Sarf

SarfisthescienceofClassicalArabicwhichdealswith: 1. patternsofvowelizationwhichindicatetenseofaverb 2. designatedendingswhichreflectthegender,plurality,andpersonoftheSubject(theonedoing theverb) Gender:TherearetwogendersinArabic:MasculineandFeminine.UnlikeEnglish,thereisnoneutral genderinArabic.Allnounsaremasculineunlesstheyaredefinedfeminine,eitherbygeneral agreemente.g.Umm(Mother),shams(Sun),orbythetheending whichiscalledtamarbuta. Plurality:InArabictherearethreewaysofdescribingthenumberofnouns:single,dual,andplural (morethan2). Person:SimilartoEnglish,therearethreepersonsinArabic:1st,2nd,and3rd AccordingtotheaboveschemetheSubjectofaverbcancause18(2x3x3)changestothepatternsof vowelizationanddesignatedendingsofthatverb.Thesearelistedbelow: 3rdpersonMasculineSingular/Dual/Plural3 3rdpersonFeminineSingular/Dual/Plural3 2ndpersonMasculineSingular/Dual/Plural3 2ndpersonFeminineSingular/Dual/Plural3 1stpersonMasculineSingular/Dual/Plural3 1stpersonFeminineSingular/Dual/Plural3 However,the1stpersonMasculineSingular/Dualand1stpersonFeminineSingular/Dualarecondensed asone;thus,thetotalisreducedby4,bringingitto14.Acompletelistingoftheseisgiveninthetable below(note:thisistakenfrompage20ofHussainAbdulSattarsBook,FundamentalsofClassical Arabic,availablehere).

Sarf - - Introduction to Verb Groupings

Up until now we have been dealing with just one type of the base verb i.e. . However, this is not the only way a base verb can occur in Arabic. In fact, the verb (and consequently the

verb) can occur in several different patterns depending upon the vowelling and number of
letters in the base verb. In this post, I will, Insha Allah, explain about different patterns of Arabic verbs along with some of their examples. To start with, we may be tempted to assume that any two verbs which have the same voice, same tense, and the same conjugation number will look alike and will rhyme with one another. However, this is not the case as can bee seen by looking at the following 3 examples: 1. 2. 3. The first verb, ( to help), rhymes with and has the same number of letters as . The second verb, ( to hear), although having the same number of letters as , does not rhyme with it due to a kasra on the middle letter. Finally, the last verb, ( to roll), does not

rhyme with , and also has 4 letters in it, rather than 3. As a rule of thumb, differences in Arabic verbs can occur due to one of 6 reasons:

3 of these reasons relate to number of letters in the base verb and its vowelling pattern 3 of these reasons relate to irregularities. These have nothing to do with number of base letters or the vowelling pattern of the verb. Rather, these difference in verbs are introduced by the presence of certain letters e.g. , ,

In this post I will deal with the first 3 rules which can be stated into the following expanded categories: 1. Difference in number of base letters of a verb 2. Difference in the way the verb is enhanced 3. Difference in the position vowelling of a verb The minimum number of letters in a base verb is 3 and the maximum is 4. Each one of these two sets of verbs may comprise of only base letters (i.e. without any enhancement) or they may have addition of non-base, or extra, letters (i.e. enhanced), which provides us with 4 distinct verb groupings: 1. Verbs with 3 base letters which are not enhanced, called e.g. 2. Verbs with 3 base letters which are enhanced, called e.g. 3. Verbs with 4 base letters which are not enhanced, called e.g. 4. Verbs with 4 base letters which are enhanced, called e.g. On top of this, verbs can differ in the way the vowel appears on the position. Using the form of and switching the vowel on the position, we get 3 distinct patterns: 1. 2.

3. For each of these patterns of a verb, there will exist 3 corresponding patterns with their own vowelling patterns, giving us 9 patterns in total which are listed in the table below: #

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 The patterns 6, 7, and 8 do not exist in the Arabic Language, which means that you will never find a

verb based on this pattern of vowelling. As for the remaining 6, each pattern is called a ( door) and can be defined as an etymological grouping which arises due to a difference in number
of letters or the

position vowelling in both and patterns of a verb. Every

verb in Arabic will follow exactly one of these patterns. To ease memorization of these the scholars of have picked up the most widely used example from each of them and have named the

after it. These are listed in the following table in their order of popularity:

1 2 3

89:;; ; 8;:; 88;? 9; 8

4 5 6

89: ;9;

I post here another way of remembering these , courtesy of IANT

The : Enhancement to verbs can be done in various ways: duplication of the position e.g. >-

( to know -> to teach), or adding a hamzah, called ( or the enabling hamza, which is
added to ease pronunciation), at the front of the verb. This can be noticed with the which has 14 , out of which 5 do not have the enabling hamzah in front of them and all of these 5 are popular. The rest of the 9 have the enabling hamza in front of them and only 3 are popular from among theses nine. The 5 of without the are given in the table below:

# 1

89?8

?;

3 4 5

98 N;;; ;;;

; N;; ;;

I hope that this very brief introduction to will be a good starting point for further learning of this vast field of . Insha Allah, I will write more about this topic once we go through it in the course.

 Sarf ThePresentandFuture Tense

isthetenseinArabicwhichconveysthemeaningofbothpresent(simpleandcontinuous)and
futuretenses.Thecontextandsituationoftheusagewilldeterminewhichoftheabovethreearemeant tobeconveyed.ItiswhatiscalledtheImperfecttenseinEnglishi.e.theactioniseithergoingonoris stilltostart. Unlikethe ,the ispeculiarinitsnaturebecauseitischaracterizedbythepresenceofoneof the4letters,namely ( hamza,taa,yaa,nun)atthestartofaword.Thusa verbwill haveoneofthese4lettersasaprefix.Plus,unlikethe,theendingsof verbsdonotfollowa setpatternbutareratherbasedonloosegroupings.Mentionedbelowaretheprefixandsuffixrulesfor the14conjugations: PrefixRules: 1. Conjugation1,2,3,and6willhave asprefix 2. Conjugations4,5,7,8,9,10,11,12willhave asaprefix 3. Conjugation13willhave asaprefix 4. Conjugation14willhave asaprefix SuffixRules: 1. 5conjugationswillhavenosuffixatalli.e.thelastletterofthewordwillbethebaseletterof

theverb.Theseareconjugations1,4,7,13,and14 2. 9conjugationsarefurthersubdividedinto4groups:

The4duals(3rdpersonDualMasculine/Feminine,2ndpersonDual Masculine/Feminine)willhaveanendingconsistingofan followedbya witha kasrae.g. . .Theseareconjugations2,5,8,and11

The2MasculinePluralConjugations,number3and9,willendin i.e. precededby adhammaandsucceededbya withafathae.g.

The2FemininePluralConjugations,number6and12,willendwithasukunonthe laampositionoftheverbfollowedbya withafatha The2ndpersonSingularFeminine,conjugationnumber10,hasthesuffix i.e.ayaa saakinplusa withafathae.g.

TheTablebelowlistsallthese Hedoes They(Dual,Male)do Shedoes They(Dual,Female)do They(Plural,Female)do You(Singular,Male)do You(Dual,Male)do

They(Plural,Male)do

You(Plural,Male)do You(Singular,Female)do

You(Dual,Female)do You(Plural,Female)do Ido Wedo

Thepassivevoiceforthe isconstructedby: 1. Puttingafathaonthesecondlastletter(ifnotalreadyafatha) 2. Addingadhammatotheprefix Thus, becomes ( heishelped,heisbeinghelped,orhewillbehelped). Adding infrontofbothactiveandpassivevoiceofthe willnegateit

Sarf - Categories of Irregular Verbs -

We have already seen how variations in verb patterns in the Arabic Language can take place due to 6 reasons, 3 of which deal with a difference in the number of base letters and the vowelling pattern of the verb. In this post I will give a listing of the other 3 reasons with an example of each, Insha Allah. These 3 are related to irregularities i.e the presence of certain letters within the verb. Following is a list of these irregularities :

The presence of a The presence of a weak letter i.e. a or a The last two base-letters being the same letter i.e. a doubled letter ()

Based on the presence or absence of one of these reasons the scholars of Sarf have divided the Arabic verbs in 7 categories, or to give the Persian term for it, in

Type name Characteristic

Example

No weak letters;no duplication of letters

, , , , , , , ,

anywhere in the base verb or at the front or at the position or at the position
Two weak letters in the verbs

Second and third letter same

Category 3, 4, 5, and 6 all involve a or a and verbs falling under these categories are collectively called . This brief introduction is a prelude to the vast part of Sarf which deals with irregularities in Arabic verbs. I will, Insha Allah, post more detail about each of these categories in the near future.

