Alhassanain(p) Network for Heritage and Islamic Thought

Lessons from Qur'an

This book is reviewed and corrected by us.

Author: Muhsin Qara'ati
Quranic Sciences

Lessons From Qur'an

Majmu`a-i-Dars ha'i-az-Qur'an

Author(s): Muhsin Qara'ati

Translator(s): S.M.S. Hyder

Publisher(s): Islamic Seminary Publications

www.alhassanain.org/english

Table of Contents

Foreword8

Monotheism11

Advantage of Discussion about the Outlook on Universe11

Selection of Outlook on Universe12

Monotheism the First Principle of Divine Outlook on Universe12

What is Natural Disposition?13

Prophets' Mission14

Is Obedience a Negation of Man's Freedom?14

Crux of the Problem14

Doubtful and Temporary Tendency15

Which Faith is true?15

Signs of Faith in Allah16

Signs of Dishonesty16

Baseless Reasoning against Religion17

Defeat of Communistic Dogmas17

Another Groundless Reasoning19

Answer to Such a Reasoning20

Another example21

Another Baseless Argument21

Why Some People Ignore Allah and Religion?22

The Function of Religion24

The Reality of Monotheism and its Various Aspects26

Factors Which Distract Man from the Belief in Allah28

Proofs of Monotheism29

Is There any Deity Besides Allah?31

Polytheism31

Examples of Polytheism32

Anxiety, the Sign of Polytheism32

Signs of Polytheism33

3. Collective Effect of Polytheism35

The Effect of Polytheism in the Next Life36

Grandeur of Monotheism36

Progenitor of Monotheism36

Merits of Prophet Ibrahim37

Deceit is Polytheism38

Signs of Sincere Believer38

How One Can Avoid Polytheism and False Hopes?38

4. Prayers, Invocation and Remembrance of Allah40

Signs of Idolatrous Nations40

When Obedience to Parents is Forbidden?41

Polytheism - an Unpardonable Sin42

Counter-measures against Polytheists42

Justice44

The Causes of Injustice44

The Attributes of Allah45

Justice-One of the Principles of Religion45

Advantages of Believing in the Justice of Allah45

The Meaning of Justice45

The Dangers of Hasty Decision48

Methods of Solving the Misfortunes53

Differences Develop the Society57

Difficulties Build up Personalities57

Hardships Lead to Inventions58

What is the Fault of a New-born Child?64

Categorization-The Means of Recognizing Allah66

Social Justice68

Justice in All Islamic Laws68

Social Justice and Divine Outlook on the Universe68

Seeking Justice is a Natural Thing69

Just Laws Originate From Holy Prophet's Conduct70

Justice is the Basic Condition70

The Importance of Justice in Traditions70

Importance of Justice71

Establishment of Justice is the Object of the Prophets71

Imam Ali's Argument on Equity72

Confiscation of Property72

No Distinction Between an Arab and a Non-Arab73

Counting the Dead73

Advice to Buy the People for Gaining Their Favor74

Example of the Feeling of Fraternity74

Brotherhood in Islam74

There is a Difference Between Adopting a Principle and Trading75

Even a Single Loaf is Equally Distributed76

Do Not Compromise on Principle76

An Unjust Hope76

Do Not Underestimate the Judicial Decision76

When the Guest is Removed77

The Holy Qur'an Condemns Partiality77

Another Example of Imam Ali's Justice77

Nobody Does That Sort of Thing78

Another Example of Taking Precaution78

Undue Criticism Against Imam Ali78

Settling Dispute with Justice79

Using the Paper Economically79

Asking for a Larger Share80

Misuse of One's Position is Forbidden80

An Example of Equality in Islam80

No Nepotism80

Corporal Punishment81

Suggestion Made to Imam Ali81

Equity in Distribution of Public Treasury82

Strong Criticism by Imam Ali82

Imam Ali's Admonition to Umar82

Imam Ali Walks out of the Court83

Obstinacy in Discussions and Actions83

Justice Towards Polytheists and Infidels84

Blood-money and Retaliation Ensure Justice85

The Law of Qisas (Retaliation) in the Holy Qur'an86

Moderation in Worship87

Moderation in Appreciation and Criticism87

Moderation in Expenditure and Charities87

Justice in Personal Life88

Moderation in Frugality88

Output of Work88

Justice in Distribution of Property89

Justice in Sharing and Spending89

To Establish Justice Prophet's Instructions Should be Followed89

Jurist is Responsible For the Supervision of Social Justice90

Guardianship of Jurist Ensures Social Justice90

A Story Regarding Rights91

Reasons for Turning Away From Justice92

The Verse Which Made the Holy Prophet Feel Old92

Social Justice is For Public Welfare93

Prophethood94

Sign of Inability to Recognize Allah95

The Role of Knowledge and Intellect95

Necessity of Prophets' Guidance96

Difference Between Man's Knowledge And Prophets' Teachings99

The Necessity of Following the Guidance of the Prophets101

Prophets' Path-Mankind's Long-standing Desire101

The Prophets in the Mirror of the Holy Qur'an102

A Review of Other Forms of Thinking103

Why People Obey the Laws?103

Who is Responsible for the Enforcement of Laws?105

Signs of the Prophets107

The Philosophy of Miracles109

Salient Features of the Holy Qur'an109

The Unbeaten Challenge for 14 Centuries110

Towards Understanding the Holy Qur'an112

The ignorant (Surah al-Jashiya, 45:18) and114

Rules for Recitation of the Holy Qur'an116

Attributes of the Prophets and the Life of the Last Prophet118

Social Life of the Prophets119

Cautioning the Prophets120

Conduct of the Prophets120

Infallibility122

Signs of Conviction123

Proof of Infallibility for a Divine Leader124

Points to Ponder124

Some Special Merits of the Prophets125

Submission to Allah126

A Glance at the Life of the Holy Prophet127

His Morals128

His Family Life128

His Feelings For the New-born128

He Was Not an Opportunist129

He Was Always on the Lead129

His Hospitality130

His Extreme Dedication130

His Insight and Sagacity130

The Holy Prophet in the Battlefield131

His Decisiveness131

His Piety and Devotion131

His Loyalty132

His Method of Teaching132

His Sheltering the Enemy132

His Behavior with the Enemies133

Affectionate Treatment of His Friends133

Some Special Traits of the Holy Prophet133

His Concern of the Common Man134

His Consulting the People135

His Behavior with His Opponents135

An Apology To the Holy Prophet136

False Accusations139

Prophets' Achievements147

The Duties of the Prophets147

Prophets-the Warners and Bearers of Glad Tidings154

Friends and Foes of Prophets160

The Opponents of the Prophets160

Why People Opposed the Prophets?162

Sufferings of the Followers of the Prophets168

Destructive Activities of the Hypocrites168

They Raised Objections169

Why the Followers of the Prophets Were Sincere?169

Unsteady Followers170

The Loyal Followers of the Prophets172

Imamate175

Is Imamate Included in the Fundamentals of Faith?175

Imamate is One of the Fundamentals of Faith175

Direct Link of Imamate with Monotheism177

The Need of an Imam178

Is the Holy Qur'an Not Sufficient?178

The Conduct of the Imam180

The Stress on the Meaning of Imam182

The Role of Imam in Hadith183

The Purpose of Imamate and Leadership183

The Signs and the Attributes of the Imam185

The Holy Prophet's Endeavours187

What would be a greater sin than to ignore the bequest of the Holy Prophet?190

Expression of Truth and Endeavors for it190

Some Attributes of the Imam190

Some Other Attributes of the Imam193

Some More Attributes of Imam195

The Method of Appointing the Imam196

Unpleasant Experiences197

Was Bal'am Ba'ur not a wise man who for the love of worldly things lost all his merits?198

