Chapter 1.1
Introduction to The Tarkeeb Method
مَنْ كَسَرَ الْأَصْنَامَ
بَائِعُ الْأَصْنَامِ
قَبْلَ أَيَّامٍ كَثِيْرَةٍ، كَثِيْرَةٍ جِدًّا
كَانَ فِيْ قَرْيَةٍ رَجُلٌ مَشْهُوْرٌ جِدًّا.
وَ كَانَ اسْمُ هٰذَا الرَّجُلِ آزَرَ.
وَ كَانَ آزَرُ يَبِيْعُ الْأَصْنَامَ.
وَ كَانَ فِيْ هٰذِهِ الْقَرْيَةِ بَيْتٌ كَبِيْرٌ جِدًّا.
وَ كَانَ فِيْ هٰذَا الْبَيْتِ أَصْنَامٌ، أَصْنَامٌ كَثِيْرَةٌ جِدًّا.
وَ كَانَ النَّاسُ يَسْجُدُوْنَ لِهٰذِهِ الْأَصْنَامِ.
وَ كَانَ آزَرُ يَسْجُدُ لِهٰذِهِ الْأَصْنَامِ.
وَ كَانَ آزَرُ يَعْبُدُ هٰذِهِ الْأَصْنَامَ.
Alhamdulillah! Today we begin the Qasas book. You now have a solid foundation in Arabic to begin reading your first Arabic text. From now on, most of the grammar you learn will be learned directly through the Qasas book. This will give us a number of benefits. The first is that you will see the application of the grammatical concepts directly, rather than just learning dry theory. The book also includes Aayaat from the Quran regularly, so you will also be understanding Aayaat of the Quran, which is the whole reason we are studying the language in the first place.
Also, it will keep motivation levels high, inshaa Allah, as learning grammar of any language can be quite a dry endeavour. So, having an engaging text to learn from is extremely beneficial and useful.
For each Qasas lesson, we will put the entire chapter at the beginning. You should try to understand as much as you can on your own before continuing with the lesson. With that said, let's get started. We begin with the heading:
مَنْ كَسَرَ الْأَصْنَامَ
First, the word مَنْ is an Ism because it is a pronoun. We also have the verb كَسَرَ. And we can clearly see that the word الْأَصْنَامَ is منصوب because it is the مفعول به. But where is the فاعل? If you said there is a hidden هُوَ pronoun inside كَسَرَ, then you'd be correct. The sentence would be broken down as follows:
You've seen this kind of breaking down of the sentence and boxing up words a few times now. The idea is to grammatically break down the sentence and accurately determine what role words and phrases are playing in the sentence. This is crucial as determining the role will affect the translation and therefore the understanding.
Pay close attention to the different colours. In our case, the whole sentence breaks down into two separate grammatical positions: the مبتدأ and the خبر. That's it. But the خبر is a compound structure made up of multiple words (another sentence, in fact), so having broken down the outer layer, we focus on the inner layer. There we see it is فعل ، فاعل ، مفعول به. Now, every word has been broken down and placed in its own box. This method is called تَرْكِيْبٌ (tarkeeb).
Our aim is to put each word, explicit and implicit (like the هو), in its own box. However, this will not always be possible as there will be some concepts we have not studied preventing us from fully analysing the sentence. The more we advance in our lessons, the more regularly we will be able to fully analyse a sentence.
بَائِعُ الْأَصْنَامِ
Here we have a مضاف مضاف إليه phrase. We see the tell-tale sign of the "no tanween, no al" on the word بَائِعُ. We also can see that الْأَصْنَامِ is in جرّ, which is a requirement of the مضاف إليه.
Notice also that in the main heading, we had the word الْأَصْنَام in the state of نصب because of مفعول به, and here it has a Kasrah because of مضاف إليه.
كَانَ فِيْ قَرْيَةٍ رَجُلٌ مَشْهُوْرٌ جِدًّا
From the meanings of the words أَيَّامٍ (days) and كَثِيْرَةٍ (many), our minds should automatically go towards موصوف صفة, since we have a noun followed by an adjective. So let's confirm this is the case by going through our conditions for موصوف صفة.
- Definiteness - We can see both words are indefinite as they end in tanween, so this is satisfactory.
- Grammatical State - Both are in the state of جرّ as can be seen by the Kasrah endings. So we are good here too.
