5.3/5.4/5.5/5.6 - Incomplete Compound in a Sentence/Nominative /Interrogative /Negative
Section 5.3 - Use of Incomplete Compound in a Sentence
It was mentioned earlier that there is a minimum of two parts required to make a complete sentence. These are mubtada and Khabar or predicate. Both can be a single word or a compound word (simple or complex). In the following examples, the use of incomplete compounds is explained.
Examples:
1. Allah is the owner of the dominion (اللّٰهُ مَالِكُ الْمُلْكِ):
a) Here Allah (اللّٰهُ) is a singular mubtada
b) مَالِكُ الْمُلْكِ meaning owner of the dominionis a possessive compound which is the predicate (al-khabar). مَالِكُ is in Nominative state and الْمُلْكِ is in a genitive state to make an idaa-ficompound.
2. Allah has control over everything (اللّٰهُ علٰى كلِّ شَئٍ قديْرٍ): Here
a. Allah (اللّٰهُ) is a singular mubtada in nominative (raf-un) state.
b. علىٰ is a harf e Jarrpreposition meaning “over”. Anything that follows it should be majroor meaning it has to be in a state of jaror genitive state.
c. كلُّ شَيٍ (kul-lu shaiy-in) is an idaa-ficompound meaning “all things”.
d. قدِيْرٌ qadee-run (controller) combined with كلُّ شئٍ makes second descriptive compound قدِيْرٌ كلُّ شَيٍ.
e. Combining harf-e-Jarrعلىٰ with قديْرٌكلُّ شَئٍ becomes the Genitive compound causing all words after al-aa to go into genitive (jarr-un) state.
f. علٰى كلِّ شَيٍ قَدِيْرٍ then becomes predicate for mubtada اللّٰهُ.
2. Mohammed (Sallallahu alaihi wa sallam) is the messenger of Allah مُحَمَّدٌﷺ رَسُوْلُ اللّٰهِ (Mo-hamma-dun Rasool-ul-lahi).
a) مُحَمَّدٌﷺ here is الْمُبْتَدَاءُ al-mub-tadau and
اللّٰهِ رَسُوْلُ rasoolul-lahi is the possessive compound which is the predicate الْخبَرُ (al-khaba-ru) meaning messenger of Allah.
3. Allah’s messenger was truthful and trustworthy رَسُوْلُ اللّٰهِ الصَّادِقُ والْاَمِيْنُ rasoolul-lahis sadiquwal ameenu.
a) Here رَسُوْلُ اللّٰهِ is a possessive compound and is mub-tada for the sentence.
b الصَّادِقُ وَالْاَمِيْنُ is a combination of الصَّادِقُ and الْاَمِيْنُ which are joined with an additive alphabet وَ which means “and”, and is called الْعَاطِفَةُ اَلْحَرْفُ (al-har-fulaa-tifa-tu)
Section 5.4 - Nominative Sentence جُملَةٌ اِسْمِيَّةٌ jum-la-tun is-miy-yatun
Componentsمُتَعَلَّقُ الْخَبَرِ mu-tal-la-qul kha-ba-ri (Associate)
Joined Nouns مَعْطُوْفٌ/مَعْطُوْفٌ اِلَيْهِ ma-toof-un/maa-too-fun ilai-hi (Additive/Independent)
Besides mub-tada and predicate, other components can be a part of the sentence. One of them is called مُتَعَلَّقُ الْخَبَرِ (mu-ta-al-la-qulKhabar) associate of the predicate. For example, take the sentence:
اُوْلٰئِكَ عَليْهِمْ صَلَوَاتٌ مِّنْ رَّبِّهِم وَ رَحْمَةٌ
(oo-lai-ka alai-himsala-waa-tum mir rabbi-him wa rah-ma)
meaning “Those are the ones upon whom are blessings from their Lord and mercy”. Here, مِنْ رَبِّهِم mir-rabbi-him meaning from their Lord, is جَارٌ/مَجْرُوْرٌ Jaar-majroor since مِنْ is a jarr particle and it is called مُتَعَلَّقُ الْخَبَرِ mu-tal-la-qul kha-ba-ri which literally means “associate of the predicate”.
