arabic jussive and subjunctive moods

بِسمِ اللهِ الرَّحمانِ الرَّحِيم

الحمد لله والصلاة والسلام على نبينا محمد وآله وصحبه

الدرس الثالث و العشرون

السلام عليكم ورَحْمَةُ اللَّهِ وبَركاتُه , Although the Christians claimed to believe in One God, yet their God also had at least a son, and besides the Father and Son, the Holy Ghost also had the honor of being an associate in Godhead: so much so that God had a mother and a mother-in-law too. The Jews also claimed to believe in One God, but their God too was not without physical, material and other human qualities and characteristics.  Islam replies to this with beautiful answer …..   Surah AL-IKHLAS.

In which Allah swt says:

لَمْ يَلِدْ وَلَمْ يُولَدْ  112:3

The verb used in above ayah is وَلَدَ  (he begot), it’s not the noun for “child”. Noun has the tanween - وَلَدٌ.   We have studied in previous chapter that any verb that contains “و” or “ياء”. in their root letter then it’s called weak verbs. So this verb  وَلَدَ is also weak.

How do we make the present tense for this ?  Just drop the “و”, and add “يا”, to make it يَلِدُ. you can check in Arabic dictionary.

Notice that, in the ayah the verb is of format يَلِدْ, and not يَلِدُ.   That is ضمة is changed to a سكون. This is because the imperfect verb is negated emphatically. This is achieved by adding the particle لَمْ before the active and passive verbs. This gives an additional 2 tables. Now لم also affects the verb , ie. The ضمة is changed to a سكون. (Very important) This format is called Jussive mood.

Example:

Negative Past Active	Negative Past Passive
لَمْ يَسْمَعْ (he did not hear)	لَمْ يُسْمَعْ (he was not heard)

For every verb you should learn all the below format or conjugations.

example,  the formats of verb وَلَدَ including Jussive mood.  

والِد	لَمْ يَلِدْ	لَمْ يُولَدْ	يُولَدُ	وُلِدَ	يَلِدُ	وَلَدَ
one who begets	he does not beget	He was not begotten	he is begotten	he was born	he begets	he begot

There are some rules to pronounce verbs in jussive mood correctly. Memorise the below conjugation table for jussive mood.

It’s important to note the change in the last letters of the verb. It applies to every verb. you can memorise without lam, in this way.  

yaf’al , yaf’ala, yaf’aloo … tafal,taf’ala,taf’alna …… tafal,taf’ala,yaf’alna….. tafaali,taf’ala,tafalanna….afal,nafal

لَمْ  يَفْعَلُوْا - they did not do	لَمْ يَفْعَلا - the both did not do	لَمْ  يَفْعَلْ - he did not do
لَمْ يَفْعَلْن - they did not do	لَمْ  تَفْعَلا - they both did not do	لَمْ  تَفْعَلْ - she did not do
لَمْ  تَفْعَلُوْا - you all did not do	لَمْ  تَفْعَلا - you both did not do	لَمْ  تَفْعَلْ - you did not do
لَمْ  تَفْعَلْن - you all did not do	لَمْ  تَفْعَلا - you both did not do	لَمْ  تَفْعَلي - you did not do
	لَمْ  نَفْعَلْ - we did not do	لَمْ  أَفْعَلْ - i did not do

Negation of verb كانَ

In the previous chapter we learned about Arabic verb “to be” is كانَ (kāna) i.e

• “I was” = كُنتُ (kuntu)
• “you (m, sing.) were” = كُنتَ (kunta)
• “you (f, sing.) were” = كُنتِ (kunti)
• “he was” = كانَ (kāna)
• “she was” = كانًت (kānat)

Can you reiterate the conjugation table for whole table ?

And its present form ?

• “I am” = أكونُ (akūnu)
• “you (m, sing.) are” = تَكونُ (takūnu)
• “you (f, sing.) are” = تَكونينَ (takūnīna)
• “he is” = يَكونُ (yakūnu)
• “she is” = تَكونُ (takūnu)

Reiterate the conjugation table for the present form.

Now let’s negate the past tense in Arabic, paradoxically. This requires using the present tense form of the verb, in the “jussive” mood.

• “I was not” = لَم أكُن (lam akun)
• “you (m, sing.) were not” = لَم تَكُن (lam takun)
• “you (f, sing.) were not” = لَم تَكوني (lam takūnī)
• “he was not” = لَم يَكُن (lam yakun)
• “she was not” = لَم تَكُن (lam takun)

compete the conjugation table for the above.

Then next ayah of surah al-ikhlas just uses the above.

وَلَمْ يَكُن لَّهُ كُفُوًا أَحَدٌ  112:4

Negating the present tense of كانَ requires a completely irregular form:

• “I am not” = لَستُ (lastu)
• “you (m, sing.) are not” = لَستَ (lasta)
• “you (f, sing.) are not” = لَستِ (lasti)
• “he is not” = لَيسَ (laysa)
• “she is not” = لَيسَت (laysat)

Complete the conjugation table for above.  لَيسَ  , لَيسا , لَيسوا  ....

