الْبَدَل (The substitute)

السلام عليكم ورحمة الله

Today we’ll wrap up the last of the grammatical followers, the بَدَل (substitute).

الْبَدَلُ وَحُكْمُهُ (The substitute and its rule)

ِإذا أُبْدِلَ اسْمٌ مِنَ اسْمٍ أَوْ فِعْلٌ مِنْ فِعْلٍ تَبِعَهُ فِيْ جَمِيْعِ إِعْرَابِه

When a noun is a substituted for a noun, or a verb for a verb, then it follows it in all of its grammatical states.

The word بَدَل is used for when you exchange something for something else.  In Arabic grammar, it’s a follower of a word that is what you really intended to apply your meaning to.  The rule is that the substitute has the same status as the word it’s substituting for.

In the examples below, we use خَالكَ (“your maternal uncle”) as a substitute for مُحَمّد, and change its state  (the vowel on the ل) depending on the state of مُحَمَّد:

• حَضَرَ مُحَمَّدٌ خَالُكَ (“Muhammad, your uncle, was present”) – In the state of raf’
• قابَلْتُ مُحَمَّدًا خَالَكَ (“I met Muhammad, your uncle”) – In the state of nasb
• أَعْجَبَتْنِيْ أَخْلاقُ مُحَمَّدٍ خَالِكَ (“The manners of Muhammad, your uncle, amazed me” – In the state of jarr
• مَنْ يَشْكُرْ رَبَّهُ يَسْجُدْ لَهُ يَفُزْ (“Whoever thanks his Lord… prostrates to Him will win”).  يَسْجُدْ follows يَشْكُرْ in the state of jazm

 

أنْوَاع الْبَدَلِ (Kinds of substitution)

وَهُوَ عَلَى أرْبَعَةِ أقْسامٍ: بَدَلُ الشَّيْءِ مِنَ الشَّيْءِ، وَبَدَلُ الْبَعْضِ مِنَ الْكُلِّ، وَبَدَلُ الاشْتِمَالِ، وَبَدَلُ الْغَلَطِ، نَحْوُ قَوْلِكَ: “قَامَ زَيْدٌ أَخُوْكَ، وَأكَلْتُ الرَغِيْفَ ثُلُثَهُ، وَنَفَعَنِيْ زَيْدٌ عِلْمُهُ، وَرَأيْتُ زَيْدًا الفَرَسَ”، أَرَدْتَ أَنْ تَقُوْلَ: رَأَيْتُ الْفَرَسَ فَغَلِطْتَ فَأَبْدَلْتَ زَيْدًا مِنْهُ

And it [substitution] is four types, substituting one thing for another thing, substituting a part for the whole, the substitute of the content and the substitute of the mistake. It is like your saying: قَامَ زَيْدٌ أخُوْكَ (“Zayd, your brother, stood”), أكَلْتُ الرَغِيْفَ ثُلُثَهُ (“I ate the loaf, a third of it”), نَفَعَنِيْ زَيْدٌ عِلْمُهُ (“Zaid, his knowledge benefited me”), and رَأيْتُ زَيْدًا الفَرَسَ (“I saw Zayd, the horse”). You originally wanted to say الفَرَسَ (“the horse”) but made a mistake and substituted زَيْدٌ instead.

There are four kinds of بَدَل (substitution):

