Shadha al-'Arf fee Fann al-Sarf (Course on Science of Sarf)

[hearandobey]

Assalamu alaykum,

Insha'Allah I will start giving online courses (more like explanations) here on Sarf, based on the book Shadha al-'Arf fee Fann al-Sarf by Sh Ahmed al-Hamalawi (from al-Azhar).

If you are interested in this, could you please leave a message here so that I know there are people here wanting this and I could arrange for regular times when I come to post the explanations insha'Allah.

For now, you can start brushing up on whatever you know of from sarf (and nahw!) and keep watching this space.

['Abd al-Kareem]

wa 'alaykumassalam warahmatullahi wabarakatuh,

I'm interested.
Jazakillahu khaira.

[abdul muntaqim]

count me in

[Um Abdullah M.]

wa alaykum assalam

I've actually started reading that book about 5 days ago, I am supposed to finish reading it within 10 days, but it seems I will be adding 2 or 3 more days to that ! (insha Allah)

A shaikh is giving me a program to go by for my Islamic studies, so my first homework was sarf and the book chosen was Shadha Al-'Arf fee Fann al-Sarf.

So I would like to join in.

[Skillganon]

More knowledge can only benefit us. Count me in.

However I don't thave a clue about the topic.

[salahuddin_ayyubi]

Assalamu alaykum

Count me in insha'Allah

[hearandobey]

Brother Skillganon and others, if you understand the following, then you are suitable for the level of this subject insha'Allah:

فالاسم: ما وضع ليدلّ على معنى مستقلّ بالفهم ليس الزمن جزءاً منه، مثل رجل وكتاب.

الفعل. ما وضع ليدل على معنى مستقل بالفهم والزمن جزء منه، مثل كتب ويقرأ واحفظ.

والحرف: ما وضع ليدل على معنى غير مستقلّ بالفهم، مثل هل وفي ولم، ولا دخل له هنا كما مرّ. ويختص الاسم بقبول حرف الجرّ، وأل، وبلحوق التنوين له، وبالإضافة، وبالإسناد إليه، وبالنداء،
نحو: الحمد لله منشى الخلق من عدم
»ونحو: «يا إبراهيم قد صدّقت الرّؤيا

[hearandobey]

بسم الله الرّحمن الرّحيم

Alhamdulillaah was-salaat was-salaam ala rasool-Allaah (sallallahu alayhi wa aalihi wa sallam).

Oh Allah, grant us knowledge that benefits us and we seek refuge in you from knowledge that doesn't benefit.


Insha'Allah the way we will go through this book is that I will copy bits from the text and post it here with explanations. We will not go through every single thing in the book, instead we will focus on the most important points (prob. 90% of the book anyway). I will be doing some question/answer sessions here and there, so do participate and see if you've understood things insha'Allah!


Shadha al-'Arf fee Fan al-Sarf

The name of the book translates to: The scent of perfume in the discipline of Morphology. The author is the Azhari Shaykh Ahmed al-Hamalawi.


Who is Shaykh Ahmed al-Hamalawi

Shaykh Ahmed ibn Muhammad ibn Ahmed al-Hamalawi was a very adept grammarian. He memorised the majority of texts in nahw (grammar). [It is worth nothing that in the past the ulamaa' of nahw would include chapters on sarf (morphology) towards the end of their texts... So even though we said that he memorised texts on nahw, they included sarf too].

The Shaykh aimed to make a separate book specifically on sarf, which would be lucid and would have all the necessary rules of it based on the best classical texts.

In this book the Shaykh summarises the "ummahaat al-masaa'il" (most important points) of Sarf.


His main sources for Shadha al-'Arf:

- Qatr an-Nada
- Mughni al-Labeeb
- Ibn Hisham
- Ibn Malik (author of the Alfiyyah)


What after completing Shadha al-'Arf?

After a person has completed the text and gained the rules, he/she will be free from errors by:
- speaking correctly
- reading correctly
- free from 'uyoob (faults).

ie, you will know how to read the words with their respective harakaat correctly insha'Allah.


Anything else I should know?

The Shaykh (rahimahullah) was not muta'assib (partisan) to any nahwi school of thought. He was often independent but for the most part in agreement with the school of Basra.

The Shaykh was born in 1856 and was a top scholar in al-Azhar and in Dar al-Uloom in Cairo.

[KnowledgeSeeker]

Akhi hearandobey, may Allah reward you for your efforts to spread ilm.

A question though: How come you settled on "Shadha al Arf" as the text that you'd like to teach from as opposed to other texts?

Please note that I am not questioning the selection (as I do not possess the knowledge to do so), but I would like to gain insight into what aspects of the books you found most preferable to others which resulted in you selecting the text. The answer to this question would probably be of benefit to many of us in the future as well when we get deeper into our studies.

