Definiteness — مَعْرِفَة and نَكِرَة

========== Lesson: The definiteness (مَعْرَفَة - نَكِرَة) of an ISM اِسْم - Arabic grammar in English {L02-01} Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pAx3uuqs9U0 Cleaned: No ---------------------------------------------------------- CLEANING NOTES: correct Arabic terms, punctuation, remove fillers (um/uh), add [MM:SS] timestamps at section breaks, mark unclear passages with [?] ---------------------------------------------------------- The definiteness (مَعْرَفَة - نَكِرَة) of an ISM اِسْم - Arabic grammar in English {L02-01}

0:00 Assalamu alaikum, welcome to the language of Quran, easier than English, lesson 2. The key learning outcome of lesson number 2 is to make ourselves familiar with the definiteness which is one of the four properties of ism. Along with what we've learnt in the previous session insha'Allah, on the subject of a'rab, we should be able to start forming our first set of nominal sentences in Arabic, recognising them and translating them. So let's begin, with the blessed name of Allah, Bismillahirrahmanirrahim.

0:32 Alhamdulillah, from lesson number 1, you'll already be familiar with this diagram. Every ism in Arabic has four properties. Definiteness, either definite or indefinite, gender, masculine or feminine, number, singular, dual or plural.

0:51 And of course in the previous lesson, lesson number 1, we described to you what are the three options as far as a'rab was concerned, either it will be rafa, nasab or jarb, one of the three. So these are the four properties of an ism which you all need to be familiar with before you can understand any ism in Arabic or be able to translate or recognise any of the grammatical structures, very very important for us to learn. So this diagram will help you insha'Allah to get an overview and of course you're welcome to redesign the diagram, do your own, but please use this as a reference.

1:26 So again, the short forms I'm going to use for definite is D and I for indefinite, masculine and feminine, which you can see, singular, dual and plural, and for rafa, R, N for nasab and J for jarb. These are short forms that will help us go through the lessons insha'Allah without having to write a lot on the screen, which is not the easiest thing in the world to do. So we have this structure here, four properties insha'Allah.

1:51 So let's begin by taking a closer look at definiteness. Every ism in Arabic will either refer to something which is specific or non-specific. So if you look at the words example I've given you, when I say a city, baladun, a town, a city, a place, it could be any.

2:11 I could be referring to any city in any country, any place in any country. So baladun is any. If I say sayyaratun, a car, it could be any car, there are millions and millions of cars in the world, it is not specific. And if I say rajulun, a man, it could be any man, out of the billions of people on earth, it could be any. Qalamun, it could be any pen, not specific. Kitabun, a book, it could be any book in the world.

2:36 So this is called indefinite and majority of the words that you're likely to come across of course will be indefinite, meaning non-specific. Nouns are generally non-specific. However, there are a special set of nouns which are specific. For example, instead of saying a book, I say to you the book, al kitab, a book, kitabun, al kitabu, the book. Now when I say the book, I'm referring to a specific book, not any book in the world, the book. So one book itself.

3:08 And that makes it specific. If I say kitabi, my book, now again, a book could be any book, when I say my book, it becomes specific. And haamidun, haamidun could be any man or a boy, but haamidun is a specific person, it is a proper noun.

3:25 And then we have landanu, now London could be of course specific, but I'm not referring to any city, London is the capital city of the United Kingdom. So London is a specific place. So when I say London, the listener knows I'm talking about a specific place in the United Kingdom, the capital city of the UK.

3:45 When I say Hua, he, again specific, I've already mentioned somebody and I'm saying he. For example, haamid is a teacher, he is a very good teacher, I don't need to repeat haamid again and again. So pronouns refer to something specific.

4:00 If I use the word this or that, those, those are specific also because I'm referring to or pointing to something specific. For example, this tree, that house, these are specific words. So there are two types of nouns as far as English is concerned and same thing in Arabic, either the noun, the ism will be nakiratun, indefinite, or ma'rifatun, ma'rifatun means definite.

4:26 So use those short forms for now inshallah until you're familiar with the Arabic terminology. So indefinite or definite, there is no third option as far as an ism is concerned in Arabic. It will be clear when you know the rules inshallah whether it is definite or indefinite.

