ভূমিকা

In other words, by following and applying the rules of Naḥw the Arabic learner is able to produce Kalām in the same manner (naḥw) as the ancient Arabs produced Kalām based on their natural and innate ability and competence. Naḥw, then, is no more than the explication of rules which the ancient Arabs used and applied implicitly and on a subconscious level to produce Kalām.

The primary motivation for the development of Naḥw was the corruption of this very natural ability to produce grammatically well-formed sentences in the wake of a mass influx of foreigners from neighbouring countries. It was feared that if the Arabs lost this ability or it died with them then it would be lost forever which meant that the message and guidance of the Holy Qur’an would always be inaccessible to its readers.

Another equally valid reason for commencing with Kalām is that Kalām provides the context and creates the conditions for the occurrence of I‘rāb (declinability) which forms the primary subject-matter of Naḥw. In other words, Kalām, by virtue of it being a compound utterance, makes it possible for one word to precede another such that the former is able to change the ending of the latter. This very change that is effected at the endings of words is what the Arabic Grammarians call I‘rāb.

In fact, Naḥw itself is occasionally referred to as ‘Ilm al-I‘rāb. From the above it follows that Naḥw is no more than a study of: I‘rāb, its types (Raf‘, Naṣb, Khafḍ and Jarr) as well as its opposite Binā’ (indeclinability) and its types the declinable (Mu‘rab) and indeclinable (Mabniyy) words that exist in Arabic and the categories and classes into which they are divided the various signs (‘Alāmāt) with which the Mu‘rab (in all its types) is declined and the signs on which the Mabniyy is fixed and established, and the places (Mawāḍi‘) in which the Mu‘rab is so declined.

Furthermore, Naḥw, and hence this present work, does not deal with the structure of the individual word and the changes (other than I‘rāb) that affect its structure.