I’ll be updating online resources here periodically.

All The Arabic You Never Learned First Time Around

Written with someone that has studied Arabic Grammar beforehand but is still struggling. The style of the author is humors, and tries to impart that which he deems important, based on his experience of teaching Arabic, and the pitfalls students of Arabic face.

Treasures of Arabic Morphology

All the Morphology you will ever need in one book.

 

Hans Wher Dictonary

Go to dictionary for Arabic which is root-based.

Anki

Flashcard program which is based on spaced repetition to minimize study time and reinforce knowledge into long-term memory.

Arabic Books Digitized

 

 

 

 

 

 

This is a translation of Imam al-jurjani’s abridgment of al-tibi’s introduction to mishkat al-masabih. I will translate it in several posts.

All praise is for Allah the lord of the worlds. Prayers and blessings be upon his messenger, Muhammad, his people entirely.

This is a concise abridgment of ‘ilm al-hadith, comprised upon an introduction and objectives.

Introduction in Explicating its Principles and Terminology

al-matn: It is the words of the hadith which meanings are established upon it.

al-hadith: Generally it is a statement of the Prophet sallahu alayhi wa sallam, companion, tabin, their action, or their report.

al-sanad: Information regarding the path of individuals ascribed to the matn.

al-isnad: Attributing the hadith to its originator. Both sanad and isnad are similar in meaning. The muhadithin are observant in its being soundness and weakness.

al-khabr al-mutawatir: That which has reached excessively in multitude, making impossible for it to be a lie, and it continued in excess until the end of the sanad. Thereby, the first of its beginning is like its end; its middle being like its begging and end, such as the Qur’an and and the five prayers.

al-ahaad: it is that which did not reach mutawatir.

ibn al-jazi said, “Comprising all of the hadith is far from possible, to the point that a group of them tried and failed.”

 

 

 

 

 

 

Feminine nouns can be divided into two categories. The first one is called مؤنث لفظى, these are famine words that have signs of femininity, which are — ة — ى — ء

• ة
  • جميلة
  • عالمة
  • سبورة
  • معاوية
  • طلحة
• الألف المقصورة
  • On the scale of فُعلى:
    • بشرى
    • رجعى
    • حبلى
    • فصلى
  • One the scale of فَعلى
    • كسلى
    • سكرى
    • دعوى
    • قتلى
  • On the scale of فُعالى
    • سكارى
    • حبارى
• الألف الممدودة
  • On the scale of فَعلاء
    • حراء
    • حسناء
    • صحراء
  • On the scale of افعِالاء
    • اربعاء
  • On the scale of فاعولاء
    • عاشوراء
  • On the scale of فُعلِياء
    • كبرياء
  • On the scale of فُعلاء
  • خيلاء

The second group of words are مؤنث معنوى, which do not have any signs of femininity(ة, ى, ء)

1. Names of females
   1. مريم
   2. زينب
2.  ًًWords meant for female genders
   1. أم
   2. أخت
3. Countries
   1. قريش
   2. بغداد
   3. مصر
4. Pairs of Body Parts
   1. يد
   2. رجل
   3. عين
   4. اذن

المؤنث السماعى will be covered in another post.

By default declination occurs by a governing word that causes the endings to change, however at times the governing word may be much earlier. There are five ways to for this to occur, here is a list of the five with an an example. Each one will go into detail in a further blog posts.

• النعت – Attribute
  • جاءنى ولدعالم أبو
  • “Came to me a son, his father his an alim.”
• العطف – Conjunction
  • قام زيد وعمرو
  • Zaid and ‘Amr stood.
• التأكيد – Emphasis
  • فسجد الملائكة كلهم أجمعين
  • All of them prostrated, this is clarified.
• البدل – ِSubstitute
  • جاء زيد اخوك
  • ‘Your brother’, is the focus of the sentence and not Zaid, Zaid merely serves as an introduction.
• عطف البيان – Explicative
  • جاء على زين العابدين
  • Zain al-abidin is the title of ‘Ali

 

The الاسم المعرب divides into two categories. They are either منصرف or غير منصرف.

The first منصرف is when the ending is fully shown.

The second غير منصرف is when the hidden is not apparent.

There can be several reasons for their predicament. However there needs to be a combination of 2 from 9 possibilities; or one that is so powerful that it stands in the place of two.

1. العدل – Transformation
   1. The word has changed from its original form.
   2. It does not join with وزن الفعل
   3. It will join with العلمية like عمر and زفر
   4. It will join with الوصف like ثلاث و مثلث وأخر وجمع
2. الوصف – Attribute
   1. It will never join with العلمية
   2. It is conditioned that the word a attribute in its original coinage like أسود و أرقم
   3. In the example مررت بنسوة اربع the اربع is not qayr munsarif because it is not originally a وصف
3. التأنيث – Feminine
   1.  If it has a tamarbutah at the end, it must also be a name, like طلحة
   2.  Likewise if it is understood feminine, like زينب
   3. If the understood feminine, if it is three lateral, and has a sukun in the middle, it can be declined or not
   4. If it is feminine by alif maqsura or mamduda, like حبلى and حمراء , is not possible to do decline in any situation
4. المعرفة – Definite
   1. Will need to be a proper noun as well and will combine with an attribute
5.  العجمة – Foreign
   1. It is necessary to be a proper noun in the foreign language
   2. More than 3 letters like ابراهيم and اسماعيل
   3. If it is 3 letters, the middle letter, must be not have a sukun like لخام
   4. نوح is declined because the middle has a sukun
6. الجمع – Plural
   1. It must be on the form of the ultimate plural like مساجد and داوب
7. التركيب – Combination
   1. It must a proper noun without annexation like بعلبك and معد بكرب
8. الألف والنون الزائدتان
   1. If it is a  pronoun like عمران, عثمان, and سعدان
   2. If it is a attribute, it must not be a feminine on the pattern of فعلانة like, سكران and عطشان
9. وزن الفعل – Pattern of a Verb