Jussive mood:

When the particle (لَم) was added before any verb.  It affected the verb by changing ضمة to a سكون. The same rule applies if the following letters comes in front of them. please memorise it in this way.

Lam , lamma,  in, li, la

لِـ  - imperative	إِنْ - if	لَمْ - did not
لا - don't		لَمَّاْ - have not yet

Examples:

Ali didn't go	لَمْ يَذْهَبْ عَلِيٌّ
the boy did not eat	لَمْ يَأْكُلِ الْوَلَدُ
Abdullah hasn't arrived yet	لَمَّاْ يَصِلْ عَبْدُ اللَّهِ
don't be sad	لا تَحْزَنْ
if you study, you will pass	إِنْ تَدْرُسْ تَنْجَحْ

Remember :  The jussive table ( lam , lamma, in , li , la).  if any of these particles are before the verbs then convert it to jussive form.

Similar to jussive form there is Subjunctive form.   Let’s learn this by negating the future.  let’s go back to basics again.

Both the active and passive tables are negated by simply adding the particle لا to the beginning of each verb.

Imperfect Active	Imperfect Passive	Imperfect Active Negative	Imperfect Passive Negative
يَسْمَعُ (he hears)	يُسْمَعُ (he is heard)	لا يَسْمَعُ (he does not hear)	لا يُسْمَعُ (he is not heard)

Adding the prefix سـ (which is a particle that joins onto the verb) will limit the meaning to the near future, giving the meaning “I will soon hear”, and adding the particle سَوْفَ before the verb limits it to the distant future, giving the meaning “I will hear”. These particles are prefixed to both the active and passive verb.

Near Future Active	Near Future Passive	Future Active	Future Passive
سَيَسْمَعُ (he will soon hear)	سَيُسْمَعُ (he will soon be heard)	سَوْفَ يَسْمَعُ (he will hear)	سَوْفَ يُسْمَعُ (he will be heard)

Now the imperfect verb can be used to emphatically negate the future. This is achieved by prefixing the active and passive verbs with the particle لَنْ.

لَنْ  يَفْعَلُوْا	لَنْ  يَفْعَلا	لَنْ  يَفْعَلَ
لَنْ  يَفْعَلْن	لَنْ  تَفْعَلا	لَنْ  تَفْعَلَ
لَنْ  تَفْعَلُوْا	لَنْ  تَفْعَلا	لَنْ تَفْعَلَ
لَنْ  تَفْعَلْن	لَنْ  تَفْعَلا	لَنْ تَفْعَلي
	لَنْ نَفْعَلَ	لَنْ أَفْعَلَ

Now لن   also affects the verb, just as لم did, in the following manner.

• The conjugations without a نون at the end (there are 5 of them) have a ضمة on their final letter. This ضمة will change to a فتحة..
• All the conjugations with a نون at the end will lose their نون

For the verb he hears , it will be

Negative Future Active	Negative Future Passiv
لَنْ يَسْمَعَ (he will not hear)	لَنْ يُسْمَعَ (he will not be heard)

The same effect happens when we have the following particles in front of the verbs.   memorize this table as you have to remember to convert the verbs when these particles comes in front.

Memorise it in this manner.  An, lan, izan … li, hatta, fa, ….. ka, likka, likaila.

كَيْ  - In order to	لِـ - So that	أَنْ - That
لكَيْ  - so that	حَتَّىْ  - Until	لَنْ - Will not
لِكَيْلا  - so that	فَـ  - Then	إِذَنْ - Then

Examples:

I want to go	أُرِيْدُ أَنْ أذْهَبَ
he will not go	لَنْ يَذْهَبَ
they came to help	جَاْؤُوْا كَيْ يُساْعِدُوْا
we came to see you	أَتَيْنَاْ لِنَرَاْكَ
I will wait for their return	سَأَنْتَظِرُهُنَّ حَتَّىْ يَرْجَعْنَ
either we win or we die	نَنْتَصِرُ أَوْ نَمُوْتَ

Summary:

We learned about

1. Jussive mood :  particles lam, lamma, in, li , la.  If these letters comes then  ضمة will change to a سكون.
2. Subjunctive mood:   An, lan, izan … li, hatta, fa, ….. ka, likka, likaila.  If these particles are there then ضمة will change to a فتحة.

Beautiful hadith

رسول الله  صلى الله عليه وسلم ء قال:إن الدين يسر، ولن يشاد أحد الدين إلا غلبه .....

The Prophet (ﷺ) said, "The religion (of Islam) is easy, and whoever makes the religion a rigour, it will overpower him. …… [Al-Bukhari].