- Number - أَيَّامٍ (days) is plural. However, كَثِيْرَةٍ is singular; the plural of كَثِيْرٌ is كِثَارٌ. This condition fails.
- Gender - أَيَّامٍ is masculine, but كَثِيْرَةٍ has the ةٍ (Taa Marbootah) ending which indicates it's feminine. So this condition fails too.
This is resolved by introducing the following rule:
With this rule, we see that أَيَّامٍ is a non-human plural, and therefore grammatically it will be treated as a singular feminine entity, which is reflected by the كَثِيْرَةٍ adjective which is also singular and feminine.
We've identified the موصوف صفة relationship of أَيَّامٍ كَثِيْرَةٍ. But why is أَيَّامٍ in جرّ to begin with?
So with that, we can translate the first line as: Before many days, very many. Notice from the translation that this is a phrase; we have not completed a full sentence yet.
Next, we notice that there is a كَانَ starting a sentence. Therefore, our minds straight away expect to find an اسم كان and a خبر كان.
We know that the اسم كان is مرفوع, and we can see that رَجُلٌ مَشْهُوْرٌ is a موصوف صفة phrase (both are masculine, singular, indefinite and مرفوع) that is رفع. We can say كَانَ ... رَجُلٌ مَشْهُوْرٌ(... there was a famous man). We can then deduce that فِيْ قَرْيَةٍ will be the خبر كان coming first. And this is allowed. Both in a كَانَ sentence, an إنّ sentence, or a normal جملة إسمية, the خبر of all of these sentences can be brought forward and the مبتدأ delayed. Our final translation then is: Before many days, very many, in a town there was a very famous man.
You might be wondering why فِيْ قَرْيَةٍ is not منصوب given that خبر كان is supposed to be in نصب. Should it not have been فِيْ قَرْيَةً?
What about قَبْلَ. The default state of Isms is for them to be مرفوع. Why then does قَبْلَ have a Fathah?
Our breakdown of the sentence would be:
Recall that the verb كَانَ is what we call in English an Auxiliary verb. In Arabic, it is called فِعْل نَاقِص.
Also, not every word has been broken down and placed into its own box. That is okay at this stage as we don't want to overwhelm you.
We have another كَانَ sentence, so we look for an اسم إن and a خبر كان. How many words are there in total? We ignore the Waw at the beginning as it is just a conjunction (and) and has no effect on the كَانَ sentence. So we have 5 words. كَانَ will be in its own box as the فعل ناقص. How do the other 4 words divide? How many will comprise the اسم كان and how many the خبر كان?
We can see that آزَرَ is on its own and is منصوب, which is what the خبر كان needs to be. So we suspect the breakdown will be 1-3-1. Looking at اسْمُ هٰذَا الرَّجُلِ (the name of this man), we have a phrase, with اِسْمُ being مرفوع. So we have our top-level breakdown.
The اسم كان further breaks down into a مضاف مضاف إليه.
How did we figure out that آزَرَ is on its own and that that is where the اسم إن and خبر إن separation takes place? Remember that with a جملة إسمية, we place the 'is' where the phrase-level relationships end. Between اسْمُ and هٰذَا الرَّجُل is a مضاف مضاف إليه relationship, and while you don't know the Arabic terms, you can see from the translation, 'this man', that there is a phrasal relationship between هٰذَا and الرَّجُلِ. But nothing is connecting with آزَرَ and making a phrase, so that is where we dropped the 'was' to separate between the اسم كان and خبر كان.
How many words are in this sentence? Remember we ignore the وَ at the beginning as it has no grammatical role.
كان + مضرع
You know that كان + ماضي gives the meaning of distant past (had translation). When كَانَ combines with a مضارع, we get the meaning of Past Continuous i.e. it was an act they would do habitually. In English, this is usually achieved with a 'would/used to' translation. بَاعَ (he sold), كَانَ بَاعَ (he had sold), يَبِيْعُ (he sells/he is selling/he will sell), كَانَ يَبِيْعُ (he would sell/he used to sell).
We see كَانَ so we know we will have 3 major portions:
- فعل ناقص
- اسم كان
- خبر كان
How many words are in this sentence? كَانَ is conjugation #1, and we know conjugation #1 can have a hidden pronoun inside it. Is this the case for كَانَ? The answer is no. We can see النَّاسُ coming straight after it in رفع and is therefore اسم كان.
