التَمْيِيْز (The distinction)

السلام عليكم ورحمة الله,

Today we’re going to do the 6th of the 15 types of nouns in نَصْب, the تَمْيِيْز (distinction):

التَّمْيِيْزُ هُوَ: الاسْمُ، الْمَنْصُوْبُ، المُفَسِّرُ لِما انْبَهَمَ مِنَ الذَّوَاتِ، نَحْوُ قَوْلِكَ: “تَصَبَّبَ زَيْدٌ عَرَقاً” وَ”تَفَقَّأَ بَكْرٌ شَحْماً” وَ”طابَ مُحَمَّدٌ نَفْساً” وَ”اشْتَرَيْتُ عِشْرِيْنَ كِتاباً” وَ”مَلَكْتُ تِسْعِيْنَ نَعْجَةً” و”زَيْدٌ أكْرَمُ مِنْكَ أباً” و”أجْمَلُ مِنْكَ وَجْهاً

The تَمْيِيْز (distinction) is a nasb-ized noun that clarifies what is vague about entities, like (your saying) تَصَبَّبَ زَيْدٌ عَرَقاً (“Zayd poured out sweat”), تَفَقَّأَ بَكْرٌ شَحْماً (“Bakr burst out in fat”), طابَ مُحَمَّدٌ نَفْساً (“Muhammad was content in spirit”),  اشْتَرَيْتُ عِشْرِيْنَ كِتاباً (“I bought 20 books”), مَلَكْتُ تِسْعِيْنَ نَعْجَة (“I owned 90 ewes”), and زَيْدٌ أكْرَمُ مِنْكَ أباً وَأجْمَلُ مِنْكَ وَجْهاً (“Zayd is nobler than you [in regard to his] father and more beautiful than you [in regard to his] face”)

The word تَمْيِيْز (tamyiz) has two meanings in the language: (1) explanation in the general sense and (2) to separate part of something from it.  مَيَّزْتُ القَوْمَ (“I distinguished the people”) would mean that I separated some of them from others.

From this we can understand how in grammar the tamyiz is:

1. a noun – 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)
2. in nasb – it cannot be in raf’ or jarr
3. clarifies what is vague about entities – The حال clarifies the exact the situation of things, and the tamyiz clarifies what the things themselves are (i.e. it can answer “”What exactly?” and distinguishes between things).  It can come as:
   • تَمْيِيْز الْمُفْرَد (clarifies a word before it), which can be after:
     • a number, like إنِّي رَأَيْتُ أحَدَ عَشَرَ كَوْكَبًا (“I definitely saw 11 stars”) – It answers “You saw 11 what?”
     • measurements or units of weighed things, like اشْتَرَيْتُ رِطْلًا زَيْتًا (“I bought a rotl [of] olive“)
     •  weights, like اشْتَرَيْتُ إرْدَبًّا قَمْحًا (“I brought an ardab [of] wheat“)
     • areas, like اشْتَرَيْتُ فَدّانًا أرْضًا (“I bought an acre [of] land“)
   • تَمْيِيْز الجُمْلَة (clarifies a whole sentence before it), which is either:
     • transformed from the فاعِل (doer of an action), as in تَفَقَّأ بَكْرٌ شَحْمًا (“Bakr burst out in fat“)
       • What did Bakr burst out in?  Did he burst out in flames? When we add شَحْمًا (“fat”), it’s understood his fat is what burst out
       • It was originally تَفَقَّأ شَحْمُ بَكْرٍ (“The fat of Bakr burst out”), with the doer شَحْم (“fat”) being added to بَكْر to make a possessive phrase.  شَحْم was dropped and بَكْر took its raf’ (because it became the doer) and then شَحْم was re-added at the end as a tamyiz in nasb
     • transformed from the مَفْعُول (object of an action), as in 54:12 – وَفَجَّرْنا الأرْضَ عُيُوْنًا (“And we caused the earth to burst [with] springs“)
       • It was originally وَفَجَّرْنا عُيُوْنَ الأرْضِ (“And we caused the springs of the earth to burst”).  عُيُون (“springs”) was dropped (leaving الأرض as the direct object) and re-added as a tamyiz
     • transformed from the مُبْتَدَأ (subject or topic that begins a sentence), as in 18:34 – أنا أكْثَرُ مِنْكَ مالًا (“I am more than you [in] wealth“)
       • It was originally مالِيْ أكْثَرُ مِنْ مالِكَ (“My wealth is more than your wealth”), with مال and the pronoun يْ (“me”) making an idhaafah.  مال (“wealth”) was dropped (leaving the pronoun أنا “I” to start the sentence) and re-added as a tamyiz
     • not transformed from something else, as in امْتَلَأَ الْإناءُ ماءً (“The container filled up [with] water“)

