مَجْهُول vs مَعْلُوم

Before we dive into the depth of the فِعْلٌ (verb), we need to understand the differences between 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): 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’, أَكْتُبُ means ‘I write’.

الفِعْلُ الْمَبْنِيُّ لِلْمَجْهُولِ

Passive فِعْلٌ (verb) (الفِعْلُ الْمَبْنِيُّ لِلْمَجْهُولِ) : 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:

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.