 SarfMorevariationsof
Herewego!Wearenowbackdealingwith .Inthispostwewilldealwithsomemorevariations ofthefuturetense.InapreviouspostIhadexplainedhow ,whichencompassesbothpresentand futuretenseinArabic,canbelimitedtofuturetenseonly.However,recallthatatthattimewehaddone thisbynegatingtheverb.Inthispost,InshaAllah,Iwillshowhowtodothesamewithoutnegatingthe verbi.e.howtosayhewillhelp,shewillhelpetc.Secondly,Iwillalsotalkabouttheimperativefor

i.e.howtosayverilyhewillhelp,verilyyouwillhelpetc.
SimpleFutureTense:Thisisbuiltbysimplyaddinga or infrontofeachconjugationof verb;thiswillrestrictthetensetofuture.Thus, becomes (or ) andso on.Thatsit!ThereisnothingmoretobuildingasimplefuturetenseverbinArabic,sowewillmove ontoournextvariation. EmphaticFutureTense:Thisoneisnotgoingtobeaseasyasthethreelinerabove. Tobuildthe emphaticfor notonlydowehaveadda infrontofit(withafatha),buttheendingsoftheverb changeaswell.Morespecifically,a isaddedattheendoftheverb.Itisinterestingtonotethatthis canbeina ( i.e.withashaddaonit)formorinthe( i.e.withasukunonit)form.Theformer iscalled andthelatteriscalled ,literallymeaningheavynunandlightnun,respectively.

Intermsofmeaningthetwoendingsdonotdiffer,exceptintheirtone.Thusonemaybepickedupover theothertosatisfycomplexpoetryrulesorwhengivingsermons.Meaningwise,thereisnodifference betweenthetwoconjugations,betheyareformedfrom or .Letusnowseehowthese conjugationsareformed: 1. Thefivesingularswillhavethereendingdhammachangedtoafathaandthefinal ,either

or ,willadded.Thus, becomes .Pleaseseetablebelowforfulllistingof

conjugations.Alsonotethatthereisafathaon( justbeforethefinal .Thereasonforthis willbecomeobviousasIexplaintheconjugationchangeforthetwopluralmasculines(see bullet#3below) 2. Thefourduals,whichalreadyhavea attheend,willhavethis droppedsothatwedonotend uphavingthree whenweattacha or totheendoftheconjugations.Moreover, thefinal willhaveakasraonit 3. Thetwomasculineplurals( and ) andthesecondpersonfemininesingular( ) willhavetheir and droppedandeither or willbeaddedwithakasraonit. Nowimaginewhatwouldhavehappenedhadwenotchangedthedhammaon toafatha whenformingtheemphaticconjugation:thefinalformthenwouldhavebeen .Butthisis alsotheformwhichwegetwhenwetransformthethirdpersonmasculinepluraltotheemphatic

conjugation!Therefore,toavoidconfusion,thedhammaonthethirdpersonmasculinesingular

ischangedtoafathawhenformingthefutureemphatic.Conversely,thedhammaonthe
twomasculinepluralswhichremainsthereintheemphaticconjugationisanindicationofthe dropped .Similarly,thekasraonthesecondpersonfemininesingularfutureemphaticformis anindicationofthedropped 4. Nothingwilldropfromthetwopluralfeminines.However,toeasepronunciation,an is insertedbetweentheoriginalfinal andtheemphaticforming or

Verilyhewilldo Verilythey(2males)willdo Verilythey(groupofmales)willdo Verilyshewilldo Verilythey(2females)willdo

Verilythey(groupoffemales)willdo
VerilyYou(male)willdo Verilyyou(2males)willdo Verilyyou(groupofmales)willdo Verilyyou(females)willdo Verilyyou(2females)willdo

Verilyyou(groupoffemales)willdo
VerilyIwilldo Verilywewilldo

Notes: 1. Anexampleof conjugationis: 2. Thereare6lessconjugationinthe tablesthanthereareinthe tables.Thisisbecause the isnotattachedtothoseconjugationswhichendinan ( thefourdualsandthetwo feminineplurals).Thus,rules2and4donotapplytothe tables

Sarf - The Command Verb: constructing the

The command verb, or the , is different from other verb conjugations previously covered in the sense that a command is usually directed towards a second person e.g eat! or stop!; thus, the construction of 2nd person command verb in Arabic is different from that of other conjugations of the same. Also, at first, it seems rather odd that we can even have a command verb in 1stor 3rdperson conjugations. However, examples like He must eat! and They must abstain! do give us good examples of command verbs in persons other than second. Based on the above information we see that the 2nd person active command verb requires special attention. In fact, its construction rules are a bit different than those of 1st & 3rd person active command verb. Below I give the general rules which govern the construction of active voice command verbs in Arabic: 1. 2nd Person Active Command verb - constructed using active verb of the and applying 3 specific steps 2. 1st& 3rd person active & passive and 2ndperson passive - constructed using the endings of the table and attaching of in front of each conjugation Insha Allah we will see now how these rules are applied in practice. As a first step we divide the table into two sections - 2nd person (left side) and 3rd & 1st persons (right side):

You (male) did not do You (2 males) did not do You (group of males) did not do You (female) did not do You (2 females) did not do

He did not do They (2 males) did not do She did not do She (2 females) did not do

They (group of males) did not do

( group of females) did not do You (group of females) did not do She
I did not do We did not do Constructing the 1st Person / 3rd Person Active command verb: 1. Attach a with a kasra in front of each conjugation and keep the endings exactly as those in the table. This rule also applies to the passive construction. Here I will only give examples of the active voice: He must do! They (2 males) must do!

" $ $ $ $$ "

They (group of males) must do! She must do! She (2 females) must do! She (group of females) must do! I must do! We must do! Constructing the 2nd Person Active command verb: These conjugations are constructed from the verb as outlined below: 1. Remove the sign of i.e. from the verb

2. After removing the sign of if the next letter (i.e. the position) has a vowel on it then simply make the last letter of the remaining word sakin and use the endings from the table . An example of this kind would be *. Since the second letter already has a fathah on it therefore the command verb would be *. 3. After removing the sign of if the next letter is sakin then it cannot be pronounced since words need to start with a vowel (dhamma, fatha, kasra). In this case, we add a hamza ( )in front of the word to aid pronunciation, and then look at the position of the word: if this letter has a dhamma then we put a dhamma on the hamza which is at the front of the word. However, if this letter has either a fathah or a kasra we put a kasrah on the hamza. Examples of this construction are:

. which changes to .

4. which changes to 5. which changes to A complete listing of the 2nd Person Active command verb is given below. Note that the endings remain that of the table:

You (male) do! You (2 males) do!

"

You (group of males) do! You (female) do! You (2 females) do! You (group of females) do! The Emphatic Command : In addition to saying He must do! we can also give an emphatic command: Verily, he must do!, which is the addition of emphasis to the command verb. Since we know that emphasis in Arabic can be achieved either by using or , therefore we can have command verb conjugations in the emphatic form. The table below lists these conjugations for the active voice. Notice that the endings are exactly those of the emphatic table and that the of ( with a kasra) replaces the with a fatha at the start in the 3rd and 1st person conjugations (and also in 1st, 2nd, and 3rd person passive conjugations). Plus, the 2 nd person active conjugations still start with

conjugations for the command verb: * ; * ; $ ; $ * ; ; * *

Verily [You (male)] do! Verily [you (2 males)] do! Verily [you (group of males)] do! Verily [you (female)] do! Verily [you (2 females)] do! Verily [you (group of females)] do!

Verily he must do! Verily they (2 males) must do!

* Verily they (group of males) must do!

Verily she must do! Verily they (2 females) must do! do!

; Verily they (group of females) must

Verily I must do! Verily we must do!

 conjugations for the command verb:

Verily [You (male)] do! Verily [you (2 males)] do! Verily [you (group of males)] do! Verily [you (female)] do! Verily [you (2 females)] do! Verily [you (group of females)] do!

Verily he must do! Verily they (2 males) must do!

Verily they (group of males) must do!

Verily she must do! Verily they (2 females) must do! Verily they (group of females) must do! Verily I must do! Verily we must do!

 SarfTheIrregularVerb
Inthelastpostwelearnedaboutthe7categoriesintowhichArabicverbscanbegroupedandthenwe sawhowintroductionofweakletterscancauseverbstobecomeirregulari.e.causetheirconjugations todifferfromthenormalconjugationsofregularverbs.Nowwewill,InshaAllah,startgoinginto detailsofeachoftheverbcategorieswhichdealwithirregularverbs.Ourfirstpostdealswith which,asyoumayrecall,isaverbhaving or atthe position.

verbsinArabicLanguagecomefromeitheroneofthe3baabs: ,,or .
Thus, comesfromthe baab, comesfrom baab,and comesfrom

baab.Theveryfirstthingwhendealingwithirregularverbsistofindtheactualbaselettersin
it.Remember,irregularverbsarecalledirregularsinceoneormoreoftheirbaselettershaveeither changedtosomeotherletterorhavedroppedaltogetherdue,mainly,topronunciationissues.Wewill nowseehowwecanfindthebaselettersin verbsandduringthisexercisewewillcomeupwitha ruletoformirregularverbsinthiscategorystartingfromtheirbaseletter. Thebaseletterinanirregularverbcanbefoundby: 1. Lookingatnounsformedfromtheseverbs 2. Lookingatthe oftheirregularverb ExposuretoArabicLanguageleadsustothefactthatthe3nounsformedfrom and,and

 are(asaying),(atransactionorasale),and(fear),respectively.Also,aswewilllearn
shortly,the ofthethreeverbsalsocontain initsmiddle.Thus,wecannowderivetheoriginalverbsusingthisfactandtheknowledgeofbaab fromwhicheachverbcomes. OriginalForm FinalForm

