Grammar term · Nahw · syntax
حَرْف اسْتِفْهَام
harf istifham
Interrogative particle
Nahw · syntaxParticle typecore term961+ in the Qur'an
In one line
The two question particles — the hamza (أَ) and هَلْ.
Classical definition
حَرْفَا الاسْتِفْهَامِ الهَمْزَةُ وَهَلْ، يُطْلَبُ بِهِمَا تَعْيِينُ شَيْءٍ أَوِ التَّصْدِيقُ بِهِ.
“The two interrogative particles are the hamza and hal; by them one seeks to identify a thing or to confirm it.”
(بتصرف من ابن هشام)
Key words in the Arabic
التَّصْدِيقconfirmation — a yes/no answer
تَعْيِينidentification — pinning down which
Understand it
هَلْ asks pure yes/no. The hamza is subtler: it can ask yes/no, offer alternatives with أَمْ (“is it this or that?”), and — constantly in the Quran — ask rhetorically: أَلَمْ نَشْرَحْ لَكَ صَدْرَكَ expects no information, it makes a point. Both are particles, so they fill no i'rab slot; the question nouns (مَنْ، مَا، كَيْفَ…) are the ones that do.
How to spot it
Recognition test
A sentence-opening أَ or هَلْ with a question meaning carrying to the end.
In the Qur'an
هَلْ أَتَىٰ عَلَى ٱلْإِنسَٰنِ حِينٌ مِّنَ ٱلدَّهْرِ
Al-Insan 76:1 — “Has there [not] come upon man a period of time…”
هَلْ opens the sura as a question particle — here with the force of “there certainly has”.
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