Either way, sign me up insha'allah!

[justabro]

count me in

[hearandobey]

JazakAllahu khayran, KnowledgeSeeker.

How come you settled on "Shadha al Arf" as the text that you'd like to teach from as opposed to other texts?

As was mentioned earlier, there aren't many texts on the subject of sarf itself. When you compare the amount of texts on nahw and balaghah to the amount on sarf then you will realise that of the few there are on this subject, Shadha al-Arf is the best as it covers all the important aspects of this subject.

All the major Islamic institutes and universities, such as al-Azhar and al-Fath al-Islami, use this text which they go through in a space of two years! Insha'Allah we will go through it much sooner.

The other reason why I chose this text is because I studied this with someone that is qualified to teach it.

ps. I'm a sister.

[Abu Ikrimah]

I am in too...

[hearandobey]

مقدّمةIntroduction (by Sh al-Hamalawi)


الصّرف، ويقال له التصريف، وهو لغة: التغيير، ومنه تصريف الرياح، أي تغييرها.
Sarf, which is also called tasreef, linguistically means change. And from it is "tasreef of the wind", meaning it changed.

واصطلاحاً بالمعنى العمليّ: تحويل الأصل الواحد إلى أمثلة مختلفة، لمعان مقصودة، لا تحصل إلا بها، كاسمي الفاعل المفعول، واسم التفضيل، والتثنية والجمع، إلى غير ذلكTechnically and by practical meaning, it is the changing of a single root to comparative forms aimed at meanings, which do not occur except by making those changes, such as the names of the faa'il and maf'ool, Ism al-Tafdheel, al-Tathniya, al-Jama', etc.

وبالمعنى العلميّ: علم بأصولٍ يعرف بها أحوال أبنية الكلمة، التي ليست بإعراب ولا بناء
And it's scientific/theoretical definition is: the knowledge/discipline of principles by which the states of the structures of words are known, which are not I'raab (ie vowelling) or Binaa'.

وموضوعه: الألفاظ العربية من حيث تلك الأحوال، كالصحّة والإعلال، والأصالة والزيادة، ونحوها
Its subject is: the Arabic words relating to its states, such as soundness and weakness, roots/sources, and additions etc.


ويختص بالأسماء المتمكنة، والأفعال المتصرّفة؛ وما ورد من تثنية بعض الأسماء الموصولة وأسماء الإشارة، وجمعها وتصغيرها، فصوريّ لا حقيقيّ.
And it concerns specifically the grounded nouns (al-Asmaa' al-Mutamakkina) and the conjugated verbs (al-Af'aal al-Mutasarrifa) and what comes relating to the dualisation (al-Tathniya) of some of the pronouns (al-Asmaa' al-Mawsoula) and the Asmaa' al-Ishaara, the jama' of it, the tasgheer of it. So these changes are by form and not actual.


These are the most important points from the introduction. What follows is a short explanation of who was the first to lay down the rules of Sarf. It was said that Mu'adh ibn Muslim al-Harraa' coined the rules. It was also said that Ali (radhi Allahu anhu) did it.

The author says that the fruits of al-Sarf is the protection of the tongue from mistakes with words and taking care of the laws of the language in writing.

Its origins (ie sources) are from the speech of Allah swt, the speech of the prophet (sallAllahu alayhi wa sallam) and the speech of the Arabs.

The ruling of the Shaari' on this (ie al-Sarf): al-wujoob al-kafaa'i (ie Fardh Kifaya).

Please ask questions now before we move on insha'Allah.

[KnowledgeSeeker]

hearandobey,

Thank you for answering my question.

(sorry about the gender thing).

[hearandobey]

*bump*

the first section after the introduction will be posted later tonight insha'Allah, so please post your questions (if you have any) before we move on.

[Yasir]

Sorry for the late post. Please count me in as well.
Do you have an online link to the text which you can share, please?

[salahuddin_ayyubi]

Sorry for the late post. Please count me in as well.
Do you have an online link to the text which you can share, please?

Assalamu 'alayk

It can be downloaded here (http://www.almeshkat.net/books/open.php?book=2413&cat=16).

[hearandobey]

تقسيم الكلمة
The categories of words

تنقسم الكلمة إلى اسم وفعل وحرف. Words are divided to:
Ism (noun), fi'l (verb) and harf (particle?).

فالاسم: ما وضع ليدلّ على معنى مستقلّ بالفهم ليس الزمن جزءاً منه، مثل رجل وكتابAn ism is what has been coined/created in order to indicate an understanding of a meaning which is indipendant of time being a part of it, such as: rajul (man) and kitaab (book).

