What is a relative noun (ism mawsul)?
In one line
Definition
Key words in the Arabic
Understand it
The mawsul on its own is incomplete — it must be followed by its sila, the sentence that does the describing, and that sentence occupies no i'rab slot of its own (لَا مَحَلَّ لَهَا). الَّذِي and الَّتِي decline for gender and number; مَنْ serves for people and مَا for things, exactly where English reaches for “whoever” and “whatever”. Relative nouns appear roughly 3,500 times in the Quran — الَّذِينَ alone accounts for 1,059 of them.
The relative nouns
| Used for | ||
|---|---|---|
| الَّذِي | alladhi | masculine singular |
| الَّتِي | allati | feminine singular |
| اللَّذَانِ | alladhani | masculine dual |
| اللَّتَانِ | allatani | feminine dual |
| الَّذِينَ | alladhina | masculine plural |
| اللَّاتِي / اللَّائِي | allati / alla'i | feminine plural |
| مَنْ | man | general — rational beings |
| مَا | ma | general — non-rational things |
The first six are specific: each is fixed to one gender and number. مَنْ and مَا are general — one form covers singular, dual and plural alike.
How to spot it
In the Qur'an
In the language — فِي اللُّغَة
The word مَوْصُول (mawsul) in everyday Arabic means joined — something connected to something else.
وَصَلَ الْحَبْلَ (wasala al-habla) — “he joined the rope”
As a grammatical term it means an ism that is incomplete until a clause is joined onto it.
Related terms
▶ Watch the lesson
From the free course The Language of Quran — Easier than English (Book One) (LoQ1), taught by Ustadh Muhammad Arjan Ali.
Common questions
Do the dual forms matter?
Barely, for Quranic reading: اللَّذَانِ and اللَّتَانِ each appear only twice in the entire Quran. Master الَّذِي، الَّتِي and الَّذِينَ first.
Why is الَّتِي used for plurals of objects?
Non-rational broken plurals are treated as singular feminine throughout Arabic grammar — so books, mountains and verses all take الَّتِي, the same rule that governs demonstratives and adjectives.
Next in the guideصِلَة الْمَوْصُولWhat is a relative clause (silat al-mawsul)? →Updated