Tuesday 13 January 2015

Arabic prepositions


                                                              بِسمِ اللهِ الرَّحمانِ الرَّحِيم

الحمد لله والصلاة والسلام على نبينا محمد وآله وصحبه


الدرس الثامن

As-salam-alai-kum.  Important stuff in learning arabic is arabic grammar tables. remember how many we learnt till now ?  

arabic pronouns - Hua , huma , hum…. in chapter 1.  can you repeat it ?
arabic joined pronouns - Hu, huma, hum... in chapter 4. can you apply this concept for “his lord” , their both lord” .. and so on.   
arabic demonstrative pronouns - Hadha, hadhani …. in chapter 6 ?  please repeat it ?

It is also good if you write those tables. I like writing in arabic. Its an artistic script. Also it will help in memorising it.

Here is another important table for Arabic prepositions.   recite it this way.

Bee, lee , fee,   ….  min, un, ila, a`la, ……. wa, ta, ka


 وَ
Swear
إلى
to, towards
From
مِن  
بِ
with/in , by
Swear
تَ
على
on
عَن
about, for , on behalf of,
لِ
for
Like
ك


فِي
in / inside

Propositions are very important part of any language. almost every sentence is made of prepositions. So you will find lot of them in quran.   lets see how the above prepositions are used in arabic.  You will be surprised you were using them almost daily. (ma`sha-allah)

Two nouns :  اِسمٌ +  الله   => اِسمُ اللهِ  
In english we add - ‘s -  to make a possessive noun. As in above example “Allah’s name”. Another way of writing it is “name of allah”.  For the possessive noun in arabic, the format is “اِسمٌ + اِسمٌ”  =becomes==>  “ismu ismi” . (اِسمُ اِسمِ)  example “Ismun + allahu”  => “ismu allahi”.    This grammar is called Idafa.  (i.e the اُ changes to اِ) Insha-allah we will revisit this again later, but just remember that in arabic possessive nouns sign changes. ex. . (اِسمُ اِسمِ)  

How many names of Allah are there ?  . . . . . .   ninety nine.    All of them are beautiful right. thats why they are called asma al-husna.  [أسماء الله الحسنى]. every muslims must memorise it with its meaning.  Not only our vocabulary will increase to 99 words more but it also comes with lot of bonus ( barakah).  and increase our chances of du’a getting accepted.

Narrated Abu Huraira: Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) said, “Allah has ninety-nine names, i.e. one-hundred minus one, and whoever knows them will go to Paradise.”
Sahih Al-Bukhari – Book 50 Hadith 894
Coming back to our arabic prepositions:
  1. [ بِ ] means In/ by.  Now for everything we start with Bismillahi. Right ? We should !!
By simply adding  .بِ  to  اِسمُ اللهِ  becomes   بِسمِ اللهِ i.e (In the name of Allah)
Its important to notice again that when preposition is applied to noun its sign changes. (i.e the اُ changes to اِ).
As you can see in last letters of the words in ( بِسْمِ اللَّهِ الرَّحْمَٰنِ الرَّحِيمِ )
Thats why the above prepositions are called “huruf-al-jarr”. that is they change the sign of last letters where ever they apply. Insha-allah we’ll see more examples.

  1. [ لِ ] means “for”.  Everything we do, should be for the sake of Allah.  i.e (لِّلَّهِ ) - for Allah. Thats why we praise only to Allah. [الحَمدُ لِلهِ]
             [ لِ ] can also be used to asking questions. [لِماذا] means why. literally “for what”.
  1. Our next proposition in the table [فِي] .  as in Quran ayah
لِّلَّهِ مَا فِي السَّمَاوَاتِ وَمَا فِي الْأَرْضِ …….[2:284]
           it means “IN”.  So the above ayah [2:284] means To Allah belongs whatever is “IN” the   heavens and whatever is “IN” the earth.  can you spot  [ لِ ]  used in the Ayah ?
[مَا ] used in the ayah means “whatever”. But its has more meanings in different context which you will insha-allah learn later.
          We have to strive in the path of allah.  [في سبيلِ للهِ]
  1. In chapter 5.   The first thing we read was [هَـٰذَا مِن فَضلِ رَبّي].  the preposition present in this jumlah is [مِن].  means [ from ]. So the above جملة means. “This is from the grace of my lord].  Notice the idafa in this ? [فَضلُ رَبّي].  because of the preposition the sign changed to [  فَضلِ]
        We can also use this preposition to ask question about their country. example:
 مِنْ أَيْنَ أَنْتَ ؟
أَنا مِنَ الْهِنْدِ  (india)
Lets read the below sequence of going to  صلاة, and get an understanding of usage of prepositions directly.   Some fields are left blank for you to translate.


