مَجْهُول vs مَعْلُوم
Before we dive into the depth of the فِعْلٌ (verb), we need to understand the concept of an Active فِعْلٌ and a Passive فِعْلٌ.
- Active فِعْلٌ (verb) is called الفِعْلُ الْمَبْنِيُّ لِلْمَعْلُومِ or we can say مَعْلُوم for short. Some books refer to this as فِعْل مَعْرُوْف .
- Passive فِعْلٌ (verb) is called الفِعْلُ الْمَبْنِيُّ لِلْمَجْهُولِ or we can say مَجْهُول for short.
الفِعْلُ الْمَبْنِيُّ لِلْمَعْلُومِ
Active فِعْلٌ (verb) (الفِعْلُ الْمَبْنِيُّ لِلْمَعْلُومِ) is when the doer (فَاعِلٌ) of the action is known and stated or understood.
In Arabic, every active فِعْلٌ comes with an inside pronoun (ضَمَيْرٌ مُسْتَتِرٌ) that is the doer (فَاعِلٌ). For example أَكَلَ means ‘He ate’, here the doer (فَاعِلٌ) is known as ‘He’.
أَكْتُبُ means ‘I write’, here the doer (فَاعِلٌ) is known as ‘I’.
الفِعْلُ الْمَبْنِيُّ لِلْمَجْهُولِ
Passive فِعْلٌ (verb) (الفِعْلُ الْمَبْنِيُّ لِلْمَجْهُولِ) is when the doer (فَاعِلٌ) of the action is not mentioned, and the action itself is emphasised.
If we take the example ”it was eaten”. It is not known who ate it, but we do know that something was eat.
A passive فِعْلٌ does not have a doer. But we do know who the action was done-to. Therefore instead of an inside pronoun (ضَمَيْرٌ مُسْتَتِرٌ), we have an inside pronoun done-to, which is called the نَائِبُالفَاعِلِ.
Let us look at a few examples to reinforce the concept:
| Active فِعْلٌ (verb) (الفِعْلُ الْمَبْنِيُّ لِلْمَعْلُومِ): | فَاعِلٌ | Passive فِعْلٌ (verb) (الفِعْلُ الْمَبْنِيُّ لِلْمَجْهُولِ) | نَائِبُالفَاعِلِ |
|---|---|---|---|
| نَصَرَ he helped | he | نُصَرَ He was helped | he |
| اِتَّخَذَ he took firmly | he | اُتُّخِذَ he was taken firmly | he |
| قَتَلُوامْ they killed | they | قُتِلُوْا they were killed | they |
| غَلَبَتْ she overpowered | she | غُلِبَتْ she was overpowered | she |
| سَمِعْتُمَا both of you heard | both of you | سُمِعْتُمَا both of you were heard | both of you |
| بَشَّرْتُنَّ you(f.pl) congratulated | you(f.pl) | بُشِّرْتُنَّ you(f.pl) were congratulated | you(f.pl) |
Don’t Assume that the word ‘was’ always leads to a passive meaning. If i say ‘he was standing’, it wouldn’t constitute as a passive statement because the doer (فَاعِلٌ) of the act of standing is known to be ‘He’. However, if i said ‘it was said’, this would qualify as a passive statement because the act of saying is known but the one who said it is not known.
The Expressive Impact of Using Active or Passive
The Passive فِعْلٌ (verb) (الفِعْلُ الْمَبْنِيُّ لِلْمَجْهُولِ) , is used in the Quran to emphasise the فِعْلٌ at the expense of the فَاعِلٌ. It may be used to emphasise the فِعْلٌ while not limiting the فَاعِلٌ. For example, if we say, ‘he was hated’, this statement has shifted the emphasis to the one that is being hated and not the hater. Also, it does not restrict the number of doers to one person. When Allah says ‘He cursed them’, it is only He who is the subject. When he says ‘they were cursed, those who curse them may include Allah, the angels, the believer, their own limbs on the day of judgement, their friends, family etc.
Tips for Identifying passive verbs الفِعْلُ الْمَبْنِيُّ لِلْمَجْهُولِ
- Generally a passive فِعْلٌ starts with ــُـ ضَمَّةٌ.
- An active past-tense starts with a ــَـ فَتْحَةٌ. Therefore a past-tense starting with a ــُـ ضَمَّةٌ must be passive, for example عَلَّمَ is active and عُلِّمَ must be passive because it is past-tense starting with a ــُـ ضَمَّةٌ.
- A present-passive starts with a ــُـ ضَمَّةٌ and has multiple ــَـ فَتْحَةٌ. For example يُعْرِضُ is not passive, because it starts with a ــُـ ضَمَّةٌ, but the ــِـ كَسْرَةٌ on the ر means that it is active. The passive form is يُعْرَضُ.
- A command اَلْأَمعرُ or اَلنَّهْيُ forbidding فِعْلٌ cannot be passive.
