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Surah Tiyn, Verse 8
By ArabicTree | August 15, 2007
In Surah Tiyn, Allah says:
أَلَيْسَ اللَّهُ بِأَحْكَمِ الْحَاكِمِينَ
Translation: Is not Allah the best of judges?
What’s going on in this ayah under the hood?
- أَ: this is the interrogative particle, which means this ayah is a question.
- لَيْسَ: laysa is in the form of he (third-person singular masculine), i.e. “he is not.” Who’s he?
- اللَّهُ: Lafdhuw Jalaala here is marfoo‘ (because it has dumma); therefore, it’s ismu-laysa. So, so far, we have “Is Allah not … ?” Notice that the interrogative particle, along with laysa, denote a negative question.
- بِ: Bi is harfu-jarr. If you recall, khabaru laysa either uses bi, or becomes mansoob; so this is telling us “the next part is khabaru laysa.”
- أَحْكَمِ: ahkami is majruwr because of bi. The original (marfoo‘) form is ahkamu (أَحْكَمُ), which is ism tafdeel. But is it the comparative, or superlative?
- الْحَاكِمِينَ: Al-hakimiyn is the sound masculine plural of haakim (judge), in the majruwr or mansoob form. Notice, ahkamu and al-hakimiyn together define a superlative ism tafdeel, “the wisest of judges.” We know Al-Hakimiyn is majruwr, because this is the structure of ism tafdeel!
Topics: Analysis, Grammar, Intermediate, Qur'an |
October 1st, 2007 at 9:26 am
assalamu alaykum,
Jazak Allah for the informative explanation.
IMHO, With tarkeeb’s, creating a table helps. It’s just more visual.
October 2nd, 2007 at 8:13 am
Might I suggest a small correction?
You have said:
Lafdhuw Jalaala here is marfoo‘ (because it has dumma); therefore, it’s ismu-laysa.
In my opinion it is the other way round: since it is the Ism u laysa therefore it is marfoo
Jazak Allah!