People's Decision is Not Always Correct199

Various Methods of Appointing the Leader200

The Imam is Appointed by Allah200

Natural Flaws of Election System204

The Right Method For Selecting the Imam204

Election is Forbidden205

Nomination is the Only Correct Method205

The Nomination of the Best Person206

Some of the Attributes of Imam Ali and ahlul bayt206

Even the Angel Could Not Do208

Imam's House is the Place of Angels' Visits208

Some Other Attributes of Imam Ali208

Mutual Rights of the Imam and His Followers209

Obligations of the Ummah210

The Last Purpose of the hajj210

The Zealous Shi'ah211

False Shi'ah211

How the Imamate of the Infallible Imams Got Weakened?211

Sufferings of the True Believers211

Novel Forms of Tyrannies and Oppression213

Oppression by Pen214

Allegations Against the Shi'ah214

Is It Possible For People to Give up Truth?215

Why People are Distracted From Truth Despite Their Good Deeds?215

Conformity Between the Shi'ah and Ahlus Sunnah215

Lawful and Unlawful Guardianship215

Who is the Qualified Leader and Guardian?216

The Role of the Jurist218

The Day of Resurrection222

Natural Arguments222

Guidance to Right Arguments223

Allah's Message Through Prophets223

Coming of the Dead to Life is Not Impossible224

A Memorable Incident of the Holy Qur'an224

Other Examples in Proof of Resurrection225

The First Proof of Resurrection is Allah's Justice227

Standard of Values in Islam229

Self-sacrifice of Ahlul Bayt229

Tooth for Tooth, Nail for Nail230

Examples of Worldly Punishments231

The First Proof-Justice of Allah233

There is No Obstacle in the Resurrection234

(i) Immense knowledge and234

Real Difficulty That Faces Us235

The Second Proof-Allah's Wisdom235

The Earth Underneath a Glorious Canopy236

The Holy Prophet as a Sympathetic Physician236

The Impact of the Belief in Resurrection241

Impact of Resurrection on Economic Matters241

Impact of Resurrection on Military Affairs241

Impact of Resurrection Against Politicians and Transgressors242

Impact of Resurrection of the Deprived Persons243

Belief in Resurrection Ensures Perfection244

Belief in Resurrection and Its Remembrance244

The Effects of Remembering Death and the Resurrection Day246

Remembering of Death in Supplications247

Imam Ali's Supplication in Masjid Kufa247

Why Do We not Remember Death?248

Consequences of Denying the Resurrection Day248

Death Is a Divine Law250

Foreword

In the Name of Allah, the Beneficent, the Merciful

The Book in hand is the compilation of the series of lectures that were delivered to a select group of young men over a long period of time by Professor Mohsin Qara'ati. It is the substance of his speeches that he made from time to time. The novel style together with his insight and vast knowledge of the teachings of Islam has brought fame to Prof. Qara'ati.

It was about fifteen years ago that when Prof. Qara'ati rose as a scholar from the religious centre of learning and teaching in Qum, he selected for himself a different mode of imparting religious knowledge to the younger people of his hometown.

One day while Prof. Qara'ati was on a visit to his hometown, Kashan, a novel idea suddenly struck him. He saw some young men at the corner of the street; approaching them he said: "O my dear young men! Can I have the favor of winning your friendship so that we could give to one another a good company in a masjid and have small discussions on religious matters and arrive at a solution of problems confronting us".

Thus he started a program of giving lectures in a small masjid in Kashan during the Holy month of Ramazan. At the end of the month, Prof. Qara'ati suggested to his students to continue this program on weekly basis. He used to come to Kashan every Friday and deliver lectures. This routine continued for four years and the number of his people gradually increased as they were greatly attracted by Prof. Qara'ati's talks.

When his fellow-students in Qum learnt about his activity in Kashan, they became curious about it and wanted to have a close view of the small gathering there. They liked the idea of imparting education on religion in an exceptionally unique style of delivering brief talks with audio-visual aids. Prof.

Qara'ati used a black-board for the purpose of demonstrations. Gradually, they expanded the area of their activity on a countrywide basis and an annual gathering was held in Qum. This program continued for six years. This was the time when the last of the monarchs of the Pahlavi dynasty ruled over the people of Iran in the most abominably despotic manner.

He got very much scared of the activities of these devoted followers of Islam and ultimately by the order of the Shah such meetings and seminars on religious teachings were banned. Despite this Prof.

Mohsin Qara'ati stood as a sentinel, and his guidance and training of his dedicated students which swelled in large numbers proved very successful, as after the Islamic Revolution in Iran these classes were given official recognition, so much so that his lectures are broadcast by radio and telecast on television.

Now a few words about the book in itself. One thing is certain that whatever you happen to read in this book it is the same which was taught to his pupils by Prof. Qara'ati in his talks in the classroom through audio-visual system.

But it is not necessary to explain here as to how these talks were reproduced in the form of written lessons. It is just like an art of chiseling statues out of stones. Just as chiseling itself cannot be produced in writing so also the delivery of speech cannot be reproduced in black and white.

Therefore, lecturing is like an art where words are chiseled out in order to give a correct form and shape in the mind like mental pictures. Here, the lecturing or delivering sermons is an art which the pupils learn by watching and listening to an experienced teacher, who is the master of his craft and who applies his own experience and vision. That kind of acquiring knowledge is not as simple as studying books.

The series of lectures contained in this book have been based on Qur'anic verses and the sayings of the Holy Prophet and his Chosen descendants (peace be on them) with logical conclusions and connotations of the subject-matter being dealt with therein.

Unfamiliar terms and unnecessary details have been avoided. Another noteworthy point worth-mentioning is that these lessons were primarily addressed to and meant for the pupils who were about 18 years of age.

Besides, the problems that have been discussed in these lessons were solved by citing examples and quoting proverbs. Hence, the problems appear to be interesting and the solution obtained by logic and reasoning are easily understood.

It was a novel method that Prof. Qara'ati used on the pattern of Qur'anic teachings. If one cares to scrutinize these lessons carefully it will soon become evident that the Holy Qur'an too has used parables and cited metaphors and similes.

In a nutshell one should take into consideration the following points;

(i) After completing the preliminary education one should decide to teach the ideology and the principles of faith to the people or one should hand over this responsibility to the one who is expert in this field.

(ii) One should try to find out the dire necessity of the society and one's inclinations to discover the Right Path so as to lead oneself to that path.

(iii) Religious scholars, teachers and speakers should specialize in more than one branch of knowledge e.g. Islamic history, Islamic ideology, fundamentals of faith, exegeses and the art of teaching children and young people.

(iv) The lecture classes in masjid should include the imparting of religious knowledge to young girls, housewives, workers and laborers and even educated male persons.

(v) The system of imparting knowledge should be adapted to the present day conditions and demands, and the masjids should be treated as the citadel of Islam as well as the seat of learning.

(vi) According to Imam Ja'far Sadiq, (peace is on him) a teacher besides imparting lessons of fundamental knowledge, should also enlighten his pupils on the subject in whom they are interested.

(vii) Special care should be taken in teaching children and younger people and this should be done by one who is expert in child psychology.

The large number of books which have been written for children and young people in simple and easy-to-understand style are not sufficient enough and, therefore, it is necessary that this work should be expanded on the country-wide basis.

In conclusion, this book deals with all the vital problems that confront our younger generation. We hope that this comprehensive book will also help those who are engaged in teaching and learning the principles of Islam. We pray to Almighty Allah to grant us enough strength to acquaint the people in large numbers with the teachings of Islam.

The Publishers

Process of Reflection - إعراب أسماء و أفعال

Recall from the discussion of the 4 types ofفعل in the previous section, that theماضي (the past tense verb) isمبني in its entirety i.e. no governing agent will ever enter upon it and alter its ending.  Skippingمضارع and leaving it for last, let’s take a look at the remaining two verbs:أمر andنهي .