Nowwearereadytostateourrulefordealingwithactivevoiceofthe of . SimpleChangetoAlifrule(Active): Wheneverthereisa weakletteri.e.a ora precededbya letter,change the or toalif. Asyoucanseethatthisrulecompletelycoverstheconjugationgiveninthetableabove. NowIwilllistthe tablefor whichwillthrowupsomemorelightonthetreatmentof

Hesaid They(twomales)said They(morethantwomales)said Shesaid They(twofemales)said They(morethantwofemales)said

You(male)said

You(twomales)said You(morethan2males)said
You(female)said

You(2females)said You(morethan2females)said
Isaid Wesaid

Notethelossofaliffrom6thconjugationonwards.Also,notethechangefromfathatodhamma.The alifisdroppedbecauseitisnoteasytopronounceanaliffollowedbya letterbecauseofthe introductionofanunnecessary.Thedhammaisintroducedasatraceforthefactthatitwasa whichdroppedfromtheverb.Similarlyfor the6thconjugationwouldbe ,withthefirst letterhavingakasra(andonwardstothelastconjugation)signifyingthatthedroppedletterwasa . For ,however,thissimpleruledoesnotapplyintotality.The6thconjugationhereis ratherthan,whichonewouldexpect.Thisisexplainedbythefactthatinthecaseof thekasrasignifiesthattheverbis( hasakasraonthe position)because originatesfromthe baab,thereforeitsmiddleletterhastohaveakasraonit.Inthiscasewedo getahintastowhichletterwasdropped. Todealwiththepassivevoicewerecognizethatthefollowingarethestartingpointsfortheabove

mentioned3verbs: OriginalForm FinalForm

Usingtheabovetablewecanstatethefollowingruleforthepassive ofthe type: Wheneverthe positionofapassive isa or removethevowelfromtheletterbeforeitand transferthekasratothisletter.Now,ifthe positionisa changeittoa inaccordancewiththe

rule,whichstatesthatany whichis andisprecededbyakasrawillchangeto

Note:6thconjugationonwardstheconjugationsaresameforbothactiveandpassivevoiceforthe type The forthe type: Thesecomefromthe counterpartsofthecorrespondingverbwhichmeansthattheoriginalswill rhymewiththecorrespondingbaabs.Thefollowingtablelistthe forthe.

forthe

Asisthecasewiththe ofthe ,changesoccurinthefinalformsoftheseverbsdueto

presenceofweakletters.Thesechangesaregivenbelow: OriginalForm FinalForm

Thesechangesaregovernedbythefollowingrule:

Wheneverthereisa weakletteri.e.a ora precededbya ,transferthe vowelfromtheweaklettertotheletterbeforeit.Now,ifvowelbeingtransferedisafathathenchange thislettertoanalif. Thisrulecanconvenientlybecalled: TransferthevowelincaseoffathachangetoalifRule Below,Igivethefullconjugationsforthe forthe using asanexample:

Hesays

They(twomales)say They(morethantwomales)say
Shesays

They(twofemales)say
They(morethantwofemales)say You(male)say

You(twomales)say You(morethan2males)say

 You(female)say You(2females)say
You(morethan2females)say Isay Wesay

Hopefullythisbriefintroductionto willbeagoodstartingpointforunderstandingirregularities inArabicverbs,InshaAllah.

Sarf - The Irregular Verb - - Part 1

Disclaimer: This post is due to a major contribution from Humairah (blogging here). Any mistakes, of course, are mine. As we have already learned, verb is one which has or at its position. For the purpose of illustration we will take three examples of a verb: ( he called) , which comes from

baab , ( he threw), which comes from baab, and ( he was pleased), which
comes from baab. In this post I will, Insha Allah, deal with the conjugations of the

verb. of :
Below, I will list the conjugations for both and . Note that the only occurs in the first 5 conjugations of both these verbs. I will Insha Allah also explain why the occurs in each case. We will deal with separately later in this post, Insha Allah.

1 2 3 4 5 6

7 8 9

10

11 12 13 14

In the Arabic Language certain pronunciation issues arise when weak letters are preceded by inappropriate vowels. For example, it is difficult to pronounce a which is and is preceded by a or a which is and is preceded by a . In such cases we implement rules which change these weak letters to other, pronounceable, letters coupled with a shift in the vowel itself from one letter to another. Thus, for to occur the or need to be and need to be preceded by inappropriate vowels. On the other hand, a which is and is preceded by a is very normal; similarly a which is and is preceded by a is very normal. Moreover, a or preceded by a

is also considered normal for pronunciation. Now, if you note that in the above table there is no from the 6th conjugation downwards because in there the or is and is preceded by
a normal vowel i.e. a . First conjugation: Recall that whenever a or is preceded by a letter with a on it the or is

changed to ;thus, the first conjugation was actually which changed into due to the simple change to alif rule. The same is true for which was initially Second conjugation: This should actually be rhyming with . However, the simple change to alif rule will cause it to become which is difficult to pronounce and thus the final alif will drop leaving us with . Note that this is exactly the same as the first conjugation so there is actually no allowed here. Thus the final form remains Third conjugation: Rhyming with this should be . The first changes to due to the simple change to alif rule, leaving us with . This form, however, has two letters coming together in it therefore we drop the first leaving us with Fourth Conjugation: This was originally rhyming with . The changed to causing it to become . Because of the gathering of letters the is dropped leaving us with

Fifth Conjugation: This was originally rhyming with . The changed to giving us . It is important to note here that in this last form the is actually but has to carry a

because of the final which is the pronoun of duality. Thus the in the middle will drop

because of gathering of two letters leaving us with All the above rules can be equally applied to the first five conjugation of the table. As for the only major is in the 3rd conjugation, all other rhyming with the corresponding conjugations of

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9

10 11 12 13 14 First conjugation: It was actually but changed its form due a rule which is called the edge rule. It states that any change to

position ( i.e. occurring at the edge of a word) preceded by a will

. This rule deals with the concept of small whereby one letter changes to

another but the form of the verb is not disfigured: still rhymes with . Note: this small happens in all 14 conjugations for Third conjugation: The 3rd conjugation was originally ( rhyming with ) which is hard for pronunciation since the is preceded by a . Moreover, this here is then followed by a which makes it even harder on the tongue. In this case, the moved from to , which lost it . The is then dropped because it is left with a which is . The cannot be dropped since it is a pronoun (denoting they, group of males). This concludes our discussion of introducing the for the verb. The next post, Insha Allah, will deal with the of the verb.

 SarfVariationsof
Welcomebackto,finally!Afteralonghaulwith wearebackinthedomainof.Insha AllahIwillexplainsomeofthevariationswhichcanoccurwith ( thepresentandfuturetense verb)andhowthegrammaticalstructureandmeaningoftheverbwillchangewiththesevariations. Therearetwo( particles)whichwillcombinewiththe tochangeittoanegativeverb: and.Eachoftheseimpartsaslightlydifferentmeaningtotheresultingverbandeachofthemwill causetheoriginalverbtohavedifferentendingsaswell. 1. :Adding to willnegateitandwillrestrictittothefuturetense.Rememberherethat wehadearliersaidthat coversbothpresentandfuture.Sonowweknowhowtotalk aboutjustaboutthefuture!Finally,when negatesthe anelementofemphasisisadded tothenegation.Thus, meanshewillneverhelpand meanshewill neverbehelped. 2. :Adding to willnegateitandwillremoveallnotionsofpresentandfuturetensefrom theverb,thusrenderingitbackintopast!Thismightseemalittleoddsincewealreadyhavethe

( pasttense)withusandwehavealreadyseenthatwecannegateitbyusing.Sowhy
exactlydoweneedtostick infrontof toconstructwhatwealreadyhave?The

differencehereisrathersubtle:Ifyourlistenershavenopreviousknowledgeofanevent occurringandyouwanttosaythattheeventdidnothappen(meaningyouaresimplyinforming themoftheactionnotoccurring)thenyouwoulduse; ontheotherhandifyouarespeaking tosomeonewhohasincorrectknowledgeoftheeventandbelievesthattheeventdidoccur whereastheevenetdidnotoccurthenyouwoulduse.So issimplenegationwhereas

hastheelementofrejectioninit.Onewayofputtingthisistosaythat isusedwhen
arguingwithsomeone.

