علم الإعرابGrammar Morphology Reading and Pronunciation

The science of inflection

It is also called the science of grammar; it will be discussed under the letter noon, God willing, Exalted is He.

The books composed in this science are too numerous to count and increase in every age.

Among its finest abridgments is Ghunyat al-Taalib wa-Munyat al-Raaghib by Shaykh Ahmad Faaris Efendi, director of the departments. It contains valuable lessons and benefits not found elsewhere.

There is also Tahdheeb al-Nahw by Shaykh Bahaa' al-Deen al-'Aamilee, more comprehensive and eloquent than Ibn al-Haajib's Kaafiya. During my student days I wrote a Persian commentary on it entitled Tadhheeb al-Tahdheeb. There is also Muntakhab al-Nahw by Sayyid Ameer Haydar al-Bilgraamee, in which he clarified the rules of Arabic grammar used in the Persian tongue. To my knowledge, it is unprecedented; and Allah knows best.

The science of Qur'aanic inflection

In Miftaah al-Sa'aada it is counted among the branches of exegesis, but in truth it belongs to grammar. Counting it as an independent science, as al-Suyootee did in al-Itqaan, is not appropriate. The same applies to the other types he mentioned: he counted them as sciences and then listed matters that an exegete should observe, though those matters ought to have formed the introduction to a book on Qur'aanic inflection. He wished, however, to multiply the sciences and benefits.

A number of scholars devoted works to this subject, including:

Shaykh Imaam Makkee ibn Abee Taalib Hammoosh ibn Muhammad al-Qaysee, the grammarian, who died in 437 AH. His book begins: “To proceed, after praising Allah, Glorious is His mention.” It deals especially with difficult passages.

Aboo al-Hasan 'Alee ibn Ibraaheem al-Hoofee, the grammarian, who died in 562 AH. His book is the clearest of them and consists of ten volumes.

Aboo al-Baqaa' 'Abd Allaah ibn al-Husayn al-'Ukbaree, the grammarian, who died in 616 AH. His book is the most famous and is entitled al-Bayaan. It begins: “Praise belongs to Allah, who enabled us to memorize His Book.”

Aboo Ishaaq Ibraaheem ibn Muhammad al-Safaaqusee, who died in 742 AH. His book, al-Majeed fee I'raab al-Qur'aan al-Majeed, is better and consists of several volumes. It begins: “Praise belongs to Allah, who honored us by preserving His Book.” He mentions al-Bahr by his master Aboo Hayyaan and praises it, then explains that its author followed the exegetes in combining exegesis and inflection, causing the intended subject to become dispersed. He therefore condensed it, gathered what remained from Aboo al-Baqaa''s inflection, and marked the material he added with the letter meem. Because the work was large and multi-volume, Shaykh Muhammad ibn Sulaymaan al-Sarkhadee al-Shaafi'ee, who died in 792 AH, abridged it and objected to it in several places.

Shihaab al-Deen Ahmad ibn Yoosuf, known as al-Sameen al-Halabee, who died in 756 AH. His work is the most eminent composed in the field, because it includes five sciences: inflection, morphology, language, meanings, and exposition. al-Suyootee therefore said in al-Itqaan that it contains padding and prolixity, and that al-Safaaqusee improved it by abridging it.

This was an error on his part: al-Safaaqusee did not abridge al-Sameen's work from it, but from al-Bahr, as explained above. al-Sameen also abridged it from al-Bahr during the lifetime of his master Aboo Hayyaan, discussed it extensively with him, and called his own work al-Durr al-Masoon fee 'Ilm al-Kitaab al-Maknoon. It begins: “Praise belongs to Allah, who sent down the Book to His servant.” He completed it in Waasit in Rajab 734 AH.

A useful report transmitted by Taqee al-Deen in his biographical طبقات is that the learned governor 'Alee ibn Amr Allaah, known as Ibn al-Hannaa', once attended a lesson of the learned Shaykh Badr al-Deen al-Ghazzee, when he completed in the Umayyad Mosque the exegesis he had composed. They discussed, among other matters, al-Sameen's objections to his master.

The shaykh said: Most of them are not valid.

