Tuesday, September 18, 2012

The Quickest Way to the Quran: Lesson 1

The Quickest Way to the Quran: Lesson 1

There are 77430 words in the Quran, but it is said that the Quran has around 2000 (TWO THOUSAND) unique (unrepeated) words.

Encouraged by "80% Words of the Quran" and "Quranic Arabic Corpus", I am trying to categorize those words in a way easily comprehensible to non-Native learners of Arabic.

I think this is the quickest way to understanding Quran, because you need not try to understand Quran word by word……What you need is to group the basic vocabulary with simple examples.

Today's lesson deals with Personal pronouns.

In Quranic Arabic, the third and second person each is divided into Masculine and Feminine. Each masculine and Feminine is divided into Singular, Dual and Plural. The First Person is divided only into two – Singular and plural So we have total 14 Forms of Personal Pronoun (3rd P=6, 2nd P=6, 1st P=2)
Frequency of the words is given in brackets

3rd Person Masculine
3Mas. Singular
هُوَ (481)
He :
Example:
قلْ هُوَ اللَّهُ أَحَدٌ
Say: “He is God, the One,”. (Sura Ikhlas 112:1)
هُوَ الَّذِي خَلَقَ لَكُمْ مَا فِي الْأَرْضِ جَمِيعًا
It is He who created for you all of that which is on the earth. (Sura Baqarah 2:29)

3Mas. Dual
هُمَا
They two
The 3rd Person Dual forms are the same for Masculine and Feminine and occur 159 times in the Quran
Example
إِذْ هُمَا فِي الْغَارِ……….
…. when they two were in the cave…….(Sura Tawbah 9:40)

3Mas Plural
هُم
They(M)
The Third Person Masculine Plural as separate & joined occurs occur 3897 times according to Quranic corpus, but Zekr Quran Project traces 3896 occurrences.
Example:
وَأُولَٰئِكَ هُمُ الْمُفْلِحُونَ
And it is they who are the successful (Sura Baqarah 2:5)
. وَلَهُمْ فِيهَا أَزْوَاجٌ مُطَهَّرَةٌ وَهُمْ فِيهَا خَالِدُونَ
….. And they will have therein purified spouses, and they will abide therein eternally. (Sura Baqarah 2:25)

3rd Person Feminine
3P Fem. Singular
هِيَ (64)
She / it
In most of the verses, هِيَ refers to objects, animals and matters that are considered feminine and translated as 'it / that' except in verse Sura Yusuf 12:26
قَالَ هِيَ رَاوَدَتْنِي عَنْ نَفْسِي
[Joseph] said, "It was she who sought to seduce me."

3 Person Feminine Plural
هن
Hunna/hinna (207)
They (F)
Example
هُنَّ لِبَاسٌ لَّكُمْ وَأَنتُمْ لِبَاسٌ لَّهُنَّ
They are your garments and ye are their garments. (Baqarah 2:187)
فِيهِنَّ قَاصِرَاتُ الطَّرْفِ لَمْ يَطْمِثْهُنَّ إِنسٌ قَبْلَهُمْ وَلَا جَانٌّ ﴿الرحمن: ٥٦﴾
In them will be (Maidens), chaste, restraining their glances, whom no man or Jinn before them has touched;-(Rahman 55:56)

2 Person Masculine

2P Masculine Singular
انت
Anta (81)
You
Example
إِنَّكَ أَنْتَ الْعَلِيمُ الْحَكِيمُ
.......Indeed, it is You who is the Knowing, the Wise. (Baqarah 2:32)
رَبَّنَا تَقَبَّلْ مِنَّا إِنَّكَ أَنْتَ السَّمِيعُ الْعَلِيمُ
......"Our Lord, accept [this] from us. Indeed You are the Hearing, the Knowing. (Baqarah 2:127)

 2 Person Masculine Dual
AntumaA
You two / You both
This pronoun occurs once in Quran in Verse 28:35
قَالَ سَنَشُدُّ عَضُدَكَ بِأَخِيكَ وَنَجْعَلُ لَكُمَا سُلْطَانًا فَلَا يَصِلُونَ إِلَيْكُمَا ۚ بِآيَاتِنَا أَنتُمَا وَمَنِ اتَّبَعَكُمَا الْغَالِبُونَ [٢٨:٣٥]
He (Allah) said: "We will certainly strengthen thy arm through thy brother, and invest you both with authority, so they shall not be able to touch you: with Our Sign shall ye triumph,- you two as well as those who follow you." Sura: Al-Qasas

2 Person Masculine Plural
انتم
Antum (135)
You (all)

وَلَا أَنتُمْ عَابِدُونَ مَا أَعْبُدُ ﴿الكافرون: ٥﴾
Nor will you worship that which I worship. Sura Kafirun 109:5

وَأَنتُمْ حِينَئِذٍ تَنظُرُونَ ﴿الواقعة: ٨٤﴾
And you at the moment are looking on,(Al-Waqia 56:84)

2 Person Feminine Anti AntumaA Antunna do not occur separately in the Quran.

1 Person Singular
انا
anaA (68)
I
وَلَا أَنَا عَابِدٌ مَّا عَبَدتُّمْ ﴿الكافرون: ٤﴾
"And I shall not worship that which you are worshipping. Kafirun 109:4
And you at the moment are looking on,(Al-Waqia 56:84)

فَقَالَ أَنَا رَبُّكُمُ الْأَعْلَىٰ ﴿النازعات: ٢٤﴾
He said, "I am your Lord, Most High". (Sura Naziat 79:24

وَإِنَّمَا أَنَا نَذِيرٌ مُّبِينٌ ﴿الملك: ٢٦﴾
.....I am (sent) only to warn plainly in public.(Mulk 67:26)

1 Person Plural
نحن
Nahnu (86)
We

إِنَّا نَحْنُ نَزَّلْنَا عَلَيْكَ الْقُرْآنَ تَنزِيلًا ﴿الانسان: ٢٣﴾
It is We Who have sent down the Qur'an to thee by stages. (76:23)

بَلْ نَحْنُ مَحْرُومُونَ ﴿القلم: ٢٧﴾
"Indeed we are shut out (of the fruits of our labour)!" (68:27)

7 comments:

  1. This is wonderful very helpful for arabic student and people wanting to know the Qur'an

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  2. This is really the best of the best. May Allah keep rewarding you till the day of judgment. Amin!!

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  3. Very, very helpful. Thank you very much.

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  4. This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.

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  5. Nice blog. Thanks for posting this article, I found this really interesting. I am also looking for Quran tajweed learning and this blog is really helpful.

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