In the name of Allāh, the Entirely Merciful, the Especially Merciful.

xi
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 xii
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Preface

Qur’ānic Vocabulary
 Qur’ānic Voc a bular y

Orientation
Learning Modern Standard Arabic (MSA) with the goal of understanding the Qur’ān in
MSA Arabic stands for its original language can be a long and tedious journey. This is because mastering MSA
Modern Standard Arabic. often requires learning vocabulary and grammar that are not directly related to the
In other words, Fuṣ-ḥā. Qur’ānic text. As a result, it may take a significant amount of time before you notice
progress in deciphering the Qur’ān.
To address this challenge, the concepts of Qur’ānic vocabulary and Qur’ānic grammar
were developed. These approaches focus exclusively on the words and grammatical
structures relevant to the Qur’ān, providing a more efficient path to achieving your goal
of understanding it in Arabic as quickly as possible.

Qur’ānic Vocabulary
The Noble Qur’ān consists of 114 sūrahs, and 6236 āyāt. If you count every single word
from cover to cover, you will find out that the Qur’ān contains:
A lemma: is best
compared to an entry in a • 77,430 words (repeated and unrepeated)
dictionary. • 3680 lemmas
Root: the most basic form
of a word. • 1,685 roots.
Importantly, you do not need to learn all of these unique words to be able to understand
the Qur’ān in Arabic because of the number of repeated words. As a matter of fact,
roughly 50% of the entire Noble Qur’ān is made up using only 88 words! Yes. You read
that correctly. These words and their variations are repeated hundreds if not thousands
of times in the Qur’ān. Once you get to know the meaning of the root word, things get a
whole lot easier.

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Qur’ānic Voc a bular y

This chart shows that the vocabulary of the Qur’ān consists of four categories:
1. Blue category (0% - 50%): The basics of Arabic with the most frequent words
such as pronouns, prepositions, particles etc. (Discussed in PART I)
2. Green category (50% - 65%): The most important and frequently used nouns
and adjectives in the Qur’ān. (Discussed in PART II)
3. Orange category (65% - 85%): tackles the verb forms. (Discussed in PART III)
4. Yellow category: This category contains the words that are not often repeated
in the Qur’ān, and therefore, are outside the scope of this course book.

* The following is a number of considerations that you must be aware of to ensure that
this book can be beneficial to you:

Context
The Arabic language is such a rich language with each word filled with meaning,
connotations and references. It is, therefore, noteworthy that some words cannot be
easily translated into a single word every time it is used in the Qur’ān. In certain contexts,
When words have different a word could mean different but related things. In this book, we have done our best to
meanings, they will be choose not only the best fitting translation, but also the translation that is most often
highlighted with an used in the Qur’ān. Throughout this book, we have used ‘Sahīh international translation’,
example, and explained in which is an approved translation of the Qur’ān, to find the best fitting translation of the
their context. lists of this book.

Synonymity
The language of the Qur’ān is so precise and accurate in its expression, and that is no
surprise; it is the word of Allāh. Having said that, because of the limitations of the target
language (English), some words will be given the same translation. However, this does
not mean that the Arabic words mean exactly the same, or could be exchanged; it only
means that this is the best fitting translation within the options of the English language.
In fact, Synonymity in the Qur’ān is either extremely rare, or completely non-existent, and
that is the view adopted by the majority of scholars of Islam1.

Understanding VS. Tafsīr

Understanding the words of the Qur’ān, and being able to understand what an āyah
says, does not, at any degree, mean that you are now able to interpret the Qur’ān or
explain it as you see fit. However, understanding the Qur’ān saves you the need to ever
need to open a translation of the Qur’ān, and puts you at the same level as most Arabs
who read the Qur’ān and understand the basic semantics and syntax of the Qur’ān.
On the other hand, tafsīr of the Qur’ān is whole different and separate branch of
knowledge that requires much deeper study to cover all the different methods of tafsīr
with much deeper understanding of Arabic grammar and morphology.