Mawlaa 'Alee replied: In my view, most of them are valid, and he insisted on this. He then examined al-Sameen's biography and found that al-Haafidh Ibn Hajar agreed with him, saying in al-Durar that al-Sameen composed during his master's lifetime and debated him extensively, most of the debates being sound. He wrote to the shaykh asking him to record the discussions he had found. The shaykh extracted ten, preferred Aboo Hayyaan's view, refuted al-Sameen's objections, called the work al-Durr al-Thameen fee al-Munaaqasha bayna Abee Hayyaan wa-al-Sameen, and sent it to the judge. When the judge read it, he defended al-Sameen, preferred his position to Aboo Hayyaan's, answered Badr al-Deen's objections, and refuted him in a large epistle. The scholars of Syria read it and preferred his writing to that of Badr al-Deen, acknowledging his excellence and precedence.

Among the earlier authors on Qur'aanic inflection were Aboo Haatim Sahl ibn Muhammad al-Sijistaanee, who died in 248 AH; Aboo Marwaan 'Abd al-Malik ibn Habeeb ibn Sulaymaan al-Maalikee al-Qurtubee, who died in 239 AH; Aboo al-'Abbaas Muhammad ibn Yazeed, known as al-Mubarrad, who died in 286 AH; Aboo al-'Abbaas Ahmad ibn Yahyaa, known as Tha'lab, who died in 291 AH; and Aboo Ja'far Muhammad ibn Ahmad ibn al-Nahhaas, who died in 338 AH.

Other authors were Aboo Taahir Ismaa'eel ibn Khalaf al-Siqillee, whose work was in nine volumes; Aboo Zakariyyaa Yahyaa ibn 'Alee al-Khateeb al-Tabreezee, whose work was in four volumes; Aboo al-Barakaat 'Abd al-Rahmaan ibn Abee Sa'eed Muhammad al-Anbaaree, who called his work al-Bayaan; and the traditionist Qiwaam al-Sunna Aboo al-Qaasim Ismaa'eel ibn Muhammad al-Talhee al-Isfahaanee.

Muntakhab al-Deen Husayn ibn Abee al-'Izz al-Hamadaanee composed a competent intermediate work entitled al-Fareed fee I'raab al-Qur'aan al-Majeed. Aboo 'Abd Allaah Husayn ibn Ahmad, known as Ibn Khaalawayh, wrote on the inflection of thirty soorahs, from al-Taariq to the end of the Qur'aan, and al-Faatiha. Muwafaq al-Deen 'Abd al-Lateef ibn Yoosuf al-Baghdaadee wrote on the inflection of al-Faatiha. Ishaaq ibn Mahmood ibn Hamza, Ibn al-Malik's student, gathered the inflection of the final part of the Qur'aan and called it al-Tanbeeh. Ahmad ibn Muhammad, known as Banshaanjeezaada, wrote through Soorat al-A'raaf but did not complete it. Among other works is Tuhfat al-Aqraan feemaa quri'a bi-al-tathleeth min al-Qur'aan, and others known to specialists in this field.

The science of morphology

It investigates the essential properties of the individual forms of the Arabs' speech, considered with respect to their shapes and configurations, such as substitution and assimilation. It concerns forms established by type-convention, their meanings, the general original configurations of words, and their changing configurations, including the forms affected by substitution before and after the change and the manner of their alteration, treated generally through universal measures such as the forms of the past and present tense and their meanings.

Its subject is the particular forms considered from this perspective.

Its purpose is to acquire the capacity to recognize the states just mentioned.

Its end is to avoid error in these respects.

Its principles are premises inferred by tracing the usage of the Arabs.

The first to compile the science of morphology was Aboo 'Uthmaan al-Maazinee. Before him it had been included within grammar, as Aboo al-Khayr mentions.

The works of morphology are numerous; most are listed by Kaatib Çelebi in this section, and there is no need to lengthen the discussion here. This science will be mentioned under the letter saad.

The science of masculine and feminine forms

I have not seen it listed among the subjects of the sciences, although it deserves to be, since independent books have been written on it. In origin it is a branch of grammar, and for that reason scholars recorded it alongside grammar.

It investigates the expressions and usages employed in speech as masculine or feminine, including expressions that are formally feminine although their forms do not display ordinary femininity.

Its subject is the expression considered with respect to its being masculine or feminine.

Its purpose is to use expressions in their proper masculine and feminine forms.

