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Farid al-Din Aydin

al-Azmina fi al-Lugha al-Arabiya bil-Muqarana ma al-Lughat al-Ajnabiya

Author died
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Editions
Dar al-'Ibar lil-Tiba'ah wa-al-Nashr, Al-Ibar Publishing

al-Azmina fi al-Lugha al-Arabiya bil-Muqarana ma al-Lughat al-Ajnabiya (Tenses in the Arabic Language in Comparison with Foreign Languages) is a grammatical treatise written by Farid al-Din Aydin on the system of verbal tenses and aspects in Arabic, completed on 26 Safar 1418 AH (1 July 1997 CE) .

Background and Purpose

The author composed the treatise to address what he viewed as an overlooked dimension in classical Arabic linguistic scholarship: the detailed categorization of verbal tenses . While classical grammarians, morphologists, and rhetoricians recognized the nuanced temporal differences between bare and restricted verb constructions (such as talaba, sabaqa an talaba, and yakunu qad talaba), they restricted the formal classification of the verb to three basic temporal states—past, present, and future . Aydin attributes this focus primarily to their core objectives of securing correct pronunciation, error-free reading, and accurate composition, which left the broader relationship between verbs and time as a secondary matter . He also notes that unfamiliarity with foreign languages contributed to the absence of dedicated chapters for granular tense classifications like those found elsewhere .

Aydin was motivated to write the work by the increasing interest in Arabic among non-Arab Muslim students following the contemporary Islamic awakening . These students faced significant challenges translating complex verbal tense categories into Arabic due to the lack of dedicated references . He also highlights the practical need for precise temporal formulations in the translation of modern legal contracts, specifications, and reports .

Structure and Classification of Tenses

The author establishes that an Arabic verb possesses three types of meaning: natural (the basic meaning of the bare root), accidental (derived from morphological addition), and implicit (revealed through its relationship with time) . He divides time in relation to verbs into simple (unrestricted) tenses and compound (restricted) tenses, mapping each Arabic category to corresponding English linguistic terms .

Simple Tenses

The simple tenses (al-azmina al-basita) represent actions that are free of restricting particles :

  • The Unrestricted Past (al-Madi al-Mutlaq / The Past Unconditional): Indicates an event in past time without specific temporal confinement, such as bare past verbs or imperfect verbs preceded by the negative particle lam .
  • The Unrestricted Present (al-Hal al-Mutlaq / The Present Unconditional Tense): Denotes an action occurring generally at the moment of speech without temporal restriction, often found in aphorisms and proverbs .
  • The Unrestricted Future (al-Mustaqbal al-Mutlaq / The Future Unconditional Tense): Refers to future actions introduced by the particles sa- and sawfa .

Compound Tenses

The compound tenses (al-azmina al-murakkaba) introduce modifying particles, auxiliary verbs, or adverbs to fix specific temporal and aspectual boundaries :

  • The Restricted Past (al-Madi al-Muqayyad / The Past Conditional Tense): Subdivided into four categories:
    1. The Near Past (al-Madi al-Qarib / The Present Perfect Tense): Conjugated first- and second-person forms closest to the speaker, as well as imperfect verbs preceded by verbs of inception and continuity such as bada'a, akhadha, tafiqa, and zalla .
    2. The Decisive Past (al-Madi al-Jazim / The Simple Past Tense): A past action occurring at a specific time, marked affirmatively by qad, negatively by ma or la, by temporal prepositions and adverbs (idh, lamma, mudh, mundhu, amsi), or following interrogative particles .
    3. The Narrative Past (al-Madi al-Riwa'i / The Past Continuous Tense): An action sustained over past time, expressed by past or imperfect verbs following kana or following conditional lawla and lamma .
    4. The Account of the Narrative Past (Hikayat al-Madi al-Riwa'i / The Past Perfect Tense): A narrative of a previous past event, constructed through kana qad in declarative speech or newly adopted structures like lam yasbiq an .
  • The Restricted Present (al-Hal al-Muqayyad / The Present Conditional Tense): A single category describing an immediate, ongoing action tied to the moment of utterance, marked by explicit personal pronouns preceding the imperfect verb .
  • The Restricted Future (al-Mustaqbal al-Muqayyad / The Future Conditional Tenses): Subdivided into four categories:
    1. The Suspended Future (al-Mustaqbal al-Mu'allaq / The Future Bound Tense): The verb appearing in the apodosis of conditional constructions (e.g., following in or idha) .
    2. The Narrative Future (al-Mustaqbal al-Riwa'i / The Future Perfect Tense): A past verb following yakunu qad within a conditional result clause .
    3. The Decisive Negative Future (al-Mustaqbal al-Salbi al-Jazim / The Future Negative Tense): A future verb preceded by the absolute negation particle lan .
    4. The Account of the Narrative Future (Hikayat al-Mustaqbal al-Riwa'i / The Past Future Perfect Tense): A verb introduced by ma kana li-... .

Method and Sources

Aydin illustrates each temporal classification using examples drawn from the Quran, classical Arabic poetry, and traditional Arabic and Turkish proverbs . His poetic citations include verses by al-Shafi'i, al-Samaw'al ibn Adiya from Abu Tammam's Diwan al-Hamasa, Ibn Hisham al-Ansari's Qatr al-Nada wa-Ball al-Sada, al-Mutanabbi, and Zuhayr ibn Abi Sulma , . Throughout the text, the author couples each Arabic category directly with English grammatical terminology to facilitate comparative understanding for non-native learners and translators .

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