Grammar term · I'rab · Word order
Postponed (mu'akhkhar)
mu'akhkhar
مُؤَخَّر
I'rabWord ordercore term
In one line
A mu'akhkhar (مُؤَخَّر) is a word pushed back behind its natural slot — the mubtada' waiting behind its khabar, as in لِلَّهِ ٱلْمَشْرِقُ.
Classical definition
التَّأْخِيرُ جَعْلُ الكَلِمَةِ فِي آخِرِ الكَلَامِ وَهِيَ تَسْتَحِقُّ التَّقْدِيمَ، لِغَرَضٍ بَلَاغِيٍّ.
“Delaying is placing a word at the end of the speech when it deserves the earlier position, for a rhetorical purpose.”
Key words in the Arabic
تَسْتَحِقُّ التَّقْدِيمَdeserves the earlier slot
مُؤَخَّرdelayed
Understand it
The mirror of fronting: when one part jumps forward, its partner is left standing after — and i'rab names them as a pair, خبر مقدم / مبتدأ مؤخر. The commonest case in the Quran: a jarr phrase or zarf opens the sentence and the true mubtada follows it (وَلِلَّهِ ٱلْمَشْرِقُ وَٱلْمَغْرِبُ). Some delays are compulsory — an indefinite mubtada must wait (فِي الدَّارِ رَجُلٌ) — others rhetorical.
How to spot it
Recognition test
Find the sentence's real topic standing after its news: label it mubtada mu'akhkhar (or fa'il, ism inna… mu'akhkhar) and its fronted partner muqaddam.
In the Qur'an
وَلِلَّهِ ٱلْمَشْرِقُ وَٱلْمَغْرِبُ ۚ فَأَيْنَمَا تُوَلُّوا۟ فَثَمَّ وَجْهُ ٱللَّهِ ۚ إِنَّ ٱللَّهَ وَٰسِعٌ عَلِيمٌ
Al-Baqarah 2:115 — “To Allah belong the east and the West: Whithersoever ye turn, there is the presence of Allah. For Allah is all-Pervading, all-Knowing.”
لِلَّهِ is the khabar fronted; ٱلْمَشْرِقُ is the mubtada mu'akhkhar — ownership stated before the owned.
Study this ayah word by word →Related terms
الْجُمْلَة الِاسْمِيَّة · al-jumla al-ismiyya
اَلْخَبَر · khabar
اَلْمُبْتَدَأ · mubtada'
مُقَدَّم · muqaddam
Common questions
Why would a word be pushed back behind its slot?
Usually because something else has to come first. An indefinite mubtada' cannot open a sentence, so its khabar goes ahead of it. The order is not free — it is the grammar solving a problem, and the label records what moved.
Next in the guideمُقَدَّمFronted (muqaddam) →Updated