Arabic from the Qur’an – Lesson 7

بسم الله الرحمن الرحيم
الحمد لله رب العالمين

In this lesson we will explore the etymology of the word الحمد.

If your wandering what 'etymology' means then be ready to learn a new word in English: it is the study of the origin of words and the way in which their meanings have changed throughout history.

Now, the word الحمد is what is known as a 'verbal noun' or a مصدر in Arabic. This is also known as the root word. There is a difference of opinion as to whether the original root word is the مصدر of a word or the base verb is the original root verb. The base verb which usually consists of three root letters (but can rarely have four) is the third person, masculine singular, this will make more sense as you read on.

The branch of Arabic grammar which deals with this aspect of Arabic is referred to as صرف which is known as morphology. And as the name suggests, this branch deals with how Arabic words morph or change from the root.

So the مصدر that we are going to look at is of course no other than الحمد. And the base verb of this word consists of three root letters. And if you haven't guessed it already then, the root letters are: ح م د and it is written as حمد (ha-mi-da), which literally means 'he praised'. Note, this verb is in the third person, is masculine and refers to a single action. This base verb is a past tense verb.
Now we are going to focus on how this verb morphs and changes and how the meaning changes.

So there are three main sets of verbs in Arabic. The past tense which is known as الماضي, the future and/or the present tense which is known as المضارع, and the command which is known as the الأمر. In this lesson, we will focus only on the past tense, as this is the base pattern and the base verb is the first of the past tense verbs. All the other verbs are derived from this base verb.

Below is the morphological table:

حَمِدَ (ha mi da) - He praised – [Base Verb]
حَمِدَا (ha mi daa) - Them two praised
حَمِدُواْ (ha mi duu) - They all praised
حَمِدَتْ (ha mi dat) - She praised
حَمِدَتَا (ha mi dataa) - Them two praised
حَمِدْنَ (ha mid na) - They all praised
حَمِدْتَ (ha mid ta) - You [m] praised
حَمِدْتُمَا (ha mid tumaa) - You two praised
حَمِدْتُمْ (ha mid tum) - You all praised
حَمِدْتِ (ha mid ti) - You [f] praised
حَمِدْتُمَا (ha mid tumaa) - You two praised
حَمِدْتُنَّ (ha mid tunna) - You all praised
حَمِدْتُ (ha mid tu) - I praised
حَمِدْنَا (ha mid naa) - We praised

Phew... I thank Allah for opposable thumbs! [painful to type all that]

Well there you have it, all fourteen past tense verbs inflected. Note they all inflect from the base verb حمد which is a الماضي المذكر الغائب verb, or a third person, masculine, past tense verb. The first six are all third person, of which the first three are masculine and the next three are feminine. The next six are second person, of which the first three are masculine and the next three are feminine. And the last two are first person, of which the first is singular whilst the last is plural.

Also note the pattern they fall under: singular, dual and then plural.

In future lessons we will explore past, present and future tenses in more depth.

Hope that was beneficial.
May Allah the Exalted reward you and I both.