1. Ismul Istifhaam: Also known as “the maa of asking.” This is the easiest, and probably the first thing to learn–as in:
   ما هاذا؟

   Which means “what is this?” (The maa is the part that makes it a question.)

2. Maa-u-Nahiy: Also known as “the maa of negating.” This is what you use to negate maadi verbs; for example, if you wanted to say “I didn’t go to the masjid,” you would say:
   ما ذَهَبتُ ألى المَسجِدِ

   Which means “I didn’t go to the masjid.” The maa here is a negation; without it, the sentence means “I went to the masjid.”

3. The Maa of Alladhiy: This maa has virtually the same meaning as “alladhiy,” which means “that” or “which” or “the one that/which.” For example, the sentence:
   رَأيتُ ما فَعَلتَ

   Means “I saw what you did.” Notice here the maa means “what” or “the thing that.” And also notice, you could’ve replaced it with alladhiy, and it would still carry the exact same meaning.

And those are the three maas! In fact, Arabic has over 15 different meanings of “maa”–so don’t think you know it all! But of course, a gradual process of learning the meanings one by one will eventually lead to you knowing them all, what they mean, where and how to use them, and how to decipher which maa you’re looking at when you’re reading.

May Allah increase us in knowledge of this great language and help us use it for His sake, ameen yaa Rabbi!

In any case, one easy way to learn is to listen to this nasheed. Just listen to it a few times (maybe 20+) until you memorize it. The rest is easy Alhamdulillah, the pronounciation is clear, and perfect (no accented mistakes).

The alphabet order is: Alif, baa, taa, thaa, jeem, 7aa, khaa; daal, dhal raa, zaa, seen, sheen, saad; daad, taw, thaw, ‘ayn, ghayn, faa; qaaf, kaaf, laam, meem, noon, ha, waw, yaa.

The good thing about the nasheed is the way it breaks it up, it makes it easier to memorize. Also, note the following general rules:

1. If there are two letters that are the same, except one has a dot, and one doesn’t, the non-dotted version is first.
2. Dots below the letter come before dots in the middle, which come before dots on top
3. Less dots come before more dots

And don’t be confused by haa, noon, kaaf, faa, and meem–these come late in the Arabic alphabet, but early in the English one.

Wallahu ‘alim.

In Arabic, words on the pattern of faa’il (فاعل) denote a doer of an action. Here are some common words you probably know on the pattern of faa’il:

• طالِب Taalib: student
• عالِم ‘Aalim: scholar. (’Allama means to teach; ‘alima to learn)
• حاكِم Haakim: judge
• صادِق Saadiq: friend. The root word is sadaqa, which means to be truthful; from an Arabic language perspective, friends are the ones who tell you the truth!

Here are some words from the Qur’an and Sunnah on the pattern of faa’il:

• كافِر Kaafir: disbeliever, the one who does kafara (disbelief)
• كاذِب Kaathib: liar (the one who does kathaba)
• مالِك Maalik: king
• راحِم Raahim: merciful person (the one who does rahmah)

Here are some names of Allah (سبحانه وتعالى) on the pattern of faa’il:

• الخالِق Al-Khaaliq: The Creator, the one who creates out of nothing (the one who does khalaqa)
• الهادى Al-Haadiy: the one who guides; The Guide
• البارى Al-Baariy: the one who forms, who evolves, life

Wallahu ‘alim. For more details on the intricate meanings of Allah’s names, you can try the GodNames.org sitemap (it has a list of names). You can also try Ilm Fruits, they have details on a few names (Al-Ghaffaar, Al-Ghafuwr, Al-Haleem, and Al-Qahhar).

‘Adad: like the number system from 3-10, the case of the ‘adad is not specified–it can be marfoo’, majruwr, or mansoob. It depends how you use the system. But, unlike before, we now use wa (”and”) to specify the numbers–so 25 is really “twenty and five.”

If the ‘adad is 1 or 2 (eg. 21, 22, 31, 32, …) then the single digit matches the gender of the ma’duwd; if it’s 3-9, it opposes, just like the number system from 3-9 and 13-19.

Here are the numbers for the tens digit:

• (20) عَشرُونَ
• (30) ثَلَاثُونَ
• (40) أَربَعُونَ
• (50) خَمسُونَ
• (60) سِتُّونَ
• (70) سَبعُونَ
• (80) ثَمَانُونَ
• (90) تِسعُونَ

These numbers are the same for either gender, and they have a ya (instead of a waw) in the majruwr and mansoob cases, eg. khamsuwna becomes khamsiyna.

Ma’duwd: Like the number system from 11-19, the ma’duwd here is also singular, mansoob, and mabani. But don’t be confused–when we say “singular,” we mean the WORD used is the singular form of the word–it’s still 25 cows, or 37 houses, no matter if we use baqarah and bayt instead of baqaraat and buyuwt.

Some examples, for clarity:

• لِي تِسعُ و ثَلَاثُونَ صَدِيقَةً: I have 39 friends (feminine). Tis’a is masculine because sadiyqah is feminine. Since it’s a nominal sentence, the numbers are both marfuw’.
• رَأيتُ خَمسَةَ و عَشرِينَ جَمَلً: I saw 25 camels. Khamsa is feminine because jamal is masculine. Ashriyna is used because this is what we saw–25 camels–so the ‘adad becomes mansoob.)