Its end is to avoid error in that usage and to reproduce it as it appears in the books of the men of letters.

The feminine is what has a marker of femininity, literally and actually, as in woman and darkness; legally, as in Zaynab and scorpion, for an added letter in a feminine noun has the status of the feminine taa'; or by implication, as in Hind and house. The masculine is the contrary: what contains no marker of femininity, whether explicit, implied, or legally recognized.

A number of leading grammarians wrote on this science, including Ibn Khaalawayh, Aboo Haatim al-Sijistaanee, Aboo al-Fath Ibn Jinnee, Yahyaa ibn Ziyaad al-'Uzzee, Ibn Shaqeer, Aboo Ja'far Ahmad ibn 'Ubayd al-Koofee, Kamaal al-Deen 'Abd al-Rahmaan al-Anbaaree, Aboo Muhammad and Aboo Bakr al-Anbaaree, and others. Ibn Khallikaan said of the work of Aboo Bakr: “No work more complete than it was produced.”

Ibn al-Haajib, author of al-Kaafiya and al-Shaafiya in grammar and morphology, wrote a short poem on the feminine by transmission, beginning:

My soul be sacrificed for a questioner who came to me,

With questions fragrant as a baan branch.

Shaykh 'Abd al-Raheem al-Safeepooree also wrote a short treatise called Dharoorat al-Adeeb. The author of al-Mukammal, commentator on al-Mufassal, and Kamaal Paashaa also wrote treatises on it. Muhammad Baaqir al-Tihraanee did likewise.

Sayyid al-Faadhil al-'Allaama, the grammarian Dhoo al-Fiqaar Ahmad ibn the late Sayyid Himat 'Alee al-Taqawee al-Bahoobaalee also compiled a book on it. It gathered material not brought together by others, extracting it from various books and scattered places, until it became full in its subject and eloquent in its exposition. Few books in this field can be found to contain its equal.[1]

1. The learned author called this book al-Mubtakir fee al-Mu'annath wa-al-Mudhakkar. It will, if Allah the Exalted wills, be printed in its homeland, Bhopal—may Allah protect it and its people from tribulation and extinction. 'Alee Husayn ibn al-Haafidh Muhammad Saadiq ibn Ahmad 'Alee al-Laknawee, the copyist of this book; may Allah, the Generous Bestower, pardon him.

The science of morphology

It is the science by which one knows the kinds of individual forms established by type-convention, their meanings, their general original configurations, their changing configurations, and the manner of their change from the original configurations, treated generally through universal measures, as stated in the classification of sciences.

Its subject, purpose, end, and principles are as stated above.

In Kashshaaf Istilaahaat al-Funoon it is said that morphology, also called the science of tasreef, is the science of principles by which the states of word-patterns that are neither inflection nor indeclinability are known. Ibn al-Haajib said this. The “pattern” or form and measure of a word means its configuration, in which another word may share: the number and order of its letters, its specified vowels and its vowelless letters, while considering the additional and original letters in their proper places.

Its subject is the word insofar as it has a pattern. There is no objection to investigating this qualification, since it explains the subject. This is supported by what scholars state in dividing the Arabic sciences: morphology investigates individual forms with respect to their shapes and configurations. 'Abd al-Hakeem likewise says in his marginal commentary on al-Jaamee that morphology, semantics, exposition, embellishment, and grammar—and indeed all literary sciences—share the word and speech as their subject; the difference among them lies in the perspectives from which they consider them.

In al-Jaarbardhee's commentary on al-Shaafiya, its subject is said to be patterns insofar as states occur in them. Patterns consist of the letters, vowels, and vowelless letters occurring in a word. One investigates whether the letters are three, four, or five; whether they are additional or original; and how the additional is distinguished from the original. One also investigates the vowels and vowelless letters as light or heavy.

Knowledge of the patterns themselves therefore lies outside this science, while knowledge of their states lies within it. Morphology is knowledge of rules by which the states of patterns—past, present, imperative, and so forth—are known. All these are states belonging to patterns, not to the patterns themselves.

On this account, “states of patterns” is not an explanatory genitive. It may be objected that the past and similar forms are neither patterns nor states of patterns, but things possessing patterns; and even weaker is what appears in some books of morphology, that its subject is roots and rules.

