I'rab of Surah Abasa Ayah 31: word by word Arabic grammar
Surah Abasa (عبس) · Meccan · Ayah 31
وَفَٰكِهَةًۭ وَأَبًّۭا Transliterationwa-fākihatan wa-abbā
MeaningAnd fruit and pasture (fodder).
This short verse continues the catalogue of provisions God brings forth from the split earth, adding "fruit and fodder." Both nouns are accusative (manṣūb), each functioning as a direct object of the implied verb "We made grow" (anbatnā) carried over from the earlier verses, joined by the conjunction wāw.
Word by word i'rab
conjunction + direct object (maf'ul bihi)
The wāw is a connector, and fākihatan is accusative as another object of the understood verb "We caused to grow," carried from the preceding verses.
accusativeconjunction + direct object (maf'ul bihi)
Joined by wāw and likewise accusative, abban ("fodder/pasture for grazing animals") is another object of the same implied verb of causing growth.
accusativeDetailed i'rab
Verse 31 belongs to a string of accusative nouns (verses 27 to 32) that all serve as objects of the verb anbatnā ("We caused to grow") stated earlier in verse 27. Each item: grain, grapes, herbs, olives, palms, gardens, and here fruit and fodder: is connected to the previous one by the conjunctive wāw and takes the accusative case with fatḥah tanwīn. Thus وَفَٰكِهَةً is wāw of conjunction plus fākihatan, an accusative direct object, and وَأَبًّا is likewise a conjoined accusative object. The word abb denotes the grass and herbage on which livestock graze, which prepares for the following verse's statement that all of this is "provision for you and your cattle." The clean accusative parallelism reinforces the rhetorical listing of divine bounties.
Frequently asked
Why are both words in the accusative case?
They are direct objects (maf'ul bihi) of the verb anbatnā, "We caused to grow," which appears in verse 27 and governs this whole list of crops.
What does أَبًّا (abban) mean grammatically and lexically?
Grammatically it is an accusative direct object; lexically it refers to pasture or fodder, the herbage that grazing animals eat, distinguished from fruit meant for people.