Jumlah Ismiyyah — The Nominal Sentence

الْجُمْلَةُ الْاِسْمِيَّةُ

al-jumlah al-ismiyyah

How Arabic builds complete sentences from two nouns — no verb required.

What Is the Jumlah Ismiyyah?

The jumlah ismiyyah (الْجُمْلَةُ الْاِسْمِيَّةُ) — the nominal sentence — is one of only two sentence types in Arabic (the other being the verbal sentence, jumlah fi'liyyah). It is a complete sentence that begins with a noun and typically contains no verb at all.

It consists of two parts:

The mubtada (مُبْتَدَأ) — the subject, what the sentence is about
The khabar (خَبَر) — the predicate, the information given about the subject

Two words, both following clear and learnable rules, produce a complete Arabic sentence: اللهُ رَبُّنَا — "Allah is our Lord." Arabic needs no word for "is"; the structure itself supplies it.

The Rules

1. The mubtada is DEFINITE (ma'rifah) and in the case of raf'. 2. The khabar is typically INDEFINITE (nakirah) and also in raf'. 3. The khabar matches the mubtada in gender and number.

The khabar need not be a single noun. It can be a prepositional phrase (الْحَمْدُ لِلَّهِ — "praise is for Allah"), an idafah, or even an entire sentence. Recognising what is serving as khabar is one of the central skills of Quranic reading.

The nominal sentence is the most accessible starting point for the Quranic Arabic student because it can be built entirely from isms — the four properties of the noun (definiteness, gender, number, i'raab) are all the equipment needed.

Quranic Examples

الْحَمْدُ لِلَّهِ رَبِّ الْعَالَمِينَ

Surah Al-Fatihah 1:2

"All praise belongs to Allah, Lord of the worlds"

الْحَمْدُ is the mubtada (definite, raf'). The khabar is the prepositional phrase لِلَّهِ — a shibhu jumlah serving as predicate.

قُلْ هُوَ اللَّهُ أَحَدٌ

Surah Al-Ikhlas 112:1

"Say: He is Allah, the One"

After قُلْ, the sentence هُوَ اللَّهُ أَحَدٌ is nominal — the pronoun هُوَ stands as mubtada, with اللهُ أَحَدٌ as its khabar.

Frequently Asked Questions

How can a sentence be complete without a verb?

Arabic simply does not require a linking verb in the present tense. Where English must say "the house is big", Arabic says اَلْبَيْتُ كَبِيرٌ — "the-house big" — and the definite-indefinite pattern signals that this is a complete statement, not a phrase.

How do I tell a jumlah ismiyyah from a descriptive phrase?

Definiteness. اَلْبَيْتُ الْكَبِيرُ (both definite) is a phrase — "the big house". اَلْبَيْتُ كَبِيرٌ (definite + indefinite) is a sentence — "the house is big". This one distinction changes everything.

What happens to the jumlah ismiyyah when إنَّ enters?

إنَّ and her sisters push the mubtada into the nasb case (it is then called the ism of inna) while the khabar stays in raf'. See the Inna and Her Sisters entry.