4.1 الموصوف والصفة

This fragment is made up of two parts. The first is the موصوف – an ordinary اسم.The second is the صفة, a descriptive word (an adjective) that follows it. In Arabic, the adjective comes after the اسم, whereas in English, the adjective comes before the noun.

Grammatically, a موصوف must match with its صفة in all four properties.

قَوْلً ثَقِيْلاً

A heavy word

 

الطَّامَّةُ الكُبْرى

The biggest calamity

 

حُمُرٌ مُسْتَنْفِرَةٌ

Alarmed donkeys

Recall that non-human plurals are treated as singular feminine

 

القَوْمَ الفاسِقِيْنَ

The corrupt nation

Recall that قوم is an اسم جمع, so it is treated as plural masculine

 

حَيَاتُنَا الدُّنْيَا

Our lowest life

The موصوف is proper because its مضاف إليه (نَا ) is proper

The صفة gets an ال because the موصوف is proper

 

Also keep in mind that an اسم that is inherently proper such as a pronoun, pointing word or اسم موصول cannot appear as a موصوف.

 

➢ DRILL 1 Are the following موصوف وصفة fragments? Underline the موصوف once and the صفة twice.

 

It is important to note that when the names of Allah appear in succession, they are not considered موصوف وصفة even though they match in all four properties. This is a common occurrence in the Quran. Below are two such examples.

 

وَاللهُ غَنِيٌّ حَمِيْدٌ

وَهُوَ السَّمِيْعُ العَلِيْمُ