The 20% of Verbs that are معرب

Recall thatأمر , which is the command verb, like all verbs, will have an active as well as a passive.  Each table will have 14 conjugations.  (Refer to theصرف book)  However, when contemplating the reality of Amr, we see something unique not found in the other types of verbs, namely, the fact that literally speaking commands have to be directed to someone being addressed.  By literal definition,أمر must be second person and in the active voice, such as Sit!  Drink!  Read!  Etc...  Does that mean you can’t use anأمر verb in the passive voice or in other than the second person?  Well you can, but it won’t be a literalأمر , it would be a figurative way of speaking.  Take for instance second person passive with the verb ‘to help’ i.e. You must get helped, or third person active, He must help, or third person passive, He must get helped.  Now contrast these three with just Help!  You will see a sharp difference in literal and figurative application of the term ‘command’ upon the various conjugations of theأمر tables.  For this reason, the scholars of Sarf tend to break down the table of 14 into two smaller tables, the first being just the middle six conjugations of the second person, and the other being the remaining 8, a combination of the third person 6 plus numbers 13 and 14.  When they did this, to keep things level, they also broke down the passive table into two similar tables, although the above reasoning does not apply to the passive table.  Now, instead of two big tables of 14 and 14, we have four small tables:

أمر حاضر معروف   (second person active command) e.g.إضرِب , Hit!

أمر حاضر مجهول (second person passive command) e.g. لِتُضرَب , You must get hit.

أمر غاﺋﺐ و متكلّم (third & first person active command) e.g.لِيَضرِب , He must hit

أمر غاﺋﺐ و متكلّم مجهول (third & first person passive command) e.g.لَِيُضرَب , He must get hit.

Keeping in mind the whole above discussion, now look at the four small gardaans of theنهي verb which is the negative command:

نهي حاضر معروف (second person active prohibition) e.g.لا تَضرِب , Don’t hit!

نهي حاضر مجهول (second person passive prohibition) e.g.لا تُضرَب , You must not get hit.

نهي غاﺋﺐ و متكلّم   (third & first person active prohibition) e.g.لا يَضرِب , He must not hit.

نهي غاﺋﺐ و متكلّم مجهول (third & first person passive prohibition) e.g.لا يُضرَب , He must not get hit.

Note the structure of the eight examples:

إضرِب was the first, then we had three that began with ‘لِ ’, followed by four that began with ‘لا ’.

Significant?  From a pureصرف perspective, not really, because verb conjugation, more than anything else, has to do with the designated letters at the end of the verbs which make the conjugations slightly different in how they look and sound, and that’s why we memorize them, with particular attention given to those slight differences.

However, from aنحو point of view, the difference betweenإضرِب and the rest is very profound.  (If you understand this, you’ve understood a lot, insha Allah.)

What the scholars ofنحو did, is they looked at the above 8 examples, noting that all end with a ْ   ‘سكون ’.  Then they saw, seven of them have particles i.e. governing agents in front of them, either ‘لِ ’or ‘لا ’.  From this, they deduced that the sukoon at the end of all exceptإضرِب is a reflection of grammatical state.  Therefore, these gardaans are not separate verbs, but rather THE SAMEمضارع (present-tense verb) in the state of ‘جزم ’.  In other wordsلِتُضرَب ,لِيَضرِب ,لِيُضرَب and the fourنهي tables are nothing more thanيَضرِبُ ,يُضرَبُ ,تَضرِبُ andتُضرَبُ with either ‘لِ ’or ‘لا ’ in front of them, both of which are ‘جزم ’ giving particles.

As for ‘إضرِب ’ i.e. the second person, active command, they said this is different for two reasons:

It does not begin with a recognized prefix of the present-tense verb,ي ,ت ,ء , orن .  Therefore, it cannot be incorporated into theمضارع category, as we did to the others.

Furthermore, it does not have a governing agent before it which could explain away the sukoon at the end of it, meaning no grammatical reflection can be attributed to this last letter sukoon.

For these two reasons, the scholars ofنحو have classified theفعل somewhat different than the scholars ofصرف .  This happens by taking seven of the above eight tables and incorporating them intoمضارع and keepingأمر حاضر معروف as the third distinct type ofفعل .  The breakdown is as follows:

ماضي , the past-tense verb.مبني in its entirety, as mentioned previously.

مضارع , the present and future-tense verb.  Predominantlyمعرب , as will be seen shortly.

أمر حاضر معروف , the second person, active-command verb, alsoمبني in its entirety.

The present-tense verb (مضارع ), like all verbs, also has 14 conjugations.  From the 14, two conjugations, namely the two feminine plurals (number 6 and 12) areمبني i.e. will never change despite the governing agent entering upon them.  The final ‘ن’ at the end of these two conjugations is actually the pronoun, and from it we get the plural feminine meaning.

As for the other 12 conjugations of the present-tense verb, they are allمعرب PROVIDED THAT THEY ARE FREE OF THE ‘ن ’ OF EMPHASIS.  These 12 conjugations can be split into two groups:

Those that end in aُ   in the state ofرفع .  This would include 5 conjugations; numbers 1, 4, 7 and the last two, 13 and 14.

Those that end with aُ   in the state ofرفع , the remaining seven conjugations i.e. the four duals, plus numbers 3, 9 and 10.

Types of ن

Before we proceed, it is important to note that in total there are three different types of ‘ن ’!

The first is the ‘ن ’ of feminine plurality. This is actually a pronoun (and not a reflection ofرفع ).  It comes at the end of conjugation numbers 6 and 12 and will never drop.

The second is what they call, the ‘ن إعرابي’.  The function of this ‘ن ’ is to reflect that theمضارع verb is in its default state ofرفع .  The presence of this ‘ن ’ at the end of the seven conjugations mentioned above will indicateرفع .  The pronoun is the letter before the ‘ن ’ i.e. an ‘ا ’ for the four duals, a ‘و ’ for the two masculine plurals, and ‘ي ’ for number ten, the second person singular feminine.  Inنصب andجزم , this ‘ن ’ will drop.

The third and final ‘ن ’ is what we referred to as the ‘ن ’ of emphasis.  This is a special ‘ن ’ which is a particle and is attached to the end of theمضارع .  It comes in both aساكن form as well as aمشدد form.  Its meaning function is twofold.  Firstly it eliminates the present tense and makes the verb specific to the future.  Secondly it adds emphasis to the future tense meaning (verily or surely).  All conjugations of the present-tense verb becomeمبني as a result of it.

Now we can clearly see the 20% of verbs which areمعرب and distinguish them from the 80% that areمبني :

ماضي -مبني in its entirety.

أمر حاضر معروف -مبني also.

مضارع with the ‘ن ’ of feminine plurality (6 and 12)-مبني

مضارع with the ‘ن ’ of emphasis (all 14 conjugations)-مبني

مضارع empty of  the above mentioned both ‘ن ’ -معرب

Note that from a total five only one isمعرب and four areمبني .  Four from five is 80% and one from five is 20%.

Essential Note on بناء

Thus far we have covered five types ofمبني words.

Allحروف .

ماضي .

أمر حاضر معروف .

مضارع with the ‘nun’ of feminine plurality.

مضارع with the ‘nun’ of emphasis.

Depending on the reason of ‘بناء ’ (statelessness),مبني words are of two types:

مبني الأصل - words that are trulyمبني   i.e. They never enter grammatical states and therefore have no need for the process of reflection calledأعراب .  The first three from the above five areمبني الأصل .

مبني مشابه - words that areمبني   due to a secondary reason such as resemblance to the first category, meaning they do enter grammatical states and hence need the reflection thatأعراب provides. However, owing to some external reason, their last letters remain constant despite the many governing agents that enter upon them. مضارع with the ‘ن ’ of feminine plurality isمبني   because the final ‘‘ن ’ at the end of these two conjugations RESEMBLES the ‘ن ’ ofفَعَلنَ i.e. conjugation number 6 of the past-tense table, whereas the emphatic tables areمبني   in their entirety due to the ‘ن ’ of emphasis being a particle and particles do not give way to last letter change.

