Grammar term · Nahw · syntax
إِذَا الْفُجَائِيَّة
idha al-fuja'iyya
Surprise idha
Nahw · syntaxSpecific particleadvanced term
In one line
The إِذَا of surprise — 'and there it was!': it bursts in before a jumla ismiyya and can replace فَ in a shart's answer.
The rule (modern)
قَدْ يَقْتَرِنُ جَوَابُ الشَّرْطِ بِـ(إِذَا) الْفُجَائِيَّةِ، فَتَنُوبُ عَنِ الْفَاءِ فِي الرَّبْطِ، بِشَرْطِ أَنْ يَكُونَ الْجَوَابُ جُمْلَةً اسْمِيَّةً، وَالْجَازِمُ (إِنْ).
“The answer of a condition may be joined by the idha of suddenness, which stands in for the fa' as the link — on condition that the answer is a nominal sentence and the jazm-operator is in.”
(النحو التطبيقي)
Key words in the Arabic
تَنُوبُ عَنِ الْفَاءِstands in for the fa'
الْمُفَاجَأَةsuddenness
Understand it
This إِذَا means 'and there it was — suddenly': خَرَجْتُ فَإِذَا الْأَسَدُ. It is not the conditional إِذَا, because the fuja'iyya is followed by a jumla ismiyya, never a verb. The pin records its neatest syntactic job: standing in for the linking فَ before a shart's answer when that answer is a nominal sentence. The classical grammarians disputed whether it is a harf or a zarf; Ibn Malik chose harf of surprise.
How to spot it
Recognition test
إِذَا + noun or pronoun opening a jumla ismiyya, with a jolt of suddenness in the sense = fuja'iyya. إِذَا + verb, setting a time or condition = the ordinary conditional zarf.
In the Qur'an
وَإِن تُصِبْهُمْ سَيِّئَةٌۢ بِمَا قَدَّمَتْ أَيْدِيهِمْ إِذَا هُمْ يَقْنَطُونَ
Ar-Rum 30:36 — “But if evil afflicts them for what their hands have put forth, at once they despair”
إِذَا stands in for فَ, tying the nominal answer هُمْ يَقْنَطُونَ to the shart — the suddenness is built in.
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