Grammar term · Nahw · syntax
حَرْف شَرْط
harf shart
Conditional particle
Nahw · syntaxParticle typecore term852+ in the Qur'an
In one line
The conditional particles proper — إِنْ (and rare إِذْمَا): “if”, clipping both verbs.
Classical definition
حَرْفَا الشَّرْطِ إِنْ وَإِذْمَا يَجْزِمَانِ فِعْلَيْنِ: فِعْلَ الشَّرْطِ وَجَوَابَهُ.
“The two conditional particles, in and idhma, put two verbs into jazm: the condition verb and its answer.”
(بتصرف من ابن هشام)
Key words in the Arabic
فِعْل الشَّرْطِthe condition verb
جَوَابهits answer (result)
Understand it
Among all the shart words only إِنْ (and archaic إِذْمَا) are true particles — the rest (مَنْ، مَا، مَتَى…) are nouns doing conditional work. إِنْ is the pure hypothetical “if”, contrasting with إِذَا, “when(ever)”, which leans towards expectation and causes no jazm. The Quran's choice between إِنْ and إِذَا is never accidental.
How to spot it
Recognition test
إِنْ + clipped verb … clipped verb — the bare “if”.
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