The 20% of أسماء that are مبني

From the perspective ofأعراب andبناء , the ‘إسم ’ is classified into two categories:

أسم مُتَمَكِّن :أسماء that do not resembleمبني الأصل and are thereforeمعرب . This category comprises of the vast majority ofأسماء (about 80%), divided into 16 types to be discussed at a later time.  Grammatical state in them will be reflected on the last letter as mentioned previously.  This reflection can be via ‘حركات ’ i.e. short vowels;ضمّة ,فتحة andكسرة , and also by means of letters such as long vowels (ا , و and ى).  It may be explicit or assumed.  For the most part, there will be a full separate reflection for each grammatical state.  Occasionally, there will be just two reflections for all three of the statesأسماء enter.  From this we see thatرفع does not necessarily meanضمّة , nor doesنصب orجر meanفتحة andكسرة . رفع ,نصب andجر are the states andضمّة ,فتحة andكسرة are just one method of their reflection.  There may be others.  In human beings happiness is usually reflected by smiles, but it doesn’t have to be like that.  Sometimes it’s through tears.  In animals happiness is reflected by tail-wagging for instance ….  In total forمعرب أسماء (the 16 types ofأسم مُتَمَكِّن ), there are nine methods of reflection.  These will be covered in detail once we are done explaining theمبني nouns, insha Allah.

أسم غير مُتَمَكِّن :أسماء that do resembleمبني الأصل and are thereforeمبني . مبني nouns are 8 types.  Under each are just a fewأسماء .  Together they account for less then 20% ofأسماء .

The eight categories are listed below.

ضما ﺋﺮ orمضمرات    : Personal Pronouns.

الأسماء الموصولة       : Relative Pronouns.

الأسماء الإشارة           : Demonstrative Pronouns.

أسماء الأفعاال            : Nouns in the meaning of verbs!

أسماء الضُروف           :أسماء   which indicate on time or place (type of Adverb).

أسماء الأصوات          : Words which are used to refer to sounds or noises.

مركَّب بناء      : A small group of words which were originally phrases, namely the numbers from eleven to nineteen.

كِنايات          : Words that refer to vagueness in speech or number etc. (Like ‘so many’ in English.)

Personal Pronouns - ضماﺋﺮ

Pronouns in Arabic are much more than what we have in English.  To fully understand all the groupings of Arabic Pronouns, contrasting them with their English counter-parts will be helpful.  In English, primarily we have three groups of pronouns: nominative, accusative and genitive.  They are listed below:

Nominative: he, she, they, you, I and we

Accusative: him, her, them, you, me and us

Genitive: his, her, their, your, my and our

Note that in the plural third person (they), gender is irrelevant, meaning the same pronoun is used for feminine and masculine, while in the second person both gender AND plurality are not considered.  Likewise, the singular feminine third person (her) is used twice in accusative as well as genitive.  So basically the total number of pronouns in English is only 18 and after dropping the ones which are used twice 16.

In Arabic, the total number is very high at 84: six groupings, each of which has a full 14 pronouns.  To understand the significance of the number 14 here, recall what we mentioned when explaining the conjugation tables.  Six groupings is because in addition to the three groupings mentioned above Arabic also has governing agents.  If a pronoun is said to be inرفع due to being subject for instance, there must be something to cause theرفع preceding the pronoun, which in this case would be the verb.  Thus the verb inنحو is called the ‘عامل ’ (governing agent).  This will happen in all three of the statesأسماء enter into;رفع ,نصب andجر .  Now the pronoun may be attached (مُتَّصل ) to the agent and both written as ONE WORD, or the agent could be a separate word and the pronoun written by itself (مُنفَصل ).  In each case the pronoun will look different.  Forجر there is noمُنفَصل , because the agents ofجر are just two, namely prepositions andمضاف , which puts theمضاف إليه in the state ofجر .  Both agents REQUIRE that the pronoun after them be attached.  This leaves us with a total of five groups.  Then because theمجرور one can have only two agents, it is mentioned twice, thus making the number of groupings six (with 14 under each):

مرفوع متّصل   : Nominative pronoun attached to its agent e.g. theت ُ inضَرَبتُ (I hit).

مرفوع منفصل             : Nominative pronoun separate from its agent.هُو َ which means ‘he’.

منصوب متّصل            : Accusative pronoun attached to its agent e.g. theﻪُ inرَأيتُهُ (I saw ‘him’)

منصوب منفصل          : Accusative pronoun separate from its agent e.g.إيّاكَ (you alone).

مجرور متّصل withحرف جر    : Genitive pronoun attached to preposition e.g. theﻪُ inلَهُ (for him).

مجرور متّصل withمضاف       : Genitive pronoun attached toمضاف e.g. theهُ inدارُهُ (his house).

All of these 84 pronouns areمبني due to their dependency upon nouns.  In order to be used in speech, third person pronouns need to be preceded by nouns and so forth.  Dependency is a characteristic of particles: one of the threeمبني الأصل .

The following is a full table of all theضَماﺋﺮ discussed in this section:

مجرور متّصِل		منصوب		مرفوع			صيغة
بِمضاف	بِحرف جر	منفصل	متّصِل	مُنفَصِل	متّصِل
					مضارع	ماضي
دارُهُ	لَهُ	إيّاهُ	هُ	هُوَ	يَضرِبُ (هو )	ضَرَبَ (هو )	واحد مذكر غاﺋﺐ
دارُهُما	لَهُما	إيّاهُما	هُما	هُما	يَضرِبا نِ	ضَرَبا	تثنية مذكر غاﺋﺐ
دارُهُم	لَهُم	إيّاهُم	هُم	هُم	يَضرِبُو نَ	ضَرَبُو ا	جمع مذكر غاﺋﺐ
دارُها	لَها	إيّاها	ها	هِيَ	تَضرِبُ (هي )	ضَرَبَتْ (هي )	واحد مؤنث غاﺋﺐ
دارُهُما	لَهُما	إيّاهُما	هُما	هُما	تَضرِبا نِ	ضَرَبَتا	تثنية مؤنث غاﺋﺐ
دارُهُنَّ	لَهُنَّ	إيّاهُنَّ	هُنَّ	هُنَّ	يَضرِبنَ	ضَرَبْنَ	جمع مؤنث غاﺋﺐ
دارُكَ	لَكَ	إيّاكَ	كَ	أنتَ	تَضرِبُ (هو )	ضَرَبْتَ	واحد مذكر حاضر
دارُكُما	لَكُما	إيّاكُما	كُما	أنتُما	تَضرِبا نِ	ضَرَبْتُما	تثنية مذكر حاضر
دارُكُم	لَكُم	إيّاكُم	كُم	أنتُم	تَضرِبُو نَ	ضَرَبْتُمْ	جمع مذكر حاضر
دارُكِ	لَكِ	إيّاكِ	كِ	أنتِ	تَضرِﺑِﻴ ﻦَ	ضَرَبْتِ	واحد مؤنث حاضر
دارُكُما	لَكُما	إيّاكُما	كُما	أنتُما	تَضرِبا نِ	ضَرَبْتُما	تثنية مؤنث حاضر
دارُكُنَّ	لَكُنَّ	إيّاكُنَّ	كُنَّ	أنتُنَّ	تَضرِبنَ	ضَرَبْتُنَّ	جمع مؤنث حاضر
دارِيَ	لِي	إيّايَ	ي	أنا	أضرِبُ (أنا )	ضَرَبْتُ	واحد متكلم
دارُنا	لَنا	إيّانا	نا	نَحنُ	نَضرِبُ (نحن )	ضَرَبْنَا	جمع متكلم

Table Error! No text of specified style in document. -B - Personal Pronouns

Relative Pronouns - الأسماء الموصولة

In order to fully understand what relative pronouns are, one needs to be informed about theموصوف- صفة phrase which in Arabic grammar is the noun-adjective phrase, an expression of usually twoأسماء in which the secondإسم describes the first.

e.g. رَجُلٌ كَرِيمٌ (a noble man), or

 الرَّجُلُ الكَرِيمُ (the noble man)

From the aspects in which theموصوف andصفة have to correspond, is beingمعرفه orنكره (definite or indefinite).  In most cases both words areأسماء and correspondence is fairly simple.  Adding ‘ال’ to both words will make it ‘the noble man’ whereas keeping both words empty will leave it ‘a noble man’.  However, occasionally the need arises to describe a noun using a whole sentence.  Take for instance the phrase ‘a man who I met yesterday’.  ‘I met yesterday’ is a full sentence.  It was used in the above example to describe the indefinite noun ‘a man’.