الفعل. ما وضع ليدل على معنى مستقل بالفهم والزمن جزء منه، مثل كتب ويقرأ واحفظA fi'l is what has been coined/created in order to indicate an understanding of a meaning, of which time is a part of. Such as: he wrote, he is reading, memorise (order).

والحرف: ما وضع ليدل على معنى غير مستقلّ بالفهم، مثل هل وفي ولم، ولا دخل له هنا كما مرّA harf is what has been coined/created in order to indicate an understanding of a meaning which is not indipendant. Such as hal (is/are), fee (in), lam (not). And this has nothing to do with the subject, as has been mentioned before. [ie, the huroof are not part of the science of Sarf).

:ويختص الاسم بقبول حرف الجرّ، وأل، وبلحوق التنوين له، وبالإضافة، وبالإسناد إليه، وبالنداء، نحو

الحمد لله منشى الخلق من عدم

: و نحو

«يا إبراهيم قد صدّقت الرّؤيا»And the Ism is special in that it can accept the harf jar, "al", to be followed up by tanween (nunation), idhaafa, al-isnaad ilayhi (ie mubtada' and khabr, although more broad) and nidaa'.

Such as (the poetry and the aya sighted above).

ويختص الفعل بقبول قد، والسين، وسوف، والنواصب، والجوازم؛ وبلحوق تاء الفاعل، وتاء التأنيث الساكنة، ونون التوكيد، وياء المخاطبة له، نحو: «قد أفلح من تزكّى». «سنقرئك فلا تنسى». «ولسوف يعطيك ربّك فترضى». «لن تنالوا البرّ حتّى تنفقوا ممّا تحبّون». «لم يلد ولم يولد». «ربّنا وسعت كلّ شيء رحمةً وعلماً». «قالت إنّ أبي يدعوك ليجزيك أجر ما سقيت لنا». «ليسجننّ وليكونا من الصّاغرين». «يأيّتها النّفس المطمئنّة ارجعي إلى ربّك راضية مرضيّة».
And the fi'l is special in that it can accept:

- qad («قد أفلح من تزكّى»)
- seen («سنقرئك فلا تنسى»)
- sawfa («ولسوف يعطيك ربّك فترضى»)
- al-nawasib («لن تنالوا البرّ حتّى تنفقوا ممّا تحبّون»)
- al-jawazim («لم يلد ولم يولد»)
- to be followed of by the "taa' of the faa'il" («ربّنا وسعت كلّ شيء رحمةً وعلماً»)
- taa' al-ta'neeth al-saakina («قالت إنّ أبي يدعوك ليجزيك أجر ما سقيت لنا»)
- nuun al-tawkeed («ليسجننّ وليكونا من الصّاغرين»)
- yaa' al-mukhaataba («يأيّتها النّفس المطمئنّة ارجعي إلى ربّك راضية مرضيّة»).

ويختص الحرف بعدم قبول شيء من خصائص الاسم والفعلAnd the harf is special in that it cannot accept anything from the attributes/characteristics of the ism and the fi'l.

[hearandobey]

Insha'Allah, now what I will do is ask questions from the first chapter/section to all of those members that have joined this course.

PLEASE MAKE SURE THAT YOU READ (the texts and explanations I've posted) BEFORE ANSWERING AND NOT READ WHILE ANSWERING. THIS IS TO CHECK THAT YOU'VE REALLY UNDERSTOOD THINGS INSHA'ALLAH!


jund-al-islam,
Can you tell us which group each of the words in the following sentence belong to:
لم يأتي محمد


abdul muntaqim,
Knowing the categories of words, what does Sarf speciliase in?


Um Abdullah M. ,
Can you tell us the difference between an ism and a fi'l?


Skillganon (don't know if you're still in, pls let us know),
What are the benefits of studying Sarf?


salahuddin_ayyubi,
Can you tell us which group each of the words in the following sentence belong to:
(«قد أفلح من تزكّى»)


KnowledgeSeeker ,
What are the characteristics of a harf? Are the huroof part of the science of Sarf?


justabro,
Can you tell us which group each of the words in the following sentence belong to:
(«لم يلد ولم يولد»)


Abu Ikrimah,
Can you tell us which group each of the words in the following sentence belong to:
مررت بمحمد

Yasir ,
The Shaykh mentioned Hal, Fee and Lam (هل وفي ولم) . Can you tell us why he chose these huroof in particular from amongst all the other huroof?


Please post your answers here insha'Allah. Apologies if some of you got a bit easier/harder questions than the others.

[Skillganon]

Assalamu alaikum wr wb

I think I would drop out because I am a non-arabic speaker and at this stage it might not be suitable for me. However I would be following the course attentively as their is much benefit to be gained from it, and not to mention it would help me in learning arabic.

