Introduction
Includes 5 parts
- The Arabic Language and its Sciences.
- The ‘Kalimah’ and its parts
- Types of Constructions (Murakabat)
- ‘Irab and Bina (Final Harakah Changes)
- Summary of ‘Irab
1 – The Arabic Language and its Sciences.
Language, is conventionally defined as utterances used by a people for specific meanings, languages are many. They are all different and unique when one considers the sounds and utterances that they are comprised of, yet they are one if one considers the meaning of what is being said. The meaning that flows through the hearts of people is one.
However, every group of people employs their own sounds to illustrate this meaning, that differ from those used by others.
The Arabic language is therefore those sounds and utterances, used by the Arab to give meaning to their ideas. The Arabic Language as we know it, was passed down by the effort of our forefathers, protected by the Holy Quran, Noble Hadith, and whatever the credible scholars have transmitted of the prose, and poems of the Arab.
Arabic Sciences
When the people of Arabia feared the the destruction of their language after mixing so much with non-arab people, they sought to compile the Arabic language in Dictionaries and tomes, and to formulate rules that would keep the people from making mistakes. These rules and foundations were called the Arabic Sciences.
The Arabic Sciences are those sciences that are connected with and related to protecting one’s tongue and pen from making mistakes and they number thirteen:
- Nahw (Sarf and Irab)
- Rasm
- Mani
- Bayan
- Badi
- Urud
- Qawafi
- Qard
- Shiar
- Insha
- Khitabah
- Tarikh al-Adab
- Matn al-Lughah
The most important being Nahw (Sarf and Irab)
Sarf and Irab
Arabic words can be in one of two states, singular(ifrad) or constructed(tarkeeb).
When discussion the singular, you look for specific patterns(wazn) and constucts (hay’ah). This is the Science of Sarf
When discussing the constructed, you look at its last letter and what it requires to be marked with according to the speech of the Arab. Should it be changed to the state of Raf’, Nasb, Jarr, Jazm, or should it be left in one state? These changes are the subject of the science of Irab.
Sarf is then, that science concerning the bases of recognizing letters and their basic constructs. How Arabic letters change without paying attention to their Irab or states.
It is a science about words, how t