The scholars ofنحو have attached a value to the informative sentence (جملة خبرية ) and have told us it’s ‘نكره ’.  Therefore, if the above example were to be rendered into Arabic it would read as follows:رَجُلٌ لَقِيتُهُ أمسِ .  No extra word is needed between the noun being described i.e. theموصوف ‘رَجُلٌ ’ and the sentenceلَقِيتُهُ أمسِ , for they are bothنكره and correspondence is complete.  On the other hand, were theموصوف to beمعرفه , we would have had a problem of matching the two.  To convey the meaning ‘the man who I met yesterday’, merely adding an ‘ال’ to theموصوف would not suffice.  We would be left with aمعرف موصوف (الرَّجُلُ ) and aنكره صفة (theجملة خبرية ).  The only way this meaning could be validly conveyed is if somehow that value attached to theجملة خبرية could be transformed into aمعرفه value.  This is where theمَوصول comes into play….

الأسماء الموصولة or Relative Pronouns are like which, what, that, or who in English, not the question which, what etc. but the pronouns ‘which’ come between nouns and the sentences ‘that’ describe them.  Read that again!  “pronouns ‘which’ come between nouns” and “the sentences ‘that’ describe them”.  In English these pronouns MUST be brought in every such structure.  In Arabic they are brought ONLY when theموصوف isمعرفه .  If it isنكره , there will be no need for aمَوصول , in which case the grammatical structure itself will join the sentence to the noun being described.

This is the primary purpose why we have these words in the language.  If the noun being described is of a very general meaning such as man, woman, thing etc, often the noun is not mentioned.  Theمَوصول itself will convey the entire meaning, such as in the following sentence:

جاء الّذي علَّمَكَ في المسجدِ (The person who taught you in the masjid came).

In this sentence theمَوصول ‘الّذي ’ not only means ‘who’ but actually ‘the person who’.

The sentence which follows theمَوصول i.e. the describingجملة خبرية is calledصِله . Together with theمَوصول , both parts becomeصفة for the preceding noun, or if the noun is of a general nature and implicit as mentioned above, theمَوصول andصِله together will directly become part of the greater sentence.  Within theصِله there MUST be a third person pronoun referring back to theمَوصول .  This pronoun will always correspond to theمَوصول in gender and plurality.  In the above example the implicit pronounهو hidden in the verbعَلَّم َ is referring toالّذي theمَوصول .

Besidesالّذي and its dual, plural, and feminine variations, the following relative pronouns are in use:

مَنْ - the person who…

ما - the thing that….  Bothمَنْ andما have no duals our plurals.  The same word is essentially used for all gender and plurality.  ‘مَنْ ’ is for human beings while ‘ما ’ is for non-humans.

أيٌّ , أيَّةٌ -which….  Bothموصولان will always beمضاف to theأسماء after them.  The second word of the possessive phrase may be singular or plural e.g. أيُّ كِتابٍ (which book) and,    أيُّ الكُتُبِ (which of the books).  Both meanings are almost identical.  Just two ways of saying the same thing. أيٌّ andأيَّةٌ are bothمعرب and there grammatical state will be subject to the governing agent before them similar to normal إسمs.

The ‘ال ’ which is attached to the active and passive participles (إسم فاعل andإسم مفعول ) is also considered to beمَوصول and in the meaning ofالّذي .  Hence,الضارِبُ would meanالّذي ضَرَبَ (one who hits).  Likewise,المَضروبُ is akin toالّذي ضُرِبَ (one who is hit).  In other words the ‘ال ’ at the beginning of both literally means ‘one who’.

ذُو in the dialect of the clan ofبَن طَي - also in the meaning ofالّذي according to this particular tribe of Arabs e.g.جاﺋﲎ ذُو ضَرَبَكَ (the man who hit you came to me).

Except forأيٌّ ,أيَّةٌ , and the duals ofالّذي andالّتي , allمَوصول areمبني due to there dependency upon theصله .  You will never encounter aمَوصول except with itsصله .  As mentioned repeatedly, dependency is a characteristic ofحرف : one from theمبني الأصل .

Demonstrative Pronouns -   الأسماء الإشارة

Descriptive Pronouns (this/that) are devices used to refer or point towards nouns.  While the pronoun in Arabic is calledإسم إشاره , the noun is known asمُشارٌ إليه .  In the phraseذٰلِكَ الكِتابُ (that book),ذٰلِكَ is theإسم إشاره andالكِتابُ is theمُشارٌ إليه .  The pronoun coupled with the noun will always be a phrase.  However, there are instances when the noun being referred to is of a very general nature such as thing, man, or woman, in which case the pronoun itself will convey both meanings i.e.هٰذا can mean ‘this thing’ or ‘this person’ as apposed to just ‘this’.  When this happens the following word will be the remaining part of the sentence (the predicate).  In order to determine whether the following word is connected toهٰذا and forming the second part of the descriptive phrase or whetherهٰذا is independent of a separate ‘مُشارٌ إليه and conveying the entire meaning itself as mentioned above, one will need to look at the next word.  If it begins with an ‘ال ’, the two words will become a descriptive phrase (this book), otherwise a full sentence.  When theمُشارٌ إليه can not take ‘ال ’ do to beingمضاف and a descriptive phrase is intended, such as ‘this book of his’, in order to avoid confusion with theإسميّه sentence, theإسم إشاره will be brought after the possessive phrase.  Consider the following three ways of using this device:

1.هٰذا الكِتابُ : this book

2. هٰذا كِتابٌ : This is a book.

3.كِتابُهُ هٰذا : this book of his 

Verbal Nouns - أسماء الأفعال

These are a group of words in the language which are very few in number.  They have the meanings of verbs, meaning that their meanings are linked to time.  They have tenses.  However, besides the tense, they have no other characteristic of verbs such as conjugation tables and suffixes.  They do not fall under any recognized pattern of verb.  They come in two types; a group that has a past tense meaning e.g.هَيهاتَ (became distant), and a group consisting of words that have command-verb meanings e.g.رُوَيدَ (give respite), the first being identical toبَعُدَ (a past-tense verb), and the second to ‘أمهِل ’ (a second person active command verb). 

Although these words do have the meanings ofأفعال due to the absence of all other characteristics of recognized verbs, they were not categorized as such.  The other two parts of speech also do not apply, but because there number is so less in the Arabic language, the scholars of grammar did not see it appropriate to give them a separate category and call them the fourth part of speech.  Instead they said these areمبني أسماء which contain the meaning of verbs, treating this tense as a ‘resemblance’ to verb, hence theirمبني nature.  Recall both ماضي andأمر حاضر areمبني الأصل . 

Adverbs of Time or Place - أسماء الضروف

Words Denoting Sounds or Noises - أسماء الأصوات

These are essentially sounds rendered into words e.g.أُح أُح , a coughing sound.  They are allمبني due to sounds not having true grammatical positioning, in terms of being subject, object etc.

Numbers 11-19 - مركّب بناء

Words denoting vagueness - كنايات

Process of Reflection - إعراب أسماء و أفعال

Recall from the discussion of the 4 types ofفعل in the previous section, that theماضي (the past tense verb) isمبني in its entirety i.e. no governing agent will ever enter upon it and alter its ending.  Skippingمضارع and leaving it for last, let’s take a look at the remaining two verbs:أمر andنهي .

