Alhamdulillahi Rabbil Alameen: Word-by-Word Grammar (Al-Fatihah 1:2)
الْحَمْدُ لِلَّهِ رَبِّ الْعَالَمِينَ
All praise belongs to Allah, Lord of all the worlds. (Al-Fatihah 1:2)
The Basmala, in Workshop 1, had a hidden verb. This one is a complete nominal sentence (jumla ismiyya): a subject and a predicate, with no verb at all.
Word by word (the first 2 of 5 notes)
Word 1: الْحَمْدُ (al-hamdu): "praise"
A noun: the verbal noun (masdar) of حَمِدَ يَحْمَدُ, "to praise". Root: ح م د. Pattern: فَعْلٌ. The al- takes in praise of every kind: all praise. Role: the subject (mubtada), so it is in the nominative case (marfoo') and ends in damma.
Word 2: لِ (li): "for, belonging to"
A particle: a preposition. Here it shows that something belongs to, or is owed to, someone. It makes the next noun genitive.
This is a taste of Ayah Workshop 2, sent to members of The Arabic Teacher on Substack. The full workshop has all 5 word notes, a diagram of how the sentence is built, three things to notice with the Qur'an's own cross-references, and a short check-yourself quiz with answers. A new ayah arrives every Friday.
Read the full workshop Membership: $5 a month or $30 a year. Workshop 1 (the Basmala) is free to read.Next in the series: Al-Fatihah 1:3–4, the two names again and مَالِكِ يَوْمِ الدِّينِ: a possessive chain three nouns long.
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