They are:

• ما اسمُكَ؟: What is your name?
• مِن أينَ أنتَ؟: Where are you from?
• كَيفَ حَالُكَ؟: How are you?
• ما هاذا؟: What is this?
• أعِندَكَ … (قَلَمٌ)؟: Do you have a … (pen)?
• كَم … (كِتابً) لَكَ؟: How many … (books) do you have?

(You can substitute words in brackets for other words to create variants. Also, every sentence uses ka, the singular masculine; you can substitute for kum, the masculine plural, to use a more respectful form.)

What other questions prove useful in everyday conversations?

As an example, the following words all fall under this pattern:
مُهَندِسٌ – مُهَندِسُونَ (muhandisuwna – engineers)
مُدَرِّسٌ – مُدَرِّسُونَ (mudarrisuwna – teachers)
فَلَّاحٌ – فَلَّاحُونَ (fallahuwna – farmers)
مُجتَهِدٌ – مُجتَهِدُونَ (mujtahiduwna – hard workers)
مُسلِمٌ – مُسلِمُونَ (muslimuwna – Muslims)

Note that this is the marfoo’ case; in the mansoob or majruwr case, the word ends with -iyna (ينَ-) instead to show the change of case. For example, the above five become:

مُهَندِسِينَ (muhandisiyna)
مُدَرِّسِينَ (mudarrisiyna)
فَلَّاحِينَ (fallaahiyna)
مُجتَهِدِينَ (mujtahidiyna)
مُسلِمِينَ (Muslimiyna)

Masculine words appear in a few other broken masculine patterns; but that’s a topic for another day.

Translation: O humankind! Be conscious your Lord and be dutiful to Him! Verily, the earthquake of the Hour (of Judgement) is a terrible thing.

Ok, so, flaky translation aside, let’s figure out what exactly is going on here under-the-hood Arabic Tree style!

يَا أَيُّهَا النَّاسُ: Aside from the fact that the ya here is the calling ya, all you really need to notice is that the person called here is humankind (An-Naas), which is why it’s definite and marfoo’.

اتَّقُوا رَبَّكُمْ: Ittaqu is a fi’l amri (commanding verb), and it has waw-jam’aah, so it’s addressing 3+ people. The verb is taqwa (تقو). While taqwa is a difficult concept to explain, the best way to understand it is that it means to be conscious of something, with the intention of protecting yourself from it. ‘Umar ibn Al-Khattab (رضالله عنه) described it as holding your garments close to you as you tread through a thorn-bush.

Since taqwa is the verb, what’s the maf’ool? The answer is “rabb” (which you can tell because it’s mansoob). Rabbakum is “your Rabb.” (Rabb is also a difficult concept; for more details, consult this post on Tawhid-Ar-Rububiyyah.) Actually, our rabb is Allah!

So what does it mean to have taqwa of Allah? It means to do those actions which will protect us from His wrath, and which will earn His mercy.

إِنَّ: Inna is a form of emphasis. So where are ismu inna and khabru inna?

زَلْزَلَةَ: Zalzalah (earthquake) is ismu-inna. How do we know? Because it’s mansoob! Remember, inna and her sisters all make ismu-inna mansoob.

But why zalzalata, without tanween? Because it’s mudaaf.

السَّاعَةِ: As-saa’ati is mudaaf ilayh; it’s majruwr, the mudaaf ilayh.

شَيْءٌ عَظِي: Shayun ‘athiymun takes damma, but it’s not the fa’il; rather, it’s khabru inna. Also, you will notice that these two words match in gender (masculine), number (singular), case (marfoo’), and definitivity (indefinite)–all the conditions of na’at and man’oot, which is what they are!

Also, note the pattern: singular feminine words in Arabic end with ta-marbuwta (ة), though there are a few exceptions. Ta-Marbuwta is pronounced as a ha when you stop on it (eg. darraajah), or a ta if there’s a vowel on it (eg. al-darraajatu …).

1. darraajatun (دَرَّاجَةُ): bicycle
2. mil’aqatun (مِلعَقَةٌ): spoon
3. baqaratun (بَقَرَةٌ): cow
4. baydatun (بَيضَةٌ): egg
5. naafidhatun (نَافِذَةٌ): window
6. saa’atun (سَاعَةٌ): watch
7. sayaaratun (سَيَارَةٌ): car
8. dajaajatun (دَجَاجَةٌ): hen
9. madrasatun (مَدرَسَةٌ): school
10. hadiyqatun (حَدِيقَةٌ): garden

1. kitaabun (كِتَابٌ): book
2. kalbun (كَلبٌ): dog
3. sariyrun (سَرِيرٌ): bed
4. qalamun (قَلَمٌ): pen
5. miftahun (مِفتَاحٌ): key
6. kursiyun (كُرسِيٌ): chair
7. masjidun (مَسجِدٌ): mosque
8. qittun (قِطٌّ): cat
9. qamiysun (قَمِيصٌ): shirt
10. baabun (بَابٌ): door