The 20% of Verbs that are معرب

Recall thatأمر , which is the command verb, like all verbs, will have an active as well as a passive.  Each table will have 14 conjugations.  (Refer to theصرف book)  However, when contemplating the reality of Amr, we see something unique not found in the other types of verbs, namely, the fact that literally speaking commands have to be directed to someone being addressed.  By literal definition,أمر must be second person and in the active voice, such as Sit!  Drink!  Read!  Etc...  Does that mean you can’t use anأمر verb in the passive voice or in other than the second person?  Well you can, but it won’t be a literalأمر , it would be a figurative way of speaking.  Take for instance second person passive with the verb ‘to help’ i.e. You must get helped, or third person active, He must help, or third person passive, He must get helped.  Now contrast these three with just Help!  You will see a sharp difference in literal and figurative application of the term ‘command’ upon the various conjugations of theأمر tables.  For this reason, the scholars of Sarf tend to break down the table of 14 into two smaller tables, the first being just the middle six conjugations of the second person, and the other being the remaining 8, a combination of the third person 6 plus numbers 13 and 14.  When they did this, to keep things level, they also broke down the passive table into two similar tables, although the above reasoning does not apply to the passive table.  Now, instead of two big tables of 14 and 14, we have four small tables:

أمر حاضر معروف   (second person active command) e.g.إضرِب , Hit!

أمر حاضر مجهول (second person passive command) e.g. لِتُضرَب , You must get hit.

أمر غاﺋﺐ و متكلّم (third & first person active command) e.g.لِيَضرِب , He must hit

أمر غاﺋﺐ و متكلّم مجهول (third & first person passive command) e.g.لَِيُضرَب , He must get hit.

Keeping in mind the whole above discussion, now look at the four small gardaans of theنهي verb which is the negative command:

نهي حاضر معروف (second person active prohibition) e.g.لا تَضرِب , Don’t hit!

نهي حاضر مجهول (second person passive prohibition) e.g.لا تُضرَب , You must not get hit.

نهي غاﺋﺐ و متكلّم   (third & first person active prohibition) e.g.لا يَضرِب , He must not hit.

نهي غاﺋﺐ و متكلّم مجهول (third & first person passive prohibition) e.g.لا يُضرَب , He must not get hit.

Note the structure of the eight examples:

إضرِب was the first, then we had three that began with ‘لِ ’, followed by four that began with ‘لا ’.

Significant?  From a pureصرف perspective, not really, because verb conjugation, more than anything else, has to do with the designated letters at the end of the verbs which make the conjugations slightly different in how they look and sound, and that’s why we memorize them, with particular attention given to those slight differences.

However, from aنحو point of view, the difference betweenإضرِب and the rest is very profound.  (If you understand this, you’ve understood a lot, insha Allah.)

What the scholars ofنحو did, is they looked at the above 8 examples, noting that all end with a ْ   ‘سكون ’.  Then they saw, seven of them have particles i.e. governing agents in front of them, either ‘لِ ’or ‘لا ’.  From this, they deduced that the sukoon at the end of all exceptإضرِب is a reflection of grammatical state.  Therefore, these gardaans are not separate verbs, but rather THE SAMEمضارع (present-tense verb) in the state of ‘جزم ’.  In other wordsلِتُضرَب ,لِيَضرِب ,لِيُضرَب and the fourنهي tables are nothing more thanيَضرِبُ ,يُضرَبُ ,تَضرِبُ andتُضرَبُ with either ‘لِ ’or ‘لا ’ in front of them, both of which are ‘جزم ’ giving particles.

As for ‘إضرِب ’ i.e. the second person, active command, they said this is different for two reasons:

It does not begin with a recognized prefix of the present-tense verb,ي ,ت ,ء , orن .  Therefore, it cannot be incorporated into theمضارع category, as we did to the others.

Furthermore, it does not have a governing agent before it which could explain away the sukoon at the end of it, meaning no grammatical reflection can be attributed to this last letter sukoon.

For these two reasons, the scholars ofنحو have classified theفعل somewhat different than the scholars ofصرف .  This happens by taking seven of the above eight tables and incorporating them intoمضارع and keepingأمر حاضر معروف as the third distinct type ofفعل .  The breakdown is as follows:

ماضي , the past-tense verb.مبني in its entirety, as mentioned previously.

مضارع , the present and future-tense verb.  Predominantlyمعرب , as will be seen shortly.

أمر حاضر معروف , the second person, active-command verb, alsoمبني in its entirety.

The present-tense verb (مضارع ), like all verbs, also has 14 conjugations.  From the 14, two conjugations, namely the two feminine plurals (number 6 and 12) areمبني i.e. will never change despite the governing agent entering upon them.  The final ‘ن’ at the end of these two conjugations is actually the pronoun, and from it we get the plural feminine meaning.

As for the other 12 conjugations of the present-tense verb, they are allمعرب PROVIDED THAT THEY ARE FREE OF THE ‘ن ’ OF EMPHASIS.  These 12 conjugations can be split into two groups:

Those that end in aُ   in the state ofرفع .  This would include 5 conjugations; numbers 1, 4, 7 and the last two, 13 and 14.

Those that end with aُ   in the state ofرفع , the remaining seven conjugations i.e. the four duals, plus numbers 3, 9 and 10.

Types of ن

Before we proceed, it is important to note that in total there are three different types of ‘ن ’!

The first is the ‘ن ’ of feminine plurality. This is actually a pronoun (and not a reflection ofرفع ).  It comes at the end of conjugation numbers 6 and 12 and will never drop.

The second is what they call, the ‘ن إعرابي’.  The function of this ‘ن ’ is to reflect that theمضارع verb is in its default state ofرفع .  The presence of this ‘ن ’ at the end of the seven conjugations mentioned above will indicateرفع .  The pronoun is the letter before the ‘ن ’ i.e. an ‘ا ’ for the four duals, a ‘و ’ for the two masculine plurals, and ‘ي ’ for number ten, the second person singular feminine.  Inنصب andجزم , this ‘ن ’ will drop.

The third and final ‘ن ’ is what we referred to as the ‘ن ’ of emphasis.  This is a special ‘ن ’ which is a particle and is attached to the end of theمضارع .  It comes in both aساكن form as well as aمشدد form.  Its meaning function is twofold.  Firstly it eliminates the present tense and makes the verb specific to the future.  Secondly it adds emphasis to the future tense meaning (verily or surely).  All conjugations of the present-tense verb becomeمبني as a result of it.

Now we can clearly see the 20% of verbs which areمعرب and distinguish them from the 80% that areمبني :

ماضي -مبني in its entirety.

أمر حاضر معروف -مبني also.

مضارع with the ‘ن ’ of feminine plurality (6 and 12)-مبني

مضارع with the ‘ن ’ of emphasis (all 14 conjugations)-مبني

مضارع empty of  the above mentioned both ‘ن ’ -معرب

Note that from a total five only one isمعرب and four areمبني .  Four from five is 80% and one from five is 20%.

Essential Note on بناء

Thus far we have covered five types ofمبني words.

Allحروف .

ماضي .

أمر حاضر معروف .

مضارع with the ‘nun’ of feminine plurality.

مضارع with the ‘nun’ of emphasis.

Depending on the reason of ‘بناء ’ (statelessness),مبني words are of two types:

مبني الأصل - words that are trulyمبني   i.e. They never enter grammatical states and therefore have no need for the process of reflection calledأعراب .  The first three from the above five areمبني الأصل .

مبني مشابه - words that areمبني   due to a secondary reason such as resemblance to the first category, meaning they do enter grammatical states and hence need the reflection thatأعراب provides. However, owing to some external reason, their last letters remain constant despite the many governing agents that enter upon them. مضارع with the ‘ن ’ of feminine plurality isمبني   because the final ‘‘ن ’ at the end of these two conjugations RESEMBLES the ‘ن ’ ofفَعَلنَ i.e. conjugation number 6 of the past-tense table, whereas the emphatic tables areمبني   in their entirety due to the ‘ن ’ of emphasis being a particle and particles do not give way to last letter change.

