Grammar term · Sarf · morphology
صِيغَة مُبَالَغَة
sigha mubalagha
Intensive/hyperbolic form
Sarf · morphologyDerived noun (mushtaqq)core term1,025+ in the Qur'an
In one line
The intensive doer: فَعَّال and its sisters turn 'one who does' into 'one who does over and over, mightily' — غَفَّار, ever-forgiving.
Classical definition
صِيغَةُ المُبَالَغَةِ صِفَةٌ مُحَوَّلَةٌ عَنِ اسْمِ الفَاعِلِ لِلدَّلَالَةِ عَلَى الكَثْرَةِ، كَفَعَّالٍ وَمِفْعَالٍ وَفَعُولٍ.
“The intensive form is an attribute converted from the ism fa'il to indicate abundance, on patterns like fa''al, mif'al and fa'ul.”
(بتصرف من شذا العرف)
Key words in the Arabic
مُحَوَّلَة عَنِ اسْمِ الْفَاعِلِconverted from the doer-noun
الْكَثْرَةabundance, intensity
Understand it
Where كَاتِب says 'a writer', كَتَّاب would say 'a prolific writer' — the pin's word is كَثْرَة, doing it much and mightily. The five classic moulds: فَعَّال (غَفَّار), مِفْعَال (مِقْدَام), فَعُول (شَكُور), فَعِيل (عَلِيم), فَعِل (حَذِر). The Most Beautiful Names lean on these patterns heavily — الرَّحْمَٰن الرَّحِيم الْغَفَّار الشَّكُور — because of the very abundance they encode.
How to spot it
Recognition test
A doer-meaning noun on one of the five intensive moulds, workable back to an ism fa'il: if 'always / intensely / repeatedly doing' fits, it is mubalagha.
In the Qur'an
وَمَا رَبُّكَ بِظَلَّٰمٍ لِّلْعَبِيدِ
Fussilat 41:46 — “and your Lord is never unjust to His servants”
ظَلَّٰم — the فَعَّال mould under negation: not even an atom's weight of repeated wrong, the intensity itself denied.
Forms it takes
قياسيةسماعية
Related terms