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.