What is the object (maf'ul bihi)?
In one line
Classical definition
Understand it
The doer acts; something receives the act. That something is the مَفْعُول بِهِ.
In شَرِبَ خَالِدٌ مَاءً (shariba khalidun ma'an), Khalid drank water, خَالِدٌ is the doer in rafa and مَاءً is the object in nasab. Change the ending and you change who did what.
The five mafa'il
Five roles share the word مَفْعُول, and each answers a different question about the action: what it fell upon, how much of it there was, why it happened, who it happened alongside, and when or where.
It need not be a separate word. In ضَرَبَنِي (darabani), he struck me, the ـنِي attached to the verb is the object.
A caution worth carrying: an extra preposition can make an object look majrur while it stays mansub in its position. The form is one thing, the role another.
How to spot it
In the Qur'an
In the language — فِي اللُّغَة
The word مَفْعُول (maf'ul) in everyday Arabic means something done, a thing acted upon.
رَدُّ الْفِعْلِ (raddu al-fi'li) — “a reaction — literally, the returning of the deed”
As a grammatical term it means the ism that the verb's action lands on.
Related terms
Common questions
Can a sentence have more than one maf'ul bihi?
Yes. Some verbs take two and a few take three — verbs of giving, of thinking, of informing. Each is in nasab, and their order carries meaning, so they cannot simply be swapped around without changing the sense.
Next in the guideاَلْمَفْعُول الْمُطْلَقWhat is the absolute object (maf'ul mutlaq)? →