I'rab of Surah Abasa Ayah 34: word by word Arabic grammar
Surah Abasa (عبس) · Meccan · Ayah 34
يَوْمَ يَفِرُّ ٱلْمَرْءُ مِنْ أَخِيهِ Transliterationyawma yafirru l-mar'u min akhīh
Meaningthe Day a man flees from his brother,
"The Day a man flees from his brother" specifies the time of the Blast. Yawma is an accusative time-adverb standing in apposition to idhā; yafirru is its present-tense verb, al-mar' the nominative subject, and min akhīhi a prepositional phrase of separation attached to the verb of fleeing.
Word by word i'rab
time-adverb in apposition (badal) to idhā
Yawma is an accusative adverb of time substituting for the earlier idhā, fixing precisely when the events occur.
accusativepresent-tense verb (fi'l mudari')
Yafirru ("flees") is an imperfect verb in the indicative; the clause it heads is added to the time-adverb yawma.
nominativesubject (fa'il)
Al-mar' is the nominative doer of yafirru: the man who flees in the terror of that Day.
nominativepreposition (harf jarr)
Min is the preposition of separation "from," linking the act of fleeing to what one flees.
indeclinableobject of preposition (majrur)
Akhīhi is genitive after min; being one of the "five nouns," it shows genitive with yā, and -hi is the possessive pronoun "his."
genitiveDetailed i'rab
Verse 34 pinpoints the time of the Blast. يَوْمَ is an accusative adverb of time (ẓarf zamān) standing as a substitute (badal) for the earlier إِذَا, both pointing to the same dreadful moment. The clause يَفِرُّ ٱلْمَرْءُ مِنْ أَخِيهِ is annexed to yawma as its complement. يَفِرُّ is an imperfect indicative verb ("flees"), and ٱلْمَرْءُ is its nominative subject. The preposition مِنْ governs أَخِيهِ in the genitive; since akh ("brother") is one of the five special nouns, its genitive is marked by yā rather than kasrah, and the attached -hi is a possessive pronoun. The image of a person fleeing even his own brother conveys the total collapse of earthly ties on the Day of Resurrection, a theme the next two verses extend to parents, spouse, and children.
Frequently asked
Why is يَوْمَ in the accusative?
It is an adverb of time (zarf zaman) and stands as a badal (substitute) for idhā in the previous verse, so it takes the accusative.
Why does أَخِيهِ show genitive with a yā instead of a kasrah?
Akh is one of the "five nouns" (al-asma' al-khamsa), which mark the genitive with a long yā when joined to a following pronoun, here -hi ("his").