Anyway here I already prepared a small answer to the Question given to me:

Sarf is concerned with the metamorphosis of words, primarily how to construct words and specifically verbs into the various tenses of past, present and future. The benefit of learning Sarf, would enable an individual to recognise the pattern of vowelisation and how to construct words in there appropriate tenses, as well as to recognise the root verb of a word from which the given word is constructed from.

Don't know how correct it is.

[hearandobey]

Masha'Allah brother, I think your answer was very good. Here are other appropriate answers (which I thought you were going to base your answer on but masha'Allah it's good you're forming your own):


What after completing Shadha al-'Arf?

After a person has completed the text and gained the rules, he/she will be free from errors by:
- speaking correctly
- reading correctly
- free from 'uyoob (faults).

ie, you will know how to read the words with their respective harakaat correctly insha'Allah.

The author says that the fruits of al-Sarf is the protection of the tongue from mistakes with words and taking care of the laws of the language in writing.

[Abu Ikrimah]

Abu Ikrimah,
Can you tell us which group each of the words in the following sentence belong to:
مررت بمحمد


مررت is a verb (fi'l)

ب is a harf

محمد is an ism

PS - May Allah reward you generously for taking the time and trouble to teach us.

[hearandobey]

ahsant.

ameen to the du'aa.

[Yasir]

JZK for your hard work and endeavours in preparing these lessons...

Yasir ,
The Shaykh mentioned Hal, Fee and Lam (هل وفي ولم) . Can you tell us why he chose these huroof in particular from amongst all the other huroof?Given that huroof indicate meanings in other than themselves, is it because the Shaykh wanted to give an example of the usage of huroof in different contexts? For example: ‘fee’ (which is from al-huroof al-jarr) usually appears before nouns; ‘hal’ (which is one of the two particles for al-istifhaam) precedes both verbs and nouns; and ‘lam’ (which is from the huroof giving jazm) is used before f’il al-mudhaari’?

[salahuddin_ayyubi]

salahuddin_ayyubi,
Can you tell us which group each of the words in the following sentence belong to:
(«قد أفلح من تزكّى»)


Assalamu 'alaykum

قد is a harf
أفلح is a fi'l
من is an ism(?)
تزكّى is a fi'l

The above is probably horrendously wrong...

May Allah reward you greatly for your efforts.

[hearandobey]

JZK for your hard work and endeavours in preparing these lessons...

Given that huroof indicate meanings in other than themselves, is it because the Shaykh wanted to give an example of the usage of huroof in different contexts? For example: ‘fee’ (which is from al-huroof al-jarr) usually appears before nouns; ‘hal’ (which is one of the two particles for al-istifhaam) precedes both verbs and nouns; and ‘lam’ (which is from the huroof giving jazm) is used before f’il al-mudhaari’?

Ahsant!

What's interesting is that the Shaykh took this from Ibn Malik's Alfiyyah, after he mentioned the characteristics of an ism and fi'l he said:

سِواهُما الحرفُ كَهَلْ وفِيْ ولَمْ
فِعلٌ مُضارِعٌ يَلِيْ لَمْ كَيَشَمْ

^Siwaahuma (which huma? The ism and the fi'l). A fi'l mudhaari' follows lam, like "lam yasham".

[hearandobey]

Assalamu 'alaykum

قد is a harf
أفلح is a fi'l
من is an ism(?)
تزكّى is a fi'l

The above is probably horrendously wrong...

May Allah reward you greatly for your efforts.

Ahsant.

Masha'Allah you did very well. Everything is correct except for من, that is a harf (jarr).

EDIT: sorry brother you were right! it is an ism mawsool!

[Um Abdullah M.]

sorry for the late response !
I had no internet connection for 3 days !
alhamdulillah it is back on now.


Um Abdullah M. ,
Can you tell us the difference between an ism and a fi'l?

The difference between them is that time (zaman زمن) is part of the fi'l (in other words, it is connected to time), while time is not part of the ism.


Everything is correct except for من, that is a harf (jarr).

sister, isn't
مَن
in that sentence > ism mawsool (اسم موصول) ?

[hearandobey]

The difference between them is that time (zaman زمن) is part of the fi'l (in other words, it is connected to time), while time is not part of the ism.



Ahsanti, masha'Allah.

sister, isn't
مَن
in that sentence > ism mawsool (اسم موصول) ?

subhanAllah you are right. apologies to brother salahuddin_ayubi! jazakumAllahu khayran to those that pointed this out for me! (was posting at almost 2am!)

['Abd al-Kareem]

لم يأتي محمد

Lam is a harf
Ya'ti is a fi'l
Muhammad is an ism

[hearandobey]

Ahsant masha'Allah.

I am currently preparing the next post, so please give me a few days as I am busy atm. Expect it some time this week insha'Allah.