Both These Lights — Study Session 6
Overview
The main topics covered in this session are:
- Grammar: Further examples of إِذَن failures (cases where naṣb is blocked)
- Grammar: Omission of the جَوَاب الشَّرط when the condition's result is already understood
- Grammar: مَا المَصدَرِيَّة الظَّرفِيَّة (as long as / for the duration of)
- Grammar: كَان التَّامَّة as a subordinate clause
- Grammar: وَاو المَعِيَّة (the accompanying wāw) vs. وَاو العَطف
- Reading: Jaʿfar's speech to Najāshī; Muslims' declaration of Islam and its transformation
1. More on إِذَن — When Naṣb Fails
Three examples showing the three conditions for إِذَن:
1.1 Condition 1 Failure — Not at the Head
وَأَنَا إِذَن أُكرِمُكَ
The وَ precedes إِذَن, so it is not at the sentence head → أُكرِمُ is murfūʿ.
1.2 Condition 2 Failure — Something Separates إِذَن from the Verb
إِذَن لَعَمرِي لَا أَقصِدُكَ
An oath particle (لَعَمرِي) intervenes between إِذَن and لَا أَقصِدُك → muḍāriʿ is murfūʿ. (The permitted separators are only لَا النافية and an oath that is not itself a full jawāb.)
1.3 Condition 3 Failure — Present-Tense Meaning
Someone says: "Bilal sends you salāms from Mariam" — you reply: إِذَن تَعرِفُهُ
The meaning is you know him [right now] — present tense — so تَعرِفُ is murfūʿ.
2. Omission of Jawāb al-Shart
When the result of a conditional sentence is already understood from context, the jawāb can be omitted — but there is a condition: the condition clause must be in the past tense (or carry past meaning via لَم).
Full form: إِن فَعَلتَ كَذَا فَاسكُت، وَإِن لَم تَستَطِع فَاخرُج
With jawāb omitted: اسكُت، وَإِن لَم تَستَطِع — be quiet, or if you cannot [then leave] — the omitted jawāb (then leave) is understood.
Quranic parallel
فَإِن كُنتُم فِي رَيبٍ — If you are in doubt — the jawāb (then bring your proof) is sometimes stated and sometimes context makes it clear.
The reverse is also possible — omitting the شَرط itself when context makes it clear, leaving only the jawāb.
3. مَا المصدرية الظرفية — "As Long As"
مَا can function as both a مَصدَرِيَّة (converting following verb into an implied masdar) and a ظَرفِيَّة (conveying a time duration). Together this is called مَا المَصدَرِيَّة الظَّرفِيَّة — it means for the duration of / as long as.
| Arabic | Meaning |
|---|---|
| مَا بَقِيَ العَالَم | as long as the world remains |
| لَن أَنسَاكِ مَا حَيِيتُ | I will never forget you as long as I live |
| مَا جَاوَرَنِي | for as long as he lives near me |
From the text
Najāshī's vow: لَأُجِيرَنَّهُم وَأُحسِنَنَّ جِوَارَهُم مَا جَاوَرُونِي — I will protect them and be a good neighbour to them as long as they remain in my neighbourhood. The مَا here wraps the action of neighbouring into a time-span.
From Sūrat Maryam
Baby Isa's words: وَأَوصَانِي بِالصَّلَاةِ وَالزَّكَاةِ مَا دُمتُ حَيًّا — He has enjoined upon me prayer and charity as long as I remain alive — مَا دُمتُ uses مَا in the same ẓarfiyya function.
4. كَان التَّامَّة in Subordinate Use
كَانَ مَا كَانَ — whatever happens / come what may. In this famous construction: - The first كَانَ is a complete verb (تَامَّة) taking a subject - مَا is a relative pronoun/masdar-like connector - The result is an unconditional ḥāl: in whatever condition it becomes
This was the formula the Muslims used to express their resolve before Najāshī's court: كَائِنًا مَا كَانَ — whatever may come of it.
