Nahw Review Session 2 | Mufti Abdul Wahab Waheed

Nahw Review Session 2 — Recap

السلام عليكم ورحمة الله وبركاته — dear fellow students, this is the recap of our last week's class إن شاء الله تعالى.

Review: The Three I'rāb Statuses

In the past two weeks we've studied the idea of the first element of a noun, which is i'rāb status, and the three statuses that we studied were rafa', nasab and jarr. Rafa', nasab and jarr — all three of them in the wahid (singular) form of a noun is very easily identified:

• When I see a word like al-hamdu — it has a dhamma, so it's rafa'.
• When it has al-hamda — it's nasab.
• When it has al-hamdi — it's jarr.

Generally, a word has rafa' because it's the doer, it has nasab because it's the object, and it has jarr because of an added letter (a preposition) that came before it.

We covered that in the first session of this specific topic. In the second session — this past week — we talked about how to identify these statuses when the word is in its dual or its plural form. That's where it becomes a little more complicated. So we'll do the dual form first and then we'll get to the plural form إن شاء الله.

The Dual Form (المثنى)

Take a word like aṭ-ṭālibu — it's in rafa', you can tell. But what is the dual form of this? We said that by adding alif + nūn, it automatically becomes dual:

• al-muʿallimu → al-muʿallimāni
• al-masjidu → al-masjidāni
• al-waladu → al-waladāni
• al-bintu → al-bintāni
• as-sayyāratu → as-sayyārātāni

Dual: Rafa' Status (الرفع)

When the alif + nūn is added to the dual form of a noun, the word is in the status of rafa'. For example, if I want to say "the two students left the class," it would be:

Not aṭ-ṭālibu and not anything else — the alif + nūn ending is necessary here because the two students are the doers (subject) of the sentence.

Dual: Nasab and Jarr Status (النصب والجر)

When the dual noun is in the status of nasab or jarr, you add yā' + nūn (with a fatḥa on the yā'). So aṭ-ṭālibāni becomes aṭ-ṭālibaini.

For example, "I helped the two students" — it would not be naṣartu aṭ-ṭālibāni, because aṭ-ṭālibāni signals rafa', and we know the object should be nasab. So the correct form is:

Another example: "I read the two books" — it would not be qara'tu kitābāni. Since qara'tu already contains ana (I) as the doer, the books are the object and must be nasab:

So to summarize the dual:

• Alif + nūn ending → dual, status of rafa'
• Yā' + nūn ending (fatḥa on the yā') → dual, status of nasab or jarr

Examples side by side: al-muʿallimāni / al-muʿallimaini — aṭ-ṭālibāni / aṭ-ṭālibaini — al-masjidāni / al-masjidaini.

The Plural Form (الجمع)

Masculine Sound Plural (جمع المذكر السالم)

Now let's take the same word aṭ-ṭālibu and make it plural. For "all the male students," that would be aṭ-ṭālibūna. Similar to how we studied the dual version, this ending is not for all three statuses — it is only for the status of rafa'.

So what is the form for nasab and jarr? It becomes aṭ-ṭālibīna (with a kasra on the letter before the yā').

For example, "I helped all the students" — naṣartu aṭ-ṭālibūna would be wrong, because aṭ-ṭālibūna marks the word as the doer. The correct form is:

Note the difference between the dual and the plural:

• Dual nasab/jarr: aṭ-ṭālibaini — fatḥa on the letter before the yā'
• Plural nasab/jarr: aṭ-ṭālibīna — kasra on the letter before the yā'

Let's put it all together with another example. "I saw all the teachers" would be:

Not ra'aytu al-muʿallimūna — because al-muʿallimūna is the doer form. Now let's use both forms in one sentence: "The teachers saw all the students."

Al-muʿallimūna is the doer (rafa') and aṭ-ṭālibīna is the object (nasab).

Feminine Sound Plural (جمع المؤنث السالم)

The feminine version is very easy. All we do is add alif + tā'. So muslima becomes muslimātun (the male plural equivalent being muslimūna).

• Rafa' → muslimātun
• Nasab / Jarr → muslimātin

So if I want to say "I saw all the Muslim women," it would be ra'aytu muslimātin, not muslimātun.

Quranic Example: Surat al-Ahzab

The example we used for the plural was the āyah of Surat al-Aḥzāb:

Muslimīna — it is the plural masculine, but it is not muslimūna, because inna gives it a nasab status, so it becomes muslimīna. And al-muslimāti — not muslimātu — again because of the nasab given by inna.

Summary Table

I hope إن شاء الله by this everyone can recap what we learned in class, and of course watch the full video of the class as well — but إن شاء الله this can supplement that.

وآخر دعوانا أن الحمد لله رب العالمين — السلام عليكم ورحمة الله وبركاته. I'll see you all on Wednesday.