The only other verb is يَسْجُدُوْنَ. Does it have a hidden pronoun?
Don't get caught out by the لِهٰذِهِ. This is two words joined together: the حرف جرّ (لِ) and the pronoun هٰذِهِ.
This, therefore, gives us seven words. And the division will be 1-1-5, with يَسْجُدُوْنَ until the end, all coming as the خبر كان.
Since the خبر كان is large and we have words not boxed, we need to take a deeper look and focus on it. The خبر كان splits into three portions: we have a فعل, a فاعل which are both contained in يَسْجُدُوْنَ, and then we have a prepositional phrase لِهٰذِهِ الْأَصْنَامِ. Up until now, we have been referring to the prepositional phrase as جارّ مجرور, but the جارّ مجرور are actually the two halves which together make up the prepositional phrase.
The actual term for the prepositional phrase, which you are now ready for, is مُتَعَلِّق (Muta'alliq). This is a very important term, so it should be memorised.
Now, normally a verb is either intransitive and therefore has no object (he slept), or transitive and has an object (he ate the apple). Sometimes, though, a verb is intransitive, but it can still convey an extra detail which is almost like an object. In this case, it isn't strong enough to attract a direct object, and instead has to use a prepositional phrase. In our example, يَسْجُدُوْنَ لِهٰذِهِ الْأَصْنَامِ, (they prostrate to these idols), the verb, to prostrate, is intransitive. But it can add an extra detail about the prostrating, the thing that was prostrated to, and to do that, we need the help of the preposition 'to', just as we do in Arabic with the help of the preposition لِ.
Whether or not a verb has a direct object, or whether the detail needs to be conveyed through the use of a preposition, is something only the dictionary will tell us. In English, we need the preposition 'to' for the verb prostrate (he prostrated to the idols), but that doesn't mean that the Arabic will require it and vice versa. Sometimes, they will both require it, sometimes just the English, sometimes just the Arabic, and sometimes both will require prepositions but each language uses a different preposition.
As an example, we can say, "The messenger reached the city". The verb reached has a direct object, the city. The same phrase in Arabic can be said as وَصَلَ الرَّسُولُ إِلَى الْمَدِينَةِ. Note here that we have the preposition إِلَى for the verb وَصَلَ, which was not required in English.
Finally, for this sentence, the متعلّق divides into جارّ مجرور.
- The word هٰذِهِ is the feminine form of هٰذَا. The feminine form is used for the same reason كَثِيْرَةٌ was used in the line before because أَصْنَامٌ is a non-human plural that is treated as singular feminine.
- The 'would' translation is coming from the كَانَ + يَسْجُدُوْنَ.
There is no difference here other than the fact that here يَسْجُدُ would have a hidden هو as the فاعل. Everything else is identical.
The only difference here is that the verb يَعْبُد ُ has no need for a preposition and can have a direct object. As a result, الْأَصْنَامَ is منصوب.
Summary
- The word قَبْلَ is an adverb of time. These types of words in Arabic come as مضاف with the word(s) following being مضاف إليه.
- Because adverbs of time come to answer the question of "when" an action occurred, they come as مفعول فيه in a sentence. Therefore, they will be منصوب.
- A خبر can come before the مبتدأ, just like the اسم كان can precede the اسم إن, and the خبر كان can precede the اسم كان. For example, كَانَ فِيْ قَرْيَةٍ رَجُلٌ مَشْهُوْرٌ.
- A حرف جرّ takes precedence in terms of governance over other influences. For example, in كَانَ فِيْ قَرْيَةٍ رَجُلٌ مَشْهُوْرٌ, the خبر كان is فِيْ قَرْيَةٍ, and we would expect قَرْيَةٍ to be منصوب. However, because the حرف جرّ is closer, it is therefore stronger in governance and overrules the خبر كان wanting منصوب, and instead makes قَرْيَةٍ to be in رفع.
- كان + ماضي = distant past (had translation) كان + مضرع = past continuous (would/used to translation), e.g., بَاعَ (he sold), كَانَ بَاعَ (he had sold), يَبِيْعُ (he sells/he is selling/he will sell), كَانَ يَبِيْعُ (he would sell/he used to sell).
We list below the most important tarkeeb analyses done this lesson: