Grammar term · Nahw · syntax
حَرْف جَزْم
harf jazm
Jussive particle (jazm)
Nahw · syntaxParticle typecore term79+ in the Qur'an
In one line
A jazm-causer — a particle that clips the present verb: لَمْ يَفْعَلْ.
The classical list
وَالْجَوَازِمُ ثَمَانِيَةَ عَشَرَ وَهِيَ: لَمْ، وَلَمَّا، وَأَلَمْ، وَأَلَمَّا، وَلَامُ الْأَمْرِ وَالدُّعَاءِ، وَلَا فِي النَّهْيِ وَالدُّعَاءِ، وَإِنْ وَمَا وَمَنْ وَمَهْمَا…
“The jazm-causers are eighteen, among them: lam (did not), lamma (not yet), a-lam, a-lamma, the lam of command and supplication, la of prohibition and supplication, and the conditionals in, ma, man, mahma…”
(الآجرّومية)
Key words in the Arabic
لَمَّاnot yet — negation up to now
لَام الْأَمْرthe lam of command: لِيَفْعَلْ
Understand it
Two clusters to hold: the pure negators-and-commanders (لَمْ، لَمَّا، لام الأمر، لا الناهية) which each clip one verb, and the conditionals (إِنْ، مَنْ، مَا…) which clip two — condition and answer. Whenever a mudari' ends in sukun, or has lost its nun or weak letter, one of these eighteen stands somewhere before it.
How to spot it
Recognition test
Find the clipped mudari' (sukun / dropped nun / dropped weak letter), then look left for its jazim.
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