Lesson 85 – الدَّرْسُ الخامِسُ والثَّمانون

The style of praise and blame - أُسْلُوبُ الْمَدْحِ وَالذَّمِّ

Verbs of blame –أَفعالُ الـذَّمِّ(بِئْسَ،سَاءَ،لاحَبَّذَا)

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  • There are three Arabic verbs specific to the blame in Arabic as follows:
  • بِئْسَ (how evil..!):
  • This verb is considered in Arabic the contrary and the opposite of the verb (نِعْمَ) of praise.
  • Consider the following examples:

English

Arabic

How a bad work (act) is the injustice

بِئْسَ الْعَمَلُ الظُّلْمُ

How a bad friend of Khalid is Ali

بِئْسَ أَصْدِقَاءُ خالِدٍ عَلِيٌّ

What a bad life, is the life of humiliation

بئْسَ حَيَاةٌ حَيَاةُ الذُّلِّ

  • From the above mentioned example you may notice that the noun after (بئْسَ) can be a definite noun by (al) in the nominative case (example 1), a definite noun by Iđâafah in the nominative case (example 2) or an indefinite noun in the accusative case (example 3).
  • ساءَ (how bad is..!!):
  • This verb is less used in modern spoken Arabic, but it is commonly used in literary text and in Qur’an.
  • It is a variable verb (i.e. it can be conjugated in all tenses, and the original noun can also be derived from it).
  • The verb (ساء) means to become bad (سيِّء). Consider the following example:

English

Arabic

How bad saying is the backbiting!

ساءَ الْقَوْلُ الْغَيْبَةُ

How bad man’s words are lies

ساءَ قَوْلُ الْمَرْءِ الْكَذِبُ

How a bad load are the sins

ساءَ حِمْلٌ الذُّنُوبُ

  • From the above mentioned examples you may notice that the verb (ساءَ) has the same rules of (بِئْسَ), i.e. it can be followed by a definite noun with (al) in the nominative case (example 1), a definite noun by Iđâafah in the nominative case (example 2) or an indefinite noun in the accusative case (example 3).
  • لا حَبَّذَا (how bad..!!):
  • This verb is the negated form of the verb of praise (حَبَّذا) which we studied earlier.
  • We learnt earlier that the verb (حَبَّذا) consists of the verb (حبَّ) and the demonstrative noun (ذا).
  • Therefore the pattern  (لا حبَّذا) is compound of three words:

-          The negating article (لا).

-          The verb (حبَّ).

-          The demonstrative (ذا).

  • Consider the following examples:

English

Arabic

How bad is treason!

لا حَبَّذَا الْخِيانَةُ

How evil is murder and crime!

لا حَبَّذَا الْقَتْلُ والْجَرِيمَةُ

How bad is to sit in the way!

لا حَبَّذَا الْجُلُوسُ فِي الطُّرُقِ

  • In the above mentioned examples you may notice that the noun after (لا حَبَّذا) can only be definite noun in the nominative case (i.e. signed originally with the đammah on its last letter).