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1. ِ
‫ه‬‫اّلل‬ ِ‫م‬ْ‫س‬ِ‫ب‬ِ‫ن‬ٰ‫ـ‬َْ‫ْح‬َّ‫الر‬َّ‫الر‬ِ
‫ه‬
ِ‫ّلل‬ ُ‫د‬ْ‫م‬َْ‫اْل‬َ‫و‬ ،ِ‫م‬‫ي‬ِ‫ح‬ُ‫ة‬َ‫ال‬َّ‫الص‬َ‫و‬ ،
ِ‫للا‬ ِ‫ل‬ْ‫و‬ُ‫س‬َ‫ر‬ ‫ى‬َ‫ل‬َ‫ع‬ ُ‫م‬َ‫ال‬َّ‫الس‬َ‫و‬‫ى‬َ‫ل‬َ‫ع‬َ‫و‬ِ‫ه‬ِ‫آل‬
ُ‫د‬ْ‫ع‬َ‫ـ‬‫ب‬ ‫ا‬َّ‫َم‬‫أ‬ ،ِ‫ه‬ِ‫ب‬‫ا‬ْ‫ح‬َ‫أص‬َ‫و‬:
Week 1 Module 1
UQA 101 – Module 1 - Week 1 - Lesson 004 Learn Arabic for Allaah!
Lesson 4 – ‫ع‬ِ‫ب‬‫ا‬َّ‫الر‬ ُ‫س‬ْ‫َّر‬‫الد‬

2.  Brothers and sisters, we welcome you to our 4th session of
FOUNDATION 1
 In this presentation we are going to be introducing concepts
relating to formation of words from their roots:
An introduction to Sorf (‫ف‬ْ‫ر‬َ‫)ص‬
‫الدرس‬‫ابع‬‫ر‬‫ال‬The Fourth Lesson
UQA 101 – Lesson 004 Learn Arabic for Allaah!

3. Introducing Sorf
Sorf (‫ف‬ْ‫ر‬َ‫ص‬ ) - Its linguistic meaning: changing
something and/or turning it.
The istilaah (conventional) meaning is: changing the
source word (‫ر‬َ‫د‬ْ‫ص‬َ‫)م‬ into different forms (‫اء‬َ‫ن‬ِ‫ب‬) in
order to express different meanings that can only
be expressed through these forms (‫اء‬َ‫ن‬ِ‫ب‬).

4. Introducing Sorf
What do we mean by “source (‫ر‬َ‫د‬ْ‫ص‬َ‫”)م‬ and “form (‫اء‬َ‫ن‬ِ‫ب‬)”?
a) Source or Masdar (‫ر‬َ‫د‬ْ‫ص‬َ‫م‬) - In istilaah it means: the name of the
act done.In English grammar it is called, “the verbal noun”.
It does not have a tense. E.g.: · Aklun ٌ‫ل‬ْ‫ك‬َ‫أ‬- the act of eating,
Shurbun ٌ‫ب‬ْ‫ر‬ُ‫ش‬ - the act of drinking
b) Form or Binaa’ (‫َاء‬‫ن‬ِ‫ب‬) (pl.Abniyah ‫ة‬َ‫ي‬ِ‫ن‬ْ‫ب‬َ‫أ‬) Linguistically it
means: to put something on something else so that it stays (i.e.
like a building). In istilaah it refers to the make up of a word,
(i.e. the original and extra letters in their positions, the number
of letters, their order, the harakaat and sukoon, etc.).

