What is the doer (fa'il)?

In one line

Classical definition

Understand it

A verb is mentioned, and then the one who did it. That one is the فَاعِل (fa'il), and it always stands after its verb, never before it.

In جَاءَ مُسْلِمٌ (ja'a muslimun), a Muslim came, the verb is جَاءَ and the doer is مُسْلِمٌ. The ـٌ is not decoration. It is rafa, and rafa is what the role of doer demands.

In a verbal sentence

The verb comes first, then its doer in rafa, then — if the verb takes one — the object in nasab.

The fa'il is not always a separate word. In جِئْتُ (ji'tu), I came, the ـتُ joined to the verb is the doer. A doer that shows as a separate word is called ظَاهِر (zahir); one hidden in the verb is called مُضْمَر (mudmar).

One thing the classical definition adds is worth pausing on: the fa'il need not do anything. It may simply be described by the verb. In مَاتَ مُحَمَّدٌ (mata muhammadun), Muhammad died, مُحَمَّدٌ is the fa'il — yet dying is not an act he performed. Same in اِنْكَسَرَ الزُّجَاجُ (inkasara al-zujaju), the glass broke. The fa'il is the one the verb is about, whether or not it is the one acting.

One rule surprises English speakers: the verb stays singular even when the doer is plural. قَامَ الرِّجَالُ (qama al-rijalu), the men stood — not قَامُوا الرِّجَالُ. Number is carried by the doer, not repeated on the verb standing before it.

How to spot it

In the Qur'an

In the language — فِي اللُّغَة

The word فَاعِل (fa'il) in everyday Arabic means one who does something — an agent, a worker.

فَاعِلُ خَيْرٍ (fa'ilu khayrin) — “a doer of good”

As a grammatical term it means the ism in rafa that performs the action of the verb standing before it.

Related terms

Common questions

Is the fa'il always the word straight after the verb?

Usually, but not necessarily. Something may come between them, and the doer may be hidden inside the verb rather than written at all. What never changes is that the fa'il is in rafa and that the verb agrees with it.