عِلْمُ النَّحْوا (Arabic Grammar) - Lesson: 2

بسم اللہ الرحمن الرحیم

ٌاِسْم (Noun): It gives meaning on its own and is not connected to any of three tenses; present, past, future. For eg.قَلَمٌ (a pen), فَرَسٌ (a horse), بَیْتٌ (a house).

There are three types of noun:

1. جَامِدٌ (Primary Noun): It is neither derived from another word nor is any word derived from it. e.g. فَرَسٌ (horse), بِنْتٌ (girl).
2. مَصْدَرٌ (Root Noun): From which many words can be derived. e.g. ضَرْبٌ (to hit), نَصْرٌ (to help).
3. مُشْتَقٌ (Derived Noun): Which is derived from مصدر. e.g. ضَارِبٌ (hitter), مَنْصُوْرٌ (helped).

فِعْلٌ (Verb): It gives meaning on its own and is also connected to any of three tenses. For e.g. سَمِعَ (He heard), نَصَرَ (He helped), کَتَبَ (He wrote).

There are four types of verb:

1. اَلْمَاضِیْ (Past Tense): Event which occurred in the past. e.g. ضَرَبَ (He hit)
2. اَلْمُضَارِعُ (Present & Future): Event which can occur in present or future. e.g. یَضْرِبُ (He is hitting or will hit)
3. اَلْاَمْرُ (Positive Command/Imperative): Giving command to do something. e.g. اِضْرِبْ (Hit!)
4. اَلنَّھْیُ (Negative Command/Prohibitive): Negating the command. e.g. لَا تَضْرِبْ (Don't hit!)

Note: مَا is used for past tense negation and لَا is used for present/future tense negation.

حَرْفٌ (Particle): It cannot give meaning on its own. In otherwords, its dependent on other words either اِسْم or فِعْل to be meaningful. For e.g. لِ (for), وَ (by), بِ (with). To make it meaningful we can use them like کَتَبْتُ بِالْقَلَمِ (wrote with pen), وَاللَّہ (by Allah), رَجُلِ (for male)

There are two types of particle:

1. عَامِلٌ (Causative Particle): A governing word or letter (حرف) which causes اِعْرَاب to change in the word after it if it have a governing word before it or in the last letter of the word if it begins with a governing letter. e.g. زَیْدٌ فِی الْمَسْجِدِ - here فِی is عامل and it causes the اعراب on last letter of the word after it, د to have kasrah. بِسْمِ اللَّہ - here بِ is a governing حرف which causes its last letter م to have kasrah on it.
2. غَیْرُ الْعَامِلِ (Non-Causative Particle): A governing word or letter (حرف) which does not cause اعراب to change in the word. e.g. ثُمَّ (then), وَ (and).

عِلْمُ النَّحْوا (Arabic Grammar) - Lesson: 1

بسم اللہ الرحمن الر حیم

نَحْو (Nahw): Nahw or Arabic Grammar is that science which teaches us  how to join a noun, verb and particle to form a correct sentence; as well as what the اِعْرَاب (condition) of the last letter of a word should be.

Its subject matter is کَلِمَۃ (word) and کَلَام (sentence).

Objective:

• The immediate objective is to learn how to read, write and speak Arabic correctly and to avoid making mistakes in this.
• It teaches us how to put words together to form a correct sentence.
• Mid-term objective is to use our Arabic skills to understand the Quran, Hadith, Fiqh and other Islamic sciences so that we can act upon them.
• The ultimate objective through the above is to gain the pleasure of Almighty Allah.

History:

Regarding its invention some historians wrote that during the caliphate of Hazrat Umar may Allah be pleased with him one villager asked from the peoples that is there any one who can teach me the part of Holy Quran revealed on Prophet Mohammad peace be upon him? On this one man has taught him few beginning verses of Surah Tawbah and when he recited the part of the verse:

 ۚأَنَّ اللَّهَ بَرِيءٌ مِّنَ الْمُشْرِكِينَ ۙ وَرَسُولُهُ

he pronounced the word وَرَسُولُه as وَرَسُولِه, i.e. ل with kasrah instead of dhammah and the meaning changed from "that Allah and His Messenger has disassociated from the disbelievers" to "that Allah is disassociated from the disbelievers and from His Messenger". On this the villager said:

When Allah Himself has disassociated from His Messenger then I will also disassociate myself from His Messenger.

When Hazrat Umar may Allah be pleased with him was informed about it, he called the villager and told him that the letter ل is with dhammah not kasrah, which means "Allah and His Messenger has disassociated from the disbelievers". After this he called Abu al-Aswad al-Du'ali may Allah be pleased with him and ordered him to write the grammatical rules (نحو) to avoid these mistakes.

Another incident is during the time of caliphate of Hazrat Ali may Allah be pleased with him, when once he was writing some notes and suddenly Abu al-Aswad al-Du'ali may Allah be pleased with him came and asked what he is writing. On this Hazrat Ali may Allah be pleased with him tells that there became a significant corruption in the Arabic language due to the conflation of Arabs and non-Arabs and that he is writing some grammatical rules. He then gave these notes on grammatical rules to Abu al-Aswad may Allah be pleased with him to write some more rules and later he then returned it back to Hazrat Ali may Allah be pleased with him. Hazrat Ali may Allah be pleased with him then said:

ما أحسن هذا النحو الذي نحوت، فمن ثمَّ سُمِّي النحو نحوا۔

Importance of Nahw:

• Hazrat Umar may Allah be pleased with him said:

تَعَلَّمُوْا النَّحْوُ کَمَا تَتَعَلَّمُوْنَ السُّنَن وَ الْفَرَائِض

Learn Nahw, like you learn Sunnah and Obligatory

• Hazrat Umar may Allah be pleased with him also said:

 تَعَلَّمُوا الْعَرَبِيَّةَ فَإِنَّهَا تُنْبِتُ الْعَقْلَ وَتَزِيدُ فِي الْمُرُوءَةِ

Learn Arabic, for it strengthens the intelligence and increases one’s noble conduct (al-murû`ah).

• Ayub al-Sakhtiyani may Allah be pleased with him said:

تَعَلَّمُوْا النَّحْوُ فَإنَّهُ جَمَالٌ لِّلْوَضِيْعِ وَتَرَكَهُ هُجْنَةٌ لِّلشَّرِيْف

Learn Nahw, for it is a grace for a cheap man and leaving it is a disgrace for a noble man.

عِلْمُ الصَّرْف (Arabic Morphology) - Lesson: 4 - Passive Past Tense (اَلْفِعْل اَلْمَاضِی اَلْمَجْهُول)

بسم اللہ الرحمن الرحیم

Passive voice is when the doer/subject is not present. In passive voice, first letter of a word becomes dhammah, second last letter becomes kasrah and last letter remain unchanged. Based on our pattern, the word "فَعَلَ" will become "فُعِلَ".

Active/Passive Voice Negation:

Placing the word "مَا" before active and passive voice negate the past tense verb. For eg. "فَعَلَ" becomes "مَا فَعَلَ" and "فُعِلَ" becomes "مَا فُعِلَ".

(click to enlarge)