الاِسْتِثْناء (The exception)

السلام عليكم ورحمة الله,

Today we’re going to do the 7th of the 15 types of nouns in نَصْب, which is الاسْتِثْناء (the exception).

Words used to make exceptions

حُرُوْفُ الاسْتِثْناءِ ثَمانِيَةٌ، وَهِيَ: إِلاّ، وَغَيْرٌ، وَسِوَى، وَسُوَى، وَسَواءٌ، وَخَلا، وَعَدَا، وَحَاشَا

The particles of exception are eight in number, and they are إِلاّ (illaa), غَيْرٌ (ghayr), سِوًى (siwan)، سُوًى (suwan), سَواءٌ (sawaa’un), خَلا (khalaa), عَدَا (‘adaa) and حَاشَا (haashaa)

الاسْتِثْناء (the exception) means إخراج (“to take something out”) and in grammar it mean to take something out (using إلا or another tool) that would otherwise have been part of what’s before the tool.

Note: I’m using the word “tool” here because not all of these eight are actually “particles” (حُرُوْف).  As you’ll see later, some of them are actually nouns, so we can refer to this mixed bag of nouns and particles as أدَوات (instruments/tools).

An example to consider: نَجَحَ التّلامِيْذُ إلاّ عَامِراً (“The students passed except Amir”).  You used إلاّ (“except”) to remove one of the students (Amir), and if you hadn’t made this exception, Amir would have been included in the students who succeeded.

There are a lot of tools used to make exception.  Eight are mentioned in الآجُرُّوْمِيَّة, and they fall into three groups:

1. Always considered a particle (حَرْف) – This is إِلاّ (illaa)
2. Always a noun (اسم) – These are غَيْرٌ (ghayr), سِوًى (siwan)، سُوًى (suwan), and سَواءٌ (sawaa’un)
3. Sometimes a particle, sometimes a verb – خَلا (khalaa), عَدَا (‘adaa) and حَاشَا (haashaa)

We’ll look at how to do exceptions using each of these, starting with إلاّ.

The rule for إلاّ

فَالْمُسْتَثْنى بِإلاّ يُنْصَبُ إذا كانَ الكَلامُ تامّاً مُوْجَباً، نَحْوُ: “قامَ القَوْمُ إلاّ زَيْداً” وَ”خَرَجَ النّاسُ إلاّ عَمْراً” وَإنْ كانَ الكَلامُ مَنْفِيّاً تامّاً جازَ فِيْهِ البَدَلُ وَالنَّصْبُ عَلَى الاِسْتِثْناءِ، نَحْوُ: “ما قامَ الْقَوْمُ إلاّ زَيْدٌ” وَ”إلاّ زَيْداً” وَإنْ كانَ الكَلامُ ناقِصاً كانَ عَلَى حَسْبِ العَوامِلِ، نَحْوُ: “ما قامَ إلا زَيدٌ” وَ”ما ضَرَبْتُ إلاّ زَيْداً” وَما مَرَرْتُ إلاّ بِزَيْدٍ

The word that is made an exception using إلاّ is nasb-ized if the sentence is affirmative and complete, like قامَ القَوْمُ إلاّ زَيْداً (“The people stood except Zayd”) and خَرَجَ النّاسُ إلاّ عَمْراً (“The people came out except Amr”).  

If the sentence is negative and complete, it’s permissible to make the exception in raf’ as a بَدَل (substitute) or in nasb (on the basis of it being an exception), like ما قامَ الْقَوْمُ إلاّ زَيْدٌ  and إلاّ زَيْداً (“The people did not stand, except Zayd”).  

