I'rabThe three statescore term12,385+ in the Qur'an
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 majrūr (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.”
(الآجرّومية)
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 (majrūr) is what you call a word standing in it. The older books call the same state خَفْض (khafḍ) — the two names are for one thing.1
Jarr belongs to the ism alone. A verb is never majrūr.
What puts a word in jarr
Two roles, and only two: after a ḥarf jarr, or as the muḍāf ilayh.
Only two things put an ism into jarr: a حَرْف جَرّ in front of it, as in فِي الْبَيْتِ (fī al-bayti); or standing as the second word of a possessive, as in كِتَابُ زَيْدٍ (kitābu zaydin). Anything else you see in jarr is a follower, copying one of these two.
How to spot it
Recognition test
A kasra or tanwīn kasr at the end is the usual sign — but هَٰذِهِ always ends in a kasra and is not majrūr, and a partly declining word takes a fatḥa in jarr. Category first, always.
Don't confuse it with
Like most Arabic grammar terms, جَرّ (jarr) was taken from everyday speech and then given one precise technical sense.
In everyday Arabic it means pulling or dragging a thing along.
جَرَّ الْحَبْلَ (jarra al-ḥabla) — “he pulled the rope”
In Arabic grammar it means the state a preposition drags the following noun into.
Related terms
Next in the guideاَلْمُعْرَب وَالْمَبْنِيّWhat category of ism is it — and why does that decide the ending? →
Notes
- اَلْآجُرُّومِيَّة (al-Ājurrūmiyya) uses خَفْض throughout, as do most of the early books. جَرّ is the term that settled into general use, and the one used here. ↩
Draft · awaiting final review. This page is being rewritten and checked against the source books.