5. Jaʿfar's Speech — The Life Before and After Islam
Jaʿfar ibn Abī Ṭālib (رضي الله عنه) — the brother of Ali and the spokesman for the Muslims — delivered one of the most celebrated speeches in early Islamic history. Its Arabic is studied here as classical prose:
أَيُّهَا المَلِكُ، كُنَّا قَومًا أَهلَ جَاهِلِيَّةٍ، نَعبُدُ الأَصنَامَ، وَنَأكُلُ المَيتَةَ، وَنَأتِي الفَوَاحِشَ، وَنَقطَعُ الأَرحَامَ، وَنُسِيءُ إِلَى الجِيرَانِ، وَيَأكُلُ القَوِيُّ مِنَّا الضَّعِيفَ.
"O King, we were a people of jāhiliyya — we worshipped idols, ate carrion, committed abominations, cut the ties of kinship, mistreated neighbours, and the strong among us devoured the weak."
Then he described the transformation brought by the Prophet ﷺ:
حَتَّى بَعَثَ اللهُ إِلَيْنَا رَسُولًا مِنَّا نَعرِفُ نَسَبَهُ وَصِدقَهُ وَأَمَانَتَهُ وَعَفَافَهُ. فَدَعَانَا إِلَى اللهِ لِنُوَحِّدَهُ وَنَعبُدَهُ، وَنَخلَعَ مَا كُنَّا نَعبُدُ نَحنُ وَآبَاؤُنَا مِن دُونِهِ مِنَ الحِجَارَةِ وَالأَوثَانِ.
Key vocabulary from this passage:
| Arabic | Meaning |
|---|---|
| أَهلُ جَاهِلِيَّة | people of ignorance/pre-Islamic era |
| المَيتَة | carrion (animal not slaughtered lawfully) |
| الفَوَاحِش | open indecencies; things universally recognized as wrong |
| يَأكُلُ القَوِيُّ الضَّعِيفَ | the strong devoured the weak |
| نَسَب | lineage, genealogy |
| أَمَانَة | trustworthiness |
| عَفَاف | chastity, restraint from desires |
| نُوَحِّدَهُ | to single Him out (for worship); form II of و-ح-د |
| نَخلَعَ | to cast off, shed (like removing a garment) |
| الأَوثَان | idols; plural of وَثَن |
وَنَحنُ — why the explicit pronoun?
نَخلَعَ مَا كُنَّا نَعبُدُ نَحنُ وَآبَاؤُنَا — the نَحنُ is inserted because the وَاو العَطف cannot attach to a hidden pronoun inside the verb. Since نَعبُدُ already has a hidden نَحنُ, adding وَآبَاؤُنَا requires the explicit pronoun. This rule comes from the grammar of Adam and Eve: وَزَوجُكَ (not just كَ) because the wāw needs a visible/spoken partner.
The state of jāhiliyya — present-day parallel
Jaʿfar's description of the jāhiliyya — idols, infanticide, exploitation of the weak, severed kin ties — resonates with contemporary life. The Prophet ﷺ foretold that the ummah would pass through a second jāhiliyya, worse than the first. This is one reason the description in this hadith is worth pondering beyond its historical context.
6. Grammar Note: وَاو المعيَّة
وَاو المَعِيَّة (the wāw of accompaniment) makes the following muḍāriʿ manṣūb. It means together with / and simultaneously:
لَا تَأكُل السَّمَكَ وَتَشرَبَ اللَّبَنَ — Don't eat fish and [simultaneously] drink milk
Here the naṣb on تَشرَبَ shows it is not mere conjunction but simultaneous accompaniment. If it were وَتَشرَبُ (murfūʿ), the meaning would be two separate prohibitions.
7. Key Lessons from This Session
Summary of Lessons
- إِذَن loses naṣb for three reasons: something precedes it, something other than لَا separates it from the verb, or the meaning is present tense.
- مَا المَصدَرِيَّة الظَّرفِيَّة = "as long as" — it packages a verb's duration as a time-span.
- Jaʿfar's speech is a masterpiece of classical Arabic — it describes the before/after of Islam in concise parallel clauses that build momentum.
- The وَاو العَطف cannot attach to a hidden pronoun — an explicit noun or pronoun must be present for conjunction. This accounts for نَحنُ and وَزَوجُكَ in multiple Quranic contexts.
Next session: حَتَّى — three grammatical types; introduction to المتعلِّق.