Grammar term · I'rab · i'rab
فِي مَحَلّ رَفْع
fi mahall raf'
In place of raf'
I'rab · i'rabLocal position (mahall)core term15,815+ in the Qur'an
In one line
“In the place of raf'” — a mabni word or a sentence occupying a slot that raf' would fill.
Classical definition
المَحَلُّ الإِعْرَابِيُّ هُوَ المَوْقِعُ الَّذِي تَشْغَلُهُ الكَلِمَةُ المَبْنِيَّةُ أَوِ الجُمْلَةُ؛ فَتَكُونُ فِي مَحَلِّ رَفْعٍ إِذَا وَقَعَتْ مَوْقِعَ مَرْفُوعٍ.
“The i'rab place (mahall) is the position occupied by a mabni word or by a sentence; it is “in the place of raf'” when it stands where a raf' word would stand.”
(بتصرف من ابن هشام)
Key words in the Arabic
مَحَلّplace, slot
مَوْقِعposition
Understand it
هُوَ in هُوَ اللهُ أَحَدٌ is the mubtada — a raf' job — but being mabni it cannot show a damma. Grammar solves this with the mahall: the word holds the place of raf' even though its form cannot say so. The same logic lets whole sentences fill noun slots, as when a sentence serves as a khabar.
How to spot it
Recognition test
A mabni word or a sentence doing a raf' job — mubtada, fa'il, khabar… — is fi mahall raf'.
Related terms