Something about numbers

Because numbers are a big reason why a tamyiz will come, I want to take a few moments to go over the grammar of counting things.  The examples given at the beginning,  اشْتَرَيْتُ عِشْرِيْنَ كِتاباً (“I bought 20 books”) and ًمَلَكْتُ تِسْعِيْنَ نَعْجَة (“I owned 90 ewes”) show us that when counting in numbers usings 10’s (20, 30…up to 90), the rule is to bring what you count as a tamyiz.

Below are the 10’s from 20 to 90.  Note that they take status the same way masculine plurals do (i.e. Using و for raf’ and ي for nasb/jarr).  Because they are coming as a direct objects in the previous examples, they are showing their nasb using ي.

20	عِشْرُوْنَ
30	ثَلاثُوْنَ
40	أَرْبَعُوْنَ
50	خَمْسُوْنَ
60	سِتُّوْنَ
70	سَبْعُوْنَ
80	ثَمانُوْنَ
90	تِسْعُوْنَ

Also if the number has two parts, one for representing 1’s and one for 10’s (e.g.  11, 28, 43 … up to 99) what you count will also come as a tamyiz, as in إنِّي رَأَيْتُ أحَدَ عَشَرَ كَوْكَبًا (“I definitely saw 11 stars”) [12:4]

If the number is not between 11 and 99, what you count will come in jarr as in مِاءَة جَلْدَةٍ (“a hundred lashes”) [24:2] and سِتَّة أيّامٍ (“six days”) [50:38] because it is mudhaaf ilayh.

To summarize, when counting, the rule for what you’re counting depends on the quantity:

• 1 – Singular form, which can be followed by واحِد (“one”) as an adjective that matches it in status, as in إلهٌ واحِدٌ (“one god” – both the word and the description are in raf’ with a dhammah)
• 2 – Dual form, which can be followed by اثْنانِ (“two”) as an adjective that matches it in status, as in إلهَيْنِ اثْنَيْنِ (“two deities” – both are in nasb with a ي)
• 3-10 – In jarr as a mudhaaf ilayh, and plural
• 11-99 – In nasb, because it’s tamyiz
• 100 (مِائة), thousand (أَلْف), and others – In jarr as a mudhaaf ilayhi, and singular

شُرُوْطُ التَّمْيِيْزِ (The conditions of the distinction)

ِوَلا يَكُوْنُ إلا نَكِرَةً، وَلا يَكُوْنُ إلا بَعْدَ تمامِ الكَلام

It is always indefinite and always after completion of speech.

Like the حال (condition), the tamyiz is indefinite and comes after the sentence is complete (i.e. the verb has it doer and the mubtada’ of a nominal sentence has its khabar).  That means that if you were to remove the tamyiz in all the example sentences above, you’d find that they’d still be valid and full sentences.

From the Quran

Below are some of the numerous examples of tamyiz in the Quran:

• فَلَبِثَ فِيهِمْ أَلْفَ سَنَةٍ إِلَّا خَمْسِينَ عَامًا (“So he stayed among them 1000 years less 50 years“) [29:14]
• لَهُ تِسْعٌ وَتِسْعُونَ نَعْجَةً (“He has 99 ewes“) [38:23]
• مَنْ هُوَ أَشَدُّ مِنْهُ قُوَّةً وَأَكْثَرُ جَمْعًا (“those who were greater than him in power and greater in accumulation [of wealth]”) [28:78]
• وَمَنْ أَحْسَنُ مِنَ اللَّهِ صِبْغَةً (“And who is better than Allah in coloring“) [2:138]
• وَالَّذِينَ آمَنُوا أَشَدُّ حُبًّا لِّلَّهِ (“But those who believe are stronger in love for Allah“) [2:165]

Questions

1. What does tamyiz mean, linguistically and in grammar?
2. How many kinds of tamyiz are there?
3. What is تَميِيز المُفْرَد and تَميِيْز الجُمْلَة?
4. How many things can تمييز الجُمْلَة be transformed from?
5. What conditions are there for the the tamyiz?

Until next time, السلام عليكم

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