Its principles include the definitions on which its questions are built, such as the definition of word, noun, verb, and particle; and the premises of their proofs, namely the parts of the arguments for questions, such as the statement that substitution occurs in a word to remove heaviness.

Its questions are the rules related to its subject: a word is either bare or augmented; the beginning of a word cannot be vowelless; a noun is triliteral, quadriliteral, or quinqueliteral; and substitution is either by replacement, deletion, or making vowelless.

Its end is extremely useful, since all the Arabic and religious sciences need it, including exegesis, hadeeth, jurisprudence, and theology. It is therefore said that morphology is the mother of the sciences and grammar their father.

Al-Radhee said: According to the specialists in form, tasreef is a part of grammar without disagreement. As Seebawayh transmitted from them, tasreef means building from a word a pattern not used by the Arabs, on the measure of one they did use, and then applying to the pattern one has built what the analogy of their speech requires, as becomes clear in the exercises of the science.

Later scholars held that morphology is knowledge of word-patterns and of what happens to their letters by way of originality, addition, deletion, soundness, and defect. It is closely connected to derivation, but the two are distinct in their aims.

The science of points of articulation of expressions

It is well known that expressions have points of articulation particular to them, distinct from the points of articulation of letters. Specialists know them, and neither of these two sciences is learned except from one who learned it from the mouths of the shaykhs. This science may also be treated as a branch of the science of expressions.

The science of points of articulation of letters

This science investigates the states of Arabic letters as they emerge, from which place they emerge, and their qualities, such as voicedness and voicelessness. It was mentioned above among the branches of the science of expressions, since it may be made a branch of either of these two sciences, considered from two perspectives.

Kashf al-Dhunoon says it is a branch of recitation and morphology. Madeenat al-'Uloom elsewhere defines it as correcting the articulation of letters, qualitatively and quantitatively, and their accidental qualities according to what the nature of the Arabs requires.

Its subject is the simple Arabic letters, considered according to their points of articulation and qualities. Some of its principles are self-evident and some inductive.

It draws on natural science and anatomy.

Its purpose is to acquire the capacity to produce those letters at their points of articulation as they occur in the tongue of the Arabs.

Its primary end is to avoid error in pronouncing the speech of the Arabs according to the articulation of its letters. Its ultimate end is the ability to recite the Qur'aan as it was revealed, according to the articulation and qualities of its letters. Shaykh al-Jazaree composed a rajaz poem in this science as an introduction to the discipline, and the author's son wrote a commentary on it.

Madeenat al-'Uloom says: I explained it in the vigor of my youth, and by Allah's grace many companions benefited from it. Shaykh al-Shaatibee included enough of this discipline in his qaseeda, and no addition to it is hoped for. End quote from al-Arneeqee—may Allah have mercy on him.

The science of points of articulation of the tongue

Kashf al-Dhunoon mentions it without explaining it.

The science of grammar

It investigates the states of compounds established by type-convention for kinds of relative, compositional meanings, considered with respect to their signification of those meanings.

Its purpose is to acquire the capacity to produce a composition established by type-convention for the meanings intended by the speaker and to understand the meaning of any compound according to that convention.

Its end is to avoid error in applying Arabic compounds to their original conventional meanings.

Its principles are premises obtained by tracing compounds in their contexts of usage.

Its subject is compounds and individual forms insofar as they occur in constructions, and particles insofar as they link constructions. Grammar investigates the latter in a preliminary way, since in reality they belong to the questions of language.

The definition and subject are famous and need no further definition; the books composed on grammar are numerous and well known.

The science of grammar is a communal obligation because reasoning from the Book and the Sunna requires it.

It is also called the science of inflection. It is the science by which one knows the soundness or defect of Arabic composition and what concerns expressions insofar as they occur in it.

Its subject is the established expression, whether individual or compound. This is the correct view: grammar considers the established expression with respect to its compositional configuration and its delivery of its original meanings, not the expression without qualification, for that is the subject of all the Arabic sciences. It has also been said that its subject is the word and speech, or the compound with original predication.

Its principles include definitions such as subject and predicate, the premises of their proofs, and the parts of the causes of their rules. Its questions are the rules concerning the subject: a word is either inflected or indeclinable; the end of a word is the place of inflection; a noun may, for two reasons, be prevented from declension; and the predicate is either an individual or a sentence. Possession competes with nunation, even through an intermediary, and rules may attach to one of these matters through several intermediaries.

