Nahw · syntaxClause/structurecore term3+ in the Qur'an
Also written: Verbal sentence · Jumla Fi'liyya · Fi'liyyah · Jumlah Filiyyah
In one line
A sentence that opens with a verb — and needs only that verb and its fa'il to be complete.
Classical definition
الجُمْلَةُ الفِعْلِيَّةُ مَا صُدِّرَتْ بِفِعْلٍ، وَتَتَكَوَّنُ مِنَ الفِعْلِ وَفَاعِلِهِ.
“The verbal sentence is that which begins with a verb; it is made up of the verb and its doer.”
(بتصرف من ابن هشام)
Key words in the Arabic
صُدِّرَتْ بِفِعْلٍopened with a verb
فَاعِلits doer
Understand it
The verbal sentence opens with a verb, then its doer (fa'il) in rafa', then often an object in nasb. Unlike English, which rarely begins with a verb, Arabic does so constantly — it is the natural shape of narrative, and the Quran is full of it.
How to spot it
Recognition test
Look at the first word: if the sentence leads with a verb — madi, mudari' or amr — the clause is fi'liyya; expect the fa'il in rafa' right behind it.
In the Qur'an
قَدْ أَفْلَحَ ٱلْمُؤْمِنُونَ
Al-Mu'minun 23:1 — “The believers have truly succeeded”
Verb (أَفْلَحَ) then its fa'il (ٱلْمُؤْمِنُونَ) — the two-piece minimal jumla fi'liyya.
Related terms
Common questions
Why is the verb singular even when the doer is plural?
That is the defining rule of the verbal sentence: with an external noun doer the verb stays singular and changes only for gender — دَخَلَ الْمُعَلِّمُونَ. Full number-agreement belongs to pronoun doers, or to a verb inside the khabar of a nominal sentence: الْمُعَلِّمُونَ دَخَلُوا.
Fi'liyya or ismiyya — does the choice mean anything?
Yes: the fi'liyya reports an event tied to an occasion; the ismiyya describes a settled, more permanent quality of its subject. Quranic style moves deliberately between the two, and noticing the choice is one of the rewards of reading in Arabic.
Domain: Nahw · Category: Clause/structure · Frequency in the Qur'an: 3 · Source: بتصرف من ابن هشام, cross-checked against the Quranic corpus · Reviewed by Ustad M. Arjan Ali