4:46 Instead of trying to remember which word is definite, which word is indefinite, the scholars of Arabic have given us seven categories of ism, meaning of all the nouns or ism in Arabic, they've categorised seven which are always definite. And this is inshallah ta'ala the seven categories of definiteness that we need to note. So there are number one, proper nouns, al-ism al-alam, number one, and inshallah I'm going to give you on lesson 6.9 a list of all or most common proper nouns used in the Quran.

5:24 And then we have the pronouns, we've already seen an example of that, pronouns. For example if I'm saying Hamid is a teacher, I can repeat the word, without using Hamid, I can just say he is good teacher or he is a very clever teacher etc. Number three, we have demonstrative nouns, pointing words.

5:44 These words are always definite. Pronouns we'll pick up inshallah from lesson number five, and demonstrative nouns we will pick up at lesson number twelve. And then we have the definite article in Arabic, definite by al, this is called the definite article, equivalent to The in English.

6:05 And this is going to be picked up in this lesson inshallah. The other number five is relative noun, relative noun or in English they're called relative pronouns and we will look at them in lesson number 15 inshallah. And number six is munada or vocative, when you address or call someone, Ya Rajulu Oman, and that will be picked up in book number two.

6:26 And then we have something which is related to a definite, meaning indefinite noun, related to a definite, and these will be picked up in lesson ten and eleven. Don't worry I'm going to go through these terms in some detail. The first four are the most important at the beginning inshallah, and then we will pick up five and seven in this book itself, the first 15 lessons inshallah, and we'll pick up number six once we've learnt or become familiar with the verbs.

6:55 So don't worry about the terminology for now, just make a note of that there are seven categories of ism and they are as such. At the beginning you can just simply refer to the English wording for them. So let's take a quick look at each one. Number four we're going to take a look at in some detail. So the first one is the proper noun. In Arabic it is called al-ism al-alam, the proper noun.

7:18 Now proper noun in English we are all familiar with is the name of a specific person, place or a thing, something that has a specific name. So with the example I gave you before London, London is the name of the capital city of the United Kingdom, specific, it's a proper noun. Mecca, of course, the holiest place in the world, Mecca.

7:40 Zaydun, name of a specific person. And then you have Mariamu, name of a specific person. So when a common word is something refers to any, whereas a specific proper noun refers to someone specific, somebody's name is a proper noun. So name of a place, person, even a thing that has a specific name, it will always be definite because it's referring to something specific. So when we mention London, everybody knows or should know that we are referring to a specific place. Mecca, specific place.

8:12 Zaydun or Zayd is a specific person, Mariam is a specific person. So this is called al-ism al-alam in Arabic, the proper noun, which are always definite. Number two on our list are the pronouns. In Arabic they are called al-dhamair. And pronouns are used in the place of noun, just like in English. So in English if I say to you Khadija is a teacher.

8:37 So let's say I mentioned a name already, I said this is Khadija. I can now use a pronoun instead of repeating the name. So I can say she is a teacher. So pronouns always refer back to a specific thing. So this is why they're also always definite. So all pronouns in the language are definite, i.e. specific.

9:00 Again, two examples given on the screen at the top line. You can see he and I and you. So of course we have many more, they, you as in plural, you as in feminine, and I, we, etc. These are all pronouns. In Arabic we have two sets of pronouns, mainly for personal pronouns. The first set we're going to study inshallah in lesson number five.

9:26 So in lesson number five we're going to study the detached pronouns. And these are examples here, ana, I, hua, he, anta, you. And these have been used in the Quran almost 1400 times.

9:38 Then the other set of pronouns which are very important and very commonly used in the Quran are called attached pronouns. These are always written attached to words and inshallah we'll start learning them from lesson number seven, lesson number eight, and nine, ten, and eleven. And we'll also study them under verbs in book two, where we will look at them how they're attached to verbs.

9:57 So we have detached pronouns and attached pronouns. The detached pronouns are used almost 9,000 times in the Quran, whereas the, sorry, the detached pronouns are used 1,400 times and the attached pronouns are used almost 9,000 times in the Quran. So very, very important before we can begin to understand Quran, we need to be very familiar with these.

10:17 So only thing for you to note now, inshallah, is that every pronoun is always definite, always specific. Third on our list are the demonstrative nouns, asma'ul isha'arah. Now in English, they're called pronouns. In Arabic, they're actually category of ism, so they're classed as nouns. So I'll translate them as the demonstrative nouns. Of course, in English, if you're familiar, we refer to them as demonstrative pronouns.