Its purpose is to avoid error in composition and to gain the ability to understand and convey it.

Ibn Khaldoon—may Allah have mercy on him—said: Language, in ordinary usage, is the speaker's expression of his purpose. That expression is an act of the tongue, so it must become a settled faculty in the active organ, the tongue. Every community possesses it according to its conventions. The faculty acquired by the Arabs was the finest and clearest in conveying purposes, because movements, letters, and configurations conveyed many meanings without additional words: vowels distinguish the subject from the object and the genitive construction, while particles connect verbs to nouns. Nothing comparable exists except in Arabic. In other languages every meaning and state requires a word specifically assigned to signify it, and so the speech of non-Arabs in conversation is longer than what can be expressed in Arabic. This is the meaning of the saying, “I was given the comprehensive expressions, and speech was condensed for me.”

When Islam came and the Arabs left the Hijaz seeking the sovereignty held by other nations and states, and mixed with non-Arabs, this faculty changed through the deviations heard from Arabized speakers. Hearing is the father of linguistic faculties, and the faculty was corrupted by what contradicted it. The scholars feared that it would be destroyed entirely and that, with the passage of time, the Qur'aan and hadeeth would become closed to understanding. They therefore inferred from the courses of their speech regular rules resembling universals and principles, measured all other speech against them, and joined like things to like: the subject is nominative, the object accusative, and the subject of a nominal sentence nominative.

They then saw that meaning changed when the vowels of these words changed. They agreed to call this inflection, to call the cause of the change the governing agent, and to use similar terms. These became a specialized terminology, which they recorded in books and made into a distinct discipline called the science of grammar.

The first to write on it was Aboo al-Aswad al-Du'alee of Banoo Kinaana. It is also said that he did so at the suggestion of 'Alee—may Allah be pleased with him—who saw the change in the faculty and advised him to preserve it. He then devoted himself to regulating it through the rules available and inferred from usage.

People wrote on it after him until it reached al-Khaleel ibn Ahmad al-Faraaheedee in the time of al-Rasheed, when the people most needed it because that faculty had disappeared among the Arabs. He refined the discipline and completed its chapters.

Seebawayh learned it from him, completed its branches, multiplied its proofs and citations, and composed his famous book, which became the model for everything written on the subject thereafter.

Aboo 'Alee al-Faarisee and Aboo al-Qaasim al-Zajjaaj then composed abridgments for students, following the imaam's book.

The discussion of this discipline later lengthened. The scholars of the two ancient Arab centers, Koofa and Basra, differed; their proofs and disputation multiplied, their methods of instruction diverged, and their disagreement over the inflection of many Qur'aanic verses increased. This became lengthy for students.

Later scholars introduced methods of abridgment, condensing much of that length while encompassing what had been transmitted, as Ibn Maalik did in al-Tasheel and similar works; or restricting themselves to principles for students, as al-Zamakhsharee did in al-Mufassal and Ibn al-Haajib in his introductory work. Sometimes they versified the material, as Ibn Maalik did in the greater and lesser rajaz poems and Ibn Mu'tee in the ألفية poem.

In general, the works in this discipline are too numerous to count or encompass. Its methods of instruction differ: the method of the early scholars differs from that of the later ones, and the Koofans, Basrans, Baghdadis, and Andalusians likewise follow different methods. This discipline was nearly destined to disappear, given the decline visible in the other sciences and crafts as civilization diminished. In recent centuries a large work from Egypt reached the Maghrib, attributed to Jamaal al-Deen Ibn Hishaam, one of its scholars. It comprehensively treated the rules of inflection, both briefly and in detail; discussed particles, individual forms, and sentences; removed repetition from most chapters; and called itself Mughnee al-Labeeb fee al-I'raab. It indicated all the subtle points of Qur'aanic inflection and arranged them in chapters, divisions, and rules encompassing the rest. We found in it abundant knowledge, testifying to his high rank and extensive mastery. His method seems to follow the people of Mosul, who followed Ibn Jinnee and adopted his terminology of instruction. He produced something remarkable, demonstrating the strength of his faculty and learning. Allah increases in creation whatever He wills. End quote.