The 20% of أسماء that are مبني

From the perspective ofأعراب andبناء , the ‘إسم ’ is classified into two categories:

أسم مُتَمَكِّن :أسماء that do not resembleمبني الأصل and are thereforeمعرب . This category comprises of the vast majority ofأسماء (about 80%), divided into 16 types to be discussed at a later time.  Grammatical state in them will be reflected on the last letter as mentioned previously.  This reflection can be via ‘حركات ’ i.e. short vowels;ضمّة ,فتحة andكسرة , and also by means of letters such as long vowels (ا , و and ى).  It may be explicit or assumed.  For the most part, there will be a full separate reflection for each grammatical state.  Occasionally, there will be just two reflections for all three of the statesأسماء enter.  From this we see thatرفع does not necessarily meanضمّة , nor doesنصب orجر meanفتحة andكسرة . رفع ,نصب andجر are the states andضمّة ,فتحة andكسرة are just one method of their reflection.  There may be others.  In human beings happiness is usually reflected by smiles, but it doesn’t have to be like that.  Sometimes it’s through tears.  In animals happiness is reflected by tail-wagging for instance ….  In total forمعرب أسماء (the 16 types ofأسم مُتَمَكِّن ), there are nine methods of reflection.  These will be covered in detail once we are done explaining theمبني nouns, insha Allah.

أسم غير مُتَمَكِّن :أسماء that do resembleمبني الأصل and are thereforeمبني . مبني nouns are 8 types.  Under each are just a fewأسماء .  Together they account for less then 20% ofأسماء .

The eight categories are listed below.

ضما ﺋﺮ orمضمرات    : Personal Pronouns.

الأسماء الموصولة       : Relative Pronouns.

الأسماء الإشارة           : Demonstrative Pronouns.

أسماء الأفعاال            : Nouns in the meaning of verbs!

أسماء الضُروف           :أسماء   which indicate on time or place (type of Adverb).

أسماء الأصوات          : Words which are used to refer to sounds or noises.

مركَّب بناء      : A small group of words which were originally phrases, namely the numbers from eleven to nineteen.

كِنايات          : Words that refer to vagueness in speech or number etc. (Like ‘so many’ in English.)

Personal Pronouns - ضماﺋﺮ

Pronouns in Arabic are much more than what we have in English.  To fully understand all the groupings of Arabic Pronouns, contrasting them with their English counter-parts will be helpful.  In English, primarily we have three groups of pronouns: nominative, accusative and genitive.  They are listed below:

Nominative: he, she, they, you, I and we

Accusative: him, her, them, you, me and us

Genitive: his, her, their, your, my and our

Note that in the plural third person (they), gender is irrelevant, meaning the same pronoun is used for feminine and masculine, while in the second person both gender AND plurality are not considered.  Likewise, the singular feminine third person (her) is used twice in accusative as well as genitive.  So basically the total number of pronouns in English is only 18 and after dropping the ones which are used twice 16.

In Arabic, the total number is very high at 84: six groupings, each of which has a full 14 pronouns.  To understand the significance of the number 14 here, recall what we mentioned when explaining the conjugation tables.  Six groupings is because in addition to the three groupings mentioned above Arabic also has governing agents.  If a pronoun is said to be inرفع due to being subject for instance, there must be something to cause theرفع preceding the pronoun, which in this case would be the verb.  Thus the verb inنحو is called the ‘عامل ’ (governing agent).  This will happen in all three of the statesأسماء enter into;رفع ,نصب andجر .  Now the pronoun may be attached (مُتَّصل ) to the agent and both written as ONE WORD, or the agent could be a separate word and the pronoun written by itself (مُنفَصل ).  In each case the pronoun will look different.  Forجر there is noمُنفَصل , because the agents ofجر are just two, namely prepositions andمضاف , which puts theمضاف إليه in the state ofجر .  Both agents REQUIRE that the pronoun after them be attached.  This leaves us with a total of five groups.  Then because theمجرور one can have only two agents, it is mentioned twice, thus making the number of groupings six (with 14 under each):

مرفوع متّصل   : Nominative pronoun attached to its agent e.g. theت ُ inضَرَبتُ (I hit).

مرفوع منفصل             : Nominative pronoun separate from its agent.هُو َ which means ‘he’.

منصوب متّصل            : Accusative pronoun attached to its agent e.g. theﻪُ inرَأيتُهُ (I saw ‘him’)

منصوب منفصل          : Accusative pronoun separate from its agent e.g.إيّاكَ (you alone).

مجرور متّصل withحرف جر    : Genitive pronoun attached to preposition e.g. theﻪُ inلَهُ (for him).

مجرور متّصل withمضاف       : Genitive pronoun attached toمضاف e.g. theهُ inدارُهُ (his house).

All of these 84 pronouns areمبني due to their dependency upon nouns.  In order to be used in speech, third person pronouns need to be preceded by nouns and so forth.  Dependency is a characteristic of particles: one of the threeمبني الأصل .

The following is a full table of all theضَماﺋﺮ discussed in this section:

مجرور متّصِل		منصوب		مرفوع			صيغة
بِمضاف	بِحرف جر	منفصل	متّصِل	مُنفَصِل	متّصِل
					مضارع	ماضي
دارُهُ	لَهُ	إيّاهُ	هُ	هُوَ	يَضرِبُ (هو )	ضَرَبَ (هو )	واحد مذكر غاﺋﺐ
دارُهُما	لَهُما	إيّاهُما	هُما	هُما	يَضرِبا نِ	ضَرَبا	تثنية مذكر غاﺋﺐ
دارُهُم	لَهُم	إيّاهُم	هُم	هُم	يَضرِبُو نَ	ضَرَبُو ا	جمع مذكر غاﺋﺐ
دارُها	لَها	إيّاها	ها	هِيَ	تَضرِبُ (هي )	ضَرَبَتْ (هي )	واحد مؤنث غاﺋﺐ
دارُهُما	لَهُما	إيّاهُما	هُما	هُما	تَضرِبا نِ	ضَرَبَتا	تثنية مؤنث غاﺋﺐ
دارُهُنَّ	لَهُنَّ	إيّاهُنَّ	هُنَّ	هُنَّ	يَضرِبنَ	ضَرَبْنَ	جمع مؤنث غاﺋﺐ
دارُكَ	لَكَ	إيّاكَ	كَ	أنتَ	تَضرِبُ (هو )	ضَرَبْتَ	واحد مذكر حاضر
دارُكُما	لَكُما	إيّاكُما	كُما	أنتُما	تَضرِبا نِ	ضَرَبْتُما	تثنية مذكر حاضر
دارُكُم	لَكُم	إيّاكُم	كُم	أنتُم	تَضرِبُو نَ	ضَرَبْتُمْ	جمع مذكر حاضر
دارُكِ	لَكِ	إيّاكِ	كِ	أنتِ	تَضرِﺑِﻴ ﻦَ	ضَرَبْتِ	واحد مؤنث حاضر
دارُكُما	لَكُما	إيّاكُما	كُما	أنتُما	تَضرِبا نِ	ضَرَبْتُما	تثنية مؤنث حاضر
دارُكُنَّ	لَكُنَّ	إيّاكُنَّ	كُنَّ	أنتُنَّ	تَضرِبنَ	ضَرَبْتُنَّ	جمع مؤنث حاضر
دارِيَ	لِي	إيّايَ	ي	أنا	أضرِبُ (أنا )	ضَرَبْتُ	واحد متكلم
دارُنا	لَنا	إيّانا	نا	نَحنُ	نَضرِبُ (نحن )	ضَرَبْنَا	جمع متكلم

Table Error! No text of specified style in document. -B - Personal Pronouns

Relative Pronouns - الأسماء الموصولة

In order to fully understand what relative pronouns are, one needs to be informed about theموصوف- صفة phrase which in Arabic grammar is the noun-adjective phrase, an expression of usually twoأسماء in which the secondإسم describes the first.

e.g. رَجُلٌ كَرِيمٌ (a noble man), or

 الرَّجُلُ الكَرِيمُ (the noble man)

From the aspects in which theموصوف andصفة have to correspond, is beingمعرفه orنكره (definite or indefinite).  In most cases both words areأسماء and correspondence is fairly simple.  Adding ‘ال’ to both words will make it ‘the noble man’ whereas keeping both words empty will leave it ‘a noble man’.  However, occasionally the need arises to describe a noun using a whole sentence.  Take for instance the phrase ‘a man who I met yesterday’.  ‘I met yesterday’ is a full sentence.  It was used in the above example to describe the indefinite noun ‘a man’.