RulesforConjugating + :
1. The5conjugationswhichendedindhammawillnowendinfatha 2. Outoftheremaining9allexceptthetwofemininepluralswilllosetheirfinal 3. Thetwofemininepluralswillnotundergoanychange Hewillneverdo They(2males)willneverdo

They(groupofmales)willneverdo
Shewillneverdo She(2females)willneverdo

She(groupoffemales)willneverdo
You(male)willneverdo You(2males)willneverdo You(groupofmales)willneverdo You(female)willneverdo

You(2females)willneverdo

You(groupoffemales)willneverdo
Iwillneverdo Wewillneverdo

RulesforConjugating + :
1. The5conjugationswhichendedindhammawillnowendinsukun 2. Outoftheremaining9allexceptthetwofemininepluralswilllosetheirfinal 3. Thetwofemininepluralswillnotundergoanychange Hedidnotdo They(2males)didnotdo

They(groupofmales)didnotdo
Shedidnotdo She(2females)didnotdo

She(groupoffemales)didnotdo
You(male)didnotdo You(2males)didnotdo You(groupofmales)didnotdo You(female)didnotdo You(2females)didnotdo

You(groupoffemales)didnotdo
Ididnotdo Wedidnotdo Twofinalpoints: 1. Thepassiveofthe constructisbuiltbyswitchingthefathaonthefirstlettertoadhammae.g.

 becomes ,andsoon
2. Thepassiveofthe constructisbuiltbyswitchingthefathaonthefirstlettertoadhamma e.g. becomes ,andsoon

 SarfVariationsofthePast Tense
Untilnowwehaveseenhowtoconjugateverbsusingthesimplepasttensee.g.heate,hehelped,he didetc.Nowwewillseehowwecancouplesomewordstothepasttenseverbandmakeiteither presentperfecte.g.hehashelpedorpastperfecte.g.hehadhelped. Stickingtheword infrontofapasttenseverbmakesitpresentperfect.Thus, denotesactions whichhavejustbeencompletede.g.hehashelped,hehasdone,hehasreadetc.Notethat isa (i.e.aparticle)soitdoesnotchangeitsformwiththechangingformoftheverb.Asanexample, meanshehelpedand meanshehashelped.Thesignificanceofthiswillbecomeclearwhenwe dealwiththenextsectionaboutmakingpastperfecttense.Onemorethingtonoteisthatyoucannot attacha infrontof tonegateit:thisconstructionisnotallowedinArabic. Ifweadd infrontofapasttenseverbtheverbbecomespastperfect.Thus, denotesactions whichhavebeencompletedindistantpast.However, isaverb,justlike ,soitwillalsochange itsformwhencoupledwiththepasttenseverb.Thefollowingtableshowshowthisisdone:

Hehadhelped They(2males)hadhelped They(manymales)hadhelped Shehadhelped They(2females)hadhelped They(manyfemales)hadhelped You(1male)hadhelped

You(2males)hadhelped You(manymales)hadhelped You(1female)hadhelped You(2females)hadhelped You(manyfemales)hadhelped Ihadhelped Wehadhelped

Thenegationofthisconjugationisconstructedsimplybyaddinga infrontofit.Also,thepassive voiceforthisconjugationisconstructedthesamewayasbefore:dhammaonthefirstletter,kasraon thesecondlastletter.

 NahwAnIntroductiontotheScienceofArabic Grammar

ThemostimportantofthesciencesassociatedwiththeArabiclanguageis,forwithoutitnocommunicationcanexist: IbneKhaldun

isthescienceofClassicalArabicwhichdescribes:
1. Howtoarrangewordstomakemeaningfulsentences 2. Howtodeterminethegrammaticalstructureofasentence(bydeterminingthepositioningof

) bychangeinthelastletterofaword
RecallthatasentenceinClassicalArabicisdefinedasagroupofwordsconveyingacompleteideaand whichhasaSubject/Predicaterelationship.Wheneverwewanttoconveysomethingtoourlistenerswe firstformamentalimageintoourownmindsandthendescribethatimageinwordstootherpeople. ThesomethingortheprimarypartoftheideaistheSubjectofthesentenceanditsdescriptionis thePredicateofthesentence.TheSubjectiscalled andthePredicateiscalled inClassical Arabicgrammar.InEnglishLanguageitisfairlyeasytodifferentiatebetweentheSubjectandPredicate inasentencebyusingthewordis.Asanexample,notethesentenceAmrisstanding.HereAmris SubjectandstandingdescribeswhatishappeningwiththeSubject.Asanotheranotherexamplenote thesentenceThecatatetherat.Hereitisveryobviousthatthecatisthesubjectandatetheratis thepredicate,theratbeingtheobjectofeating.InEnglishthereisasequenceofwordswhich determineswhichpartistheSubjectandwhichisthePredicate.However,inArabicthereisnosuch

rulethataSubjecthastocomebeforetheobjecti.e.thereisnosequencerule.Atfirstthismightseema littleodd;however,thisiswhatgivesthelanguageitsflexibility,whereusingonlyafewwordsonecan expressthemselvesinvarietyofways. SohowdowedeterminewhichisSubjectandwhichisPredicateinasentence?Tomakethiseasier, Scholarsof havedividedsentencesintotwotypes,basedonthefirstword,andhavenamedthe SubjectandPredicateineachdifferently: 1. ( NominalSentence):Thisisthekindofsentencewhichbeginswithan e.g. (Theboyisstanding).TheSubject, ,iscalled ,andthepredicate, ,iscalled 2. (VerbalSentence):Thisisthekindofsentencewhichbeginswitha e.g. . Here is and is ExactlyhowwedeterminewhichistheSubjectandwhichistheObjectwillbedealtwithoncewe definetheconceptofGrammaticalStatesinArabic,wherewewillmakeuseofallthetermsdefined aboveandwillseewhichgrammaticalstateeachfitsin.

 NahwThe Phrase
InthelastpostwedefinedtheconceptoftheSentence,alsocalled .Nowwedefinetheother part, ,orPhrase.APhraseisessentiallyagroupofwordswhichdoesnotconveya completeideae.g.tallboy,intelligentgirletc.Wewillstartbydefiningtwokindsofphrases: 1. Noun/AdjectivePhrase :Thiskindofphraseismadeupoftwo ,thefirstbeinganounand thesecondanadjective.Thefirst iscalled andthesecondiscalled.Unlikein English,wheretheadjectiveprecedesthenoun,inArabicthenounwillcomebeforethe adjectivee.g.( tallboy)or( intelligentgirl)

Rulesfor / phrase:

Both and shouldagreeinGender Both and shouldagreeinnumbere.g.( twotallboys) Both and shouldagreeindefinitenessi.e.bothshouldeitherbedefiniteor indefinitee.g. ( atallboy)or( tallboy)

Both and shouldbeinthesamegrammaticalstate

2. PossessivePhrase :Thisphraseisalsomadeupoftwo ,whicharelinkedtogetherina

possessivestructuree.g. ( messengerofAllah).Thepossessoristermedas (heretheword)andthepossessedistermedas( heretheword )

Nahw - Attached Pronouns: their Grammatical States

A pronoun is a substitute of for a noun. Thus, you can say This is Zaids book or you can say This is his book, the his being the pronoun. Similarly, you can say I gave the book to Zaid and Amr as well as I gave the book to them, the them being the pronoun here. In Arabic we can have two forms of a pronoun: attached and detached. An example of each is:

He is a student (detached pronoun) His son is hardworking (attached pronoun)

In this post I will show, Insha Allah, how we can determine the grammatical state of attached pronouns. There are a total of 14 attached pronouns, same number as the verb conjugations. However, the attached pronouns for 3rd person dual masculine and dual feminine, as well as those for 2nd person dual masculine and dual feminine, are the same. Thus, we are left with 14 - 2 = 12 attached pronouns to deal with. The table below shows the listings for attached pronouns: 3rd Person Masculine Singular 3rd Person Masculine dual 3rd Person Masculine Plural 3rd Person Feminine Singular 3rd Person Feminine dual 3rd Person Feminine Plural 2nd Person Masculine Singular 2nd Person Masculine Dual 2nd Person Masculine Plural 2nd Person Feminine Singular

2nd Person Feminine Dual 2nd Person Feminine Plural 1st Person Masculine/Feminine Singular 1st Person Masculine/Feminine Dual/Plural

"

One point to note about 1st Person Masculine/Feminine Singular: The ending is only attached to verbs. For and ( preposition) the ending is a simple . I will, Insha Allah, provide an explanation for this shortly. Grammatical States of attached pronouns: Why do we need to determine grammatical states for attached pronouns? The answer to this question is that these attached pronouns lack endings. For example, we can say and right away know that this is a case of because of the dhamma at the end. However, the attached pronouns cannot have dhamma, fatha,or kasra as their endings: will always be and will always be , for example. We cannot stick a dhamma, fatha, or kasra at their end to reflect grammatical states. Yet, we know that attached pronouns do possess grammatical states, an example of which is which means I hit them. Clearly, I, the pronoun, is the subject here and them is the object and thus has to have grammatical states in Arabic. Other examples of the same pronoun in the three grammatical states would be: 1. ( zarabna): we hit. Here is in since it is the subject of hitting 2. (zarabana): he hit us. Here is in since it is the object of hitting 3. ( aalihatina): our gods. Here is in since it is .

