The Meccan Revelations

Manuscript volume 2 · Page 12

Konya manuscript

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Arabic

هو الَّذي صَدَرَ من المحدِث، وهو اسم الفعل، يريد أنَّ «القيام» هٰذه الكلمة اسمٌ لهٰذه الحركة المخصوصة من هٰذا المتحرِّك الَّذي بها سمِّي قائماً، فتلك الهيئةُ هي الَّتي سُمِّيت «قياماً» بالنَّظر إلى حال وجودها، و«قام» بالنَّظر إلى حال انقضائها وعدمها، و«يقوم» و«قم» بالنَّظر إلى توهُّم وقوعها، ولا توجد أبداً إلاَّ في متحرِّكٍ فهي غير قائمة بنفسها.

ثُمَّ قال: والفعل، يريد لفظة «قام» أو«يقوم» لا نفس الفعل الصَّادر من المتحرِّك «قائماً» مثلاً، مشتقٌّ منه -الهاء (في «منه») تعود على لفظة اسم الفعل الَّذي هو القيام- مأخوذٌ، يعني «قام» و«يقوم»، من «القيام»؛ لأنَّ النَّكِرَة عنده قبل المعرفة؛ والمُبهَم نكرةٌ، والمختصُّ معرفةٌ و«القيامُ» مجهول الزَّمان و«قام» مختصّ الزَّمان، ولو دخلت عليه «إن»، و«يقوم» مختصّ الزَّمان ولو دخلت عليه «لَمْ».

وهٰذا مذهب من يقول بالتَّحليل أنَّهُ فرع عن التَّركيب وأنَّ المركَّب وُجِد مركَّباً وعلى مذهب من يقول بالتَّفريق وإنَّ التَّركيب طارئٌ وهو الَّذي يُعضد في باب النَّقل أكثرَ.

فإنَّ الأظهر أنَّ المعرفة قبل النَّكرة، وأنّ لفظة «زيد» إنما وضعت لشخصٍ معيَّن ثُمَّ طرأ التَّنكير بكونه شورك في تلك اللَّفظة فاحتيج إلى التَّعريف بالنَّعت والبدَل وشبه ذٰلك، فالمعرفة أسبق من النَّكرة عند المحقِّقين

English

that it is what issues from the originator. It is the name of the act: that is, the word qiyām, “standing,” names this particular movement of this moving being, who is called “standing” because of it. That configuration is called qiyām, “standing,” with regard to its state of existence; qāma, “he stood,” with regard to its having passed and ceased to exist; and yaqūmu, “he stands or will stand,” and qum, “stand!”, with regard to its imagined occurrence. It never exists except in a moving being, and so does not subsist through itself.

He then said, “The verb”—meaning the expression qāma or yaqūmu, rather than the act itself issuing from the moving being who is, for example, standing—“is derived and taken from it.” The pronoun “it” refers to the expression naming the act, namely qiyām. He means that qāma and yaqūmu are taken from qiyām, because, in his view, the indefinite precedes the definite. The unspecified is indefinite, and the particularized is definite. Qiyam has an unknown time; qāma has a specified time, even if preceded by in, “if”; and yaqūmu has a specified time, even if preceded by lam, “did not.”

This is the view of those who hold that analysis is derived from composition and that the composite came into existence already composed. As for the view of those who affirm separation and hold composition to be supervening—this is more strongly supported by transmitted usage.

For what is more evident is that the definite precedes the indefinite. The expression “Zayd” was initially assigned to a particular individual. Indefiniteness then supervened because others shared that expression, so specification was needed through an adjective, an apposition, or the like. According to the people of realization, the definite precedes the indefinite.

Notes

Translator’s note TN332-1: Ism al-fiʿl here is explained by the passage itself as the “name of the act,” qiyām; it is not being used for the separate grammatical class often called “verb-nouns.” The remarks about in and lam preserve the author’s argument concerning temporal specification, although these particles affect how the verb’s time is understood. The transition between the two views of composition and separation is elliptical in the supplied text.

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Cairo source reference

Ibn al-Arabi, The Meccan Revelations — Manuscript volume 2 · Page 12 — https://www.futmak.com/english/konya/pages.php?id=332&text=both