10:44 There are a set of pronouns in English, in Arabic, they're a set of category of ism. So they will have the four properties. And inshallah, all that was relevant for you to know about them, you'll study them in lesson number 12.

10:57 So for now, just note that when I point to something, the pointing word is also definite. So if I say this house, that car, so I'm saying here, this house, that car, those people, these books, they're all definite because they refer to something specific. This house is a specific house. That car is a specific car. And that's what we mean when we say the demonstrative nouns are definite. And again, there are two words you can start off with in Arabic, inshallah.

11:27 The first one is hatha, this, thalika, that, hatha, this, thalika, that, of course, just like in English, in Arabic, we have two sets, one for pointing to something near, one for pointing to something far. So you can see two example here that I've got for you. Hatha baytun, this is a house.

11:51 Thalika baytun, that is a house. So one is used for pointing to something near, the other used to point to something far. In Arabic, we also have one for pointing to something feminine, one for pointing to something masculine, as well as plurals, as we have in English.

12:08 So we will cover the full set and their importance, and they're used in the Quran 1060 times. So they're very, very important for our study. And inshallah, in lesson number 12, you will have a detailed lesson of all that you need to know to begin to progress your understanding of Quran inshallah. Definite by Al. The definite article in Arabic is called Al mu'arrafu bil laam, made definite by laam. And it has two parts.

12:36 The first part, the one I'm pointing to is called a Hamzatul wasl. This has been briefly mentioned in the introductory session. Key points about it, please refer back to that video on mapping Arabic if you have not seen it already. So we have the Hamzatul wasl followed by the letter laam. And it is this laam that makes it definite. It is this laam, not the Hamzatul wasl.

12:56 They combine together because we cannot read a letter beginning with sukoon in Arabic. So the Hamzatul wasl comes at the beginning as a temporary sound. And therefore in Arabic it is called definite by laam. Definite by laam, we're going to simply translate it as definite by Al. So that it reminds that it is Al at the beginning that makes it definite. So Al is equivalent to The in English.

13:20 Most important thing to note here is that Al in Arabic is always written attached to the word. Whereas The in English, we always write separately. So you can see here, the Muslim, the student, the book. The is written separate word. And then we have the word Muslim afterwards in English. In Arabic, Al will always be written attached to the word.

13:44 And when we add Al to a word, we make it specific. So instead of a Muslim, meaning any Muslim, instead of a student, a book, it becomes the book, the student, the Muslim. So all we do is we add Al in front and we have Al Muslimu, the Muslim, Al Talibu, the student, and we have Al Kitabu, the book. So this is the major difference between Arabic and English. The word The is written separately. In Arabic, it is written attached.

14:16 Again, I've hinted to this before. In Arabic, it's very, very important to note, whenever we have a single letter word, single letter word, it is always written attached to the following word. It is a general rule in Arabic. And technically, Al is a single letter. Hamzatul Wasl is coming as a helping sound to help us read the text correctly. So it's Al Muslimu, Al Talibu, Al Kitabu.

14:42 Instead of Muslimun, Al Muslimu, Talibun, Al Talibu, Kitabun, Al Kitabu. Again, the definite article in Arabic, relatively easy, Inshallah. So please make a note of these points. The Hamzatul Wasl only appears at the beginning of certain words in Arabic, and very few. Wherever they appear, the general reading rule is as follows. You only read if the speech begins with it, otherwise you ignore it in reading.

15:11 So the first thing you see is a Hamzatul Wasl, which will only appear at the beginning of a word. Unfortunately, in normal standard Arabic, it is not even marked. So you have to know whether it is a normal Hamzah or Hamzatul Wasl and read it correctly.

15:25 In Quranic script, you will often see a symbol like so placed on top to let you know that this is Hamzatul Wasl. So Alhamdulillah, even without knowing any rules of Arabic, we can still read it correctly. Normally, the Hamzatul Wasl is read if speech begins with it, with the E sound. So you have Ibnun, Ija'al. But in certain command forms of words and others, where the third letter has a dhamma. So the first is your Hamzatul Wasl, second will always have a sukoon.

