Question:

Assalaamu Alaikum Ustadh I hope you are well InshaAllah. I was studying the lesson from Part 1, on inflection of isms yesterday. I’m currently working on the tarqeeb of Surah Baqarah, and in my work today came across this in ayah 177:

لَّيْسَ الْبِرَّ أَن تُوَلُّوا وُجُوهَكُمْ قِبَلَ الْمَشْرِقِ وَالْمَغْرِبِ وَلَٰكِنَّ الْبِرَّ مَنْ آمَنَ بِاللَّهِ وَالْيَوْمِ الْآخِرِ وَالْمَلَائِكَةِ وَالْكِتَابِ وَالنَّبِيِّينَ وَآتَى الْمَالَ عَلَىٰ حُبِّهِ ذَوِي الْقُرْبَىٰ وَالْيَتَامَىٰ وَالْمَسَاكِينَ وَابْنَ السَّبِيلِ وَالسَّائِلِينَ وَفِي الرِّقَابِ وَأَقَامَ الصَّلَاةَ وَآتَى الزَّكَاةَ وَالْمُوفُونَ بِعَهْدِهِمْ إِذَا عَاهَدُوا ۖ وَالصَّابِرِينَ فِي الْبَأْسَاءِ وَالضَّرَّاءِ وَحِينَ الْبَأْسِ ۗ أُولَٰئِكَ الَّذِينَ صَدَقُوا ۖ وَأُولَٰئِكَ هُمُ الْمُتَّقُونَ – 2:177

“Righteousness is not that you turn your faces toward the east or the west, but [true] righteousness is [in] one who believes in Allah, the Last Day, the angels, the Book, and the prophets and gives wealth, in spite of love for it, to relatives, orphans, the needy, the traveler, those who ask [for help], and for freeing slaves; [and who] establishes prayer and gives zakah; [those who] fulfill their promise when they promise; and [those who] are patient in poverty and hardship and during battle. Those are the ones who have been true, and it is those who are the righteous.”

From what I understood in the lesson, ذَوِي is in جر, but when I look at الْقُرْبَىٰ and وَالْيَتَامَىٰ , I’m not sure. I think they’re broken plurals, but I’m unsure if they’re in جر, and if علٰى is causing all the isms until السَّبِيلِ to be in جر . Are you able to help?

 

Answer:

Walaikumassalaam,

Great question concerning وَآتَى الْمَالَ عَلَىٰ حُبِّهِ ذَوِي الْقُرْبَىٰ وَالْيَتَامَىٰ

  1. Let’s first start off by saying that آتَى is a verb and الْمَالَ is the مفعول به (direct object) of the verb, hence it is منصوب
  2. You are correct in saying that علٰى is the حرف الجر and the word following (حب) is the اسم مجرور hence in the state of جر.
  3. The ه that follows حب will the مضاف إليه also in the state of جر – the important thing to notice here is that the إضافة ends here. You cannot continue the construction beyond a pronoun. So what is the conclusion we learn here? عَلَىٰ حُبِّهِ is one entity while ذَوِي is another, not sharing any relationship. This is key.
  4. So how do we approach the word ذَوِي? You can either try to understand its morphology first (is it singular, dual, plural etc.) or the syntax (what state is it in and what is it doing in the sentence). In this case I suggest using syntax to help you. If we look at the translation of the verse: and gives wealth, in spite of love for it, to relatives, orphans, the needy, the traveler” we see the translator puts commas around in spite of love. What he is trying to illustrate is that this is an additional piece of information, not a continuation of the main thought. In short, the sentence is simply trying to say “give wealth to their relatives….”. When we see the sentence like this it becomes clear “the relatives” is the مفعول به (direct object) of giving which is منصوب.
  5. If ذَوِي is منصوب, what is its sign? The singular form is ذو which means a possessor (not related to jinn). The جمع مذكر سالم (sound masculine plural) is ذَوُو. Now normally a sound masculine plural should have a ن at the end. The reason why there is no ن in this case is because  ذو , whether singular or plural must be a مضاف – and anytime a جمع مذكر سالم (sound masculine plural) or مثنى (dual) is مضاف the ن drops.ذَوُو – state of رفع and the sign is و
    ذَوِي- state of نصب / جر and the sign is يIn this situation ذَوِي is مفعول به to وَآتَى
  6. ذَوِي must have a مضاف إليه, so both الْقُرْبَىٰ وَالْيَتَامَىٰ are مضاف إليه to ذَوِي, hence in the state of جر. They should have a kasra, however it is hidden due to the alif – we call this rule التعذر