The Call for Help (al-Istighātha)
الِاسْتِغَاثَةُ
Verses 598–600 · chapter 49 of 78
This chapter covers the vocative used to call someone for help or rescue. The person called (al-mustaghāth) is put in the genitive by a lām with fatḥa, and the person or thing for whose sake help is sought (al-mustaghāth lahu) takes lām with kasra. It explains when a coordinated noun takes lām with fatḥa and when it takes lām with kasra, and states that a final alif may stand in place of the lām. The same rules apply to a noun called out of astonishment. AI
- 598
الرَّجَزal-rajaz∪–∪–مَفَاعِلُنْ––∪–مُسْتَفْعِلُنْ–∪∪–مُفْتَعِلُنْ––∪–مُسْتَفْعِلُنْ––∪–مُسْتَفْعِلُنْ––∪–مُسْتَفْعِلُنْ
Ibn Jinnī on al-rajaz, “the trembling”
وهو على ستة أجزاء مستفعلن مستفعلن مستفعلن مستفعلن مستفعلن مستفعلن
It has six feet: mustafʿilun, six times. Kitāb al-ʿArūḍ, lines 842–843 (p. 101) ↗
Scanned by rule, not by a model. The vowelled text is read as it is pronounced, as Ibn Jinnī says scansion must be: doubled letters count twice, tanwīn adds an n, long vowels lengthen, the connecting alif drops inside the line, the article's l merges into a sun letter, and the last vowel of a line is drawn out. The syllables, long (–) and short (∪), are then fitted to each metre's feet with the common licences (zihāfāt) and line-endings. A poem has one metre: the one that fits most of its verses. A verse that does not fit it is marked 'not scanned'; nothing is guessed. Vowels scanned: AI vowelling (no vowelled edition is available to us).
Scanned by rule English: AI translation AI
Ibn Jinnī (d. 392/1002), Kitāb al-ʿArūḍ, ed. Aḥmad Fawzī al-Hayb (Kuwait: Dār al-Qalam, 1407/1987). Digital text: 0392IbnJinniMawsili.Carud.JK000956-ara1 (OpenITI RELEASE v2025.1.9). CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 (OpenITI digital text); the classical text is public domain, the modern edition is not.
When a vocative noun is called on for help [i.e. it is the mustaghāth], it is put in the genitive by the lām, and the lām takes fatḥa, as in yā la-l-murtaḍā ('O al-Murtaḍā [come to help]!').
Ibn ʿAqīl on verse 598Arabic
يقال يا لزيد لعمرو فيجر المستغاث بلام مفتوحة ويجر المستغاث له بلام مكسورة وإنما فتحت مع المستغاث لأن المنادى واقع موقع المضمر واللام تفتح مع المضمر نحو لك وله
Ibn ʿAqīl, OpenITI line 6059 · vol. 3, p. 279 ↗ - 599
الرَّجَزal-rajaz––∪–مُسْتَفْعِلُنْ––∪–مُسْتَفْعِلُنْ––∪–مُسْتَفْعِلُنْ∪–∪–مَفَاعِلُنْ–∪∪–مُفْتَعِلُنْ––∪–مُسْتَفْعِلُنْ
Ibn Jinnī on al-rajaz, “the trembling”
وهو على ستة أجزاء مستفعلن مستفعلن مستفعلن مستفعلن مستفعلن مستفعلن
It has six feet: mustafʿilun, six times. Kitāb al-ʿArūḍ, lines 842–843 (p. 101) ↗
Scanned by rule, not by a model. The vowelled text is read as it is pronounced, as Ibn Jinnī says scansion must be: doubled letters count twice, tanwīn adds an n, long vowels lengthen, the connecting alif drops inside the line, the article's l merges into a sun letter, and the last vowel of a line is drawn out. The syllables, long (–) and short (∪), are then fitted to each metre's feet with the common licences (zihāfāt) and line-endings. A poem has one metre: the one that fits most of its verses. A verse that does not fit it is marked 'not scanned'; nothing is guessed. Vowels scanned: AI vowelling (no vowelled edition is available to us).
Scanned by rule English: AI translation AI
Ibn Jinnī (d. 392/1002), Kitāb al-ʿArūḍ, ed. Aḥmad Fawzī al-Hayb (Kuwait: Dār al-Qalam, 1407/1987). Digital text: 0392IbnJinniMawsili.Carud.JK000956-ara1 (OpenITI RELEASE v2025.1.9). CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 (OpenITI digital text); the classical text is public domain, the modern edition is not.