5. JAAMIDAH &MUSHTAQQAH
a)Jaamidah ( ‫ة‬َ‫د‬ِ‫ام‬َ‫)ج‬ – Linguistically it means: stiff or still. In istilaah it means
those words that mostly cannot take different forms.
b)Mushtaqqah (‫ة‬َّ‫ق‬َ‫ـ‬‫ت‬ْ‫ش‬ُ‫)م‬ – Linguistically it means: derived. In istilaah it refers to
those words that can be put into different forms.
Most of al-asmaa’are jaamidah – meaning they are not changeable, i.e. they
cannot be put into different forms. Most of al-af`aal are mushtaqqah – that is,
they can be changed and put into different forms.
Huroof do not change so neither of these terms can be applied to them.
Our focus is with those words that changes much – the f`il (‫ل‬ْ‫ع‬ِ‫ف‬‫.)ال‬
Knowing the af`aal (‫ال‬َ‫ع‬ْ‫ف‬َ‫أل‬‫)ا‬ and how they change is the key to the science of
Sarf.
Introducing Sorf

6. AL-MEEZAANUS-SARFIYY
To study the form of a word, the scholars of Sarf came up with something called Al-Meezaanus-
Sarfiyy (‫انٌالصريف‬‫ز‬‫املي‬ٌ.) -This is the scale/pattern used to study the forms of the words.It differentiates
between the original letter and the extra letter in most words and allows the student to know the
original place of the letter in the scale/pattern.
The base of the scale/pattern consists of three letters: faa’ ,(‫ف‬) `ayn ,(‫ع‬) and laam (‫ل‬)
Why were these letters chosen specifically? Because the verb fa`ala (‫فعل‬) means:did and that
can be an alternative for any other verb.That is,any verb that is asked for can have
fa`ala (‫فعل‬) as a reply,for example:
If someone said: "Akalta?" (Did you eat?)You can say:"fa`altu" (I did.); or,if someone said:
"Sharibta?" (Did you drink?)You can say:"fa`altu.“
Why does the scale consist of three letters originally?The scale consists of three letters
because most of the words in the Arabic language consist of three letters and the least amount
of letters you can find for an ism or f`il is generally three letters.
Introducing Sorf

7. PUTTINGWORDS ON A SCALE/PATTERN
The scale itself is called Al-Wazn ) (‫ن‬ ْ‫ز‬ َ‫الو‬ and the word that is weighed is called Al-Mawzoon (‫ن‬ ْ‫و‬ُ‫ز‬ ْ‫و‬َ‫م‬ْ‫ال‬) .When
weighing a three letter word,we place the letters along with their harakaat parallel to the faa’,`ayn and laam.
َ‫ض‬َ‫ب‬ َ‫ر‬
َ‫ف‬َ‫ل‬ َ‫ع‬
The letters in the scale will take the same harakaat as the word being weighed.Each letter of the original three letter
word corresponds to one of the letters in the scale. The first letter of the original three letter word is called
faa’ul-kalimah - the faa of the word,or simply:the faa,because it is placed in the scale over the faa.The second letter of
the original three letter word is called `aynul-kalimah - the `ayn of the word or:the`ayn because it is placed in the scale
over the `ayn.And the third letter of the original three letter word is called laamul-kalimah - the laam of the word – or:
the laam,because it is placed in the scale over the laam.This is the case for the original letters of any three letter verbs.
When we put the three letter maadhee - dharaba ( ‫ضرب‬ He hit) in the scale we say,“Dharaba `alaa wazni fa`ala.”
Put `alima (َ‫م‬ِ‫ل‬َ‫ع‬ knew) in the scale and say,“`Alima `alaa wazni fa`ila.”
Introducing Sorf

8. Every scale/pattern is specific and has its own specific implication. In other
words, each specific form has a certain specific implication. For example, the
word dharaba (َ‫ب‬ َ‫ر‬َ‫ض‬) is a certain form - its letters are on a particular scale
which conveys the past tense meaning (specifically): (َ‫ب‬ َ‫ر‬َ‫ض‬) he hit.This scale
expresses that the action took place in the past (so it is the past tense).
There is not any other scale or pattern that can express the past tense of this
word.We cannot switch scales/patterns.We can only use a scale/pattern for
the meaning that it gives and nothing else.
Introducing Sorf