The article “Learning Mu’rob and Mabni in Arabic” explains the basic concepts of mu’rob nouns and verbs, as well as mabni nouns, verbs, and particles, accompanied by examples of their usage in sentences.
What is Mu’rob?
The definition of mu’rob is a group of words whose final vowel can change due to their grammatical position. Some scholars of Arabic grammar define mu’rob as the change in a word caused by the entrance of an ‘amil (a governing element). For example, the word اللّهِ in the sentence بِسْمِ اللّهِ الرَّحْمنِ الرَّحِيْمِ.
The word Allah in that sentence must be read with kasrah because there is an ‘amil in the form of a harf jar (a preposition). This change indicates the presence of a mu’rob indicator in the sentence.
Mu’rob words can be found in nouns (isim) and verbs (fi’il). All nouns can be mu’rob, while the only mu’rob verb is the present tense (fi’il mudhori’).
Figure 1.1: Mu’rob exists in nouns and verbs
Examples of mu’rob nouns that change include the word Allah. This word can appear with dhammah (اللّهُ), fathah (اللّهَ), or kasrah (اللّهِ).
– The kasrah sign on اللّهِ appears in the sentence بِسْمِ اللّهِ الرَّحْمنِ الرَّحِيْمِ.
– The dhammah sign on اللّهُ appears in the sentence اللّهُ لاَإِلَهَ إِلاَّهُوَ الْحَيُّ الْقَيُّوْمُ.
– The fathah sign on اللّهَ appears in the sentence اِنَّ اللّهَ مَعَ الصَّابِرِينَ.
The division of mu’rob is twofold: change of vowel signs (harakat) and change of letters.
Change of Vowel Signs
This occurs in singular nouns (isim mufrad), broken plurals (jamak taksir), and regular feminine plurals (jamak muannats salim).
• Examples of singular nouns undergoing vowel change:
جَاءَ مُحَمَّدٌ , رَاَيْتُ رَجُلاً , مَرَرْتُ بِرَجُلٍ
• Examples of broken plurals undergoing vowel change:
جَاءَ رِجَالٌ , رَاَيْتُ رِجَالاً , مَرَرْتُ بِرِجَالٍ
• Examples of regular feminine plurals undergoing vowel change:
جَاءَتِ المُسْلِمَاتُ , رَاَيْتُ المُسْلِمَاتِ , مَرَرْتُ بِالمُسْلِمَاتِ
Change of Letters
This occurs in dual forms (mutsanna), sound masculine plurals (jamak mudzakkar salim), and the Five Nouns (al-asma’ al-khamsah).
• Examples of dual nouns:
جَاءَ مُسْلِمَانِ , رَاَيْتُ مُسْلِمَيْنِ, مَرَرْتُ بِمُسْلِمَيْنِ
• Examples of sound masculine plurals:
جَاءَ مُسْلِمُوْنَ , رَاَيْتُ مُسْلِمِيْنَ , مَرَرْتُ بِمُسْلِمِيْنَ
• Examples of the Five Nouns:
مَرَرْتُ بِأَخِيْكَ, جَاءَ أَخُوْكَ , رَأَيْتُ أَخَاكَ
What is Mabni?
Mabni refers to words that do not undergo any changes. Mabni words can be nouns, verbs, or particles.
Mabni nouns include:
- Demonstrative nouns (isim isyarah) except for dual forms, such as (هَذَا) hadza, (هَذِهِ) hadzihi, haulaa’.
- Relative nouns (isim maushul) except for dual forms such as (الَّذِي) alladzi, (الَّتِي) allati, (الَّذِيْنَ) alladzina, (مَا) maa.
- Pronouns (isim dhomir), such as (هُوَ) huwa, (هُ) hu, (هُمَا) huma, (هُمْ) hum, (هِيَ) hiya, haa.
- Interrogative nouns (isim istifham), such as (كَيْفَ) kaifa, (اَيْنَ) ayna, and (مَنْ) man.
- Certain adverbial nouns, such as haisu and amsi.
In verbs, mabni occurs in:
– All past-tense verbs (fi’il madhi), from huwa to nahnu.
– All imperative verbs (fi’il amr), from anta to antunna.
– Present-tense verbs (fi’il mudhori’) only for the pronouns hunna to antunna.
All particles (huruf) are mabni. Therefore, the preposition bi never changes to “ba,” and the preposition ‘alaa never becomes “‘alii,” and so on.
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