Grammar term · Nahw · syntax
جُمْلَة مَعْطُوفَة
jumla ma'tufa
Conjoined clause
Nahw · syntaxClause/structurecore term26+ in the Qur'an
In one line
A clause tied to the one before it by a harf 'atf — it inherits that clause's grammatical standing, place and all.
Classical definition
الجُمْلَةُ المَعْطُوفَةُ مَا رُبِطَتْ بِمَا قَبْلَهَا بِحَرْفِ عَطْفٍ، فَتَأْخُذُ حُكْمَ المَعْطُوفِ عَلَيْهِ.
“The conjoined clause is one linked to what precedes it by a conjunction, so it takes the ruling of what it is joined to.”
(بتصرف من ابن هشام)
Key words in the Arabic
رُبِطَتْis tied
حُكْمَ الْمَعْطُوفِ عَلَيْهِthe status of what it joins
Understand it
'Atf does not only join words; it joins whole clauses, and the pin's rule is inheritance. If the first clause has a mahall — say, khabar in mahall rafa' — the clause after وَ or فَ shares it; if the first has no place in i'rab, as with a sila or an isti'naf, the ma'tufa has none either. So a ma'tufa is never parsed alone: find its partner first.
How to spot it
Recognition test
A harf 'atf (وَ، فَ، ثُمَّ…) followed by a full clause: ask which earlier clause it leans on, then copy that clause's mahall — that is the ma'tufa's i'rab.
In the Qur'an
يُؤْمِنُونَ بِٱلْغَيْبِ وَيُقِيمُونَ ٱلصَّلَوٰةَ
Al-Baqarah 2:3 — “who believe in the unseen and establish prayer”
وَيُقِيمُونَ ٱلصَّلَوٰةَ is joined to يُؤْمِنُونَ and inherits its standing — here, no mahall, like the sila it extends.
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