What is the possessor (mudaf ilayh)?
In one line
Definition
Key words in the Arabic
Understand it
Two isms stand side by side and the second tells you whose the first is, or what it is made of, or where it belongs. The first is the مُضَاف; the second is the مُضَاف إِلَيْه, and it is majrur.
كِتَابُ زَيْدٍ (kitabu zaydin), Zayd's book. كِتَاب takes whatever i'rab its own role in the sentence needs; زَيْدٍ is majrur because of the construction alone — no preposition is written.
The two parts
Every idafa has exactly two parts: the mudaf, which loses its tanwin, and the mudaf ilayh, which is always majrur.
That is the point of this second route to jarr: the preposition is understood, not spoken. The books say the relation carries an unwritten مِنْ, فِي or لِ — بَابُ خَشَبٍ, a door of wood; صَلَاةُ اللَّيْلِ, the prayer in the night; كِتَابُ زَيْدٍ, the book belonging to Zayd.
One rule follows immediately: the مُضَاف must be stripped of its tanwin, and of anything standing in tanwin's place — كِتَابُ زَيْدٍ, never كِتَابٌ زَيْدٍ; مُسْلِمِي مِصْرَ, not مُسْلِمُونَ مِصْرَ.
How to spot it
In the Qur'an
Don't confuse it with jarr by a particle
The two roads to jarr are not the same road.
After a حَرْف جَرّ the particle is written: فِي الْبَيْتِ.
In an إِضَافَة the particle is understood: كِتَابُ زَيْدٍ carries a silent لِ.
The visible difference is on the first word, not the second: a mudaf loses its tanwin. كِتَابٌ with tanwin cannot be a mudaf; كِتَابُ without it can be nothing else.
Related terms
Common questions
Can there be more than one mudaf ilayh in a row?
Yes, and a chain is perfectly normal. Only the last word in it is free: every word before it is a mudaf and so drops its article and its tanwin, and every word after the first is in jarr.
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