I'rab of Surah Abasa Ayah 1: word by word Arabic grammar
Surah Abasa (عبس) · Meccan · Ayah 1
عَبَسَ وَتَوَلَّىٰٓ Transliteration'Abasa wa tawallaa
MeaningHe frowned and turned away.
The verse opens with two past-tense verbs, "He frowned" and "and turned away," linked by the connective wa. Both verbs carry a hidden third-person masculine subject, leaving the reader to identify who acted. The clause is independent (isti'naf), setting the scene before the cause is revealed in the following ayah.
Word by word i'rab
past-tense verb with hidden subject
A past-tense verb built on fatha; its subject is a concealed pronoun referring to a male individual.
indeclinableconjoined past-tense verb (ma'tuf)
The wa is a connective particle joining this second past-tense verb, which shares the same hidden masculine subject as the first.
indeclinableDetailed i'rab
This short verse is a complete verbal sentence functioning as an independent opening clause. The first word, 'abasa ("he frowned"), is a past-tense verb fixed on the fatha vowel, and its doer is a hidden pronoun standing for an unnamed man. The particle wa is purely connective (harf 'atf), joining the second verb tawalla ("and he turned away") to the first. Tawalla is likewise a past-tense verb, but because its root ends in a weak letter, its ending appears as a fixed alif maqsura rather than an audible fatha; it carries the identical concealed subject. The two verbs together describe a single sequence of actions by one person. No object is stated; the grammatical cause of the frowning is deferred to the following verse, which begins with the particle an.
Frequently asked
Why is there no visible subject in this verse?
Arabic verbs encode their subject. When no noun follows, the doer is a concealed pronoun (damir mustatir) understood from the verb form; here it is a hidden "he" referring to a man.
What is the role of the wa in wa tawalla?
It is a connective particle (harf 'atf) that joins the second past-tense verb to the first, so both actions are attributed to the same subject in sequence.