15:57 But if the third letter has a dhamma or a pesh, you will read it with a dhamma or pesh. Unsur. Unsur. Please note these rules, Inshallah, I'm sure you already know them. So these are very important rules related to the reading of Hamzatul Wasl. As a rule, whenever Hamzatul Wasl is at the beginning of the definite article, it is always read with a A sound. So Al. Al. Al.

16:23 Al Kitabu. If it comes in front of the Qamari letters, we've already done this in the introductory session Inshallah, please go back to that video on mapping Arabic if you're not familiar with this. It will be read Al Qamaru. But if it's with Shamsi letters, this laam is not read. So you read this as Ash Shamsu. Again you can see that here, we're going to take in a sound straight to there.

16:55 So the sukoon on the laam will not be written, I've written that just to illustrate that point for you. So Hamzatul Wasl, only at the beginning, it is only read when speech begins with it. Normally you read it with an E or a O sound in certain cases.

17:11 With the Al, it is always A. Now again, as the rule goes, if there is something before in reading, you will not read the Hamzatul Wasl. So you'll read, you'll write it, but you will not read it. So you'll have Wal Kitabu. Wal Kitabu. And then you have here, Wal Qamaru. And here again, the laam, nor the Hamzatul Wasl, even though they're both written, you will not read them, you go straight here with all of the 14 Shamsi letters.

17:43 So you read that as Wash Shamsu. Again you can see that, Alhamdulillah, and again I'm hoping that you're very familiar with these rules. So Hamzatul Wasl, very special letter in the Arabic language, only read at the beginning, and of course it's sometimes referred to as temporary sound, helping vowel, temporary sound to help you to read.

18:05 Just like in English, we don't add the to anything that is definite. For example, I don't say in English, the London, if London already, we don't need to add the. So if I say, I do not go to somebody, where are you going? I'm going to the London. We don't say that. Similarly, in English, we don't add the to a pronoun. We don't say the he.

18:23 He, she, we don't say the he, the she. Same thing in Arabic. We do not add al or the to a definite noun. There are some rare words in English, or rare proper nouns in English, where the is added. For example, you have the Atlantic, it's a proper noun. The Nile, the River Nile has the in front.

18:47 And there's a country, a Muslim country in Africa called the Gambia. So there are very rare occasions when the is added to a proper noun. And we have the same thing in Arabic, a rare set of names, proper names that have al in front. So Al-Qahiratu, the Cairo, we just say Cairo, of course, in English. Al-Rumu, the Romans, proper noun. Al-Hasanu, Al-Husayn, again has al in front.

19:15 So there's a few, there are a couple of other companions names, may Allah be pleased with them all, where al is used. But generally speaking, al, you will not add to a proper noun. You will never see in Arabic, Tanween and al on the same word. This is very, very important rule, please note it down. You will never see al and Tanween on the same word. So for example, we have here Muslimun, and then we have Munafiqatan.

19:44 And then we have Mu'minin. You will note in the first three examples, a Muslim, a hypocrite, a believer, three words that are, this rule applies everywhere in the Arabic language. If I want to say the Muslim, I will put al in front. So I've added al in front, and I end up with removing the Tanween. This is a very important rule, please remember it. Whenever you add al to a word, the Tanween must be removed.

20:16 You will never ever see a word in Arabic, which has al and Tanween at the same time. So please make a note of that inshallah, as you go, because you will be doing these changes yourselves, you need to make note of that. So whatever the Tanween is, if it's Tanween with two dhamma, two pesh, it will be single, al Muslimun.

20:37 In the next example, we have Munafiqatan, okay, we have two fatahs, a hypocrite, I want to say the hypocrite, female hypocrite here, al Munafiqatan, you can see here again, single corresponding vowel, corresponding, whatever it was there before, you don't change anything, just remove the Tanween. So from tan, it becomes ta, al Munafiqatan, again you can see very clearly here. And then we have the last example, mu'minin, a believer, it will simply become al mu'minin, al mu'minin.

21:15 So all you're going to do is remove the Tanween, and look for the corresponding single vowel sign, and you'll put that there. So Tanween and al never go together on the same word, and whenever you add al, you remove the Tanween. So when we look at these words now on the screen, we have muallimani, it means two teachers, don't worry about this, we're covering it in lesson number four, two teachers.

