Mashrabaمشربة

اسْم الفَاعِل وَاسْم المَفْعُولActive and passive participles

ism al-fāʿil wa-ism al-mafʿūl

Participles are nouns and adjectives made from verbs. The same names serve syntax: the fāʿil is also the subject of a verb and the mafʿūl its object. In Faṣṣ Ādam the passive participle carries the mirror image: the Real sees Himself in 'the locus looked into' (al-maḥall al-manẓūr fīhi).

The words behind the terms

In the texts (123 occurrences; 24 distinct shown)

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Quranic Arabic CorpusAutomatic analysis · CAMeL Tools

Reference

In the classics5 books · why the rule holds · disputed · definitions
  • Qaṭr al-nadāIbn HishāmChapter: Seven [kinds of word] govern as their verb governs
  • The AlfiyyaIbn MālikThe Governing Action of the Active Participle (vv. 428–439)The Patterns of Active Participles, Passive Participles, and the Adjectives Resembling Them (vv. 457–466)The Adjective Resembling the Active Participle (vv. 467–473)with Ibn ʿAqīl's commentary under each verse
  • Shudhūr al-dhahabIbn HishāmNouns that govern like verbs, beginning with the verbal noun
  • al-ShāfiyaIbn al-ḤājibThe adjective resembling the active participle
  • Sībawayh, al-KitābSībawayhVerbs like kāna, whose subject and predicate coincideActive participle governing an object like the imperfect verb
  • Why?al-Zajjājī, al-ĪḍāḥNo one has heard every word: having heard qāma → qāʾim and rakiba → rākib, we form dhahaba → dhāhib by analogy. al-Zajjājī's own example of a teaching cause.

    لأنا لم نسمع نحن ولا غيرنا كل كلامها منها لفظا، وإنما سمعنا بعضا فقسنا عليه نظيره، مثال ذلك أنا لما سمعنا قام زيد فهو قائم، وركب فهو راكب، عرفنا اسم الفاعل فقلنا ذهب فهو ذاهب، وأكل فهو آكل

    For neither we nor anyone else heard all their speech from them word by word; we heard some and measured its like on it. For example, when we heard qāma Zayd fa-huwa qāʾim and rakiba fa-huwa rākib, we knew the active participle and said dhahaba fa-huwa dhāhib, akala fa-huwa ākil. al-Īḍāḥ, lines 510–513 (vol. 1, p. 64) ↗

    English: AI translation The summary lines are ours.

    al-Zajjājī (d. 337/949), al-Īḍāḥ fī ʿilal al-naḥw, ed. Māzin al-Mubārak (Beirut: Dār al-Nafāʾis, 5th ed., 1406/1986). Digital text: 0337IbnIshaqZajjaji.IdahCilalNahw.Sham19Y0143170-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.

  • DisputedIbn al-Anbārī, al-Inṣāf
    • When a participle describes someone other than its subject (Hindun Zaydun ḍāribatuhu hiya), must the pronoun be spoken?Kufa: no · Basra: yes · he sides with Basra

      Question 8: مسألة القول في إبراز الضمير إذا جرى الوصف على غير صاحبه

      ذهب الكوفيون إلى أن الضمير في اسم الفاعل إذا جرى على غير من هو له نحو قولك هند زيد ضاربته هي لا يجب إبرازه

      KufaThe Kufans held that the pronoun in the active participle, when it runs on someone other than its owner, as in Hindun Zaydun ḍāribatuhu hiya, need not be brought out. al-Inṣāf, lines 826–827 (vol. 1, p. 57) ↗

      وذهب البصريون إلى أنه يجب إبرازه

      BasraThe Basrans held that it must be brought out. al-Inṣāf, lines 827–828 (vol. 1, p. 57) ↗

      VerdictHe gives the Basran proofs, then answers the Kufans’ arguments one by one; that is how he sides with Basra:

      وأما الجواب عن كلمات الكوفيين

      As for the answer to the Kufans' arguments… al-Inṣāf, line 861 (vol. 1, p. 60) ↗

      Both agree it need not be when the participle describes its own subject.

      English: AI translation The summary lines are ours.

      Ibn al-Anbārī (d. 577/1181), al-Inṣāf fī masāʾil al-khilāf bayna al-naḥwiyyīn al-Baṣriyyīn wa-l-Kūfiyyīn, ed. Muḥammad Muḥyī al-Dīn ʿAbd al-Ḥamīd (Damascus: Dār al-Fikr; year not recorded by OpenITI). Digital text: 0577AbuBarakatAnbari.InsafFiMasail.JK001424-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.

  • al-Jurjānī, al-Taʿrīfāt · 2 definitions

    • اسم الفاعل: ما اشتق من يفعل لمن قام به الفعل بمعنى الحدوث، وبالقيد الأخير خرج عنه الصفة المشبهة، واسم التفضيل لكونهما بمعنى الثبوت لا بمعنى الحدوث.

      The active participle [ism al-fāʿil]: that which is derived from yafʿal for the one in whom the action subsists, in the sense of occurrence [al-ḥudūth]. The last qualification excludes the assimilate adjective [al-ṣifa al-mushabbaha] and the elative [ism al-tafḍīl], because these two carry the sense of permanence [al-thubūt] and lack the sense of occurrence [al-ḥudūth].

      OpenITI · Taʿrīfāt, line 470

    • اسم المفعول: ما اشتق من يفعل لمن وقع عليه الفعل.

      The passive participle [ism al-mafʿūl]: that which is derived from yufʿal for the one on whom the action falls.

      OpenITI · Taʿrīfāt, line 473

Arabic texts from OpenITI (CC BY-NC-SA 4.0); English titles and translations are AI. All the classics →

Further reading2 works