كَانَ وَأَخَوَاتُهَا — Kāna and Her Sisters
كَانَ وَأَخَوَاتُهَا (Kāna and Her Sisters), also called الأَفعَال النَّاقِصَة (nāqiṣa verbs, "deficient verbs"), are a group of verbs that behave unlike regular verbs — they do not take a fāʿil. Instead, they take:
- ism al-kāna (اسم كَانَ) — always marfūʿ
- khabar al-kāna (خَبَر كَانَ) — always manṣūb
The Core Structure
كَانَ + [ism, marfūʿ] + [khabar, manṣūb]
Contrast with إِنَّ
| Construction | Ism | Khabar |
|---|---|---|
| كَانَ and sisters | Marfūʿ | Manṣūb |
| إِنَّ and sisters | Manṣūb | Marfūʿ |
These are mirror images — a frequent source of confusion.
Common Sisters
| Verb | Meaning | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| كَانَ | was / timeless "is" | For Allah = timeless, not past |
| أَصبَحَ | became / to be in the morning | Often used as "to become" with no morning reference |
| أَمسَى | became in the evening | Similar |
| أَضحَى | became in the forenoon | |
| بَاتَ | spent the night (in a state) | |
| لَيسَ | is not | Fiʿl jāmid — no muḍāriʿ or amr; khabar may take زَائِدَة بَاء |
Example Sentences
كُنتُ مَرِيضًا — I was sick - ت = ism (1st person pronoun attached), fī maḥalli rafʿ - مَرِيضًا = khabar, manṣūb
كَانَ اللَّهُ عَلِيمًا حَكِيمًا - اللَّه = ism al-kāna, marfūʿ - عَلِيمًا and حَكِيمًا = two khabars, both manṣūb
كَانَ for Timeless Truths
When كَانَ is used with Allah, it does not indicate past tense — it conveys an eternal, timeless reality:
كَانَ اللَّهُ عَلِيمًا حَكِيمًا ≠ "Allah was All-Knowing" (past, implying change) = "Allah is and always has been All-Knowing" — without beginning or end
Application in Sūrat Al-Ḥujurāt 49:6
فَتُصبِحُوا عَلَى مَا فَعَلتُم نَادِمِين "...and you become regretters over what you have done."
- أَصبَحَ here = "to become" (no morning reference)
- وَاو in فَتُصبِحُوا = ism al-aṣbaḥa, fī maḥalli rafʿ
- نَادِمِين = khabar al-aṣbaḥa, manṣūb
Multiple Usages of the Māḍī Verb
Arabic māḍī verbs are not restricted to past tense:
| Usage | Example | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| Past tense | كُنتُ مَرِيضًا | I was sick |
| Timeless (with Allah) | كَانَ اللَّهُ عَلِيمًا | Allah is eternally All-Knowing |
| Duʿāʾ | رَحِمَكَ اللَّه | May Allah have mercy on you |
| Certain future event | Qiyāmah events in māḍī | The certainty makes it grammatically past |
عَسَى — A Special Sister
عَسَى is a fiʿl jāmid (frozen — no muḍāriʿ, no amr) that takes ism + khabar like the kāna sisters, but with a unique constraint: its khabar is ALWAYS a maṣdar muʾawwal (أَن + muḍāriʿ). See عَسَى Verb for full treatment.
لَيسَ — Khabar With Zāʾidah Bāʾ
The khabar of لَيسَ may optionally take a بَاء زَائِدَة (extra bāʾ that does not change meaning). When it does, the khabar becomes majrūr instead of manṣūb:
| Without bāʾ | With bāʾ | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| لَيسَ زَيدٌ مَيِّتاً | لَيسَ زَيدٌ بِمَيِّتٍ | Zayd is not dead |
Why use bāʾ?
The bāʾ adds emphasis and is a stylistic option. The meaning remains identical; the case of the khabar changes from naṣb to jarr.