21:41 I want to say the two teachers, not any two teachers, the two teachers. I would put al in front, but note the word has no Tanween, therefore there'll be no change at the end, muallimani, no change, kafiroona becomes al, kafiroona, the disbelievers. So indefinite, definite, no change whatsoever, only thing al can do with Tanween is remove it, that's it.

22:13 On the others it will not impact in any other way. Mu'minatin, now this one has Tanween, so does it become al mu'minati, the believers. Don't worry these words, plurals and so on, lesson number four, inshallah, be patient we're going to go there, but let's go one step at a time.

22:30 So if the word has no Tanween, al will not make any impact to the changes at the end, only with Tanween will we see the removal of the Tanween with a single vowel symbol or vowel sign. Please note this very important point, so many people have asked me questions and I'm not sure where the confusion has come from, but let's see if inshallah if we can remove this confusion. A lot of people are under the impression, maybe from what they heard or read somewhere, that Tanween is a sign of indefinite, i.e. Tanween means a or an.

23:04 Technically in some cases this is true, but this is not the case. The use of a and an in English really is dependent upon the rules of the English language and has nothing to do with Tanween or Arabic. For example, look here, I'm saying mu'minun means a believer, so I will use a here in English. I could say believer, but a believer is more accurate in English. Imaamun, I'm going to say an imam. But I have another word next to it, Kabeerun, big.

23:39 I don't say a big in English, right? I just translate as big, it's an adjective. Ba'eedun, paar, jameelatun, beautiful. I don't say a beautiful in English, I could say this is a beautiful house, this is a beautiful car. But generally speaking, I don't use, when I translate beautiful, a in front. So the translation of Tanween is dependent upon the English language. It has nothing to do with it being indefinite.

24:10 So please note, Tanween is not a sign of something being indefinite. There are a number of definite nouns in Arabic, proper nouns, that have Tanween. Take example here, Muhammadun has got Tanween, but it is definitely a proper noun, so it is definite. Nuhun, nuh, has Tanween at the end, but it is definite, so it is not indefinite. Mahmudun, haamidun, so there are many nouns which are proper nouns, will have Tanween at the end. You do not remove the Tanween, it is a proper noun, it's there.

24:46 And it is not a sign that it is indefinite. Why some words take Tanween, why some words don't, this is more further discussion insha'Allah. But for now, remove this idea that Tanween is a sign of something being indefinite all the time. This is simply not the case. There are many indefinite isms in Arabic that do not have Tanween. Take an example with what we have on the screen.

25:12 We have akbaru, no Tanween, means greater. Masajidu, mosques, no Tanween, plural, meaning more than three or more mosques. Ahmaru, red, colour, no Tanween. Bushra, good news, no Tanween. So you will come across many, thousands and thousands of isms in Arabic that will have no Tanween, but it is indefinite. So what is definite, what is not definite, has nothing to do with Tanween as a primary rule.

25:45 It is only the seven categories I'm giving you in this lesson, and if they fall within those seven categories, it will be definite. One more important thing to note, whenever you see Al in Arabic, it is not always that you will need to translate T-H-E. Let me give you a few examples insha'Allah here.

26:06 Al qalamu, the pen. Now in Arabic you will see Al jadeedu, but in English you will not translate the the new, especially when it comes to adjective phrase insha'Allah, you will not translate but in Arabic you need to put Al in front. Again when the lesson comes we will look at it in more detail.

26:24 But just because you see Al, do not always go I'm going to translate the. Again you are going to follow the rules of the English language. That is the language you are translating into, or that is the language you are trying to understand in.

26:36 And we have Al Islamu. Now Islam in English is a proper noun, so we do not add the in front, but in Arabic you will see Al in front of it. And there are many other words like for example Al deenu, you do not say the deen for example.

26:49 Again there are many like so. And here we have Al ilmu, we do not necessarily need to say the knowledge, it will depend on the context. So please note, when you see Al, it is not always necessary that you will have T-H-E, the in the translation, but as far as Arabic is concerned, that word is definite.

27:07 Why is it definite? Because it has Al in front. So you need to start thinking in this way, what is it there, does it belong to one of the seven categories of definite? It has Al, so it is definite. I'm not interested in what happens in the English language as far as Arabic language rules are concerned.

