What is the khabar of la of absolute negation?

In one line

Definition

Key words in the Arabic

Understand it

There is a لَا that does not merely say not — it denies the whole kind. لَا رَجُلَ فِي الدَّارِ (la rajula fi al-dari) does not say “a man is not in the house”; it says there is no man in the house at all. That is why it is called لَا لِنَفْيِ الْجِنْسِ, the لَا that negates the class.

The noun straight after it — رَجُلَ — is its اِسْم. It takes a single fatha, with no tanwin and no الـ. It belongs to the mansubat.

The word اِسْتِغْرَاق (istighraq) is the one the books use for what it does: it sweeps the whole class up, leaving nothing out.

What is then said about the noun is its خَبَر, and that stays marfu' — which is why it belongs here, among the eight.

What this la does

The noun drops into nasab without tanwin; the khabar reporting about it stays in rafa.

In لَا طَالِبَ حَاضِرٌ (la taliba hadirun), no student is present, طَالِبَ is the ism in nasab and حَاضِرٌ is the khabar in rafa.

The khabar is often a phrase rather than a single word — فِي الدَّارِ in the first example above — and in the most familiar sentence of all, لَا إِلٰهَ إِلَّا اللهُ, it is left unspoken and understood.

How to spot it

In the Qur'an

Don't confuse it with la resembling laysa

Do not confuse this لَا with the لَا that resembles لَيْسَ.

لَا لِنَفْيِ الْجِنْسِ puts its noun in nasab, with a bare fatha and no tanwin — لَا رَجُلَ فِي الدَّارِ.

لَا الْمُشَبَّهَة بِلَيْسَ leaves its noun in rafa and puts its khabar in nasab.

The two conditions in the classical definition are the test: the لَا must come directly upon the indefinite noun, and it must not be repeated.

Related terms

Common questions

Why is this khabar so often missing?

Because the context supplies it, and Arabic drops what the listener will supply. The most famous instances of this construction leave it unwritten entirely and are complete without it — the omission is the norm here, not an irregularity.