Give the lām fatḥa with a noun coordinated [to the mustaghāth] if you repeat yā before it, as in yā la-zaydin wa-yā la-ʿamrin. In other cases use the lām with kasra: with a coordinated noun that has no repeated yā, as in yā la-zaydin wa-li-ʿamrin, and with the noun for whose sake help is sought (al-mustaghāth lahu), as in yā la-zaydin li-ʿamrin ('O Zayd, [come] for ʿAmr!'). [ʾiʾtiyā = ʾiʾtiyan, the imperative with the light nūn of emphasis, which becomes alif at the pause.]
Ibn ʿAqīl on verse 599Arabic
إذا عطف على المستغاث مستغاث آخر فإما أن تتكرر معه يا أولا
Ibn ʿAqīl, OpenITI line 6063 · vol. 3, p. 280 ↗فإن تكررت لزم الفتح نحو يا لزيد ويا لعمرو لبكر
وإن لم تتكرر لزم الكسر نحو يا لزيد ولعمرو لبكر كما يلزم كسر اللام مع المستغاث له وإلى هذا أشار بقوله وفي سوى ذلك بالكسر ائتيا أي وفي سوى المستغاث والمعطوف عليه الذي تكررت معه يا اكسر اللام وجوبا فتكسر مع المعطوف الذي لم تتكرر معه يا ومع المستغاث له
- 600
الرَّجَزal-rajaz∪–∪–مَفَاعِلُنْ∪–∪–مَفَاعِلُنْ∪–∪–مَفَاعِلُنْ∪–∪–مَفَاعِلُنْ––∪–مُسْتَفْعِلُنْ∪–∪–مَفَاعِلُنْ
Ibn Jinnī on al-rajaz, “the trembling”
وهو على ستة أجزاء مستفعلن مستفعلن مستفعلن مستفعلن مستفعلن مستفعلن
It has six feet: mustafʿilun, six times. Kitāb al-ʿArūḍ, lines 842–843 (p. 101) ↗
Scanned by rule, not by a model. The vowelled text is read as it is pronounced, as Ibn Jinnī says scansion must be: doubled letters count twice, tanwīn adds an n, long vowels lengthen, the connecting alif drops inside the line, the article's l merges into a sun letter, and the last vowel of a line is drawn out. The syllables, long (–) and short (∪), are then fitted to each metre's feet with the common licences (zihāfāt) and line-endings. A poem has one metre: the one that fits most of its verses. A verse that does not fit it is marked 'not scanned'; nothing is guessed. Vowels scanned: AI vowelling (no vowelled edition is available to us).
Scanned by rule English: AI translation AI
Ibn Jinnī (d. 392/1002), Kitāb al-ʿArūḍ, ed. Aḥmad Fawzī al-Hayb (Kuwait: Dār al-Qalam, 1407/1987). Digital text: 0392IbnJinniMawsili.Carud.JK000956-ara1 (OpenITI RELEASE v2025.1.9). CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 (OpenITI digital text); the classical text is public domain, the modern edition is not.
An alif added at the end of the noun can replace the lām of the mustaghāth [the two never occur together], as in yā zaydā instead of yā la-zaydin. A noun called out of astonishment is treated the same way, a usage that is well established: yā la-l-ʿajabi or yā ʿajabā ('O wonder!'), and yā la-l-māʾi ('O the water!', said on seeing a great deal of it).
Ibn ʿAqīl on verse 600Arabic
تحذف لام المستغاث ويؤتى بألف في آخره عوضا عنها نحو يا زيدا لعمرو ومثل المستغاث المتعجب منه نحو يا للداهية ويا للعجب فيجر بلام مفتوحة كما يجر المستغاث وتعاقب اللام في الاسم المتعجب منه ألف فتقول يا عجبا لزيد
Ibn ʿAqīl, OpenITI line 6070 · vol. 3, p. 280 ↗
- الِاسْتِغَاثَةُ al-istighātha · the call for help; calling someone to rescue or assist · غوث
- الْمُسْتَغَاثُ al-mustaghāth · the one called on for help (marked with lām carrying fatḥa) · غوث
- الْمُسْتَغَاثُ لَهُ al-mustaghāth lahu · the one for whose sake help is sought (marked with lām carrying kasra) · غوث
- الْمُنَادَى al-munādā · the vocative; the noun that is called · ندو
- الْخَفْضُ al-khafḍ · the genitive (lit. 'lowering'), the term used by the Kufans and by Ibn Mālik alongside jarr · خفض
- الْمَعْطُوفُ al-maʿṭūf · the coordinated noun, joined to a preceding noun by a conjunction · عطف
- الْمُعَاقَبَةُ al-muʿāqaba · alternation: two elements that replace each other and never occur together · عقب
- التَّعَجُّبُ at-taʿajjub · astonishment; the expression of wonder · عجب