27:26 Al also has no impact on changing the I'arab of a word, or of an ism. Here for example, if you remember this sentence I asked you to recall in lesson number one, three famous sentences that we're going to use throughout our lessons insha'Allah, to help us understand I'arab. Here we can see it, Ja'a Rajulun.

27:46 Why Ja'a Rajulun? Because this is the doer of the verb Ja'a, so it needs to be in Rafa. So we have Rajulun, Ra'aytu, we need to change it to Rajulan. Why do we need to change it to Rajulan? Because it is the object of the verb, to see.

28:02 I saw, what did I see? I saw them, Iman. And then third we have, I gave Salam, it's coming after the word Ala, which is a preposition, it will always be in Jar. So you can see here I have, a man came, Ja'a Rajulun, I saw a man, Ra'aytu Rajulan, I gave Salam to a man, Salam to Ala Rajulun.

28:24 On the other hand, if I want to say the man came, I saw the man, I gave Salam to the man, all I am doing is changing it to Arrajulu, it is still Rafa, why? Because it is the doer of the verb. Ra'aytu, I saw, Arrajula, the man. It is still Nasab, has to be Nasab, why? It is the object. And Salam to Ala Rajulun or Arrajuli, it will be Jar. So Arrajulu, Rafa, Arrajula, Nasab, Arrajuli, Jar. Same as Rajulun, Rafa, Rajulan, Nasab, and Rajulin, Jar.

29:05 The I'arab will not be changed. The I'arab will not be changed, I repeat, based upon Al. It will be exactly the same. So as I mentioned in the earlier notes in lesson one, the sign of I'arab is either Tanween or U, only for these types of words, by the way, please note that, this category, it will be definite or indefinite, does not matter. Un will indicate that it is Rafa, U will indicate that it is Rafa. And why is it U? Because of Al.

29:36 The same goes for the other two examples. Again, it's an area of confusion. Many people under the some impression that somehow when you add Al, the I'arab changes. No, because the I'arab, as far as Rafa, Nasab and Jar is concerned, remains the same. And again, please go back and watch the video on rice, roll, I'arab, category and expression. This will clarify all doubts. And I'arab, unfortunately, is usually very complex for non-Arabs to understand and many people give up Arabic. Please trust me. Be patient.

30:11 And inshallah it makes sense. So please note these points. Al will not change the I'arab. We've already covered the first four. And again, they will be discussed in more detail. Proper nouns, inshallah, I'll give you a list on 6.9. Pronouns, lesson number five, we'll introduce them. And of course, demonstrative nouns, lesson number 12. And Al, we've already covered in this lesson, which is lesson number two. The other three, please don't worry about them, inshallah.

30:37 They will be covered also in dedicated lessons. And the next one is the relative nouns. I will be going through them in lesson number 15 for you, which is the last lesson of book one. And the vocative we will do after we've done verbs. It's used about 300 times in the Quran, inshallah. But after we've learned the verbs, we'll appreciate them a little bit more and it'll be easier to understand.

30:57 So I move them into book number two. And the last, seventh one, we will study, inshallah, in lesson number 10 and 11. I'm only going to give you a brief example with five, six, and seven, just to complete the lesson. But please don't worry about them at this stage, inshallah, in the appropriate lesson. Allah give tawfiq. We will try to explain them in some detail for you so that you will have all the information that you need.

31:22 At the beginning, when you begin your study, if you try to catch everything, you will end up with catching nothing. So focus on the easy ones first and most common, inshallah, as you begin to see and use them, the others will fall into place. Trust me, this is the best method of going at the beginning, learning whole load of terminology is not going to help us at the beginning.

31:40 So first four, inshallah, get them today from this lesson. The other three, let's take a very brief look at them. Relative pronouns. They are similar in English when we say that, who, whom, those who. These are all relative pronouns. For example, in English, when I say all that glitters is not gold. All that glitters is not gold. So what that is a relative pronoun in English. In Arabic, they are a category of ism and they're used 3500 plus times in the Quran.

32:13 So very, very important. And I've given you the biggest or the most important list in lesson number 15, inshallah, where you'll have them and you'll also see how they're used. They're primarily used with verbs.

