Lesson 5 · Single words and compounds; reports and non-reports
Source: Book pp. 20–23; S4 slides 2–3.
1. Mufrad and murakkab
The logician sorts expressions by meaning, not by grammar.
- Murakkab (compound; S4: muʾallaf): an expression whose parts point to parts of its meaning. "Alcohol is harmful": "alcohol" gives part of the meaning, "harmful" gives the rest. The slide puts it as "যাকে ভাগ করলে অংশগুলো অর্থের অংশকে ইন্ডিকেট করে", with the examples "হিংস্র বাঘ" and "জ্ঞান উপকারী".
- Mufrad (single): an expression whose parts do not point to parts of its meaning. "Muḥammad" is a single word; its letters mean nothing on their own.
The ʿAbd Allāh test. When ʿAbd Allāh is a man's name, its two parts do not give you "servant" + "of God"; together they simply name a person. So for the logician it is mufrad. In "Muḥammad is the servant of God (ʿabd Allāh) and His Messenger", the same two words keep their meanings, so there it is murakkab. A grammarian would call the name compound anyway, because he looks at case endings, while the logician looks only at meaning.
2. Tāmm and nāqiṣ
- Tāmm (complete): the listener does not wait for more. "Patience is courage." "If you understand, act on it." Definition: a statement after which it is proper to fall silent.
- Nāqiṣ (incomplete): the listener is left waiting. "If you understand..." Also phrases like the slide's "সাদা পাখি" (a white bird) and "গাড়ির চাবি" (the car key).
3. Khabar and inshāʾ
Every complete compound is one of two kinds.
Khabar (report). It describes a relation that exists independently of the sentence, so it can match reality or fail to: "Rain is falling", "It will rain tomorrow".
- If it matches, it is ṣādiq (true); if not, kādhib (false).
- Definition: a complete compound that can properly be called true or false.
- The slide's example: "আল্লাহ্ যার ভালো চান তাকে দ্বীনের জ্ঞান দান করেন।"
- This is the logician's main subject: the khabar is the qaḍiyya (proposition), the raw material of taṣdīq and of proof.
Inshāʾ (non-report). The sentence creates its meaning; there is nothing outside it to match, so it is neither true nor false. Its kinds:
| Kind | Example |
|---|---|
| Command (amr) | "Remember the lesson." · "কলমটা নিয়ে আসো।" |
| Prohibition (nahy) | "Do not sit in a gathering of evil." |
| Question (istifhām) | "Is Mars not moving?" · "কোথায় যাচ্ছ?" |
| Calling (nidāʾ) | "O Muḥammad!" |
| Wish (tamannī) | "If only we had been given a chance, we would have believed!" |
| Wonder (taʿajjub) | "What danger the human being is in!" |
| Contracts (ʿuqūd) | "I sell you this." "I marry you." |
| Effectuations (īqāʿāt) | the words of divorce, of freeing a slave, of making a waqf |
Contracts look like reports, but in fiqh "I sell you this" does not describe a sale; it makes one. That is why it is inshāʾ.
4. Ism, kalima and adāt
The logician has his own names for the three parts of speech.
- Kalima (the verb). Its root letters (k-t-b) carry an independent meaning ("writing"); its form adds a complete relation in time between that meaning and a doer: "he wrote" (past), "he writes" (present or future).
- Ism (the noun). An independent meaning with no form that ties it to a time: "Muḥammad", "human". (Participles carry an incomplete relation to time, so they remain nouns.)
- Adāt (the particle). A meaning that is not independent: a relation between two other things. "In" (place), "on" (above), hal (a question). It cannot stand on its own.
The logician also files the "incomplete verbs", such as kāna (was) and its sisters, under adāt, because they show only a link in time and need another word to carry the event: in "Muḥammad was standing", "standing" carries the event.
(A side note from the translator: in uṣūl al-fiqh, words are split into only two kinds, nouns and particles, because a verb is a noun-like meaning in a particle-like form.)
