Grammar term · Nahw · syntax
صِلَة الْمَوْصُول
silat al-mawsul
Relative clause (sila)
Nahw · syntaxClause/structurecore term3,116+ in the Qur'an
In one line
The completing clause after الَّذِي and its family — it tells you who 'the one who…' actually is, and takes no i'rab place.
Definition (modern)
الاسْمُ الْمَوْصُولُ مُبْهَمٌ لَا يَظْهَرُ الْمُرَادُ مِنْهُ إِلَّا بِصِلَةٍ بَعْدَهُ تُزِيلُ إِبْهَامَهُ. صِلَةُ الْمَوْصُولِ لَا مَحَلَّ لَهَا مِنَ الْإِعْرَابِ، وَهِيَ نَوْعَانِ: (جُمْلَةٌ) وَ(شِبْهُ جُمْلَةٍ).
“The relative noun is vague — what is meant by it appears only through a sila after it that removes its vagueness. The sila of the mawsul has no place in i'rab, and it is of two kinds: a clause, or a quasi-sentence.”
(النحو التطبيقي)
Key words in the Arabic
مُبْهَمvague, unspecified
تُزِيلُ إِبْهَامَهُremoves its vagueness
لَا مَحَلَّ لَهَاno place in i'rab
Understand it
Say جَاءَ الَّذِي and everyone waits: who came? The sila answers — جَاءَ الَّذِي أَكْرَمْتُهُ — and the pin's word for that is removing the ibham built into every mawsul. Inside the sila lives a rabit, a pronoun stated or hidden that reaches back to the mawsul: the ـهُ of أَكْرَمْتُهُ. However long the sila runs, as a block it has no mahall; the mawsul itself carries the i'rab in the main sentence.
How to spot it
Recognition test
Find the mawsul (الَّذِي، الَّتِي، مَنْ، مَا…), then bracket everything needed to complete 'the one who…' — that bracket is the sila. Check it contains its returning pronoun.
In the Qur'an
قَدْ سَمِعَ ٱللَّهُ قَوْلَ ٱلَّتِى تُجَٰدِلُكَ فِى زَوْجِهَا
Al-Mujadila 58:1 — “Indeed Allah has heard the speech of the one who argues with you concerning her husband”
تُجَٰدِلُكَ is the sila of ٱلَّتِى — its hidden هِيَ is the rabit — and the clause takes no i'rab place.
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