Chapter 1.9 Part 2

Where do we get the translation "it is He who guides me"? Seems it would be easier to say, "Who created me then guides me." But notice once again that already has the assumed inside it. Since we are repeating it again and changing the sentence from a جملة فعلية to a جملة إسمية, the translation needs to match. Ibrahim AS here is stressing that it is Allah SWT who does the guiding, not the idols that they believe in.

We have the word . This is what we call in English a relative pronoun (اِسْم مَعْصُوْل). It is used to bring a clause and relate it to a noun, modifying it by adding extra information. The most common relative pronouns in English are, "who, whose, that, which". For example, "The house that I built is large". In this sentence, "the house" would be the subject (مبتدأ), "that" would be the relative pronoun (اِسْم مَعْصُوْل) and together with the clause "I built", would be modifying the noun "house". And finally the word "large" would be the predicate (خبر), the information you are giving about the subject.

You have already seen the sister concept to this before in Chapter 1.4 - Sentences as Descriptions. There we had ((because they are stones which do not speak)). Here we had the sentence ((they do not speak)) coming as a description for the noun . And we mentioned that the sentence in Arabic is indefinite, so it can come directly as a صفة for the indefinite موصوف. The relative pronoun "which" is understood in Arabic in this case and there is no need to mention it. Just like how the word "is" is understood in Arabic and isn't actually written ((The boy is small)).

Here however, the موصوف is معرفة therefore the sentence can't directly be used as a صفة as it is نكرة. This is why we need the relative pronouns الْأَسْمَاءُ الْمَوْصُوْلَة. They convert the definiteness of the sentence from نكرة to معرفة. The relative pronoun is called اِسْم مَعْصُوْل or just مَعْصُوْل (literally means bound, tied) for short, and the sentence it converts is called the صِلَة (literally means connection, relation, link). Then, together, they can form the صفة for the موصوف. With that said, here is the breakdown of this sentence:

Below we list the relative pronouns:

Pay attention to the فَ in this line and the one two line above . They are not the same فَ. The first one is the one you have seen throughout the book is an عطف like واو, but also indicates sequence. This فَ however is called فَاءُ الْجَزَائِيَّة (The Faa of reward/recompense"). Notice that this sentence is a conditional sentence. For every conditional sentence there are two parts. First, the condition. Second, the outcome that will occur if that condition is fulfilled. The فَ here acts like a comma, separating the two parts of the conditional sentence, which is useful when the condition is long and more intricate. which is why we have left it untranslated.