I'rab of Surah At-Takwir Ayah 3: word by word Arabic grammar
Surah At-Takwir (التكوير) · Meccan · Ayah 3
وَإِذَا ٱلْجِبَالُ سُيِّرَتْ TransliterationWa idha al-jibalu suyyirat
Meaningand when the mountains are set moving,
Continuing the chain with the conjunction wa, this verse keeps the same grammatical shape. Idha is a future conditional time adverb, al-jibal (the mountains) is the nominative subject of an implied verb made explicit by the passive verb suyyirat (were set in motion). The single answer to the whole sequence still lies ahead in verse 14.
Word by word i'rab
conjunction (harf 'atf)
The conjunction wa connects this condition to the preceding ones.
indeclinablefuture time adverb (zarf) of condition
A conditional time adverb in the accusative place, tied to the same delayed answer.
indeclinablesubject (fa'il) of an implied verb
It is the doer of an omitted verb explained by the verb that follows.
nominativepassive past-tense verb with the tied feminine ta
A passive past verb meaning the mountains were made to move and pass away; the ta agrees with the feminine subject.
indeclinableDetailed i'rab
The verse is linked by wa to the running list of conditions. Idha serves as a future-pointing time adverb with conditional force, held in an accusative position and connected to the answer delayed to verse 14. Al-jibal stands in the nominative; since idha calls for a verb, the noun is analyzed as the subject of an omitted verb that the following passive verb interprets. Suyyirat is a passive past-tense verb on the fu''ila pattern, conveying that the mountains are set moving, uprooted, and scattered like dust. The tied feminine ta agrees with the broken-plural noun treated as feminine. As with its sister clauses, the explanatory sentence carries no independent place in parsing and simply unpacks the hidden verb.
Frequently asked
Why is the verb suyyirat passive?
The doubled middle root with the fu''ila vowel pattern marks it passive: the mountains do not move themselves but are made to move by an unnamed agent.
Why does the verb end in a silent feminine ta?
Al-jibal is a broken plural treated grammatically as a single feminine noun, so the verb takes the feminine ta of agreement.