Grammar term · Nahw · syntax
نُون الْوِقَايَة
nun al-wiqaya
Protective nun (wiqaya)
Nahw · syntaxSpecific particleadvanced term1+ in the Qur'an
In one line
A protective nun slipped in before the speaker's ya — نَصَرَنِي — so the verb's ending never has to bend to ya's kasra.
Classical definition
نُونُ الوِقَايَةِ نُونٌ تَلْحَقُ الفِعْلَ قَبْلَ يَاءِ المُتَكَلِّمِ لِتَقِيَ آخِرَهُ مِنَ الكَسْرِ، نَحْوُ نَصَرَنِي.
“The protective nun is a nun attached to the verb before the speaker's ya, to shield its ending from the kasra — as in nasarani.”
(بتصرف من ابن هشام)
Key words in the Arabic
لِتَقِيَ آخِرَهُto shield its ending
يَاء الْمُتَكَلِّمthe speaker's ya — 'me'
Understand it
Say نَصَرَ + ي without help and the verb's final letter would have to take a kasra — a vowel verb-endings refuse. So Arabic posts a guard: نَصَرَنِي, where the nun absorbs the kasra and the verb keeps its own ending, exactly the shielding the pin describes. It also appears between إِنَّ and her sisters and the ya (إِنَّنِي, often merged to إِنِّي), and in Quranic pause the ya itself may drop, leaving only the guard: كَذَّبُونِ.
How to spot it
Recognition test
A نِ wedged between any verb (or an إِنَّ-family harf) and the speaker's ya — or a verb ending in ـنِ at a pause where 'me' is meant. The nun itself has no place in i'rab; the real object is the ya.
In the Qur'an
قَالَ رَبِّ ٱنصُرْنِى بِمَا كَذَّبُونِ
Al-Mu'minun 23:26 — “He said: My Lord, help me because they have denied me”
ٱنصُرْنِى shows the guard mid-word; كَذَّبُونِ shows it at pause, the ya dropped.
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