Enter Mamnoo’ Min As-Sarf (مَمنُوعٌ مِن السَرفِ). Literally, it means something like “not on the pattern.” It refers to a certain class of nouns that deviate from this norm–they show majruwr case with fatha instead of kasra.

Let’s look at an example. If you wanted to say “I got this from Muhammad,” you’d say: أخَدتُ هاذا مِن مُحَمَّدٍ

But, if you wanted to say “I got this from ‘Uthmaan,” you’d say: أخَدتُ هاذا مِن عُثمانَ!

Min is harf-ul-jarr; ‘Uthmaan is majruwr; but since it’s mamnoo’ min as-sarf, it shows it with fatha instead of kasra!

Similarly, if you wanted to say “this is Zaynab’s book,” you would say: هاذا كِتابُ زَينَبَ (notice it’s Zaynaba, not Zaynabi). Again, Zaynab is a word that’s mamnoo min as-sarf.

Some common words and names you might know that are mamnoo’ min as-sarf include:

• Colours: such as abyadu, ahmeru, azraqu, etc. and also the feminine forms: baydaa’u, hamraa’u, zarqaa’u, etc.
• Makkah (مَكَّة)
• Common Names: such as ‘Uthmaan, Ahmed, Ishaaq, Ya’qoob, etc. (including the names of many prophets of Islam (عليهُم السَلام)
• Some countries: Pakistan (بَكِستان), and others.

This post is just an introduction to this topic. Insha’Allah in the near future, we’ll discuss why these particular words, and not others, are mamnoo’ min as-sarf–and what classes or categories of words are mamnoo’ min as-sarf.

Wallahu ta’ala ‘alim.

The rules for badal are:

1. The badal itself must be an ismul-ishaarah (demonstrative pronoun)–such as haadhaa.
2. The word after the badal must be a common-noun (not a proper name)
3. The word after the badal must be definite (with alif-lam, usually)

And that word–the definite common-noun that follows the badal–is the word that the badal stands in for.

So if you say:

(This house is big.) In this sentence, haadha is the badal–it’s ismul-ishaarah, it’s followed by a common noun (bayt) that’s definite with alif-lam.

Another example is:

(These hujjaaj–pilgrims–are from America.) The badal here is haoolaai; it’s ismul-isharah, and it’s followed by a common noun (hujjaaj) that’s definite with alif-lam.

But why do we care about which word is badal? Why does it mater,grammatically?

Check out this sentence:

(Your pen is in this bag.) The badal here is haadhihi; it’s ismul-ishaarah, and it’s followed by a common-noun (haqiybah) that’s definite with alif-lam.

And notice that the badal never changes case–rather, the word that the badal is standing in for takes its case.

Like here–the badal is haadhihi, and the word it’s standing in for is haqiybah. And haqiybah is majruwr, because of fiy–fiy affects haadhihi, and haadhihi is badal–so it passes on themajruwr case to haqiybah!

Here’s another example to demonstrate that:

(I recited this surah in Salaatil-Fajr). The badal here is haadhihi–ismul-ishaarah, followed by a common noun with alif-lam. The badal stands in for surah.

And here, surah is mansoob. Why? Because of qara’a–qara’a has a mafool, haadhihi. But because haadhihi is badal for surah, surah becomes mansoob, not haadhihi.

And that’s badal!–something that stands in for something else. You can think of badal as a rubber ball–whatever case hits it, bounces onto the next word (that it affects).

To recap:

• The badal word is an ismul-ishaara that is followed by a definite common noun. That noun is what the badal stands in for.
• The badal passes its case to the word it stands in for–like a rubber ball, it passes the case to the word it stands in for.

What ayaat of the Qur’an have badal in them? Post some in the comments insha’Allah (quoting the verse and pointing out the badal).

The mubtada and khabr have only a few simple rules:

1. They must match in gender
2. They must match in number.
3. The mubtada must be definite
4. The mubtada must be marfoo’

Let’s run through some simple examples.

1. المَسجِدُ كَبِيرٌ

   Al-masjidu qabiyrun: the masjid is close. The mubtada is al-masjid, which is definite (because it has alif-lam), and the khabr is kabiyrun. Both are singular and masculine.

2. عَائشَةُ جَالِسَةٌ

   ‘Aishatu jaalisatun: ‘Aisha is sitting. The mubtada is ‘Aisha (which is feminine, singular, and definite–it’s a name), and the khabr is jaalisatun (which is singular and feminine).

