From the marvels of Sura Al Kawthar (The Abundance) – من عجائب سورة الكوثر
From the marvels of Sura Al Kawthar (The Abundance) – من عجائب سورة الكوثر
قال تعالى : {إِنَّا أَعْطَيْنَاكَ الْكَوْثَرَ } (1) {فَصَلِّ لِرَبِّكَ وَانْحَرْ } (2) {إِنَّ شَانِئَكَ هُوَ الْأَبْتَرُ } (3).
Surely We have given you Kausar, Therefore pray to your Lord and make a sacrifice.Surely your enemy is the one who shall be without posterity,
We began observing that there are 10 pronounced words read by the reciter and each verse is composed of 10 letters.
The entire chapter can be broken down to 10 words as written as follows:
{إِنَّا – أَعْطَيْنَاكَ – الْكَوْثَرَ – فَصَلِّ – لِرَبِّكَ – وَانْحَرْ -إِنَّ – شَانِئَكَ – هُوَ – الْأَبْتَرُ }
The first verse is composed of 10 letters excluding any repetition.
إِنَّا – أَعْطَيْنَاكَ – الْكَوْثَرَ
ا -ن -ع -ط -ي -ك -ل -و -ث -ر .
The second verse is composed of 10 letters excluding any repetition.
فَصَلِّ – لِرَبِّكَ – وَانْحَرْ
ص -ل -ر -ب -ك -و -ا -ن -ح .
The third verse is also composed of 10 letters excluding any repetition.
إِنَّ – شَانِئَكَ – هُوَ – الْأَبْتَرُ
ا -ن -ش -ك -ه -و -ل -ب -ت -ر .
Also, interesting to note that the number of letters that were used once only without repetition is also ten.
ع-ط-ي-ث-ف-ص-ح-ش-ه-ت.
Sentences in Sura Al Kawthar
- Scholars of Arabic language classified the sentences to many types and what is astonishing is that this Sura has examples of each type. There are four types of sentences which are mentioned in this Sura:
Sentences are classified according to the scholars of language, especially the scholars of Al-Balaga (Eloquence) to two types: Informative sentence (جمل خبرية) and non-informative sentence (جمل انشائية). When you ponder on the Sura you will find both types mentioned.
Examples of the informative sentence (جمل خبرية).
إِنَّا أَعْطَيْنَاكَ الْكَوْثَرَ .
إِنَّ شَانِئَكَ هُوَ الْأَبْتَرُ .
Examples of non-informative sentence (جمل انشائية)
فَصَلِّ لِرَبِّكَ .
وَانْحَرْ .
2. In the science of Arabic rhetoric, the topic of (الوصل والفصل ) conjunction and disjunction of sentences using the particle of conjunction و is considered to one of the most important topics, it was said to be the heart of eloquence. This sura provides examples of both of these concepts.
For example, the sentence “انحر ” is connected with و with the preceding sentence ” فَصَلِّ لِرَبِّكَ and this is an example of الوصل, and that sentence is disconnected with the following sentence إِنَّ شَانِئَكَ هُوَ الْأَبْتَرُ, and this an example of الفصل.
3. The scholars of Arabic divided the Arabic sentences into two types: Nominal sentence and the verbal sentence, the sentences that we mentioned as examples of informative and non-informative are also examples of nominal and verbal, this is according to the majority of scholars. But some scholars from the past and present have added to these two types of sentences by adding a third type, although this is not entirely convincing.
Al -Zamakshari proposed a third type, that is the conditional sentence (الجملة الشرطية ), but other scholars did not accept it as independent sentence type. Ibn Hisham said in Al-Mugni: Al Zamakshari and others added the conditional sentence, but the correct opinion is that it is a type of verbal sentence.
Ibn Hisham himself proposed that in Al Mugni a third type, that is the adverbial clause (الجملة الظرفية) , but others have rejected that this by saying that the adverbial clauses refer to the nominal and verbal sentence what is prior to it because the governing agent is estimated as either كائن أو استقر, which is either an omitted verb or a verb like entity.
In reality, the correct position is that there is really two sentence type in origin (nominal and verbal), in any case, Sura Kawthar contains these two types of sentences.
4. Scholars of Arabic also classified the sentence by its composition: simple or compound. For example : زيد قام أبوه ” و “زيد أبوه قائم – Zaid is the subject and the predicate is not a single word but a nominal sentence (أبوه قائم) and a verbal sentence (قام أبوه), these two predicate sentences are not independent sentences but serve as the predicate for the greater sentence whose subject is Zaid.
Sura Al Kawthar has examples of each type:
Compound sentence – إِنَّا أَعْطَيْنَاكَ الْكَوْثَرَ :
The sentence أَعْطَيْنَاكَ الْكَوْثَرَ is the smaller sentence which is the predicate for the greater sentence إِنَّا.