If the sentence is incomplete, then the exception is based on the influences, like ما قامَ إلا زَيدٌ (“None stood except Zayd”), ما ضَرَبْتُ إلاّ زَيْداً (“I did not hit except Zayd”), and ما مَرَرْتُ إلاّ بِزَيْدٍ (“I did not pass except by Zayd”)

Some definitions first:

• تامَ (complete) = what you’re making an exception from is mentioned.  Another way to say it is the sentence has its essential parts (i.e. verbal sentence requires a verb and a doer, noun sentence requires a mubtada’ and khabar).  Its opposite is ناقِص (incomplete)
• مُوْجَب (affirmative) =  there’s no negation or anything that resembles one before it (like a prohibition or a question).  Its opposite is مَنْفِيّ (negative)

So, if we’re using إلا to make an exception, there are three possibilities for the sentence before the ّإلا part.  Before we look at them,

1. It is تامّ (complete) and مُوْجَب (affirmative).  The noun after إلا must be in nasb due to being an exception.  In the following two examples, Zayd and Amr are exceptions in nasb and the part before إلا is a complete sentence because what Zayd and Amr are exceptions from (القَوْمُ and الناسُ, respectively) is mentioned:
   • قامَ القَوْمُ إلاّ زَيْداً (“The people stood except Zayd”)
   • خَرَجَ النّاسُ إلاّ عَمْراً (“The people came out except Amr”)
2. It is تامّ (complete) and ّمَنْفِي (negative): You can make the noun after إلاّ a grammatical follower of what you are making an exception from (as a substitute), or it can be in nasb due to its being an exception:
   • ما قامَ الْقَوْمُ إلاّ زَيْدٌ and ما قامَ الْقَوْمُ إلاّ زَيْداً (“The people did not stand except Zayd”)
     • The part before the exception ما قامَ القَوْمُ (“The people did not stand”) is complete because it mentions what you’re making an exception from (القَوْمُ – the people) and is negative because of ما (“not”)
     • القَوْمُ is in raf’ because it’s the doer of قامَ (“stood”), so we can make زَيْدٌ follow it in raf’ using a dhammah, or:
     • we can simply put زَيْداً in nasb using a fathah, based on the fact that it’s an exception
3. It is ناقِص (incomplete, which will always be negative): What’s after إلاّ depends on what the influence before إلاّ calls for.  In each of these examples, the part before إلا is incomplete (i.e. does not mention what we made the exception from), so we’ll set the status of زَيْد accordingly
   •  ما قامَ إلا زَيدٌ (“None stood except Zayd”) – The verb قامَ demands that its doer should be in raf’
   • ما ضَرَبْتُ إلاّ زَيْداً (“I did not hit except Zayd”) – The verb ضَرَبْتُ (“I hit”) demands that its direct object be in nasb
   • ما مَرَرْتُ إلاّ بِزَيْدٍ (“I did not pass except by Zayd”) – The verb مَرَرْتُ (“I passed”) needs a particle of jarr and along with word in jarr after it

Note 1: When you have a choice between using it as a substitute or an exception, it’s more eloquent to use it as a substitute, based on the fact that the substitute is mentioned before the exception in the above quote from the Ajuroomiyyah and also closer to the style used in the Quran, as we’ll see for 4:66 in the examples from the Quran.

Note 2: If the exception is not of the same category of what you’re making an exception from, then it has to be in nasb (i.e. you must consider it as an exception, not a substitute).

In لَا يَذُوقُونَ فِيهَا بَرْدًا وَلَا شَرَابًا إِلَّا حَمِيمًا وَغَسَّاقًا (“They will not taste there in coolness or drink, except boiling water and pus” [78: 24-25]), the words حَمِيْماً (“boiling water”) and غَسّاقاً (“pus”) are not from the same category as بَرْداً (“coolness”) and شَراباً (“drink”).  They are in nasb because they are exceptions, not because they are substitutes for  بَرْداً and شَراباً.

