Implied Governing Elements ('Awaamil Ma'nawiyyah) – Nahw Meer 7.0

Nahw Meer in English · Lesson 7.0

نَحْوُ مِير

Implied Active Elements are of two kinds:

 

1) The beginning of a sentence is empty of active Noun on implied active elements اَلْعَوَامِلُ الْمَعْنَوِيَّةُ and it gives Nominative رَفْعٌ status to both Subject اَلْمُبْتَدَأُ and the Predicate اَلْخَبَرُ. For example, زَيْدٌ قَائِمٌ meaning “Zaid is standing”. So, the Subject زَيْدٌis Nominative رَفْعٌ because of the beginning and قَائِمٌ which is Predicate for it is Nominative رَفْعٌ due to the Subject which is Nominative رَفْعٌ because of the beginning.

 

There are two more schools of thought:

 

– that the beginning اَلْاِبْتِدَأُis acting on the Subject اَلْمُبْتَدَأُ and اَلْمُبْتَدَأُ is active on the Predicate اَلْخَبَرُ.

 

– that each one in both the Subject اَلْمُبْتَدَأٌ and Predicate اَلْخَبَرُ is active on the other.

 

2) The Imperfect Tense Verb اَلْفِعْلُ الْمُضَارِعُ is empty of any active element to give it Accusative نَصْبٌ or Jussive جَزَمٌ  status which gives Nominative رَفْعٌ status to the verb. For example, يَضْرِبُ زَيْدٌ meaning “Zaid is hitting/ will hit”. Therefore “يَضْرِبُ“ here is Nominative رَفْعٌ because there are no Accusative نَصْبٌ or Jussive جَزَمٌ actors فَاعِلٌ.

 

The Subject of Active Elements in Grammar has been completed here by the Grace of Allah SWT and His help.

 

۞۞۞

 

A closer look: spoken and unspoken governors

Every case ending in Arabic is caused by something, called the governor (الْعَامِلُ). Most governors are words you can see or hear: a verb, a preposition, إِنَّ. These are the verbal governors (الْعَوَامِلُ اللَّفْظِيَّةُ). This lesson covers the two that are not words at all, the abstract governors (الْعَوَامِلُ الْمَعْنَوِيَّةُ).

Nahw Meer follows the scheme laid down by the grammarian Abd al-Qaahir al-Jurjani in his Hundred Governors (al-'Awaamil al-Mi'ah): 91 governors learned from usage (سَمَاعِيَّةٌ), 7 that follow a rule (قِيَاسِيَّةٌ), and these 2 abstract ones.

1. The start of the sentence (al-ibtidaa')

In اللَّهُ لَطِيفٌ بِعِبَادِهِ (Ash-Shooraa 42:19), "Allah is Subtle with His servants", nothing before اللَّهُ could make it nominative. The grammarians therefore say that its being at the start, free of any governor, is what makes it nominative. Watch what happens when a verbal governor enters:

Sentence	Subject	Predicate	Governor
اللَّهُ لَطِيفٌ	اللَّهُ nominative	لَطِيفٌ nominative	the start (abstract)
إِنَّ اللَّهَ لَطِيفٌ	اللَّهَ accusative	لَطِيفٌ nominative	إِنَّ (verbal)
كَانَ اللَّهُ لَطِيفًا	اللَّهُ nominative	لَطِيفًا accusative	كَانَ (verbal)

The Qur'an has the second form in إِنَّ اللَّهَ لَطِيفٌ خَبِيرٌ (Al-Hajj 22:63): once إِنَّ enters, the abstract governor gives way and the subject becomes accusative.

2. The imperfect verb free of particles

The imperfect verb (الْفِعْلُ الْمُضَارِعُ) ends in a damma when nothing acts on it. Once a particle of the accusative or the jussive comes before it, the ending changes:

Example	Ending	Why
يَعْلَمُ مَا فِي السَّمَاوَاتِ	damma (nominative)	no particle: the abstract governor
لَن تَنَالُوا الْبِرَّ (Aal-'Imraan 3:92)	accusative (the noon is dropped)	لَنْ governs
لَمْ يَلِدْ وَلَمْ يُولَدْ (Al-Ikhlaas 112:3)	sukoon (jussive)	لَمْ governs

Grammarians disagreed about the second abstract governor. The view in Nahw Meer, held by Al-Farraa' and the Kufans, is that the verb is nominative because it is free of the accusative and jussive particles. The Basran view, from Seebawayh, is that it is nominative because it stands where a noun could stand. Both give the same result in every sentence; only the explanation differs.

Why this matters for reading the Qur'an

Knowing that the default is nominative lets you read a sentence from start to finish in your head: start with nominative, and change only when a governor you can point to comes in. It is the quickest way to check the vowel you are about to read on a subject or a verb.

Check yourself

What governs the ending of each of these words? الْحَمْدُ لِلَّهِ (the first word); يَقُولُ in وَمِنَ النَّاسِ مَن يَقُولُ; تَعْلَمُونَ in وَأَنتُمْ لَا تَعْلَمُونَ.

Answers: the start of the sentence; the absence of any accusative or jussive particle; again the absence of one (لَا here is ordinary negation and does not govern).