ENGLISH
ARABIC
PREPOSITION
where are you ?
أَيْنَ أَنْتَ ؟


أَنا في البيتِ
في
where to ?
إلى أين ؟


إلى المسْجِدِ
إلى
from where ?
مِن أين ؟


مِن البيتِ
مِن
Is the masjid near from your house
هل المسْجِدُ قريب عَن البيتِكَ ؟
عَن
….. far …..
لا, المسْجِدُ بعِيد مِن البيتِي
مِن
so then how (will you go) ?
فكيف ؟

on the cycle
على دراجة
على
why ?
لِماذا  ؟


لِصلاة
لِ
which prayer ?
أيُّ الصلاة


لِصلاة الظهر
لِ
when is the fajr salat ?
متى الصلاة  الفجْر


في صَباحٍ
في
when is asr prayer ?
متى الصلاة  العصر

In the evening
في المساءِ
في

متى الصلاة العشاء

at night
في الليلِ
في
By (swear) Allah, ….. better than ….
واللهِ الصلاة خيرٌ مِن النوم
و , مِن



5. the preposition [عَن] means “from, about,on” .  You can find lot of examples from quran.
6. The last example above uses the letter (و) which does not mean “and” here. Its a preposition which means (to swear). Many arabs use this very often to swear by Allah واللهِ.  But we should not do this frequently.   In many Surahs Allah swear by many things he has created.
example :   وَالشَّمْسِ  ( [swear] by the sun ) ,  وَالْقَمَرِ ( [swear] by the moon) , وَالضُّحَىٰ ( [swear] by the morning brightness)


                    In arabic, people who are have patience are called : الصَّابِرُونَ - plural)
But when added with preposition ( مَعَ - with),  the sign changes. إِنَّ اللَّهَ مَعَ الصَّابِرِينَ
إِنَّ Is the word used to stress the importance. It means ( verily ).
If you just know the arabic words then it won’t help. I was confused as to why some places it is “oona”  and at some places it is “eena”. example “ sabireen and sabiroon”.
another example :  disbelievers means  الكافرون
when prepositions are used the sign changes. فَلَعْنَةُ اللَّهِ عَلَى الْكَافِرِينَ  (so the curse of Allah will be upon the disbelievers 2:89)


7. One more preposition from the table remaining is (ك). When this is prefixed with any word it means like that (word) .  example . كهذا ( like this) , كذلك ( like that)
, إِنَّ مَثَلَ عِيسَىٰ عِندَ اللَّهِ كَمَثَلِ آدَمَ ۖ   Indeed, the example of Jesus to Allah is like that of Adam (3:59).

8. عِندَ above means with. Insha-allah more on this later.

There are more stuff to learn on prepositions. Insha-allah in next chapter.  Please try to translate this simple chapter taken from ejtaal.net.


رَشِيدٌ
: اَلسَّلامُ عَلَيْكُمْ ورحمةُ اللَّهِ.
مُحَمَّدٌ
: وعَلَيْكُمُ السَّلامُ وَرَحْمَةُ اللَّهِ وبركاته.
رَشيدٌ
: مِنْ أَيْنَ أَنْتَ يَا أَخِي؟
مُحَمَّدٌ
: أَنا مِنَ الْهِنْدِ.. وَأَنْتَ؟
رَشيدٌ
: أَنا مِنَ الصِّينِ.. وَمِنْ أَيْنَ فَرِيدٌ ؟
مُحَمَّدٌ
: هُوَ مِنْ فَرَنْسَا.
رَشيدٌ
: أَيْنَ فَرَنْسَا؟
مُحَمَّدٌ
: فَرَنْسَا في أُورُبَّا.
رَشيدٌ
: إِلى اللِّقاءِ. والسلام عليكم ورحمة الله.
مُحَمَّدٌ
: وعليكم السلام ورحمة الله وبركاته.

Some words used above : الصِّينِ. (china), فَرَنْسَا. (france). أُورُبَّا. (europe).  إِلى اللِّقاءِ. (until we meet , or simply Bye !!)

Summary:

  1. learnt arabic propositions table. (bee, lee, fee, ….min,un, …. ila, a`la,  wa,ta,ka )
  2. Idafa. (بيتُ زيدِ).
  3. Idafa + preposition changing sign. مِن بيتِ زيدِ.
  4. verify means - إِنَّ.
  5. مَا means whatever. and means something else based on context.
  6. متى means when.
  7. ايّ means “which/ any”
  8. some more new arabic words

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