Also, a predicate could be “joined Nouns” with a joining Particle (حَرْفُ الْعَطْفِ har-ful ata-fi) such as (وَ). In the above example, صَلَوَاتٌ مِنْ رَبِّهِم sala-waa-tunmir-rabbi-him is joined with رَحْمَةٌ rah-ma-tun with a (وَ) which means “and” meaning “blessings from their Lord and mercy”.
Joining Particles (حَرُوْفُ الْعَاطِفَةِ huroof-ulaa-ti-fa-ti) are several such as
- (وَ wa) meaning and
- (فَ fa) meaning and /then
- (إِمَّا imma) meaning whether/or
- (اَوْ aw) meaning or
- etc.
These will be described in detail later in Chapter 9.
Section 5.5 - Interrogative Sentences
Several Particles are used for interrogative sentences.
For those questions which can be answered in yes or no, to make a nominative sentence an interrogative one, two Particles are commonly used which are (1) هَلْ (hull) and (2) أَ (aa). Examples of these would be:
a) هَلْ مِنْۢ مَزِيْدٍ (hullmim ma-zeed-in) meaning “is there more in it?”,
b) أَزَيْدٌ عَالِمٌ (a-Zaidun aa-li-mun) meaning “is Zaid a scholar?”
c) أَ أَنْتَ يُوْسُفُ (a-anta yoo-su-fu) meaning “are you Yousuf?”.
There are several ways a question can be posed in addition to the ones described above. The Particles used for these are described in Table 25 below.
Table 25 - Interrogative Particles
| Particles | Meaning | Example | Meaning |
| مَا Maa | What | مَا هٰذَا
Ma haaza | What is this?
|
|
|
| مَا اِسْمُكَ
Maa Ismu-ka or Mas-mu-ka
| What is your name? |
| مَنْ
Mun as in sun | Who | مَنْ رَبُّكَ
Man rab-buka
| Who is your Lord? |
|
|
| مَنْ اَنْتِ
Man-anta | who are you (female)? |
| كَيْفَ
Kai-fa | How | كَيْفَ اَنْتُمْ
Kaifa-antum
| Who are you all? |
|
|
| كَيْفَ حَالُكَ
Kaifa haa-lu-ka | How are you? |
| اَينَ
Ai-na | Where | اَيْنَ اَنْتَ
Ayna anta | Where are you? |
| مَتٰى
Mata/Aiy-yana | When | مَتٰى جَاءَ
Mataa-jaa-a | When did he come? |
| اَنّٰى
Anna
| Where from/in what way/how | أَنَّىٰ لَهُ الذِّكْرَىٰ
Anna la-huz-zikraa | what good to him will be the remembrance? |
| أَىٌّ
Ay-yun
| Which | أَيُّ طَرِيْقً
Ayyu taree-qan | Which way? |
| كَمْ
Kum (sound as in come) | How many/How much | كَمْ عَدَدُ الْاَيَّامِ
Kum adad-ul ayyami | How many days? |
Table 26 - Interrogative Particles with Prepositions
| First Particle - Jarr-un | Second Particle - interrogation | Combined | meaning |
| لِ
li | مَا
maa | لِمَا Li-maa (Quran sometimes uses it as لِمَ) | Why, for what |
| فِيْ
fee | مَا
maa | فِيْمَا
Fee-maa | In what/over what |
| مِنْ
min | مَا
maa | مِمَّا
Mim-maa | With what/from what |
| عَنْ
un | مَا
maa | عَمَّا
Am-maa | About what/about what |
| لِ
li | مَنْ
mun | لِمَنْ
Lee-mun (mun as in sun) | For who |
| مِنْ
min | اَيْنَ
Ay-na | مِنْ اَيْنَ
Min aiy-naa | From where |
| اِلٰى
ilaa | اَيْنَ
Ay-na | اِلٰى اَيْنَ
Ilaa-aiy-naa | Where to |
| اِلٰى
ilaa | مَتٰى
Ma-taa | اِلٰى مَتٰى
Ilaa ma-taa | Until when/how long |
| بِ
bi | كَمْ
kam | بِكَمْ
Bee-kam | For how much |
Examples for the above Particle combinations:
1) لِمَ تَقُوْلُوْنَ مَا لَا تَفعَلُوْنَ (li-ma taqoo-loona maa laa taf-'aloon) meaning why do you say what you do not do
2) فِيْمَا شَجَرَ بَينَهُمْ (fee-ma sha-ja-ra bai-na-hum) meaning over which they dispute among themselves.