The rule for ٌغَيْر and its siblings

وَالْمُسْتَثْنى بِغَيْرٍ، وَسِوًى، وَسُوًى، وَسَواءٍ، مَجْرُوْرٌ لا غَيْرُ

The word that’s made an exception using  غَيْرٌ (ghayr), سِوًى (siwan)، سُوًى (suwan), سَواءٌ (sawaa’un) is in jarr and nothing else

A noun that comes after one of these four has to be in jarr, because these four instruments will be mudhaaf to it, and we know that the mudhaaf ilayh (a noun that another noun is added to) is always in jarr.  The instrument itself (غَير) follows the same rules as the word after إلاّ, based on whether the sentence before غَيْر is complete/incomplete and affirmative/negative as detailed above.  These examples should make it clear إن شاء الله:

• complete and affirmative: قامَ القَوْمُ غَيْرَ زَيْدٍ (“The people stood except Zayd”)
• complete and negative: ما يَزُوْرُنِيْ أحَدٌ غَيْرُ الأخيْارِ and ما يَزُوْرُنِيْ أحَدٌ غَيْرَ الأخيْارِ (“No one visits me except the best”)
• incomplete (and negative): لا تَتَّصِلْ بِغَيْرِ الأخْيارِ (“Don’t be in touch except with the best”)

The rule for عَدا and its siblings

وَالْمُسْتَثْنى بِخَلا، وَعَدا، وَحاشا، يَجُوْزُ نَصْبُهُ وَجَرُّهُ، نَحْوُ: “قامَ القَوْمُ خلا زَيْداً، وَزَيْدٍ” وَ”عَدا عَمْراً وَعَمْروٍ” وَ”حاشا بَكْراً وَبَكْرٍ

The word that’s made an exception using خَلا (khalaa), عَدَا (‘adaa) and حَاشَا (haashaa) is allowed to be in nasb or jarr, as in قامَ القَوْمُ خلا زَيْداً” or وَزَيْدٍ (“The people stood except Zayd”),  عَدا عَمْراً  or عَمْروٍ (“except Amr”), and حاشا بَكْراً orبَكْرٍ (“except Bakr”)

As for the noun that comes after one of these three, it’s allowed for you to nasb-ize it or jarr-ize it.  The reason is that sometimes they’re used as أفْعال (verbs) and sometimes as حُرُوْف (particles).  If you intend it as a verb, then you’ll nasb-ize the word after it as a direct object.  If you intend it as a particle, you’ll jarr-ize the word after it, because it’s acting like a particle of jarr.

Now, there’s a special kind of ما called ما المَصْدَرِيِّة, which gives the meaning of the masdar (infinitive) when combined with a verb).  If you see this ما before one of these, then it’s definitely a verb and the noun after it has to be in nasb as its direct object.  An example would be قامَ القَوْمُ ما خَلى زَيْداً (“The people stood except Zayd”).

From the Quran

• فَشَرِبُوا مِنْهُ إِلَّا قَلِيلًا مِّنْهُمْ (“But they drank from it, except a few of them”) [2:249]
• ما فَعَلُوْهُ إلاّ قَلِيْلٌ مِنْهُمْ (“They would not have done, except a few of them”) [4:66] – There was a choice between raf’ as a بَدَل (substitute) for the doer of فَعَلُوا (“they did”), or nasb as an exception.  The Quran chose the former, indicating it is more eloquent.
• لا تَعْبُدُوْنَ إلاّ اللهَ (“You don’t worship except Allah”) [2:83] – The part before إلا is an incomplete sentence (The verb needs an object in nasb to complete the meaning), so you give الله the status of the part that’s missing)

Questions

1. What does الاسْتِثْناء mean in the normal use and in grammar?
2. What tools can you use to make an exception?
3. How many kinds of these tools are there?
4. How many situations can the word after إلا be in?
   • When does that word have to be in nasb?
   • When do you have a choice between nasb-izing it or making it follow what’s before إلا ?
5. What does it mean for speech to be تام (complete)?
6. What does it mean for it to be مَنْفِيّ (negative)?
7. What’s the rule for the noun that comes after سِوًى, and what role is سِوًى playing?
8. What’s the rule for the noun that comes after خَلا?

Until next time, السلام عليكم

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