Word typesParticle Typecore term
Also written: harf (naw' al-kalima) · Particle (harf) — word class tag · HARF · Particle
In one line
A harf (حَرْف) is a word whose meaning appears only beside another word — and its ending never changes.
Classical definition
والحرف ما لا يصلح معه دليل الاسم ولا دليل الفعل.
“The harf is what admits neither the mark of a noun nor the mark of a verb.”
Understand it
A حَرْف (harf) has a meaning, but the meaning does not show until it stands beside another word.
Take مِنْ (min). On its own it settles nothing. Put it in a sentence and it does one job or another — it starts a distance in مِنَ الْمَسْجِدِ الْحَرَامِ (mina al-masjidi al-harami), “from the Sacred Mosque”, and it takes a part out of a whole in مِنَ النَّاسِ (mina al-nasi), “some of the people”.
Kinds of Harf
A harf is named after the job it does — jarr, 'atf, nasab, jazm, and more besides.
A harf accepts none of the signs of the ism and none of the signs of the fi'l. That refusal is what identifies it.
How to spot it
وَالْحَرْفُ مَا لَا يَصْلُحُ مَعَهُ دَلِيلُ الِاسْمِ وَلَا دَلِيلُ الْفِعْلِ.
“The particle is that with which neither the sign of the noun nor the sign of the verb fits.”
Recognition test
If a word takes neither noun-signs nor verb-signs, it is a harf — e.g. مِنْ، هَلْ، لَمْ.
(الآجرّومية)
In the Qur'an
إِلَّا ٱلَّذِينَ ءَامَنُوا۟ وَعَمِلُوا۟ ٱلصَّٰلِحَٰتِ وَتَوَاصَوْا۟ بِٱلْحَقِّ وَتَوَاصَوْا۟ بِٱلصَّبْرِ
Al-'Asr 103:3 — “Except such as have Faith, and do righteous deeds, and (join together) in the mutual teaching of Truth, and of Patience and Constancy.”
إِلَّا means nothing by itself. It only does its work of excepting because ٱلَّذِينَ follows it — and its own ending never changes, whatever it stands beside.
Study this ayah word by word →In the language — فِي اللُّغَة
The word حَرْف (harf) in everyday Arabic means an edge, and it is also the word for a letter of the alphabet.
حُرُوف الْهِجَاء (huruf al-hija') — “the letters of the alphabet”
As a grammatical term it means a whole word whose meaning appears only in company. مِنْ is a harf of two letters.
Common questions
Why is harf the word for a letter as well as for a particle?
Because it is the same word. In everyday Arabic it means an edge, and it is also the name for a letter of the alphabet. As a grammatical term it means a word whose meaning only shows beside another word — and a great many of them happen to be one letter long.
“And We have indeed made the Quran easy to understand and remember.”
Al-Qamar 54:17
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