3) مِمّا رَزَقْنٰهُمْ(mim-ma razaq-na-hum) meaning from what we gave them.
1) سُبْحَانَ رَبِّكَ رَبِّ الْعِزَّتِ عَمَّا يَصِفُوْنَ (sub-ha-na rabbi-karabbil izza-ti am-ma ya-si-foon) meaning "Exalted is your Lord, the Lord of might, above what they describe."
5) وَلِمَنْ خَافَ مُقَامَ رَبِّهِ جنَّتانِ (wa li-mun khaafamu-qa-ma rab-bi-hi jan-na-tani) meaning “For those who fear (the time they will stand) before their Lord, there are two gardens”
6) مِنْ اَيْنَ اَنْتَ (min-ayi-na anta) meaning where are you from?
7) إِلٰى أَيْنَ نَحْنُ ذَاهِبُوْنَ (ilaa-ayi-nanah-nu za-hi-bun) meaning where (where to) are we going
8) اِلٰى مَتٰى يَا قَلْبِي (ilaa-ma-taya qal-bi) how long, O my heart
9) بِكَمْ ھٰذَالْقَمِيصُ (be-kamhaa-zal qa-meesu) meaning how much is this shirt?
Section 5.6 - Negative Sentences - مَا maa, لَيْسَ laisa and لَا laa
To create a negative nominative sentence in Arabic, two words are used most commonly. These are مَا (maa). and لَيْسَ (laisa). Ma is a Particle and laisa is called مُشَبَّهَةٌ بِالْفِعْلِ mu-shab-baha-tunbil feili.
Whenever these two Particles are used, the al-mub-tada' and predicate (الْخَبَرُ) of the nominative sentence are called Noun and predicate of مَا maa and لَيْسَ laisa.
We will just provide an example for لَيْسَ laisa and skip the details until later since this is a more complex usage word.
Most important rule to remember is that with these two Particles, the predicate of the sentence goes into an accusative state (نَصْبٌ nas-bun).
1. مَا maa is the most commonly used negative Particle in a nominative (جُمْلَةُ الْاِسْمِيَةِ jum-la-tul Ismi-ya-ti) sentence. It means “is not” in most cases. For example, مَا زَيْدٌ قَائِمًا ma zai-dun qai-man meaning Zaid is not standing or مَا هٰذا بَشَرًا maa-haa-za ba-sha-ran meaning This is not a human. Note that predicate is in Accusative نَصْبٌ (nas-bun) in both sentences.
2. لَيْسَ lai-sa is a more complex Particle har-fun and will be described in more detail in a later section. A simple example would be:
لَيْسَ زَيْدٌ عَالِمًا (laisa Zai-dun Aali-man) meaning Zaid is not a scholar.
Note:
لَا laais another commonly used Particle to create a negative sentence but is used mostly with Verbal sentence only (جُملَةُ الْفِعْلِيَةِ jum-la-tul fei-li-ya) unless used in combination with اِلَّا illaa as in لَا اِلٰهَ اِلَّا اللّٰهُ la ilaaha illal-lahu meaning there is no deity except Allah. Sometimes it is used by itself in speaking to say “no” and also means “is not” in a sentence.
An example of use with Verbal sentence would be لَا اَعْبُدُ (laa aa’bu-du) meaning “I do not worship”.
