5 Minutes Quran Arabic :Understanding Harf

Speech in Quranic Arabic is just like any other language. It is represented by a collection of words that convey a message. In English, there is eight-part of speech which that make up the language. These are noun, pronoun, verb, adjective, adverb, preposition, conjunction, and interjection.

Some of the things here is repeated in other articles in the 5 minutes Quran Arabic and it is done on purpose. It is meant to drill them into your memory so you would what need to be remembered is ethched in your brain. 

Guess how many parts of speech is there is Arabic? There are three parts of speech, part of speech I like tribes. In Arabic, there are three giant families of words. Meaning every word in the Quran from the first page to the last page can only belong to these families of words. 

Alright, what are the 3 parts of speech in Arabic or the 3 giant families of words? Let’s go over them they are Ism (Noun), Fi’l (Verb) and Harf (Particle).  These are words that  that many of us could not really grasp Let’s, make this easier to understand 

I hope I can make you understand and appreciate, them as I do because when you do you’ll never look at the Quran the same way again. Now we need to understand the concept behind this Arabic terms of Ism, Fi’il and Harf.  Ism and Fi’il deserve an article each on its own, so I’ll just explain the meaning of harf as I understand it. 

What Is A Harf?

Harf  is any Arabic word that points to meaning in another word and is not connected to a time frame like tenses. Another way of looking at this,   It is to think of it as any word that makes no sense unless another word comes after it.

Perhaps it will be clearer if I give you some examples, it is words like in, too, before, under and many more. It cannot stand alone, another word or words must come after it to give clarity before it can become a complete message. Some people call it letters and connectors. But the best way to understand it is to think of it as any word that makes no sense if without another word in front of it.

Let’s demonstrate with an example,  “I go to” is an incomplete idea. The word “from” is a harf. Simply because it makes no sense on its own and requires either a fi’il or an Ism for it to make a complete sense. 

How To Spot A Harf In The Quran

Can you spot a harf in the Quran?

There is a simple way to know if a word is a harf in the Quran. If you come across a word that ends with a Kasrah sign (horizontal mark place at the bottom and end of a word)  the word before it is most probably a harf. This is not always the case but most of the time it is the case.