Role as Nawāsikh
The kāna sisters are one of the three categories of النَّواسِخ — The Abrogating Agents — agents that enter upon a jumla ismiyyah and abrogate the original mubtadaʾ/khabar relationship. The other two categories are أَفعَال المُقَارَبَة والرَّجَاء والشُّروع — Verbs of Proximity, Hope, and Inception (Kāda and sisters) and ظَنَّ وأخواتها — Ẓanna and Verbs with Two Mafʿūl (Ẓanna and sisters). All three change the iʿrāb and add a dimension of meaning; the kāna sisters add a temporal or stative dimension while leaving the ism marfūʿ.
From Surah Yusuf Session 9 — Two Reminders
كَانَ Has No فَاعِل
Analysing لَّقَدْ كَانَ فِي يُوسُفَ وَإِخْوَتِهِ آيَاتٌ لِّلسَّائِلِينَ (12:7), the class first called آيَاتٌ the فَاعِل — and the teacher pointed out that nobody had caught it.
The Slip Worth Catching
كَانَ is a نَاسِخ. It does not take a فَاعِل and a مَفعُول — it takes an اِسْم كَانَ (marfūʿ) and a خَبَر كَانَ (manṣūb).
The analysis of the āyah:
| Element | Role |
|---|---|
| آيَاتٌ | اِسْم كَانَ, marfūʿ — delayed |
| فِي يُوسُفَ وَإِخْوَتِهِ | جَارّ وَمَجرُور standing as the خَبَر كَانَ المُقَدَّم |
| لِلسَّائِلِينَ | Left open — a second khabar, or a مُتَعَلِّق functioning as ṣifah for آيَات |
The teacher chose to leave the last element as "khabar one and khabar two" for ease of parsing, and undertook to check how other grammarians have parsed it. See الخَبَر المُقَدَّم — Fronted Predicate and المُتَعَلِّق — Prepositional Phrase Attachment.
مُتَصَرِّف vs. جَامِد
A نَحو Distinction, Not a صَرف One
Grammarians say the فِعل مَاضٍ is always مَبنِي — a morphological statement. Syntactically there is a further division: some past-tense verbs are جَامِد (frozen), having no muḍāriʿ and no amr. لَيْسَ and عَسَى are the classic cases.
كَانَ is مُتَصَرِّف: كَانَ / يَكُونُ / كُنْ runs through the tenses and the imperative. This matters syntactically — the rule requiring لَـ + قَدْ in a جَوَاب القَسَم applies only to a مُتَصَرِّف past verb, so it applies to كَانَ but not to لَيْسَ or عَسَى. See Jawāb al-Qasam (جواب القسم).
Feminine Agreement
The rules for making كَانَ feminine to agree with its اِسْم are exactly the same as those for a verb and its فَاعِل — which is why كَانَ, not كَانَتْ, stands before the feminine plural آيَاتٌ in Āyah 7. See تَاء التَّأنِيث — The Feminine Marker on Verbs.
Session References
- Surah Yusuf Session 9: كَانَ takes an اِسْم and a خَبَر, never a fāʿil; full iʿrāb of Āyah 7 with the fronted khabar; مُتَصَرِّف vs. جَامِد and why it matters for jawāb al-qasam; feminine agreement with آيَاتٌ.
- Surah Al-Hujuraat Session 9: Full treatment of kāna sisters; contrast with إِنَّ; timeless use with Allah; application in Āyah 6 (أَصبَحَ + نَادِمِين); multiple usages of māḍī verb.
- Surah Al-Hujuraat Session 13: عَسَى introduced as a special case — nāqiṣ in both ṣarf and naḥw; tāmm vs nāqiṣ forms; khabar always maṣdar muʾawwal.
- Selections from the Glorious Quran Session 20: لَيسَ khabar with زَائِدَة بَاء demonstrated with a line of Arabic poetry (لَيسَ مَن مَاتَ بِمَيِّتٍ).
- Surah Yusuf Session 4: Kāna sisters reframed within the nawāsikh framework; contrast with af'āl al-qulūb; use of كُنتَ with إنْ mukhaffafah in Āyah 3.