3. الطُلابُ جُدُدٌ

   At-tullaabu jududun: the students are new. At-Tullaab is the mubtada, and it’s masculine, definite (with alif-lam), and plural; jududun is masculine and plural.

Nominal sentences are really as easy as that! But you can make them much more complex if you throw in prepositions, possessive case, or if the khabr becomes a full, stand-alone verbal sentence. (And that the khabr doesn’t have to be marfoo’–which it isn’t in this example):

Al-Imaamu fiy al-masjidi: The imam is in the masjid. Here, the mubtada is the imam, and the khabr is “fiy al-masjidi,” a preposition and a majruwr noun.

And that’s nominal sentences in a nutshell.

First, a word on how we’re going to explain the patterns–we’re going to use a standard method in Arabic, which is using the letters fa, ayn, and lam as placeholders. So when we say fa’ala (فَعَلَ), that means the first letter has fatha, the second has fatha, and the third has fatha, and they’re arranged like that. Words on this pattern are: thahaba (ذَهَبَ) (fa = tha, ayn = ha, lam =ba), kharaja (خَرَجَ) (fa = kha, ayn = ra, lam = ja). Get it? If not, post in the comments insha’Allah.

The first pattern is fa’ala (فَعَلَ) or fa’ila (فَعِلَ), which means a past-tense verb (eg. kharaja, shariba).

Next is words that begin with “ma” (مَ), which is a place–like (مَسجِد) masjid (the place of sujood), madrasah (the place of dars–lessons, learning) and so on.

Next is words that begin with “mi” (مِ)–these denote the instrument of something. For example, mil’aqa (the instrument of licking–laqa’a) means a spoon.

Words on the pattern of faa’il (فَاعِل) denote a doer. This includes words like: حَاكِم (haakim–judge), kaathib (liar), etc.

Words that start with “mu” (مُ) also denote a doer–such as مُدَرِّس (mudarris–teacher), muhandis (engineer), etc.

Also, words that end with ta-marbuwta (ة) are usually feminine–like ‘Aaishah (عَاإشَة), muhandisah (female engineer), etc..

Finally, verbs beginning with “fa” (فَ) mean splitting, separating, or opening–such as faraqa (separate), fajara (open), etc.

These are just some basic, general patterns–the deeper you go into the Arabic language, the more patterns you discover! And yes, all of these rules have exceptions–like the name “hamzah” (هَمزَة), which ends with ta-marbuwta, but is masculine.

Wallahu ta’ala ‘alim.

Consider the difference between: المُدَرِّسُ طَوِيلٌ (the teacher is tall) and إنَّ المُدَرِّسَ طَوِيلٌ (indeed, the teacher is tall). The second draws attention to the teacher, while the first is just a normal sentence.

Grammatically, look at what inna does–we had a nominal sentence, with al-mudarris as the mubtada and tawilyun as the khabr. When we added inna, the names of these things change–the mubtada becomes ismu inna, and the khabr becomes khabru inna. So in the second sentence, al-mudarris is ismu inna, and tawilyun is khabru inna.

What’s more, the rules of grammar state that ismu inna is always mansoob. So al-Mudarrisu becomes al-mudarrisa.

The sisters of inna all follow the same grammatical pattern–except ismu inna and khabru inna becomes ismu [sister] and khabru [sister] (eg. ismu la’ala and khabru la’ala).

The sisters of inna are:

• لكنّ (lakinna) — but
• لأنّ (li’anna) — because
• كأنّ (ka’anna) — like (when you’re making a resemblance between two things)
• أنَّ (anna) — similar to inna (indeed, verily, etc.)
• لَعَلَّ (la’ala) — in the hope that / in the fear that (meaning depends on the context)

With humans, as you’d expect, the plural is plural. However, plurals for non-humans are treated as feminine singular grammatically. Let’s clarify by example:

هُم مُسلِمُونَ: They are Muslims.
هِيَ كِلابٌ: They are dogs.

In the first sentence, the word used to refer to Muslims–hum–is a third-person masculine plural.

However, in the second sentence, you’ll see the word used to refer to dogs–hiya–is actually feminine singular, because the non-human plural acts as feminine singular.

Let’s take another example:

لِي بَطَّاتٌ صَغِيرَةٌ: I have small ducks. The word used for small-saghiyrah–is actully feminine singular (even though the word for ducks–battaat–is feminine plural) because the non-human plural acts as feminine singular.