1. بَدَل الْكُلِّ مِنَ الكُلِّ (complete substitution), also known as بَدَل الشَّيْءِ مِنَ الشَّيْءِ – The substitute is exactly the same entity as what was substituted.  In زارَنِيْ مُحَمَّدٌ عَمُّكَ (“Muhammad – your paternal uncle – visited me), عَمُّكَ (“your uncle”) and Muhammad are the same person
2. بَدَلُ الْبَعْضِ مِنَ الْكُلِّ (substituting a part for the whole) – The substitute is a part of what you’re substituting (doesn’t matter how big a part your substitute is of the substituted word).  You need to attach a pronoun to it that will go back to the substituted word (هُ in these examples).
   • حَفِظْتُ الْقُرْآنَ ثُلُثَهُ (“I memorized the Quran, a third of it”)
   • حَفِظْتُ الْقُرْآنَ نِصْفَهُ (“I memorized the Quran, half of it”)
   • حَفِظْتُ الْقُرْآنَ ثُلُثَيْهِ (“I memorized the Quran, 2/3 of it”).  ثُلُثٌ is how you say “one third”, so you say “two thirds by add ان to get ثُلُثانِ.  The ن will drop when you make it mudhaaf to another noun, and the ا changes to ي when it’s in nasb, so you end up with ثُلُثَيْ
3. بَدَلُ الاشْتِمَالِ (substituting content for the container) – The substitute is something contained by the substituted word.  It’s used when there is a relationship between them other than being the same entity or one being part of the other.  This also needs a pronoun that goes back to the substituted word
   • أَعْجَبَتْنِي الْجارِيَةُ حَدِيْثُها (“The servant girl, her talk, amazed me”).  حَدِيْثُ (“talk”) is not the girl herself, and isn’t a part of her either.  It’s attached to the pronoun ها (“her”) that goes back to her.
   • نَفَعَنِي الأُسْتَاذُ حُسْنُ أخُلاقِهِ (“The teacher, the beauty of his manners, benefited me”).
4. بَدَل الغَلَط (Substitution for a mistake) – There are 3 kinds of mistakes you can fix using a substitution
   1. بَدَل البداءِ (Substitution of the “appearance”) – You say something, but then something else appears better for you to use, so you turn toward that instead
      • In هَذِهِ الْجارِيَةُ بَدْرٌ شَمْسٌ (“This servant girl is a full moon… a sun”), you said هَذِهِ الْجارِيَةُ بَدْرٌ… (“This servant girl is a full moon…”) and then it occurred to you that it’d be better to compare her to the sun instead, so you added شَمسٌ (“a sun”)
   2. بَدَل الْنِسْيان (Substitution of “obliviousness”) – You say something based on speculation, but then you learn that it’s wrong so you turn away from it.
      • In رَأَيْتُ إِنْسانًا فَرَسًا (“I saw a human… a horse”), if you see a far-off shape and think it’s a human you’d say رَأَيْتُ إِنْسانًا (“I saw a human…”).  If it comes closer and you realize it’s actually a horse, you’d fix your mistake by adding فَرَسًا (“a horse”)
   3. بَدَل الغَلَطِ (Substitution of the “mistake”) – You mean to say something, but you have a slip of the tongue so you adjust it back to what you meant to say.  رَأيْتُ مُحَمَّدًا الْفَرَسَ (“I saw Muhammad, the horse”)

From the Quran

Instead of showing a whole page as I normally do, I’m going to give isolated examples, with the substituted word underlined and the  substitute in red.  Notice how they always match in state.

• اهْدِنَا الصِّرَاطَ الْمُسْتَقِيمَ  صِرَاطَ الَّذِينَ أَنْعَمْتَ عَلَيْهِمْ (“Guide us to the straight path – the path of those upon whom You have bestowed favor”  [1:6-7])
• آمَنَّا برَبِّ الْعَالَمِينَ – رَبِّ مُوسَىٰ وَهَارُونَ  (“We believe in the Lord of the worlds, the Lord of Moses and Aaron” [7:121-122])
• يَسْأَلُونَكَ عَنِ الشَّهْرِ الْحَرَامِ قِتَالٍ فِيهِ (“They ask you about the sacred month – about fighting in it” [2:117]) –
  • This is بدل الاشْتِمال (substitution of content).  Also notice that the substitute and the substituted word do not have to match in being definite or indefinite

Questions

1. What is the بَدَل?
2. In what does the substitute follow the word it’s substituting for?
3. How many kinds of substitution are there?
4. What are the conditions for substituting the part or the content?
5. What is a complete substitution?
6. What is substituting the part?
7. What is substituting the content?
8. What is the substitute of the mistake?
   • How many kinds of substitutions are there for the mistake?
9. Where is the substitution and what kind of substitution is in these examples?
   • رَسُوْلُ اللهِ مُحَمَّدٌ خاتَمُ النَّبِيِّيْنَ (“The messenger of Allah, Muhammad صلى الله عليه وسلم, is the seal of the prophets”)
   • عَجَزَ الْعَرَبُ عَنِ الْإتْيانِ بِالْقُرْآنِ عَشرِ آياتٍ مِنْهُ (“The Arabs were incapable of bringing [the like] of Quran, 10 verses from it”)
   • أَعْجَبَتْنِيْ السَّماءُ نُجُوْمُها (“The sky, its stars, amazed me”)

Until next time, السلام عليكم

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