32:25 So in book two, after we finish the study of verbs, we'll be able to appreciate them fully. But I have given you a complete listing in lesson number 15 with a brief summary of how they're used with some common examples. So for now, just note two words which you should be familiar with. Allathee, for example, in Surah Al-Alaq, we read allathee allama bilqalam. If you know this ayah, it will help you. Remember, the one who taught by the pen.

32:48 And of course, the second one, you should all know, Sirata allatheena an'amta alayhim. The path of those who you have favoured or whom you have favoured. So you can see here, allathee allatheena. Very commonly used in the Quran. Relative pronouns in Arabic. They're a category of ism and they're always definite. Vocative. In English, you may not be familiar with the word because we don't necessarily learn English grammar. Vocative is when you call somebody or address someone.

33:20 A room full of teachers. You want to address me, for example. You say, ya or o teacher. Hey man, in English. We use other terms like so. Hey man. I'm sure in every culture, you have one way of addressing somebody specific. So a room full of people, you want to attract one person. So you call. And this is called munada in Arabic. Al-munada. The vocative.

33:41 The one being called. Now, the vocative in Arabic is used, I think, about 170, 180 times in the Quran. And we will cover them in Book 2. So example here, ya ustadhu, o teacher. Ya rajulu, o man. Okay, again, and so on. Many examples. So you'll use it like this in Arabic, inshallah. And again, please just make a note that it's definite. Don't worry about the rules related to that.

34:07 We'll pick them up later. The seventh category of definite is called an indefinite noun connected to a definite. Please don't worry. Lesson 10 and 11 will come to it. So for example, take the word rasool. Rasool means a messenger. Could be any messenger. It could be a messenger I sent. Or it could be a messenger you sent. Messenger somebody carries a message. But when we say rasoolullahi, now it becomes specific. Why? It is not any messenger.

34:36 It is the messenger of Allah. Something significant, right? Specific. The messenger of Allah. So an indefinite noun has been made definite by connecting it to somebody or something which is already definite. Rasooluhu, his messenger. Of course, we hear referring to Allah azza wa jal. So his messenger. It's not non-specific. It is specific. For example, if I say his pen. It is not an ordinary pen anymore. It is his pen.

35:05 Specific pen. Pen is indefinite. When you attach it to something or link it to something which is definite, it will become definite. And this will be picked up in lesson 10 and 11. So this is your seventh category of ism that are always definite in Arabic. Let's conclude part one by summarising the seven categories of ism that are definite in Arabic. The first, al-ism al-alam, the proper noun. Always definite. Then we have al-dhamair, pronouns, which refer to a specific thing or person or a place.

35:43 Asma'ul-ishara, or pointing words, demonstrative nouns. Words that are used to point to something. And then we have al-mu'arrafu bil-laam, the one we looked at in some detail in this lesson. Definite by al. Remember, al is a definite article in Arabic. Number five, we have relative nouns. We're going to call them nouns even though in English they're called relative pronouns. Al-asma'ul-mawsula, the relative nouns. And we have al-munada, vocative.

36:12 When you address or call someone. And the seventh one we have, which is something indefinite related to a definite noun. So this is what we're going to be studying. Inshallah, all seven of them are going to be covered in this course. Inshallah, we'll have a full overview of it as we progress through. Again, the reason why the order of I'm teaching them in a certain order is because these are the ones that are going to give you the highest yield in your understanding of Quran.

36:37 And all of them based upon the frequency of the way they're used in the Quran. And of course, we've chosen only the most common that you will find in the Quran. Inshallah. That's it. Alhamdulillah for lesson one, part one. Inshallah, in the second video, we will cover part two, where we look at practically how to form nominal sentences in Arabic.

37:00 By Allah's grace, we're only on lesson number two. And we should be able to, with the knowledge that we've acquired from the previous lesson and this lesson, start forming and translating some simple sentences in Arabic nominal sentences. And if you recall from the introduction, they're the ones that begin with an ism. And they're called nominal sentences in Arabic. Please like, subscribe and share. Encourage others to learn also.

37:24 Inshallah, may Allah reward you and bless you for your comments, your feedback, your suggestions and your duas. May Allah forgive any of our mistakes. May Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala unite all our hearts together. May Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala grant all of us the ability to learn Arabic, to understand the book of Allah, and also enrich our lives through His teachings. Until the next video, Asalaamu alaikum warahmatullahi wabarakatuhu ---------------------------------------------------------- END OF TRANSCRIPT