One final example to drill this home:

أينَ القِطَّاتُ؟ خَرَجَت مِن البَيتِ: Where are the cats? They left from the house.

The form of kharaja used for the cats is kharajat–the feminine singular, even though the word used for cats, qittaat, is feminine plural–because the non-human plural acts as feminine singular.

In all aspects, in all ways, the non-human plural acts like the feminine singular, grammatically speaking.

Grammatically, the calling ya is very easy–it only has a small effect on the one called:

• If the one called is in a possessive case (eg. the son of Uthmaan, the wife of ‘Ali, the Creator of the Universe) then the one called becomes mansoob–so it’s “ya Aba Bakr,” or “ya Rasulallah” (and not “ya Abu Bakr” or “ya Rasulullah”).
• In all other cases, the one called becomes marfoo’ (with single tanween)–eg. “ya Ahmadu, ya Allahu“

As easy as that!

Let’s concrete-ify. Say you’re introducing two of your friends to someone. Both are your friends; one is a teacher, and one is a doctor. What kind of sentence would you construct in Arabic?

Enter amma (أمَّا) and fa (فَ). You can use amma to single one out, then fa to explain something about them. Like this:

Translation: This is ‘Uthmaan, and this is Muhammad. As for ‘Uthmaan, then he is n engineer. And as for Muhammad, then he is a doctor.

You can see how amma allows you to distinguish or talk about individuals (or sub groups) when you’ve talked about a main group. And don’t be tricked–even though we translated fa as “then,” it’s not the same as ثُمَّ; there’s no indication of passing time. Fa distinguishes that this is the consequence of the person/group you brought attention to with amma. You can also translate fa as “thus,” “therefore,” and so on.

• The ‘adad can take any case (depends on the sentence)
• The ‘adad is opposite in gender to the ma’duwd
• The ma’duwd is plural and majruwr

That’s it! Let’s plow through some detailed examples:

1. عِندِي ثَلَاثَةُ أقلَامٍ (I have three pens): ‘indiy is the mubtada (it’s a nominal sentence). Thalaathatu is mansuwb (it’s the start of the khabr, and it’s also a mubtada). Aqlaam (the plural of qalam) is plural and majruwr, because it’s the ma’duwd of thalaathatu. Note that thalaathatu is feminine, while qalam is masculine.
2. أكَلَ خَمسَ دَجَّاجاتٍ (I ate five chickens): akala is the faa’il; khamsa is the maf’ool (so it’s mansoob). Dajjaajaat is plural and majruwr (because it’s the ma’duwd). Note that dajjaaj is feminine, while khamsa is masculine. (And khamsa is mansoob because it’s maf’ool to akala.)
3. اللّهُ الَّذِي خَلَقَ السَّمَاوَاتِ وَالأَرْضَ فِي سِتَّةِ أَيَّامٍ (Allah, the one who created the heavens and earth in six days [Suratul-Araaf, verse 54]): fiy is harf-uj-jarr, and sittah, the ‘adad, is majruwr. Ayaamin is plural and majruwr (it’s the ma’duwd to sittah). Note that yawm is masculine, while sittah (with ta-marbuwta) is feminine.

And in these three examples, you can see that the ‘adad can take any case, while the ma’duwd is always plural and majruwr.

And the ‘adad being opposite in gender to the ma’duwd applies in all cases of numbers from 3-9–eg. 13-19, 233-239, etc. not just from 3-9.

Thahaba (ذَهَبَ) means “he went”, or “he travelled.” The female third-person form is “thahabat.” You can use it like this:

بِلالُ ذَهَبَ الَ السُوقِ (Bilaalu thahaba ila il-suwq): Bilaal went to the market.

Kharaja (خَرَجَ) is the opposite of thahaba–it means “he exited” or “he left.” The female third-person form is “kharajat.” You can use it like this:

عائِشَةُ خَرَجَت مِن المَدرَسَّةِ (’Aaishatu kharajat min al-madrassati): ‘Aaisha left from the school.

You always use ila (to) with thahaba and min (from) with kharaja. (Unlike English–in English, you can mix and match. Not so in Arabic.) This example combines both:

الإمَلمُ خَرَجَ مِن بَيتِهِ ذَهَبَ إلَ المَسجِدِ: The imam left from his house and went to the masjid.

As for WHY the female is kharajat and thahabat (and not kharaja and thahaba), read up on verb conjugation.