truth”) – the final و in يَدْعُوْ dropped
• لَم يُعطِ محمدٌ إلا خالِداً (“Muhammad has not given to anyone except Khalid”) – final ي in يُعْطِيْ dropped

In all three of these, instead of using sukoon to show that the verb is in jazm, we just drop the final defective letter.

Dropping the final ن from the “Five Verbs”

What’s meant by the “five verbs”, are the verbs that use a final ن at the end to show that they are in raf’.  We already learned what they are here, so there’s no need to repeat all of that, but to refresh your memory, some examples (using يَضْرِبُ – “he strikes” as the base):

• يَضْرِبانِ – A ي at the beginning +  ا at the end = “they (m.) both strike”, talking about a two males
• يَضْرِبانِ – A ت at the beginning + ا at the end =  “they (f.) both strike”  or “you both strike”, talking about two females or talking to two people
• يَضْرِبُوْنَ – A ي at the beginning + و at the end = “they (m.) all strike”, talking about a masculine group
• تَضْرِبُوْنَ – A ت at the beginning + و at the end = “you (m.) all strike”, talking to a masculine group
• تَضْرِبِيْنَ – A ت at the beginning + ي at the end = “you (f.) strike”, talking to a single female

If you use the word لَمْ to negate the action, their final ن will drop off, so you’d get this:

• لَمْ يَضْرِبا – “they (m.) both did not strike”
• لَمْ يَضْرِبا – “they (f.) both did not strike”  or “you both did not strike”
• لَمْ يَضْرِبُوْا – “they (m.) all did not strike”
• لَمْ تَضْرِبُوْا – “you (m.) all did not strike”
• لَمْ تَضْرِبِيْ – “you (f.) did not strike”

If you’ve been paying attention to previous posts, you’ll realize that the “five verbs” look identical in the states of nasb and jazm (i.e.  we drop the final ن to show both).  If you’ve forgotten, refresh your memory with this.

From the Quran

Surah al-Ikhlas (112) has three verbs that have a non-defective ending and have a sukoon on them when the word لَمْ put them into the state of jazm:

• يَلِدُ (“he sires offspring”) became يَلِدْ
• يُوْلَدُ (“he is given birth to”) became يُوْلَدْ
• يَكُوْنُ (“He is”) became يَكُوْنْ and then the و dropped to avoid having two consecutive letters with sukun on them, so we ended up with يَكُنْ

From 2:246-247, I’ve highlighted verbs that lost their final defective letter when the particle لَمْ put them in the state of jazm:

• تَرَى (“you see”) lost its defective letter and became تَرَ
• يُؤتَى (“he is given”) also lost its final letter

Finally, examples from 3:149:

• تُطِيْعُوْنَ (“you all obey”) dropped its ن because of the إن used for conditional statements.  So the meaning then is “if you all obey…”
• يَرُدُّوْنَكُمْ (“they turn you all back”) dropped its ن because it is the answer to the condition.  The meaning is “if you all obey… they will turn you all back”.
  • The pronoun كم (“you all”) is attached to the verb and represents who/what the action is done to
• تَنْقَلِبُونَ (“you all turn back”) dropped its ن because it connected by ف to يَرُدُّوكُم, so it has to have the same status.

Questions

1. What are the signs of jazm?
2. In how many situations is sukoon a sign of jazm?
3. In how many situations is dropping the ending a sign of jazm?
4. What is the فعل with a “sound ending”?
   1. Give three examples for فعل with a صحيح ending.
5. What is the فعل with a “defective” ending?
   1. Give 2 examples for a defective فعل whose last letter is ا
   2. Give 2 examples for a defective فعل whose last letter is و
   3. Give 2 examples for defective فعل that ends in ي
6. What are the “five verbs”?
   1. How are the “five verbs” given jazm?
   2. Give three examples of the “five verbs” that are in jazm

Until next time, السلام عليكم و رحمة الله و بركاته

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