Rule for determining Grammatical States of attached pronouns The pronoun will either be attached to a verb or a non-verb. If it is attached to a verb then it will either be from the endings we learned in or it wont. If it is, then on the basis of either or

( deputy doer). If it isnt, then on the basis of

If it is attached to an then its Grammatical State would be on the basis of . If it is attached to then it could be attached to either a preposition or one of the sisters. If it is attached to a preposition then because of being the object of that preposition. If it is attached to one of the sisters then its Grammatical State would be on the basis of These rules are depicted diagrammatically in the following chart (click to enlarge):

Examples: Pronoun attached to a verb: Attached pronoun with the table ending: ( zarabna: we hit). Here is because it is the doer of hitting. This is conjugation number 13 from the table. Attached pronoun with ending not from the table: (mentioning them). Here is in

because it is the of mentioning.The catch here is that the tables only talks about we
and not about them; in other words, we do not have a conjugation in the tables which translates to anything relating to them. Thus, this is an example where we have a pronoun attached to a verb-ending

which cannot be found in the tables. Pronoun attached to a non-verb:

Attached to an : e.g. ! (your book). This is a possessive phrase so the attached pronoun is in the state of

Attached to a : This can have two instances:

Attached to a preposition: e.g. ( in it), (for them). Here the attached pronoun is in the state of because in and it are the objects of their respective prepositions

Attached to an sister: e.g. ( you are). Here you is , thus it is in the state of

Note on the use of the ending in the 13th conjugation: In Arabic if we want to say my book, we will say ; !however, if we want to say I hit, we will say

. Notice the extra which is used when a verb is used with an attached pronoun in the 13th
conjugation. Recall that can experience grammatical states in Arabic because of governing agents. For verbs, however, only the verb experiences grammatical state and that only of : it cannot take the state of or or . Yet, the 13th conjugation dictates that the verb takes a kasra, since this conjugation ends in a . It is to protect the verb from taking the kasra (and thus undergoing , which it cannot) that an extra is inserted. This extra does not have a meaning of its own; it is simply

used as a means of protecting the verb from undergoing a grammatical state which a verb is not allowed to take.

Nahw - - Particles resembling Verbs

In this post I will, Insha Allah, try to explain how some ( particles) in the Arabic Language, namely and its sisters, resemble verbs and form a category of their own, in the same way as

( prepositions) do. There are 6 such particles and they are called . They enter
upon a causing the to become i.e. go into the state of . The name of the changes to and the becomes + , which goes in state of e.g.

( Indeed the book is new). There are three reasons why these particles resemble verbs:
1. Resemblance in rhyming 2. Resemblance in meaning 3. Resemblance in the way these particles affect the subject and predicate of a sentence The table below lists all 6 members of this group:

Meaning Indeed The fact that or that As if

But or however Perhaps

 Would that
and the followng table give the corresponding rhyming verbs for these

Rhyming Verb

Now we will see how these particles also carry verb-like meanings. As an example take , which means indeed . In a sentence indeed can be substituted by the phrase I verify for which the word is

, showing us that the meaning of verifying is hidden inside .The same also goes for .
Now, means as if which means you are likening or comparing one thing to another for which the word is . Similarly, contains the meaning of I rectify which can be seen by the fact that a statement which has to be rectified/corrected must include but e.g. Zaid came but Amr never came. The word for rectification is . Moving forward, we see that means I hope or I anticipate for which the word is . Finally , carries the meaning of wishing and longing for which the word is ( I wish). Finally, the way these particles affect parts of a sentence shows us that they can act as governing agents

just like verbs do. To see this in more detail note that most verbs are followed by two : one of them would be in the state of on the basis of and the other will be in the state of on the basis of . Now, these 6 particles are also followed by two , one of which is in the state of based on being the subject of the particle and the other one is in the state of based on the predicate. Thus, this is another way these particles act in a similar manner to that of verbs.

Nahw - Let us count in Arabic - and get a headache!

Remember your kindergarten class and learning to count: One, Two, Three. Easy, wasnt it? Not the case in Arabic counting system . Before I even try to begin explaining the numbers and counting system in Arabic I would like to come up with a short disclaimer: if you get a headache after reading this post please do not leave inflammatory messages on my blog. I am but a poor student trying to learn counting in Arabic . Well, jokes aside, the Numbers in Arabic systems have complex rules regarding their usage and can be learned only if one memorizes these rules. Most of the stuff for this post will come from Alan Jones book Arabic Through the Quran with notes from the Toronto Shariah Program class, of course. I will try to make it as easy as possible, Insha Allah, to learn the numbering system in the Arabic Language. In English we say I saw three boys or I saw three girls. Notice how three remains the same in both the structures. In Arabic, however, the gender is also associated with numbers (with some exceptions), thus we say ( Three days) and ( Seven verses) where we use the masculine form of the number in the first example and the feminine in the second. To make things more complicated, we also have to consider which grammatical state each part of the number goes in. Let us try to make some sense out of this. We start our discussion by listing the counting in Arabic. Number One Two Three Four Five Six with Masculine Noun with Feminine Noun

Seven Eight Nine Ten Eleven

Twelve Thirteen

Since 1 and 2 are straightforward to handle we start at number 3 and divide the numbers in ranges for easier handling 3-10 : From 3 until 10 the gender of the number will be opposite to what is being counted (i.e. the noun). Also, the noun being counted will be in the state of . Examples: ( seven heavens) or ( four witnesses) 11 : The noun and number will both match in gender and are on . For example:

( eleven cities) or ( eleven stars)

12 : For 12 the unit part is but the ten is not ; it is on and both numerals agree in gender with the noun, thus:( twelve months) or (twelve springs) and ( twelve chiefs) and ( twelve cities). Note that the / form is the form whereas the / form is the

/ form. These 4 forms occur only for the number 12.

13-19 : For this range the unit part goes into the opposite gender to that of the noun whereas the ten

part matches it. Both the parts are on . For Example: ( thirteen men) or ( thirteen women) Note the use of for masculine and for feminine nouns. 20-90 : These do not have a gender attached to them and follow the rule for the Sound Masculine Plural. For example: ( eighty lashes) or ( forty years) or

( thirty months)
100, 200 / 1000, 2000 etc: The noun in this case is singular and there is no gender associated with the noun. For example: ( one hundred years) or ( one thousand years). I hope this introduction to Arabic numbers will make it easier for beginners to learn this complex topic, Insha Allah. So read this post and let me know your feedback!

Nahw - Let us hit a hitting or rejoice a rejoicing -

In the Arabic Language a verb may take its to express: 1. Emphasis or magnification of action 2. Manner of action 3. Number of times the action occurred Note: The ( also known as the verbal noun) is a word that indicates the occurrence of an action and is free of tense e.g.( to assist) The , when used as such, is known as ( or the absolute object) and is always in the state of . An example of first kind of is ( when the earth will be shaken with a shaking) i.e. shaken violently. Here the verb shake is being emphasized. This structure is also called . For still greater emphasis the may be reproduced a third time e.g. ( when the earth will be crushed a crushing, crushing) The second kind of can be exemplified by the sentence

( I sat like a Qari would sit) where the manner of sitting is being
described. This structure is also called Finally the third kind of can be depicted by the phrase

( the clock struck to strikings) i.e. the clock struck twice. This structure is also called
Sometimes the adjective alone is expressed and the is understood e.g.

( he struck violently) which was actually .

Some very interesting usage of the can be seen in everyday phrases like

which was originally ( I am here to help) i.e. I am here to help

not one, but two times. Similarly, was originally

( I seek the refuge of Allah) i.e. Allah forbid!. Another example of this usage is which was actually ( you came a blessed coming)
i.e. Welcome! Insha Allah this introduction to the concept of will go a long way in helping the students of Classical Arabic towards a better understanding of Arabic Grammar.

Nahw - Methods of reflection for the verb

We have already learned that an can have three grammatical states which will determine whether it is the subject or object in a sentence or whether it exists in a possessive structure. At that time we had also learned that the verb also experiences three grammatical states, the first two being and and the third one being . Also, we know that it is only the which experiences these states, the being on either or or Note the following for and : 3rd conjugation of is on ; the 4 conjugations (1,2,4, and 5) are on ;and the rest are on

is on the sign of

For singular conjugations this sign is e.g. ( You do!) For dual conjugations this sign is denoted by the omission of e.g. ( You [two males] do!)

It is interesting to note that a verb can never become subject or object in a sentence; it describes the actions being done by or upon an but never does an action itself and is never acted upon. Thus, the

concept of grammatical states for a verb is quite different from that for an . In this post, Insha Allah, I will try to explain what exactly is meant by the grammatical states of a verb and how this concept is useful in the Arabic Language. As with , the goal of having grammatical states for verbs is to remove confusion, but in a different sense. For confusion will occur if do not know which one is subject and which one is object and the process of is used to remove this confusion. For a verb the change in grammatical state will change the description of the action: in one state the action may be negated and restricted to future tense (as is the case with ;) in another state the action will be negated and also rendered to the past tense (as is the case with ) . Also, there is the case where the grammatical states will determine which actions are allowed and which are not in sentences where two or more verbs come one after the other. In such a situation, grammatical state of a verb may turn the final meaning of the sentence into one depicting :

from doing both actions from doing first action only from gathering both actions wherein doing each action separately is permissible

As an example of this, consider the following sentence:

( Dont drink milk and dont eat fish)

The first and second verbs are both in the state of because of and this sentence is an example of one which gives the not doing both meaning i.e. Dont ever drink milk and eat fish.

However, look at the same sentence with a slight variation:

( Dont drink milk while eating fish).

