Chapter 1.9 Part 1

The word is the مصدر of and means "invitation". Remember that the مصدر is just the action of the verb, whereas the verb as a tense associated with it as well.

Now, even though a مصدر does not have tense, that doesn't mean it can't have a subject or an object associated with it. For example, our heading, ((The invitation of Ibrahim)). Who is doing the invitation? Ibrahim AS. So he is the subject of the action of inviting. In other words, just like a فعل, a مصدر can have a فاعل and a مفعول به. But there will still be no tense. In, "the invitation of Ibrahim", we get the action of inviting, and the one doing the inviting, Ibrahim. We don't get any information when the inviting is happening. Has it already happened? Is happening right now? Will it happen in the future? We don't know.

Now, in terms of ((grammatical inflection)), how would this work? There are two ways. The first is exactly the same as a verb, in that the مصدر will make its فاعل in the state of رفع and its مفعول به in the state of نصب, such as, ((Ibrahim invites the people)). Notice how the subject is in رفع and the مفعول به is in نصب.

The second way that it can govern is for the the مصدر and its governed one to come in a مضاف مضاف إليه phrase, which is what we have here. So would be . This type of is called ((Spoken Idaafah)), because it does not have anything to do with true possession like , which is called ((True/Actual Idaafah)). In the very first Qasas passage, the very first sentence we read, we saw which is another example of . There is no possession between the word "days" and "before", but it is still structured this way regardless.

We see the verb here. Now we have seen these types of verbs a few times now, verbs where one of the root letters seems like it is an الف. Here the الف is at the end. We've seen many times the verb where it is in the middle. As a result of which the verbs don't rhyme with any of the six baabs we studied previously .

The Seven Categories of Verbs

In the science of صرف, we can divide verbs into 7 categories. The discussion revolves around the presence of awkwardness and/or weak letters being present in the verb. Before we go further, recall that the letters واو and ياء are considered to be weak letters ((Letters of Weakness)). Due to certain صرف rules which you will learn later, sometimes these weak letters are changed to an الف.

1. صَحِيْح

A صَحِيْح is when none of the root letters are weak, none of them are a Hamza, أ, and none of them are duplicated (two of the root letters are the same and appear side by side). Examples include .

2. مِثَال

A مِثَال verb is when the first root letter is a weak letter: and .

3. أَجْوَف

An أَجْوَف verb is when the second root letter is a weak letter: .

4. نَاقِص

A نَاقِص verb is when the third root letter is a weak letter: .

5. لَفِيْف

A لَفِيْف (literally means wrapped up) verb is when two of the three root letters are weak: .

6. مَهْمُوْز

A مَهْمُوْز is a verb where one of the root letters is a Hamza: .

7. مُضَعَّف

A مُضَعَّف (literally means doubled) is a verb where the last two root letters are the same, and so are combined with a Shaddah: .

Notice the way both sentences end: . It should have been , but both of the منصوب pronouns were omitted. This is usually done for 2 reasons. The first is to make the ending of both Aayahs rhyme, which makes it pleasant to the ears when recited.

The second reason it can be done is to not restrict the object, and to keep the application broad. For example, if we were to ask an idol worshipper ((Do they harm you?)), the مفعول به is limited to the idol worshippers. There is a possibility that even though the idols may not help them they may help others. Whereas by omitting the مفعول به and saying ((Do they harm (you)?)), even though we add (you) in parentheses for the sake of making it flow in English (as it would sound incorrect if we didn't say the object), we understand that the underlying concept behin the question is more in line with, "Do they harm anyone or anything at all?".

We have preserved the order of the words in the translation even though it sounds a little odd in English. The normal way would have been to say, , but by inverting the structure we get that the people of Ibrahim are stressing that they are only doing exactly what their ancestors did. The stress is an insight into their psyche because for them, following tradition makes complete sense and to them Ibrahim AS seems to be the strange one.

The word is used to deflect attention away from the previous statement and to direct focus and attention on what follows. This type of is known as بَلْ إِضْرَابِي. literally means, to turn away, to leave, to abandon. And إِضْرَابِي is when you are using that meaning in the form of a description. We can translate بَلْ إِضْرَابِي as "The بَلْ of deflection".

Notice the change in translation here for . Before we translated it as "rather" but here we translate it as "in fact". This is because this is not بَلْ إِضْرَابِي, rather it is another type of called بَلْ اِنْتِقَالِي. The masdar means to transfer, transition, change location. What it means here is that we are moving from one statement, and progressing to something even stronger or forecful. In this case, Ibrahim AS states he will never worship the idols. Then he doubles down and makes an even stronger statement by proclaiming his enmity to the idols.

Figuring out which بَلْ is being used is not too difficult. If it is continuing the idea and is making a more impactful, forceful, statement, then it will be بَلْ اِنْتِقَالِي. If it is moving away from the previous statement and introducing a new concept, then it will be بَلْ إِضْرَابِي.