 

 

All words in Arabic grammar will divide into these two categories Mu’rab (declinable) or Mabni (indeclinable).

The معرب further divides into two categories — منصرف and غير منصرف.

All of the declinable will divide into three discussions the marfuat, mansubat, and majrurat. Each one will have several topics within them.

The indeclinable will also have its individually separate topics

The majority of words will fall into mu’rab and are the most important. However the ability to identify between the two and their individual rulings are vital to understanding syntactical importance.  The subject of this blog post is to a quick overview without going into the particulars.

 

Defining معرب

• Every word that is contextualized in a sentence
• Every word that does not resemble an Original Indeclinable (مبني الآصل)

Examples of both:

قام زيد Zaid is standing.

Within the sentence Zaid is Mu’rab, however if it was by itself it would no longer be considered mu’rab.

The second is if it resembles an original indeclinable word(like a harf ex. في) like هولاء.

Ruling of the mu’rab: The endings change with the change in its grammatical place. This is by using using a dammah ُ , fathaَ , kasra ِ  , wawو , alif ا , and ya ي. The grammatical cases are called rafa’ (رفع), nasab (نصب), and jar (جر).

The ism that is called mu’rab is called the الاسم المتمكن; also the الفعل المضارع is mu’rab.

Defining مبني

They are opposites of the معرب definition

• Every word that is not contextualized within a sentence
• ُEvery word that resembles the Original Indeclinable (مبني الأصل)

Examples:

• Resembles Indeclinable
  • Resembles an original indeclinable like — هولاء
  • Less than 3 letters like —
    • ذا
    • من
    • أحد عشر
• Original Indeclinable
  • المضمرات
  • أسماء الإشارة
  • الاسم الموصول
  • أسماء الأفعال
  • الأسماء الأصوات
  • المركبات
  • الكنايات
  • الظروف المبنية

 

So all words that change in their grammatical endings are basically Mu’rab. There are some exceptions of words that may not appear to change their grammatical endings but do, those will be dealt in a latter post. All other words do not change their endings and are ‘fixed.’

 

All the words in Arabic grammar can be placed into three exact categories. Either the word will be a Noun(اسم), Verb(فعل), or Particle(حرف). The following is a high level overview definitions and examples. The identified signs will be mentioned. Through these signs any word can be identified.

Definitions

1. Noun – الاسم – is a word that is not associated with any tense (past, present, future).  For example proper names, places, things, and other items more expansive than the English noun. This is the largest group.
2. Verb – الفعل – is a word that is associated with a tense (past, present, future).
3. Particle – الحرف is a word that has no meaning without either an اسم or فعل. Basically any word which is neither a noun or verb will fall into this category.

 

Examples of Nouns

• Something that can be talked about
  • Zaid is standing.
  • زيد قائم
• Something that can be possesive
  • Zaid’s servant
  • غلام زيد
• Something in which alif lam(definitive) can be added
  • The man
  • الرجل
• Something in which can be jar and have tanwin(nunation)
  • With Zaid
  • بزيد
• Something that can be dual
  • The two men
  • الرجلان
• Something that can be plural
  • Men
  • رجال
• Something that is descriptive
  • Zaid is an knowledgeable.
  • زيد عالم
• Something that can be diminutive
  • Young man
  • رجيل
• Something that can be called
  • Oh Zaid!
  • يا زيد

Sings of Verbs

• Can talk about something with it
• Following can come before it
  • قد
    • قد ضرب
    • He has hit.
  • سين
    • سيضرب
    • He will hit soon.
  • سوف
    • سوف يضرب
    • He will hit soon.
  • جرم
    • He will not hit.
    • لم يضرب
• Can be in the form of a command
  • ًWrite!
  • اكتب
• Can have have suffixed pronouns
  • ًI wrote.
  • َضربت

Signs of Particles

These are words that connect words between اسم and فعل.

• Cannot be talked about or with it.
• Does not accept the signs of the اسم or فعل.
• Examples:
  • سرت من البصرة إلى الكوفة
  • I traveled from basra to kufa.

Asalamualykum!

I look forward to sharing my thoughts, translations, and resources regarding Islamic Studies, in my journey of seeking knowledge.

Allah ta’ala says in surah taha: وقل رب زدني علمًا

Imam al-qurtubi says in this regard, “If there is a thing more noble other than knowledge then surely Allah ta’ala would have alert the Prophet sallahu alahyi wa sallam to ask.

 

I ask Allah ta’ala that he increase me and you in beneficial knowledge.

Wassalam

طالب العلم