Notice the change of on : The first verb, , is still in the state of , whereas the second verb, , is now in the state of , and the meaning changes entirely in this case. The following table details out the different combinations for the scenario where two verbs occur in the same sentence: Grammatical state of first verb Grammatical state of second verb

Meaning Prohibition from both actions i.e. dont do either Prohibition from first action but permission for second action Prohibition from first action while the second action is being done

After having established the importance of grammatical states for the verb we will now go into more details and see how each grammatical state is reflected on different conjugations. Out of the 14 conjugations for the , the two feminine plurals are not considered since these are

: their ending is ( i.e. with a )which is a pronoun and it never changes e.g. or or
The rest of the 12, which are , are broken up into:

Group of 5 verbs which look the same and all are singulars except one (conjugations 1, 4,7,13, and 14). These 5 could have: regular last letter e.g. or , in which case the verb is called

a as last letter e.g. , in which case it is called a as last letter e.g. , in which case it is called an as last letter e.g. , in which case it is called

Group of 7 which have a at its end (the 4 duals and conjugations 3, 9, and 10)

, which occurs 3 times

The following table details out the method of reflection for these categories: Type of Verb

Drop of position

Group of 7 Examples of :

or Assumed Real
Presence of Omission of

Assumed Assumed Drop of position Omission of

1. ( he helps) for 2. ( he will never help) for

3. ( he did not help) for Examples of or :

( he fights and he throws) for - Assumed ( he will never fight and never throw) for - Real ( he did not fight and he did not throw) for - Drop of position
Examples of :

for - (Assumed ) for - (Assumed ) for - (Drop of position)

Examples of Group of 7 with :

, , for - (Presence of ) ( you will never do) for - ( Omission of ) ( you did not do) for - ( Omission of )
Hopefully this brief introduction to the grammatical states of verbs in the Arabic Language will be sufficient for the students of Nahw, Insha Allah.

Nahw - Methods of reflection of an Up until now we have learned that an which is will show its grammatical states using a

for , a for , or a for ( or the corresponding ). However, there

are situations in Arabic Language where it is not possible to show the grammatical states using either of these three methods. As an example take a look at : 1. Musa came 2. I saw Musa 3. I passed by Musa In the first sentence is the subject (i.e. in the state of ), in the second it is the object (i.e the state of ), and in the third it is in the state of because of the , i.e. , in front of it. Yet, in none of the examples the grammatical states are shown using the usual signs of a , or a

, or a . This is because the noun is incapable of showing these signs. This leads
us to the fact that variations can occur in the way grammatical states are reflected on an . For our purposes we will divide in 16 different categories and will see how each category will show its grammatical state in its own unique way. These 16 categories and their corresponding methods of reflection are listed in the table below and each category is then further explained in detail with examples. You can also click on any category to jump to its explanation:

# 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9

Type of

Assumed

6 Special Nouns

All exceptions which do not fall in under the definition of

10

11

but are reflected in the same manner

12 to i.e. multiple of 10 up to 90 13 Any other than which is 14 towards 15 16 which is towards Assumed Assumed Explicit Assumed Assumed Assumed Assumed

Assumed Assumed

Explicit Explicit

Category 1: ( ) This category can be titled in English as Singular-Fully Declinable - No Weak Letters. This is the category which we had discussed earlier as the one which shows its grammatical states in the usual manner. Examples:

( Zaid came) ( I saw Zaid) ( I passed by Zaid)

Category 2: ( ) This category consists of any which ends in a or preceded by a , e.g. ( a bucket) or ( a deer). Examples:

( a deer came) ( I saw a deer) ( I passed by a deer)

Category 3: ( ) or the Fully Declinable Broken Plural. As the name implies, this category consists of the declinable broken plural. Examples:

( A man came) ( I saw a man) ( I passed by a man)

Category 4: ( ) or The Sound Feminine Plural. This has already been taken care of here. I will repeat the examples, though:

( The Muslim women came)

( I saw the Muslim women ) ( I passed by the Muslim women)

Category 5: () . This is an which contains either 2 of the 9 causes of changerestriction or 1 powerful cause which stands in the place of 2 causes. Some of the salient points regarding this category are:

This category never gets a or a All feminine names fall into this category Most masculine names are not in this category, except those ending in a Names rhyming with fall in this category Adjectives rhyming with ( e.g. the colors) fall in this category

Below, I list the 9 reasons, the presence of which (either two reasons or one powerful one) can cause an

to become :
1. Transgression: A word leaves it original pattern and adopts a new one because of excessive usage. An example of this is the name which used to be but left its pattern to become 2. Be an adjective: This is a property which needs to exist within the medium of a body and cannot exist without it. Thus, this has to be a quality like beautiful or lazy. Examples will include colors like ( red) or ( black)

3. Be feminine: The following four reasons cause am to be feminine:

if there is a at the end. Note that even though is a mans name, yet the word is feminine since it has a at its end

4. if there is an i.e. final not followed by a , for example: (pregnant) or (the small one). This is a powerful reason so it alone will cause an to become 5. if there is an i.e. final followed by a , for example: ( men of knowledge) or ( the white one). This is a powerful reason so it alone will cause an to become 6. if it is an understood feminine for example, ,which is the name of a girl 7. Be a name 8. Be plural 9. Be of foreign origin like or or 10.Be compound (two words linking together to become a name) like , which is a place in Yemen, or who was an Arabic grammarian 11.Be on the pattern of a verb. For example, or , both of which are on the pattern of

12.Extra and at the end. Examples are or . Thus, in Hadith literature we will see with a on although there is a preposition,

, in front of it
Category 6: This category is composed of 6 special nouns 1. ( a father) 2. ( a brother) 3. ( a father-in-law) 4. ( a mouth) 5. ( a thing) 6. ( a possessor). This is always followed by a noun These will show their grammatical states according to type 6 under the conditions that they have to be singular (dual will be dealt with in category 7 and plural has already been dealt with in category 3) and they cannot be towards ( which case will be dealt with in category 16). Some examples are: ( Majids brother went) or ( I saw Majids brother) or ( I went with Majids brother). Examples using would be:( a possessor of wealth came) or ( I saw a possessor of wealth)

or ( I passed by a possessor of wealth) or ( above every possessor of knowledge is the All Knowing) Category 7: This deals with or the dual. This is an to the end of which is attached either an and a or a and a to indicate that with it is another like it. An example would be

( the two men wrote two letters to the two women)

There are some other words in the Arabic Language which are treated like duals e.g. meaning father and mother or meaning moon and sun (and not two fathers or two moons) which follow the same method of reflection as this category Category 8: This includes two words and meaning both (masculine and feminine, respectively). Examples are :

( both

men

came)

or

( I saw both men) or ( I passed by both men)

Category 9: This includes and which means two (masculine and feminine, respectively). For example:( two [masculine objects] came) or ( I saw two [masculine objects]) or ( I passed by two [masculine objects]) Category 10: The Sound Masculine Plural or has already been dealt with here. I will give the usual examples, though: ( The Muslim men came) or

( I saw the Muslim men) or ( I passed by the Muslim men)

Category 11: This category consists of those which are reflected the same way as Category 10 but do not fall under the category. Examples of such are and its sisters. The reflection of this category is shown by the following examples: ( They are people of intelligence) or ( I saw the people of intelligence by the people of intelligence). Other words which fall in this category are ( people of) and ( the highest places) Category 12: This category constitutes multiples of 10 starting from 20 and going up to 90 ( to ) and are reflected using the same method as Categroy 10 and 11. Examples:

( twenty men came) or ( I saw twenty men) or ( I passed by twenty men)

Category 13: This category consists of of the form or i.e. an having an

at its end. Such are incapable of showing any and thus they are categorized
as having assumed reflection. Examples are:

( Musa came) or ( I saw Musa) or ( I passed by Musa).

Antoher set of examples would be: ( a staff came) or ( I saw a staff) or

( I passed by a staff)
Category 14: This category consists of other than i.e. sound masculine plural, which is towards of first person, for example, ( my servant) or ( my house). Examples in this categories will be:( my servant came) or ( I saw my servant) or ( I passed by my servant) Category 15: This category consists of which are called i.e. they have a preceded by a at their end. Only the state of is reflected on them; the other two are assumed. Examples are: ( The Judge came) or ( I saw the Judge) or

( I passed by the Judge)

Category 16: This category consists of which are and are towards of first person. An example would be ( my muslims). For the case this was originally

but the becomes since it is appearing with a . In the second step the is
changed to a giving us and the is changed to ( for pronunciation reasons) to give us . However, the originals for the and case were already

. The set of examples in this category, then, would be:( my Muslims

came) or ( I saw my Muslims) or ( I passed by my Muslims) I hope this detailed introduction to methods of reflection for an will go a long way towards understanding this key concept in Arabic Language, Insha Allah.

Nahw - Singular, Dual, and Plural Nouns in Arabic

Arabic nouns can either be singular( ), dual( ), or plural( ). This is depicted diagrammatically in the following chart (click to enlarge), with further subdivisions for the plural noun.

The Dual: The dual can be constructed depending upon its grammatical state. Thus, the rule for constructing dual in are different than the rules for constructing the dual in either or . Below, we analyze these rules for constructing the dual of a noun in Arabic.

When the noun is in the dual is constructed by adding the letters and e.g. ( The two students came) . In this structure the is basically the sign of

whereas the final and the corresponding do not have a grammatical

significance

When the noun is in either or , the dual is formed by adding a to the singular e.g.

( I saw the two students) or ( I passed by the two

students). In this case, the indicates both and and, as before, the final and

the corresponding do not have a grammatical significance Note on the use of Dual:

If the verb precedes the the verb must be singular, e.g. ( The two boys went)

If the precedes the verb then the verb should also be dual, e.g.

