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Ihya Podcast 2
The text and vocabulary can be downloaded from here: Ihyacast 002
For an introduction to Imam Ghazali and his book Ihya Ulum al-Din, see: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ndapcJS5DJs
Word of the Day, Issue #038 – “to gulp”
Word of the Day, Issue #038
to gulp = جَرِضَ
جَرِضَ (jarida) (imperfect يَجْرَضُ , verbal noun جَرَضٌ ) means to gulp, when occasioned by a state of anxiety or grief. It is usually followed up immediately by بِرِيْقِهِ with his spittle. Someone who does this is referred to as جَرِيْض (jareed). Like many verbs of the form فَعِلَ , we can make the verb جَرِضَ transitive by putting it on the form فَعَلَ , i.e. جَرَضَهُ he choked him (literally caused him to swallow his own spittle).
Word of the Day, Issue #037 – “to follow”
Word of the Day, Issue #037
to follow = تَبِعَ
There are a number of derived verbs from the roots letters ت ب ع , which all roughly mean to follow, but each with its own nuance. So تَبِعَ (tabi’a) (imperfect: يَتْبَعُ , verbal noun تَبَعًا ) means to follow, in the sense of walking with someone or behind someone, e.g. مَرَّ بِيْ زَيْدٌ فَتَبِعْتُهُ Zaid passed by me and I followed him. The 4th form أَتْبَعَ (atba’a) can be used with the same meaning as تَبِعَ to follow, but can also be used to mean to catch up, overtake someone (i.e. after having followed or chased them), e.g. تَبِعْتُ زَيْدًا فَأَتْبَعْتُهُ I followed Zaid and I caught up with him. As is the norm with the 4th form, it can also be used to make the basic verb doubly transitive, e.g. أَتْبَعْتُ زَيْدًا عَمْرًوا I made Zaid follow Amr. Finally, the 8th Form اِتَّبَعَ (ittaba’a) is used to mean to follow in the sense of doing what someone else does, or tells you to do, e.g. كَانَ الْمُسْلِمُوْنَ يَتَّبِعُوْنَ الْقُرْآنَ Muslims used to follow the Quran.
Word of the Day, Issue #036 – “at all”
Word of the Day, Issue #036
at all = اَلْبَتّةَ
The verb بَتَّ (batta) means to cut off, sever something. The verbal noun from this is بَتٌّ . In negative sentences, this verbal noun is used with an الْ attached to it, and also a ة (which is being used here, as in many other Arabic words, for emphasis, e.g. عَلاَّم is someone very learned, but علاَّمَة , with a ة attached, is someone very very learned, or a great scholar), in the accusative case, i.e. اَلْبَتّةَ (al-battah), to emphasise the negation, e.g. مَا كَلَّمْتُهُ الْبَتَّةَ I didn’t speak to him at all, as if you’re cutting off the possibility that you might have spoken to him.
Posted in Word of the Day
Tagged accusative, adverb, al battah, emphasis, ta marbutah, verbal noun, word of the day
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Word of the Day, Issue #035 – “mirage”
Word of the Day, Issue #035
mirage = سَرَابٌ
سَرَابٌ (saraab) is a mirage. It’s from the verb سَرِبَ (imperfect: يَسْرَبُ , verbal noun: سَرَبٌ ) to flow on the surface of the ground (said of water). The Arabs have a saying: أَخْدَعُ مِنَ السَّرَابِ more deceitful than a mirage. This is often contrasted with the word آلٌ (aal); although some authorities held them to be synonymous, most said that the سَرَاب was a mirage that would cause something to appear on the ground, whereas the آل was a heat shimmer which would cause objects to appear higher than usual. This distinction would appear to be backed up by the root meaning of the two words: as we have already seen, سَرَاب is from the verb سَرِبَ to flow on the ground, whereas آل means originally family, and related to that means a form, figure (of a person, as seen from a distance); as such it would make sense to use this latter to refer to a mirage raised up from the ground, rather like someone seen from a distance is raised in comparison to the flat landscape around him or her. Some said that the آل is a mirage from forenoon ( ضُحًى ) to midday ( ظُهْر ), and the سَرَاب was from midday onwards, though this distinction arose probably due to the commonly observed times for these effects, rather than being part of the linguistic definition. In modern terminology, scientists refer to Superior and Inferior Mirages, which would overlap neatly with the آل and the سَرَب respectively.
Word of the Day, Issue #034 – “high”
Word of the Day, Issue #034
high = عَالٍ
عَالٍ is the active participle of the verb عَلا (imperfect: يَعْلُو , verbal noun: عُلُوٌّ ), meaning to be high, lofty; as it is from a defective verb, the active participle عَالٍ is a defective noun (i.e. اِسْمٌ مَنْقُوصٌ ), meaning high, lofty. It has the same meaning as عَلِيٌّ , which is from the same root. However, as the latter is what we might call a proper adjective (i.e. اِسْمٌ مُشَبَّهٌ بِاسْمِ الْفَاعِل literally a word resembling (in its meaning) the active participle), it tends to denote a more permanent state of affairs, and so is more often used in reference to a rank or condition, whereas عَالٍ would be more appropriate for a more transient ‘highness’. The feminine of عَالٍ is عَالِيَة , which is also used as a girl’s name. Note that this should not be confused with عَلْيَاءُ a high place, which again is used as a girl’s name in the Arab world, but not in the subcontinent (and as such is usually mispronounced as عَالِيَة there). Finally, this latter should itself not be confused with عُلْيَى , which is the feminine of the elative أَعْلَى higher/highest.
Word of the Day, Issue #033 – “sheep”
Word of the Day, Issue #033
sheep = غَنَم
غَنَم (plural أَغْنَام ) is a collective noun meaning sheep and goats. It is an اِسمُ جَمْع , which means that it is the type of collective for which there is no singular from the same root (like إِبِل camels). So we cannot add a ة and form غَنَمَة to mean a sheep or a goat, although in modern Arabic this non-classical form has become quite common. If we want to refer to a single member of the collective, we have to use a completely separate word (as is also the case with إِبِل : for a camel we say جَمَل ) – شَاة (plural شَاء and شِيَاه ) can mean both a sheep and a goat, although it is usually used for the former. It can be used for both the male and the female, so we can say هذَا شَاة this is a male sheep/goat and also هذِهِ شَاة this is a female sheep/goat. If we want to disambiguate, we can use the collective nouns ضَأْن sheep and مَعْز goats. These are collective nouns from which a singular may be formed (i.e. اِسْمُ جِنْسٍ جَمْعِيّ ), although it is not done so in the usual manner of adding a ة , but rather from the former we form ضَائِن a sheep, and from the latter we form مَاعِز a goat.
