I'rabThe three statescore term
Also written: Jar · Jarr · Majroor · Majrur · Khafd · Makhfud
In one line
Jarr (جَرّ) is the dragged state of i'rab; a word standing in it is called majrur (مَجْرُور), and only two roles put an
ism there.
Definition — the four divisions of i'rab
وَأَقْسَامُهُ أَرْبَعَةٌ: رَفْعٌ وَنَصْبٌ وَخَفْضٌ وَجَزْمٌ. فَلِلْأَسْمَاءِ مِنْ ذٰلِكَ الرَّفْعُ وَالنَّصْبُ وَالْخَفْضُ وَلَا جَزْمَ فِيهَا، وَلِلْأَفْعَالِ مِنْ ذٰلِكَ الرَّفْعُ وَالنَّصْبُ وَالْجَزْمُ وَلَا خَفْضَ فِيهَا.
“Its divisions are four: rafa, nasab, khafd (jarr) and jazm. Of these, nouns take rafa, nasab and khafd, and there is no jazm in them; verbs take rafa, nasab and jazm, and there is no khafd in them.”
Key words in the Arabic
وَأَقْسَامُهُ أَرْبَعَةٌits divisions are four
خَفْضkhafd — the older name for jarr
وَلَا جَزْمَ فِيهَاand there is no jazm in them (nouns)
وَلَا خَفْضَ فِيهَاand there is no khafd in them (verbs)
Understand it
جَرّ (jarr) is the name of the state; مَجْرُور (majrur) is what you call a word standing in it. The older books call the same state خَفْض (khafd) — the two names are for one thing.1
Jarr belongs to the ism alone. A verb is never majrur.
What puts a word in jarr
Two roles, and only two: after a harf jarr, or as the mudaf ilayh.
Only two things put an ism into jarr: a حَرْف جَرّ in front of it, as in فِي الْبَيْتِ (fi al-bayti); or standing as the second word of a possessive, as in كِتَابُ زَيْدٍ (kitabu zaydin). Anything else you see in jarr is a follower, copying one of these two.
How to spot it
Recognition test
A kasra or
tanwin kasr at the end is the usual sign — but هَٰذِهِ always ends in a kasra and is not majrur, and a partly declining word takes a fatha in jarr. Category first, always.
In the Qur'an
وَمِن شَرِّ غَاسِقٍ إِذَا وَقَبَ
Al-Falaq 113:3 — “From the mischief of Darkness as it overspreads;”
غَاسِقٍ is majrur. Jarr is the dragged state, and only two things ever cause it: a harf jarr, as here, or being the second half of a possessive pair.
Study this ayah word by word →In the language — فِي اللُّغَة
The word جَرّ (jarr) in everyday Arabic means pulling or dragging a thing along.
جَرَّ الْحَبْلَ (jarra al-habla) — “he pulled the rope”
As a grammatical term it means the state a preposition drags the following noun into.
Related terms
Common questions
Can a verb ever be majrur?
No. Jarr belongs to the ism alone, and it is one of the clearest dividing lines in the language. A verb has rafa, nasab and jazm; an ism has rafa, nasab and jarr. Neither ever borrows the other's state.
Next in the guideاَلْمُعْرَب وَالْمَبْنِيّWhat category of ism is it — and why does that decide the ending? →
Notes
- اَلْآجُرُّومِيَّة (al-Ajurrumiyya) uses خَفْض throughout, as do most of the early books. جَرّ is the term that settled into general use, and the one used here. ↩
“And We have indeed made the Quran easy to understand and remember.”
Al-Qamar 54:17
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