Arabic pronouns and the Qur'an
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This article lists the pronouns of the Arabic language and discusses their usage in the Qur'an. While other dialects of Arabic with slight differences in pronouns exist, discussion in this article is limited to the dialect that appears in the Qur'an.
Arabic pronouns
Subject pronouns
There are 12 different subject pronouns in Arabic:
| English | Arabic | Transliteration |
|---|---|---|
| I | أنا | ana |
| you (masculine singular) | انتَ | anta |
| you (feminine singular) | انتِ | anti |
| he | هو | howwa |
| she | هي | heyya |
| you (dual) | أنتما | antuma |
| they (dual) | هما | humaa |
| we (plural) | نحن | nahnu |
| you (masculine plural) | أنتم | antum |
| you (feminine plural) | أنتن | antunna |
| they (masculine) | هم | homa |
| they (feminine) | هن | hunna |
- Pronouns are more complicated in Arabic than in English, because they differentiate between dual and plural forms and also sometimes differentiate between gender.
- Arabic has different verb forms for different pronouns. Thus, pronouns themselves are often not written, since the subject of a verb can be inferred without the pronoun.
Object & posessive pronouns
Object pronouns, like "me" or "us," are expressed as a suffix added to the verb. For example, verse 2:191, "Waqtuloohum haythu thaqiftumoohum" (واقتلوهم حيث ثقفتموهم), means "and-kill-them wherever you-find-them." Arabic uses only three words for the sentence, because the conjunction "and" (و, wa) is prefixed and the object pronouns "them" (هم, hum) are suffixed.
The verb position is represented by "-" in the following table:
| English | Arabic | Transliteration |
|---|---|---|
| me | ـني- | -ni * |
| you (masculine singular) | ـكَ- | -ka |
| you (feminine singular) | ـكِ- | -ki |
| him | ـه- | -h |
| her | ـها- | -ha |
| you (dual) | ـكما- | -kuma |
| them | ـهما- | -huma |
| us | ـنا- | -na |
| you (masculine plural) | ـكم- | -kum |
| you (feminine plural) | ـكن- | -kunna |
| them (masculine) | ـهم- | -hum |
| them (feminine) | ـهن- | -hunna |
- (*) Posessive pronouns like "his" or "our" are expressed almost identically, with the exception of "my," ـي- (-i).
Allah refers to himself in the plural
Although the "oneness of Allah" (tawheed) is one of the main teachings of Islam, Allah sometimes talks about himself in the plural form. For example:
إِنَّا نَحْنُ نَزَّلْنَا ٱلذِّكْرَ وَإِنَّا لَهُۥ
Inna nahnu nazzalna alththikra wainna lahu lahafithoona
Surely We (نَحْنُ, nahnu) have revealed the Reminder and We will most surely be its guardian.It is worth noting that Muhammad preached his message to polytheists in Mecca. He once preached polytheism in the Satanic Verses incident, and polytheists understood the message of Islam to be "all gods grouped into one":
Thus, polytheists might have understood verses like "we created the heavens" as multiple gods creating the heavens.
Islamic scholars argue that, despite the importance of tawheed, Allah referring to himself in the plural form is simply stylistic[1], similar to the "royal we" historically used by monarchs.
Allah talks about himself in the 3rd person
Certain passages in the Qur'an are written as though Muhammad is talking about God, rather than God talking about himself:
ٱللَّهُ لَآ إِلَٰهَ إِلَّا هُوَ وَعَلَى ٱللَّهِ فَلْيَتَوَكَّلِ ٱلْمُؤْمِنُو
Allah, there is no god but He (هُوَ, howwa); and upon Allah, then, let the believers rely."Iltifaat" - bad usage of pronouns in the Qur'an
Some parts of the Qur'an contain unusual changes in pronouns.
هُوَ ٱلَّذِى يُسَيِّرُكُمْ فِى ٱلْبَرِّ وَٱلْبَحْرِ حَتَّىٰٓ إِذَا كُنتُمْ فِى ٱلْفُلْكِ وَجَرَيْنَ بِهِم بِرِيحٍ طَيِّبَةٍ وَفَرِحُوا۟ بِهَا جَآءَتْهَا رِيحٌ عَاصِفٌ وَجَآءَهُمُ ٱلْمَوْجُ مِن كُلِّ مَكَانٍ وَظَنُّوٓا۟ أَنَّهُمْأُحِيطَ بِهِمْ دَعَوُا۟ ٱللَّهَ مُخْلِصِينَ لَهُ ٱلدِّينَ لَئِنْ أَنجَيْتَنَا مِنْ هَٰذِهِۦ لَنَكُونَنَّ مِنَ ٱلشَّٰكِرِينَ
He it is Who makes you (يُسَيِّرُكُمْ, yusayyirukum) travel by land and sea; until when you are in the ships, and they sail (وَجَرَيْنَ) on with them in a pleasant breeze, and they rejoice, a violent wind overtakes them and the billows surge in on them from all sides, and they become certain that they are encompassed about, they pray to Allah, being sincere to Him in obedience: If Thou dost deliver us from this, we will most certainly be (لَنَكُونَنَّ) of the grateful ones.Pronouns in the above passage, besides yusayyirukum, are omitted and only signaled by the verb conjugation.