1 An example is the view of Ibn Taymiyyah (May Allāh have mercy on him) who adopted this opinion
ِ َّ‫) ُم َق ِّد َم ٌة ِيِف أُ ُصو ِل الت‬
in his book (‫فسري‬
3

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 Qur’ānic Voc a bular y

Here’s an example to show the difference between understanding and interpretation of

the Qur’ān.
In this āyah Allāh says:

ّ َّ َ َ ُ ۡ َۡ َۡ
َ ‫ٓال‬
‫ِني‬ ‫ٱلض‬ ‫َواَل‬ ‫َعل ۡي ِه ۡم‬ ‫وب‬
ِ ‫ٱلمغض‬ ‫رۡي‬
ِ ‫غ‬
those who are or those who have evoked not
astray [Your] anger

In this āyah, Allāh clearly talks about two groups of people that we pray everyday to be
guided to a path that is not like these two. Understanding the meaning of the words,
enables us to know what the words mean, and what the āyah is talking about, but we
cannot simply conclude who these two groups are or what the āyah is referring to.
However, by consulting any tafsīr, you will find out that the first group “those who have
evoked Allāh’s Anger’ are the Jews, and ‘those who are astray’ are the Christians.

Difference in rasm
The Qur’ān was written in what is called ‘Uthmani Codex’ or ‘Uthmani Rasm’ which is the
The word ‘Rasm’ is an way of writing that Uthman ibn ‘afān and all the saḥābah unanimously agreed to use to
Arabic word which means write the Qur’ān in. It is, by and large, the same as regular Arabic we read today, but there
‘calligraphy’ or ‘style of are some words that have been written differently, like:
writing.’
َ ۡ َ َّ َ َّ
Qur’ān ‫ٱلكِتٰب‬ ‫ٱلزك ٰوة‬ ‫ٱلصل ٰوة‬
َ ۡ َ َّ َ َّ
MSA ‫ٱل ِكتاب‬ ‫ٱلزكاة‬ ‫ٱلصاَلة‬
Other words appear in different contexts in different places in the Qur’ān:
َ ۡ َ ۡ
Qur’ān ‫ٱم َرأت‬ ‫ٱم َرأة‬
َ
MSA ‫ۡٱم َرأة‬
There are many different opinions as to why some words are written differently in the
The word ‘waḥi’ is Qur’ān: some scholars think it is part of waḥi, and each variation has its own connotation
the Arabic word for or meaning implications, others think that it is not part of waḥi.
(Revelation)
Regardless of this difference in opinion, we should keep the Qur’ān exactly as it was
written, and so the vocabulary you learn, will be given in the same ‘rasm’ as you would
find it in your muṢ-ḥaf. If there are two variations of the same word, then the more
common one will be given, while highlighting the less common one so that you can still
recognize it if you see it.

Finally, purify your intentions to seek Allāh Alone, and Bismillah...

4

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Part 1 | Orientation
from

0%

|
to

50% PART ONE

The first part of this book should, in shā' Allāh, help the learner
understand roughly 50% of the original text of the Noble
Qur’ān in Arabic . This is done through learning 88 words
that have been repeated thousands of times throughout
the entire book. These words include the basic makeup of
sentences, like pronouns, particles, prepositions, question
words, and other basic sentence components. While you will
directly start seeing results after learning just a couple of lists,
the importance of this part of the book is laying important
foundations for other lists to follow which will totally open
your eyes and mind to understanding much more from the
Qur’ān, in shā' Allāh.
 Part 1 | Orientation

Orientation
The majority of the words studied in PART I are pronouns, particles, prepositions, etc. So
anything that is not a noun or a verb will be included in this part.
Importantly, this category of words have a fixed case ending, unlike most nouns and
Case ending is the tashkīl verbs. When dealing with words that have a fixed case ending, you will always find them
or diacritic found on the indicated at the end of words, like these:

َ
last letter of the word.
ِ ‫هٰ ِذه‬ Case ending is kasrah: ِ
َ َ
‫ذٰل ِك‬ Case ending is fathah: ‫َك‬
َ
‫ك ۡم‬ Case ending is sukūn: ‫ۡم‬
ُ ُ
‫َح ۡيث‬ Case ending is dammah: ‫ث‬

This means that these words, and many others like them, only occur in the Qur’ān with
this case ending, no matter in which position they occur.
However, there are some words, that do change their case endings depending on their
position and function in the sentence. When dealing with these words, you will see that
they are given without any case endings to indicate the they may appear with different
case endings in the Qur’ān depending on their position in the sentence, like these:

As seen in the book Variations in the Qur’ān

َ
‫غ ۡرۡي‬ َۡ
‫رۡي‬
ِ ‫غ‬
ُ ۡ ‫َغ‬
‫رۡي‬ َ ۡ ‫َغ‬
‫رۡي‬
َ
‫ف ۡوق‬ َ
‫ف ۡو ِق‬ - َ َ
‫ف ۡوق‬

‫َب ۡعض‬ ‫َب ۡع ِض‬

ُ
‫َب ۡعض‬
َ
‫َب ۡعض‬

* Therefore, to properly learn these words, and make your progress faster, in shā' Allāh,
make sure to learn the word with its 'fixed' case ending when they are indicated. And
if the words does not have a fixed case ending, then you would know that there are
different case endings (and so different ways to pronounce their endings) when you see
them in the Qur’ān.

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 1
Male Female Plural

English Arabic

َ َ
This ‫هٰذا‬
َ َ
That ‫ذٰل ِك‬

List
َ
This ِ ‫هٰ ِذه‬
َ ۡ
That ‫ت ِلك‬

ONE These

Those
ٓ َ ُ ٰٓ َ
‫هؤاَلء‬
َ َ ُ
‫أ ْو ٰٓلئِك‬
Demonstrative He who
َّ
‫ٱذَّلِي‬
pronouns َّ
She who ‫ٱل ِيِت‬
From 0% - to 50% of the Qur’ān
Those who َ ‫َّٱذَّل‬
‫ِين‬
َّ
Those who ‫ٱل ِيِت‬
َ
These ِ ‫هٰ ِذه‬
َ ۡ
Those ‫ت ِلك‬
 Demonstrative pronouns

List 1: Discussion
Demonstrative pronouns [in English] are words such as ‘this’ and ‘that’, used to
* indicate what things you are referring to: this book, that pen, those people ..etc.

َ َ
This ‫هٰذا‬
َُۡ َ ۡ ُ َّ َ ٰ َ ْ ُ َ
‫قالوا هـذا ٱذَّلِي رزِقنا مِن قبل‬
Notice how the word looks «They will say, “This is what we were provided with before,”» [2:25]
when other particles are
ٗ َ َ َ َ ُ َّ َ َ َ ٓ َ َ
attached to it so that you
can easily recognize it in ۘ ‫ماذا أراد ٱهَّلل بِهٰذا مثاٗل‬
context.
«“What did Allāh intend by this example?”» [2:26]
ۡ َ ۡ َُۡ َ ََ
ِ ‫فهٰذا يوم ٱبۡلع‬
‫ث‬
«This is the Day of Resurrection» [30:56]

َ َ
That ‫ذٰل ِك‬
َ َ َ َ
Why is ‫ ذٰل ِك‬sometimes Though the word ‫( ذٰل ِك‬and similar demonstrative pronouns for that matter) means
translated into this/ that? ‘that’ and is, therefore, used to refer to far objects, it can sometimes be used with closer
objects that are high in value, place or position. This is because of the connotation of
َ َ
such Arabic words. It should not come as a surprise that sometimes the word ‫ ذٰل ِك‬will be
translated into ‘this’ rather than ‘that’, because English demonstrative pronouns do not
carry the same connotations as their Arabic counterparts.
The first example highlights this phenomenon:
َ ۡ َ َ ُ َ ۡ َ َ
ِ‫ذٰل ِك ٱلكِتٰب اَل ريب فِي ۛه‬
ۛ
«This [that] is the Book in which there is no doubt» [2:2]

* Here are some other examples with a ‘consistent’ translation that are more aligned with
the English usage of the word:
ُّ ُ َ َّ ۡ ُ ۡ ۡ ۡ َ ٰ َ ُ َ َ َ
‫وما لهم بِذل ِك مِن عِلمٍۖ إِن هم إِاَّل يظنون‬
«Of that they have no knowledge; they are only assuming.» [45:24]
ٌ‫سري‬ َ‫فَ َذٰل َِك يَ ۡو َمئذ يَ ۡو ٌم ع‬
ِ ِٖ
«That Day will be a difficult day.» [74:9]
8

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