The Plural: As can be seen from the above diagram, there are two types of plurals in Arabic:

or the Sound Plural or the Broken Plural

The first category can further be divided into masculine or feminine genders. The Sound Plural: This is formed from the singular by suffixing additional letters to it while retaining the original letters from the singular noun; thus the name Sound Plural. Below, we analyze rule for constructing the Sound Plurals. Sound Masculine Plural:

When the noun is in the plural is constructed by adding the letters and , with the having a on it. In this structure the is basically the sign of whereas the final and the corresponding do not have a grammatical significance. For example,

( The Muslim men came)

When the noun is in either or , the plural is formed by adding a , preceded by a letter with a kasra, to the singular. For example, ( I saw the Muslim men)

or ( I passed by the Muslim men)

Sound Feminine Plural:

When the noun is in the plural is constructed by adding the letters and to the singular, with a on the . For example, ( The Muslim women came)

When the noun is in either or the plural is formed by adding the letters and to the singular, with a on the in both the cases. For example, ( I saw the Muslim women ) or ( I passed by the Muslim women)

The Broken Plural: This is called broken because it does not retain the structure of the singular noun i.e. it is formed by breaking up the singular noun. Thus, in this type of plural the singular is altered by changing its vowel or altering its letters. This is analogous to the English where we say Man-Men, Mouse-Mice, or SheepSheep. The broken plural in Arabic is based on different patterns and there is no one rule which governs the formation of the broken plural. These are best learned by exposure. Below, I list some of these patterns or

Singular

Plural

Meaning Self - Selves River - Rivers Question - Questions Book - Books Heart - Hearts

Mountain - Mountains Messenger - Messengers Boy - Boys Keeper -Keepers Beggar - Beggars Fingertip - Fingertips Beaker-Beakers Mosque - Mosques

Key - Keys
I hope this introduction to the Singular-Dual-Plural system in Arabic will be a good starting point for anyone trying to master this subject.

Nahw - The Anatomy of a Sentence - Part 1

In this post I will give a few examples from ( Qasas-un-Nabiyyeen - Stories of the Prophets) which is the text which we are reading at the Toronto Shariah Program. The purpose here is to see how some of the grammatical terms which we have learned so far fit into an Arabic sentence. This will help in identifying the correct terms and how they can be properly used while constructing longer Arabic sentences. We will also learn a few new grammatical states and will fit each of them in the table which we built in the previous Nahw post.

: (In a town there was a very famous man) Note the order of Noun,
Adjective, and Adverb here. In English we put Adverb + Adjective + Noun (very + famous + man); in Arabic this order is reversed (man + famous + very). is the adverb here, called the normal adverb or and it goes into --, therefore you see the two fathas at the end. In addition to this is in since it is preceded by a preposition, . Also notice : they have a relationship and thus the following rules apply to them, as explained in this post: 1. Definiteness: no in front of either 2. Plurality: both are singular 3. Gender: both are masculine 4. Grammatical state: both are in ( double dhamma at the end). Why they are in is because

is the of and has to agree with it in grammatical state because of the relationship. One important thing to note here is that there is no rule which says that the

word immediately following is its subject. We have already stated in a previous post that no such rule of sequence exists in Arabic and in this sentence we see that is not the word which immediately follows

- : (The name of this man was Aazar) Lets take - first: it is in --as can be seen
by the fatha at the end. This is because - is the of therefore it goes into --. Also, note the one dhamma on which means that it is in the state of . This is because it is of so it goes in the state of . Also, is the of therefore it goes into as our Grammatical State Table shows. (Note: the final kasra may not show properly on the web page)

( And in this house there were idols): is the of so it is in the state of , thus the double dhamma at the end. The whole phrase is termed to be in place of --
. This is necessary since this whole phrase, rather than just a single word, is the of . However,

itself is in because of , a preposition. This concept of being in a grammatical state is

important since most of the time it is a whole phrase which will need to take up a specific grammatical state rather than a single word. Because we cannot put dhamma, fatha, or kasra on the entire phrase therefore we consider the whole phrase into that specific grammatical state. This will become more clear, Insha Allah, when I give more examples involving complex sentences.

- - ( And Aazar would worship these idols): The combination of and verb
( in this case) gives the meaning of would. In other terms, this combination depicts the past continuous tense and is used whenever the idea of a general habit or an action occurring over and over again is to be conveyed. Notice the fatha at the end of - : it is the of thus it goes into

-- .
I hope that these simple examples would be an easy primer to the application of the concept of Grammatical States in Arabic Language. Insha Allah, I will soon post more example with more complex sentences.

Nahw - The Anatomy of a Sentence - Part 2

As promised here is the second part of our sentence analysis exercise. In this post, Insha Allah, I will take up a complex Arabic sentence and will show how rules of grammatical states apply to such sentences.

( And Ibrahim would recognize that idols are rock)

Right away you can see that this sentence can be divided into two main parts: of , which is

, and the rest of the sentence, starting from , which is the of . However, within
this of are at least two other complete sentences: ( idols are rock) and

( he knew that idols are rock). As a rule, whenever an Arabic sentence is composed of
other smaller sentences (and most of them do!) then the rules of grammatical states apply to the inner sentences and the outer sentence is assumed to take the grammatical state which a stand-alone word would have taken had there been one. To understand this concept fully take the word . The dhamma at its end signifies that it is in the state of , which is expected since of goes into the grammatical state of . However, the rest of the sentence which constitutes the of has to go into , but how do you put a complete sentence (which itself is composed of two other sentences) into ? The answer is that we start analyzing the inner sentences and apply rules of grammatical states to them individually and the complete outer sentence is assumed to be in the state of . So let us do exactly that and in the end we will recombine the inner sentences to complete the whole outer sentence.

 : Here is the of . As with , the of goes into , thus the fatha on . Similarly, is the of and therefore it is in the state of , as signified by the
dhamma at the end. Also recognize that the complete sentence is a , . Now look at the verb : It needs a ( the doer) and a ( the one upon whom the verb is done. Do remember, though, that there are other verbs which do not require a ) . The for

is implied since it is the first conjugation (he recognize). Since the is contained within the
verb, the rest of the sentence, , has to be the of the verb ( Revert back to the previous paragraph and note that this itself is a ,) . Again, since we cannot put a whole sentence into the state of , where a is supposed to go, therefore we assume that this part of the sentence is in the state of . Also, this sentence is a since it starts with a verb, . So until now we have desiccated and analyzed this sentence into at least 2 major parts: , and

, and have seen how each word within these parts is following its particular rule for
grammatical states. Now let us move ahead and combine the whole sentence. Since the sentence starts with , a verb, therefore the complete sentence is a , and the part starting from

up to the end is assumed to be in the state of , since it is the of . As I mentioned

before, , being the of , goes into , and hence the dhamma at the end. I hope that this example further explains how the concept of grammatical terms is used in Arabic Language.

Nahw - The Anatomy of a Sentence - Part 3

In this post I will explain , Insha Allah, some points regarding the use of the relative pronoun in the Arabic Language. We will use the following sentence as our example:

(Ismail was a small boy who would run and go out with is father) In English a relative pronoun is used to describe a noun whenever the noun is being described by a full sentence rather than a single word. For example, in the sentence The pen, which I bought yesterday, is unique, the word which is connecting the pen with its adjective. The analogous word in Arabic is and it gives the meaning of who .The technical term for it is . Note that we have translated the sentence given above into English using the word who even though there is no in it. To understand this apparent anomaly understand that is an being described by the adjective ( both of them form a and relationship, and thus match each other in being indefinite). Also, the word is being described further by the verbal sentence which starts at and ends at . In effect, the has two in the main

sentence. Plus, the second is a complete sentence in itself as opposed to the first one which is a single word. So we have an instance where a noun is being described by a sentence. To be consistent with the - rules, whatever is describing has to be indefinite. In the Arabic Language, as a rule, all sentences are considered indefinite by default. Hence, there is no grammatical problem when connecting with its adjective (i.e. the verbal sentence) since both are indefinite. Now consider a case where the noun being described is definite and we have a sentence which is describing it. This will cause a problem since we need to have a way of converting the indefinite sentence into a definite sentence before letting it describe a definite noun. This functionality is provided by which transform the value of a sentence from indefinite to definite . An example of this can be seen in Al-Hashr [22-24]: *+,. +01.+0,00.0 ,107 +,0+ 09, 0, ,9 +9 + 0

,1+ .0 ,9 001+ +<0+7 +.07 +,07 +,10+7 +,1+7 +. +E7 +,07 0+ ,9 9,+9 0,* 0+ +,07 +,07+0 0,170 ,00. 0, + +<0+ 01+7 P017 ++<0+7 +,07 +,07 * +9 0+

Note that the first two verses have in it since the noun 9 is being described by + 9, 0,which is a complete sentence. However, this is not the case with the final verse where the noun 9 is being described by ,07 (and other adjectives) which is a definite noun (and single word, as well), so is not needed here.

I hope this will explain some basic points regarding the use of in the Arabic Language.