ʿAqīda link. The scholars' maxim: the khabar is to be believed and the command is to be obeyed. What the Qurʾān and Sunna report (about Allah, the unseen, the Last Day) calls for taṣdīq. What they command and forbid is inshāʾ and calls for compliance. Treating a report as if it were only a moral exhortation, or a command as if it were only information, mixes up the two kinds of speech.
Quiz 5
- Is ʿAbd al-Raḥmān mufrad or murakkab for the logician when it is (a) a man's name, (b) a description of a pious person? Why does the grammarian disagree?
- Tāmm or nāqiṣ? a) "The book of Allah" b) "Knowledge is light" c) "If the sun rises"
- Khabar or inshāʾ?
- a) "Allah is the Creator of everything."
- b) "Establish the prayer."
- c) "I divorce you."
- d) "Did you not see how your Lord dealt with ʿĀd?"
- e) "Paradise is under the feet of mothers."
- Why is "I sell you this house" inshāʾ, even though it looks like a report?
- Ism, kalima or adāt? a) "wrote" b) "Makkah" c) "upon" d) "was" (as in "Zayd was standing")
- Review: Is "the mercy of Allah" a taṣawwur or a taṣdīq, and what kind of compound is it?
Show answers
- a) Mufrad: as a name, its parts do not point to parts of its meaning; it simply names a person. b) Murakkab: "servant of the Most Merciful" keeps its meaning. The grammarian looks at case endings, which the name still has on both parts, so he calls it compound.
- a) nāqiṣ · b) tāmm · c) nāqiṣ
- a) khabar · b) inshāʾ (command) · c) inshāʾ (effectuation) · d) inshāʾ (a question, here a rhetorical one) · e) khabar
- It does not describe a sale that exists outside the sentence; the sentence itself brings the sale into being. There is nothing outside to match, so it cannot be true or false.
- a) kalima · b) ism · c) adāt · d) adāt (the logicians' treatment of incomplete verbs)
- Taṣawwur. It is an incomplete compound (a possessive), so no judgment follows from it.
Units 1–2 test
Ten questions across Lessons 1 to 5. Aim for 8 out of 10.
- Define logic and explain what the word "tool" in the definition tells you.
- Taṣawwur or taṣdīq: a) "Is the Qurʾān created?" b) "There is no god but Allah", when you assent to it.
- A man is 60% sure an event happened. Name his state towards "it happened" and towards "it did not happen". Which one counts as assent?
- Why is compound ignorance not a kind of knowledge?
- Is "Makkah exists" ḍarūrī or naẓarī for someone who has never been there? What kind of axiom is it?
- Name the three kinds of dalāla and give one example of each.
- You buy "a book", then say you only meant the pages. Which verbal dalāla are you claiming, and which one does the seller rely on when he says the cover was included?
- Is "Allah" a mushtarak word? Is "ʿayn"? Why does it matter in a proof?
- Give the four kinds of opposition, and say for each whether both sides can be false of one thing.
- Khabar or inshāʾ: a) "O Allah, forgive me." b) "Allah forgives whom He wills."
Show answers
- Logic is a canonical tool which, when heeded, protects the mind from error in thought. "Tool" means it is a means, not an end: it serves other sciences (here, ʿaqīda).
- a) taṣawwur · b) taṣdīq
- Ẓann towards "it happened"; wahm towards "it did not happen". Only the ẓann counts as assent.
- Knowledge is the presence of the thing's own image. The compoundly ignorant person holds the image of something else, which he wrongly takes for the thing.
- Ḍarūrī. It is known by tawātur: effort is needed (hearing many reports) but no reasoning.
- ʿAqliyya (smoke → fire), ṭabʿiyya ("Agh!" → pain), waḍʿiyya (the word "book" → a book).
- You are claiming taḍammun (the word for a part of its meaning). The seller relies on muṭābaqa: "book" in its full meaning includes the cover.
- "Allah" is a proper name with one meaning (mukhtaṣṣ). "ʿAyn" is mushtarak. In a proof, a mushtarak word can silently change meaning between premises, so it must be fixed by context or avoided.
- Contradictories (never both false), possession and privation (both false of what is not fit), contraries (can both be false), correlatives (sometimes both false).
- a) inshāʾ (a supplication) · b) khabar