The correct combination.

padlock.jpgal-Salāmu ‘alaykum wa rahmatullāh,

I came across an amusing anecdote in Lisan al-'Arab recently illustrating the dangers of engaging in naht haphazardly.

It is related from Ibn Mas'ood (may Allah be pleased with him) that his wife one day asked him to provide a jilbab (protective outer garment worn outside the house) for her. He replied, "I fear that you will then set aside the jilbab in which Allah has contained you." She asked him, "What is that?" He said, "Your house."

To which she replied,

أَجَنَّك من أَصحابِ محمدٍ تقول هذا؟
"Ajannaka from the Companions of Muhammad (peace be upon him), that you say this?"

The word of interest here is the first one in the sentence: ajannaka. At first glance it could render the sentence as 'You have been made mad by one of the Companions of Muhammad (peace be upon him)', based on it being from the root ج - ن - ن.

However, the wife of Ibn Mas'ood actually came up with her own form of naht here: what she intended to say was,

أَمِنْ أَجلِ أَنّك
Is it due to that fact that you are...

But she ommitted from this phrase:
- the word مِن
- the أ and ل from the word أجل
- the أ from the word أنّك

...resulting in the final combination: .أَجَنَّك

25 thoughts on “The correct combination.”

  1. al-Salamu’alaikum wa rahmatullah.

    Jazakamullahu khairan for that.

    Could you please recommend a good website to get arabic books from. Neelwafurat is usually good but I’m looking to buy ‘Ma’ani al-Nahw’ and they dont have it in stock. Your advise is appreciated.

    Wassalam
    Wassalam.

  2. Wa ‘alaykum al-Salaam wa rahmat Allah,

    Wa iyyaakum.

    I’m sorry, I have never ordered an Arabic book online.
    You can try the site recommended by Taalibul-‘Ilm, and if anyone knows others perhaps they can also help Yusuf.

  3. Assalamu 3alaikum,

    I have no experience with adabwafan. But I have ordered a couple of books from Al-neel wa al-furaat online store. They did, however, chrage my credit card twice by mistake. I am in the process of getting this resolved.

    But the books arrived alhamdulillah 🙂

    Another good site is fadakbooks.com. I have also ordered some book from there. Very good service!

    But you must know that ordering books online is quite expensive. If you know someone who is going to the Middle East, ask them to bring you the books you want. It is much cheaper.

    Just as a reminder, “Ma3aani Al-Nahw”, doesn’t teach you na7w pher se, but rather teaches you the usage of grammatical constructs. The author often refers to rules of na7w while explaining; hence it is assumed that you know some basic na7w, and you are reading to expand your knowledge. In other words, this book is not for beginners; but I’d highly recommended it if you are really enthusiatic to explore the beauty of Arabic, and can hadle reading a 4 volume Arabic text 🙂

    Please keep me in your du’a.

    Assalamu 3alaikum.
    Billo.

  4. al-Salamu’alaikum wa rahmatullah.

    Jazakamullahu khairan all for your suggestions and BarakAllah brother Billo for that, makes me want to buy it even more, it will benefit me later on insha allah 🙂 .

    ArabicGems once praised Imam Suyutis همع الهوامع and I just wanted to ask one question regarding it, if that’s ok.

    How important a role do the ‘shawahid’ play in it because I was reading that he only quotes the most relevant part of each line and omits most of it with full knowledge that the advanced readers would already be aware of the background of the poetry he’s quoting.

    Obviously, the shahid can only be understood if the meaning of the poetry is understood and I dont think that’s possbile most of the time without having some background knowledge of what the poets discussing.

    So would Allamah al-Suyutis cutting short the poetry he quotes act as a deterrent for a close- to-intermediate level student in benefiting from his work?

  5. al-Salamu’alaikum wa rahmatullah.

    سامحني لكثرة السؤال لكن لو سمحت سآخذ هذه الفرصة لأضف الى إستفساري بعض ما يناسبها إن شاء الله و بارك الله فيكم

    What is Imam al-Suyuti’s الأشباه و النظاءر about? I’ve also heard these two words used as titles for texts in other fields such as fiqh so I was wondering what exaclty they mean?

    دمتم بخير

    Wassalam

  6. Sorry there is no edit button. Just wanted to clarify that I meant his الأشباه و النظاءر in Nahw.

  7. Wa ‘alaykum al-Salaam wa rahmat Allaah,

    I don’t think it is fair to say that al-Suyuti ONLY quotes the relevant parts of a verse, there are many places where the full verse is quoted. But even then, it is sometimes difficult for a student at beginner-intermediate level to understand poetry if there is no explanation of the words – I still have problems with it sometimes!

    Why don’t you download the text from: http://almeshkat.net/books/open.php?cat=16&book=2534 and see what you think of it and whether it makes sense to you. Then you can know whether to purchase it or not.

    ‘al-Ashbaah wa al-nadhaa’ir’ literally means ‘comparables and similes’ and it was a term initially used in fiqh closely related to the general rules of jurisprudence (al-qawaa’id al-fiqhiyyah). When Imam al-Suyuti wrote his book al-Ashbaah wa al-nadhaa’ir fee al-Nahw, he wanted to follow the paths of the scholars of fiqh, but to apply it to Arabic, based on the statements of some scholars that Arabic is one of the major sciences to which others return.

    So he arranged it according to the chapters of the fiqh book by Taj al-Din al-Subki (also called al-Ashbah wa al-Nadha’ir) as he saw this as being the most comprehensive in its field. The book covers such topics as the rules and principles of Arabic, arranged alphabetically – and this is the bulk of the book. Then he also had a section on exceptions and categories of words, and a section on various issues (masaa’il) in Arabic, a section on grammatical quizzes and riddles, on rare words, and so on.

    It is the most comprehensive of its sort, and the first of its kind.

    Wa Allaahu A’lam.

  8. Assalamu ‘alaykum
    do you where to download Uyuunul Akhbaar’s Ibn Qutaybah freely? i search at almeshkat with no results

  9. I’m sorry, I have never ordered an Arabic book online. You can try the site recommended by Taalibul-’Ilm, and if anyone knows others perhaps they can also help Yusuf.

  10. Pingback: The correct combination. (via Arabic Gems ~ جواهر العربية) | quran reciter blog

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