Among the famous books of grammar is Ibn al-Haajib's introduction, called al-Kaafiya. People devoted extraordinary attention to it, so that its commentaries cannot be counted. The greatest is the commentary of Najm al-A'imma Radhee al-Deen al-Astaraabaadhee, whose fame traveled through cities and lands like the breeze and rain. It is a work of great importance, comprehensive in explanation and proof, containing the finest and highest questions and omitting no benefit, small or great.

Al-Suyootee said in Tabaqaat al-Nuhaat: Nothing equal to it in comprehensiveness, verification, and excellence of reasoning was composed on it, or in most books of grammar. People devoted themselves to it, circulated it, and relied on it; the shaykhs of the age used it in their works and lessons. It contains many discussions with grammarians, numerous choices, and positions in which its author is independent. He also wrote a commentary on al-Shaafiya. End quote.

It is related that Radhee al-Deen followed the doctrine of rejection. It is said that he would say: “Justice in 'Umar is not, in my verification, …” We seek refuge in Allah from excess in innovation and partisanship in falsehood.

Among the commentaries on al-Kaafiya are the large, intermediate, and short commentaries of Sayyid Rukn al-Deen; the intermediate one is circulated among beginners.

The commentary of Shaykh 'Abd al-Rahmaan al-Jaamee, the learned al-Saamee, reaches a level beyond which refinement and arrangement cannot be improved. Its renown in our lands makes a biography unnecessary.

There is also the commentary of Jalaal al-Deen al-Ghajdawaanee Ahmad ibn 'Alee, which al-Suyootee says is widely circulated; the commentary of al-Najm al-Sa'eedee; the commentary of Taqee al-Deen al-Neelee; and the author's commentary on the text, containing useful discussions.

Among the abridgments are Lubb al-Albaab, with the excellent commentary of Sayyid 'Abd Allaah al-'Ajamee Naqra Kaar, meaning “silversmith”; and Lubb al-I'raab by Taaj al-Deen al-Isfaraayinee, with commentaries including that of Qutb al-Deen al-Faalee and Imaam al-Zawzanee Muhammad ibn 'Uthmaan. Zoozan lies between Herat and Nishapur.

There is also the commentary of Shaykh 'Alee, known as Musannifak, who was among the descendants of Imaam Fakhr al-Deen al-Raazee. al-Raazee states in his works that he descended from 'Umar ibn al-Khattaab, while historians say he descended from Aboo Bakr al-Siddeeq.

Other abridgments include al-Misbaah by Imaam al-Mutarrizee and its commentary Dhaw' al-Misbaah by al-Isfaraayinee; al-'Umda by Ibn Maalik, with commentaries including that of Ibn Jaabir al-Andalusee; al-Suyootee's ألفية; the versified Mulhat al-I'raab by Aboo al-Qaasim al-Hareeree; and Ibn al-Haajib's rajaz poem, a beautifully composed versification of al-Kaafiya, free of artificial poetic strain.

Among the extensive works are commentaries on al-Mufassal, including al-Eedhaah by Ibn al-Haajib, Ibn Ya'eesh's commentary, al-Iqleed by al-Jundee, and Ibn Hishaam's Mughnee al-Labeeb 'an Kutub al-A'aareeb. He also wrote an abridgment called Qawaa'id al-I'raab; both works have useful commentaries.

Ibn Khaldoon said: While we were in the Maghrib, we continued to hear that a scholar of Arabic had appeared in Egypt, called Ibn Hishaam, more accomplished in grammar than Seebawayh. He often disagreed with Aboo Hayyaan and was strongly opposed to him; he became famous during his lifetime and people turned to him. al-Suyootee said: I wrote a marginal commentary on it and a commentary on its citations. End of the substance of what is found in Madeenat al-'Uloom, which gives lengthy biographies of the grammarians mentioned.

The science of conventional assignment

This is how it appears in Kashf al-Dhunoon. Madeenat al-'Uloom says: It investigates the interpretation of conventional assignment, its division into individual, type-based, general, and specific assignment, and the state of assigning names to substances and assigning forms, among other matters.

Its subject, end, and benefit are clear to the trained student. Mawlaanaa 'Adhud al-Deen wrote a treatise on it, but it is only a drop from an ocean. I had intended to compose a treatise explaining all the aims of this discipline, but I have not yet been able to do so. We ask Allah for success in this objective; He makes every difficulty easy.