The scholars ofنحو have attached a value to the informative sentence (جملة خبرية ) and have told us it’s ‘نكره ’.  Therefore, if the above example were to be rendered into Arabic it would read as follows:رَجُلٌ لَقِيتُهُ أمسِ .  No extra word is needed between the noun being described i.e. theموصوف ‘رَجُلٌ ’ and the sentenceلَقِيتُهُ أمسِ , for they are bothنكره and correspondence is complete.  On the other hand, were theموصوف to beمعرفه , we would have had a problem of matching the two.  To convey the meaning ‘the man who I met yesterday’, merely adding an ‘ال’ to theموصوف would not suffice.  We would be left with aمعرف موصوف (الرَّجُلُ ) and aنكره صفة (theجملة خبرية ).  The only way this meaning could be validly conveyed is if somehow that value attached to theجملة خبرية could be transformed into aمعرفه value.  This is where theمَوصول comes into play….

الأسماء الموصولة or Relative Pronouns are like which, what, that, or who in English, not the question which, what etc. but the pronouns ‘which’ come between nouns and the sentences ‘that’ describe them.  Read that again!  “pronouns ‘which’ come between nouns” and “the sentences ‘that’ describe them”.  In English these pronouns MUST be brought in every such structure.  In Arabic they are brought ONLY when theموصوف isمعرفه .  If it isنكره , there will be no need for aمَوصول , in which case the grammatical structure itself will join the sentence to the noun being described.

This is the primary purpose why we have these words in the language.  If the noun being described is of a very general meaning such as man, woman, thing etc, often the noun is not mentioned.  Theمَوصول itself will convey the entire meaning, such as in the following sentence:

جاء الّذي علَّمَكَ في المسجدِ (The person who taught you in the masjid came).

In this sentence theمَوصول ‘الّذي ’ not only means ‘who’ but actually ‘the person who’.

The sentence which follows theمَوصول i.e. the describingجملة خبرية is calledصِله . Together with theمَوصول , both parts becomeصفة for the preceding noun, or if the noun is of a general nature and implicit as mentioned above, theمَوصول andصِله together will directly become part of the greater sentence.  Within theصِله there MUST be a third person pronoun referring back to theمَوصول .  This pronoun will always correspond to theمَوصول in gender and plurality.  In the above example the implicit pronounهو hidden in the verbعَلَّم َ is referring toالّذي theمَوصول .

Besidesالّذي and its dual, plural, and feminine variations, the following relative pronouns are in use:

مَنْ - the person who…

ما - the thing that….  Bothمَنْ andما have no duals our plurals.  The same word is essentially used for all gender and plurality.  ‘مَنْ ’ is for human beings while ‘ما ’ is for non-humans.

أيٌّ , أيَّةٌ -which….  Bothموصولان will always beمضاف to theأسماء after them.  The second word of the possessive phrase may be singular or plural e.g. أيُّ كِتابٍ (which book) and,    أيُّ الكُتُبِ (which of the books).  Both meanings are almost identical.  Just two ways of saying the same thing. أيٌّ andأيَّةٌ are bothمعرب and there grammatical state will be subject to the governing agent before them similar to normal إسمs.

The ‘ال ’ which is attached to the active and passive participles (إسم فاعل andإسم مفعول ) is also considered to beمَوصول and in the meaning ofالّذي .  Hence,الضارِبُ would meanالّذي ضَرَبَ (one who hits).  Likewise,المَضروبُ is akin toالّذي ضُرِبَ (one who is hit).  In other words the ‘ال ’ at the beginning of both literally means ‘one who’.

ذُو in the dialect of the clan ofبَن طَي - also in the meaning ofالّذي according to this particular tribe of Arabs e.g.جاﺋﲎ ذُو ضَرَبَكَ (the man who hit you came to me).

Except forأيٌّ ,أيَّةٌ , and the duals ofالّذي andالّتي , allمَوصول areمبني due to there dependency upon theصله .  You will never encounter aمَوصول except with itsصله .  As mentioned repeatedly, dependency is a characteristic ofحرف : one from theمبني الأصل .

Demonstrative Pronouns -   الأسماء الإشارة

Descriptive Pronouns (this/that) are devices used to refer or point towards nouns.  While the pronoun in Arabic is calledإسم إشاره , the noun is known asمُشارٌ إليه .  In the phraseذٰلِكَ الكِتابُ (that book),ذٰلِكَ is theإسم إشاره andالكِتابُ is theمُشارٌ إليه .  The pronoun coupled with the noun will always be a phrase.  However, there are instances when the noun being referred to is of a very general nature such as thing, man, or woman, in which case the pronoun itself will convey both meanings i.e.هٰذا can mean ‘this thing’ or ‘this person’ as apposed to just ‘this’.  When this happens the following word will be the remaining part of the sentence (the predicate).  In order to determine whether the following word is connected toهٰذا and forming the second part of the descriptive phrase or whetherهٰذا is independent of a separate ‘مُشارٌ إليه and conveying the entire meaning itself as mentioned above, one will need to look at the next word.  If it begins with an ‘ال ’, the two words will become a descriptive phrase (this book), otherwise a full sentence.  When theمُشارٌ إليه can not take ‘ال ’ do to beingمضاف and a descriptive phrase is intended, such as ‘this book of his’, in order to avoid confusion with theإسميّه sentence, theإسم إشاره will be brought after the possessive phrase.  Consider the following three ways of using this device:

1.هٰذا الكِتابُ : this book

2. هٰذا كِتابٌ : This is a book.

3.كِتابُهُ هٰذا : this book of his 

Verbal Nouns - أسماء الأفعال

These are a group of words in the language which are very few in number.  They have the meanings of verbs, meaning that their meanings are linked to time.  They have tenses.  However, besides the tense, they have no other characteristic of verbs such as conjugation tables and suffixes.  They do not fall under any recognized pattern of verb.  They come in two types; a group that has a past tense meaning e.g.هَيهاتَ (became distant), and a group consisting of words that have command-verb meanings e.g.رُوَيدَ (give respite), the first being identical toبَعُدَ (a past-tense verb), and the second to ‘أمهِل ’ (a second person active command verb). 

Although these words do have the meanings ofأفعال due to the absence of all other characteristics of recognized verbs, they were not categorized as such.  The other two parts of speech also do not apply, but because there number is so less in the Arabic language, the scholars of grammar did not see it appropriate to give them a separate category and call them the fourth part of speech.  Instead they said these areمبني أسماء which contain the meaning of verbs, treating this tense as a ‘resemblance’ to verb, hence theirمبني nature.  Recall both ماضي andأمر حاضر areمبني الأصل . 

Adverbs of Time or Place - أسماء الضروف

Words Denoting Sounds or Noises - أسماء الأصوات

These are essentially sounds rendered into words e.g.أُح أُح , a coughing sound.  They are allمبني due to sounds not having true grammatical positioning, in terms of being subject, object etc.

Numbers 11-19 - مركّب بناء

Words denoting vagueness - كنايات