Getting down with خفض, Part 1: كَسرَة

السلام عليكم و رحمة الله,

To refresh your memory from Four types of status, the possible statuses a word can have are:

1. الرَفْع
2. النَصْب
3. الخَفْض (khafdh), also known as الجَرّ (jarr)
4. الجَزْم

We’ve gone through all the ways a word can show the first two.  Today we start on the third one, jarr, which also has its own indicators.  In Arabic, we say:

وَلِلْخَفْضِ ثَلاثُ عَلاماتٍ: الكَسْرَةُ, وَالياءُ, وَالفَتْحَةُ

Khafdh has three indicators: kasrah, the letter ي and فتحة (fathah)

There are three indicators for jarr:

1. kasrah (the main indicator)
2. the letter ي
3. fathah

We’ll look at kasrah first for now, with the others coming later إن شاء الله

When kasrah is the sign of خفض

فأمّا الكَسْرَةُ فَتَكُوْنُ عَلامَةً لِلْخَفْضِ فِيْ ثَلاثَةِ مَواضِعَ: في الاسْمِ المُفْرَدِ المُنْصَرِفِ وَجَمْعِ التَكْسِيْرِ المُنْصَرفِ وَجَمْعِ المُؤنَّثِ السالمِ

As for the kasrah, it is a sign of خفض in three situations: the fully flexible singular noun, the fully flexible broken plural and the sound feminine plural.

Kasrah has three situations where it’s used to show that a word is in jarr:

1. The fully flexible singular noun
2. The fully flexible broken plural
3. The sound feminine plural

You already know what the “singular noun”, “broken plural” and “sound feminine plural” are from here, so there’s no need to repeat that here.

The fully flexible singular noun

What it means for a word to be “fully flexible” is that it’s capable of taking a tanwin at the end.  If it’s one of those words that can’t take a tanwin at the end, it’s known as “partly flexible” or “semi-flexible”.  Partly flexible words nouns have a different way of showing jarr, which comes in a later section.

For example:

• سَعَيتُ إلى مُحَمَّدٍ (“I rushed to Muhammad”)
• رَضِيْتُ عَنْ عَلِيٍّ (“I was pleased with Ali”)
• اسْتَفَدْتُ مِنْ مُعاشَرةِ خالِدٍ (“I benefited from living with Khalid”)
• أعْجَبَنِي خُلُقُ بَكرٍ (“Bakr’s character amazed me”).

The words محمد and علي are in jarr because each of them has a particle of jarr before it.  The sign of jarr is the apparent kasrah.

The words خالد and بكر are in jarr because they are the second word in an idhafah fragment (Forgot what an idhafah is?  Look for it here!).  The sign of jarr here is also the kasrah.

All four of these words are singular nouns and they are fully flexible because of the attachment of tanwin to them.

The fully flexible broken plural

You already know from before what the “broken plural” is, and from the first situation here what “fully flexible” is.

For example:

• مَرَرْتُ بِرِجالٍ كِرامٍ (“I passed by honorable men.”)
• رَضِيتُ عَنْ أصْحابٍ لَنا شُجْعانٍ (“I was pleased with brave companions of ours.”)

The words رِجالٍ (“men”) and أصْحابٍ (“companions”) are in jarr because each of them has a particle of jarr before it.  The sign of jarr is the kasrah.

The words كِرامٍ (“honorable”) and شُجعانٍ (“brave”) are in jarr because they are descriptions of words that are in jarr, and a description will have the same status as the word it’s describing.  The word كِرامٍ is describing رِجالٍ, and the word شُجْعانٍ is describing أصحابٍ.  The sign of jarr is also kasrah.

These words are broken plurals, and they are fully flexible because of the tanwin that attaches to them.

The sound feminine plural

For example:

• نَظَرتُ إلى فَتَياتٍ مُؤَدَّباتٍ (“I looked at refined girls”)
• رَضِيتُ عَن مُسْلِماتٍ قانِتاتٍ (“I was pleased with obedient Muslim women”).

The words فتياتٍ (“girls”) and مُسْلِماتٍ (“Muslim women” ) are each in jarr because of the particle of jarr before them, and the sign of their jarr is the apparent kasrah.

Each of مُؤدَّباتٍ (“refined”) and قانِتاتٍ (“obedient”) is in jarr because it is a description of a word that is in jarr state.  The sign of its jarr is also the apparent kasrah.

These words are all sound feminine plurals.

From the Quran

Below (2:238-244), I’ve highlighted all the words that are showing their jarr using a kasrah at the end.  You should already be able to tell which are sound feminine plurals, because all that needs is a certain ending at the end (i.e. ات).  Broken plurals are a little harder because you need to know the meaning of the word before you can tell that it’s a plural, so I point those out.  I’ve also given the reason why each word is in jarr.

• ِالصَلَوات (“the prayers”) is a sound feminine plural and is in jarr because the word عَلى before it is one of the particles jarr.  The word الصَلاةِ (“the prayer”) follows it in status because it’s connected to it by the word وَ (“and”).
• للهِ is actually the name الله preceded by لِ (another particle of jarr), but when ل comes before a word that starts with ال, the ا will drop.
• أزْواجِ is a broken plural for زَوْج (“spouse) and is preceded by لِ (“for”)
• الحَوْلِ (“the year”) is preceded by إلى, a particle of jarr
• إخراجٍ (“to turn someone out”) is mudhaaf ilayh (the second word in an idhaafah)
• أنفُسِ is a broken plural for نَفْس (“self”) and has the particle فِي before it
• مَعْرُوْفٍ (“acceptable/honorable”) has the particle مِنْ before it
• المُطَلّقاتِ (“the divorced women”) has لِ before it, and the ا dropped.
• المَعْرُوْفِ has the particle بِ before it
• دِيارِ is the broken plural of دار (“home”) and has مِن before it
• المَوْتِ (“death”) and فَضْلٍ are both mudhaaf ilayh
• الناسِ (“the people”) has the particle على before it, and the second time it is mudhaaf ilayh
• سَبِيلِ (“way”) has في before it, and الله is mudhaaf ilayh

Questions

1. In which situations will kasrah be the sign that a word is in jarr?
2. What does it mean that a word is a “fully flexible singular noun”?
3. What does it mean that a word is a “fully flexible broken plural”?
4. Give an example of:
   1. A singular noun that is in jarr
   2. A broken plural that is in jarr
   3. A sound feminine plural that is in jarr

Until next time, السلام عليكم و رحمة الله و بركاته

 

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