I'rab of Surah At-Takwir Ayah 1: word by word Arabic grammar
Surah At-Takwir (التكوير) · Meccan · Ayah 1
إِذَا ٱلشَّمْسُ كُوِّرَتْ TransliterationIdha ash-shamsu kuwwirat
MeaningWhen the sun is wrapped up and darkened,
This opening verse begins a long chain of conditional clauses describing the Day of Judgment. The adverb idha sets up the condition, ash-shams (the sun) is the grammatical subject of an implied verb explained by the following verb kuwwirat (was wound up/folded), which is a passive past-tense verb. The full answer to all these conditions arrives later in verse 14.
Word by word i'rab
future time adverb (zarf) of condition
A conditional time adverb in the accusative place, governed by the delayed main answer (jawab) that comes in verse 14.
indeclinablesubject (fa'il) of an implied verb
It stands as the doer of an omitted verb that the following passive verb explains and interprets.
nominativepassive past-tense verb with the tied feminine ta
A passive past verb meaning the sun was wound up and its light extinguished; the attached ta marks a feminine subject.
indeclinableDetailed i'rab
The verse opens with idha, a time adverb pointing to the future and carrying conditional force; grammarians treat it as fixed in an accusative position linked to the long-delayed main clause (the answer) that appears in verse 14. After this adverb the noun ash-shams appears in the nominative. Because Arabic idiom expects a verb directly after idha, the noun is parsed as the subject (fa'il) of an unstated verb, and the explicit passive verb that follows interprets that hidden verb. Kuwwirat is a passive past-tense verb built on the pattern fu''ila, conveying that the sun is wound up like a turban and its light removed. The tied feminine ta agrees with the feminine subject. The whole sentence is interpretive and holds no place in i'rab itself.
Frequently asked
Why is ash-shams nominative rather than the object of idha?
Idha governs verbs, not nouns, so the noun after it is read as the subject of a hidden verb; the visible passive verb kuwwirat then explains that omitted verb.
Where is the main clause that answers idha?
All the conditional clauses from verses 1 to 13 share one answer, which is delayed until verse 14: 'each soul shall know what it has brought.'