Simple sentence: فَصَلِّ لِرَبِّكَ – this is a simple sentence.
As for the sentence نَّ شَانِئَكَ هُوَ الْأَبْتَر ُ, it can be analyzed from two perspectives. Firstly, if you the pronoun “هو ” to be a separating pronoun ( ضمير فصل) then the word الْأَبْتَرُ is the predicate of the الشانئ, then is a simple sentence. But if you consider pronoun “هو ” to be the subject (مبتدأ) and “الأبتر ” to be its predicate (خبرا) then this small sentence is then to be considered the predicate for الشانئ, therefore this will be an example of the complex sentence.
Pronouns (الضمائر ) in Sura al Kawthar
This sura presents all types of pronouns in the language.
- Explicit and implied pronouns – الضمائر بارزة ومستترة
From the explicit pronouns is what appears in the verb: “أعطيناك “, and from the implicit pronouns what is implied in the verb “صل ” and ” انحر “.
2. Attached and detached pronouns: الضمائر متصلة ومنفصلة
In the sentence, أعطيناك is an example of attached pronouns and the in the sentence هو الأبتر is an example of a detached pronoun.
3. Pronouns addressing the first, second and third person.
First person – أعطينا
Second person – أعطيناك ” و “ربك ” و “شانئك ” is explicit and “صل ” و “انحر ” is implicit.
Third person – “هو ” is explicit and in شانئ is implicit
4. Pronouns in terms of number: singular and plural
We have already seen singular and plural pronouns. What about dual pronouns? Although the aim of the sura is not to show every aspect of the language for it to be miraculous. In any case in the Arabic language plural pronouns can be used for the dual. There many examples when the plural is used to refer to dual:
– {إِن تَتُوبَا إِلَى اللَّهِ فَقَدْ صَغَتْ قُلُوبُكُمَا } (4) سورة التحريم. صدر الآية مثنى وليس كذلك عجزها.
– {هَذَانِ خَصْمَانِ اخْتَصَمُوا فِي رَبِّهِمْ } (19) سورة الحج . رجع ضمير الجمع على مثنى .
– {وَالسَّارِقُ وَالسَّارِقَةُ فَاقْطَعُواْ أَيْدِيَهُمَا } (38) سورة المائدة . حصلت المطابقة في المضاف إليه وما هيبحاصلة في المضاف .
– {وَإِن طَائِفَتَانِ مِنَ الْمُؤْمِنِينَ اقْتَتَلُوا فَأَصْلِحُوا بَيْنَهُمَا } (9) سورة الحجرات . حصلت المطابقة في “بينهما ” لكن بعد أن قال “اقتتلوا “.
{ثُمَّ اسْتَوَى إِلَى السَّمَاء وَهِيَ دُخَانٌ فَقَالَ لَهَا وَلِلْأَرْضِ اِئْتِيَا طَوْعًا أَوْ كَرْهًا قَالَتَا أَتَيْنَا طَائِعِينَ } (11) سورة فصلت. فالحال صيغة جمع وصاحبها مثنى …..
5. Pronouns in consideration of their grammatical positions:
The pronoun in the nominative position:
-ضمير في محل رفع : (أعطيناك ) الضمير الأول فيها فاعل مرفوع
The pronoun in the accusative position:
(أعطيناك ) الضمير الثاني فيها مفعول به منصوب
The pronoun in the genitive position:
ضمير في محل جر : (ربك ) الكاف فيها مضاف إليه مجرور
From the subtleties of the sura is also the order of grammatical position is identical for the Allah (SWT) and His Messenger (as).
For Allah (SWT):
– اسم إن.
– فاعل أعطى.
– الرب
And they came in the following order:
– منصوب (accusative)
– مرفوع (nominative)
– مجرور (genitive)
For the Messenger of Allah (saw):
– “كاف ” أعطيناك منصوبة
– “صل “الضمير المستتر مرفوع.
– “كاف ” ربك مجرور.
Verbs in the Sura:
This Sura also contains all the various types of verbs from the morphological point of view.
1- الفعل الصحيح: نحر – Sound verb
2- الفعل المعتل: أعطى. – Weak verb
3- الفعل المضعف : صلى . – Duplicated verb
4- الفعل المجرد: نحر. – Simple verb
5- الفعل المزيد : أعطى . – Enhanced verb
6- الفعل اللازم : صلى .- Intransitive verb
7- الفعل المتعدي إلى مفعول واحد: نحر .- Transitive verb with one object
8- الفعل المتعدي إلى أكثر من مفعول: أعطى. – Transitive verb for more than one object
What an amazing sura not only does it have an abundance of guidance but also an abundance of the Arabic language. It deserves to be called Al Kawthar
Author: Abu Malik (adapted from an Arabic post).
May Allah (SWT) gives the ability to benefit from this amazing Book. Ameen
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