Nahw - The concept of and

The concept of in is used to answer the question How or in what condition. Thus,

is the adjective which describes the state of the or or both. It is always in the state of . Additionally, the one being described by the condition is called .
Some examples of this kind of structure are:

( Zaid came riding) Here is for which is the ( I came to Zaid while he was sleeping). Here the word is the for the , which is

( I talked to Zaid while we were both sitting). Here the word is the for both the and the

Notes on the usage of and It is essential to have a connector between the and the . Sometimes this connector is depicted by using a and at other times it is simply the hidden within the verb. For example,

we can say or

. In both the cases it means Zaid came laughing. However, the first
sentence is the case where the connector is the hidden inside the verb whereas in the second sentence the connector is apparent.

has to be , it cannot be . On the other hand, even though

is usually but if it has to come as then the structure has to change and the has to come beofre the i.e.

( a man came to me riding).

Also, can be a sentence as well: If it is a then a is added to give the meaning of condition e.g.

( Do not come near the prayers when you are intoxicated); if

it is a and the is in then a has to appear before the e.g.

( Zaid came while his servant went)

Hopefully this very brief introduction to the concept of will be sufficient for the students of Classical Arabic as a starting point, Insha Allah.

Nahw - The Grammatical States in Arabic Language

The concept of Grammatical States is the cornerstone of . Without the proper understanding of grammatical states you can end up saying The rat ate the cat when you actually want to say The cat ate the rat. An oft cited example for this is from the Quran: And remember when the Lord of Ibrahim tested him (Al-Baqarah: 124) Notice the fatha at the end of and the dhamma at the end of ( Ibrahima Rabbuhu). Now if someone was to say the same thing as (Ibrahimu Rabbahu), that is, switch the fatha with the dhamma, that would mean Ibrahim tested his Lord, which would change the meaning altogether [Thanks to Fajr who posted this explanation here]. In English language we seldom see nouns changing their grammatical structure in sentences no matter whether they are subject, object, or part of possession in a sentence. Take for example the following three sentences in English: 1. The house fell 2. I entered the house 3. Door of the house Notice the noun house: no matter how it occurs in the sentence (Subject in the first, Object in the second, and possessive in the third) its form does not change. The word house remains house. Not so in Arabic! The word for house, , will change grammatically (and not structurally) when the above three sentences are rendered in Arabic: 1. ( dhamma at the end of ) 2. ( fatha at the end of )

3. ( kasra at the end of ) This is a classic example of change in grammatical state in the Arabic Language. Technically speaking there are 4 grammatical states in Arabic: 1. 2. 3. 4. Lets start with some simple rules: 1. whenever a noun is the subject in a sentence it automatically goes in the state of i.e. its last letter will have a dhamma on it 2. whenever the noun is the object it goes in the state of and its last letter will have a fatha on it 3. whenever a noun occurs in a possessive phrase it will automatically go in the state of i.e. its last letter will have a kasra on it 4. the state of is experienced only by the .( present and future tense) and we will tackle this in a later post, Insha Allah The name given to this process i.e. reflecting grammatical states on the last letters of words by using dhamma,fatha, and kasra is . You should remember here that an in Arabic Language covers more than simply nouns. It spans the

definition of Adjective, Adverb, Noun, and Pronoun. Therefore, rather than saying that an goes into a certain grammatical state, we will desiccate the into each of these categories and will see in which grammatical state each category falls. For now, let us take another example using three Arabic words:

meaning Zaid, boy, and hit when read from left to right. Using these three words and the
grammatical states 1-3 noted above we will see how we can convey different ideas. This example also shows the fact that there is no Subject-Object order in Arabic, as there is in English: 1. : Zaid hit a boy

2. : A boy hit Zaid 3. .: Zaids boy hit Notice how the the nouns Zaid and boy are being made subject, object, and part of a possessive phrase just by switching from one grammatical state to another. This is, thus, the concept of Grammatical Statesin Arabic. More on this in a later post, Insha Allah!

Nahw - The Grammatical States playground: and

Recall from our earlier discussion that is the name given to the process of reflecting grammatical states on the last letters of words by using dhamma, fatha, or kasra. To avoid false grammatical assumptions arising from vowel-less script (which is the case both in the writings of Classical Arabic and contemporary Arabic language) it is very important to know which words experience grammatical states in Arabic and which do not. Without this knowledge a reader may attribute grammatical states where they are not supposed to be attributed. In other words, by just looking at a dhamma a reader might assume the state of whereas the word may very well be one which does not take any grammatical states. To go about clearing this confusion the grammarians of Arabic Language have defined certain terms: 1. : These are the parts of speech which do experience grammatical states and show these states by using dhamma, fatha, and kasra 2. True : These are the parts of speech which do not experience any grammatical states show them at their ends for one reason or another Below, I will explain in detail which part of speech falls under which category.

3. Resembling : These are parts of speech which do experience grammatical states but do not

[Every

is worthy of being ]

So says the author of A Thousand Couplets. From amongst the parts of speech in Arabic, none of the

 experience any of the grammatical state. Thus, we cannot say that or is in , , or . It would be grammatically incorrect to say that. In Arabic Language, 100% of the are .
[The Amr verb and past tense are mabnee And they (The Arabs) considered the imperfect Murab if it is naked From the attached nun of emphasis and from the nun of femininity Like they (group of females) scared the one who was put in trial] Moving on to , we know by now that can be subdivided into 4 broad categories, namely ,

, , and .
The conjugations are nothing but a variation of . If we remove the all we are left with is

in the state of . For example, 77 becomes 77which is a in the state of .

Also, within the everything except the 2nd person active voice is nothing but in the state of

due to the presence of with a kasra at the front. In addition to this, we have already said that the
2nd person active command of has special conjugations, different from those of 1st and 3rd person active (and also the 1st, 2nd, and 3rd person passive voice) since a command is almost always directed towards a second person. Thus, for the purpose of Nahw we divide the into 3 different different

categories. Note, that we are just shuffling around the same categories of for the purpose of understanding the concept of and ;no new categories are being defined: 1. 2. ( including all conjugations except the 2nd person active voice) 3. ( including only the 2nd person active voice) In the ensuing discussion, the terms , , and are used as defined above, and not in the usual terms Out of these, is all so no governing agent will ever cause it to enter a grammatical state i.e. alter its endings. The is also 100% . The , however, is generally ; one indication of this is the change in endings which takes palce when we put a or a in front of a . Without a the has a dhamma whereas if we put a in front of it the ending changes to a fatha. Note that these changes are not received by either the or the 2nd person active command. In addition to this recall that the two feminine plurals which, if you recall , do not change when we add or a in front of the . For example, ;7;7 remains ;7;7 even if we add a or a in front of the . Thus out of the total 14 conjugations the two feminine plurals are . The other 12 conjugations will change, i.e.

they will be provided that the of emphasis is not there, which, if it is there, will make these conjugations . It is important to note that the of emphasis is a separate word in the emphatic conjugations and cannot receive the change to undergo a grammatical state. Thus, it causes the to be . It is now high time to re-read the verses from A Thousand Couplets given above for

[The Ism, from it are Murab and Mabnee, Due to a resemblance to the particles which draws close, Like the coinage resemblance in the two Isms of , And the meaning resemblance in the words and ] If one notices, and are at the two ends of the Arabic Language spectrum: An is defined within itself whereas a requires additional information to be defined. Moreover, are made up of a minimum of 3 letters whereas are composed usually of two letters. There are, however, certain which resemble in that they are also composed of two letters. An example of this happens in ( you came to us) which has two in it: ( you) and ( us). Thus, we say that such resemble on the basis of coinage i.e. in the way they are formed, and this resemblance causes the

 to get one chracteristic of i.e. become .

Another part from the parts of speech is demonstrative pronouns which is closer to on the basis of meaning. For example, the word could stand for: 1. Interrogation e.g. L M L( when will this promise (be fulfilled) if your are from amongst the true) 2. Condition i.e. it conveys the meaning if e.g. when he comes, respect him; when I play, you watch, which essentially can be conveyed in the form: if he comes, respect him or if I play, you watch In both of these meanings it resembles a which can be explained by the fact that for interrogation in Arabic we already have the particle called the hamza of interrogation, , and for condition we have the called O . Thus on the basis of this meaning resemblance the becomes . Lastly, to understand as to why is an example of an which is , consider the how the following meanings are conveyed in Arabic using : Interrogation - Condition - O Negation - Prohibition -

Emphasis - , Elevation - Longing / Wishing - Anticipation - UO Containment - Destination - Origin / Initiation - O Semblance - VW Reference - ??? Now is used for i.e. to refer to something. Every idea being conveyed in the above list has a corresponding in the Arabic Language, except . Thus, the Arabic grammarians say:

( So, it was also worthy of having a particle coined alongside it). In other words,
should also have a coined for it and yet there is none. Thus, is an which is due to the resemblance to a which should have existed but doesnt. This shows , at least, that there are certain categories of which are due to one reason or another:

meaning, resemblance, dependancy etc. Below, I list these categories: 1. Personal Pronouns: He, him, she, they, I, we etc. 2. Interrogative Pronouns: , , ,( Who, what, when, where) 3. Relative Pronouns: ,( Who, what, which) 4. Demonstrative Pronouns: _,7O, O , ( this, here) Finally, we are ready to put all this information together in the following 3 points: 1. : All 2. 80 % of are and 20% are 3. 80% of are and 20% are