Grammar term · The verb · Tense
Imperative verb (al-amr)
fi'l amr
فِعْل أَمْر
The verbTensecore term
In one line
The imperative verb — a command to do something. It is addressed only to the one being spoken to, and its ending never changes.
Classical definition
فِعْلُ الأَمْرِ مَا يُطْلَبُ بِهِ حُصُولُ شَيْءٍ بَعْدَ زَمَنِ التَّكَلُّمِ، وَهُوَ مَبْنِيٌّ.
“The command verb is that by which something is requested to come about after the moment of speaking, and its ending is fixed.”
Key words in the Arabic
يُطْلَبُ بِهِby which is requested
حُصُولthe coming about (of something)
بَعْدَ زَمَنِ التَّكَلُّمِafter the moment of speaking
Understand it
The amr asks the listener to act: اِقْرَأْ “read!”, قُلْ “say!”. It is cut from the mudari' — drop the opening letter, still the ending — and like the madi it is mabni. The Quran speaks in this form constantly: قُلْ alone opens well over three hundred ayat, every one a command addressed to the Prophet ﷺ.
How to spot it
Recognition test
A command form like اُكْتُبْ that accepts the ya of address (اِفْعَلِي) is an imperative.
In the Qur'an
ٱقْرَأْ بِٱسْمِ رَبِّكَ ٱلَّذِى خَلَقَ
Al-'Alaq 96:1 — “Proclaim! (or read!) in the name of thy Lord and Cherisher, Who created-”
ٱقْرَأْ is an amr — and the ayah closes with خَلَقَ, a madi: two of the three verb shapes side by side.
Forms it takes
للمخاطبللمخاطبينللمخاطبةللمخاطباتللمخاطبتين
Related terms
Common questions
Is the amr a tense?
Not really. The madi and the mudari' place an action in time; the amr asks for one. It is counted with them because it is the third shape a verb takes, not because it names a third time.
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