Answer to Question:
Fi’l ul-Amr (The Command Verb)
To: Abdulrahman al-Ziuod
(Translated)

Question

Dear brother, our Amir, may Allah preserve you and protect you, and support you with the sincere and strong of the believers, and may Allah help you in your heavy burden, and soon gather us with you to clap our hands with your hand, pledging allegiance that we listen and obey in whatever was pleasing and hateful to us.

Assalamu Alaikum wa Rahmatullahi wa Barakatuh,
As I was preparing in the Islamic Personality, Volume 3, on the subject of al-Fi’l (the verb), page 168 electronic version, I noticed the following text (As for Fi’l ul-Amr (the Command Verb) it is that which only the present form letter is removed from it.)

The question is: if the present form letter is removed from the Present verb “yaf’alu”, does not it become a Past tense fa’ala? That is, it is not a command verb.
Are there misprinted words in our phrase?
May Allah bless you, and be in Allah’s care.

Answer

Wa Alaikum Assalam wa Rahmatullahi wa Barakatuh,

May Allah bless you in your good prayers, and I ask Allah Almighty for you and us success and rightness.

The statement in the book of the Islamic Personality Volume 3 on Fi’l ul-Amr: (As for the Fi’l ul-Amr (the command verb), it is that which only the present form letter is removed from it). This is found in the books of Usul (Principles of Jurisprudence), for example it came in the book al-Ihkam fi Usul al-Ahkam by Al-Amadi (1/58):

(Al-fi’l (the verb) is that which indicates a Hadath (an event) associated with a time of occurrence, and the event is the Masdar (Root word) which is the verbal noun, and time of occurrence is the past, the present and the future, and is divided according to the division of time, thus the words قام (he stood) and قعد (he sat) are examples of the past.

The present and future verbs have the same words and are called the Mudhari’ (Present tense), which is what starts with one of the four prefixes attached to the beginning of the word: Hamza (أ), Taa (تـ), Noon (نـ), and Yaa (يـ), such as you say: أقوم (I stand/ I am standing) تقوم (you stand/ you are standing) نقوم (we stand/ we are standing). Future tense is derived from the present tense simply by adding the prefix (سـَ) or the particle (سوف) before the verb in the present form like your saying:سيقوم /سوف يقوم (he will stand). As for the Command Verb (Fi’l ul-Amr) it is that which only the present form letter is removed from it, like your saying: يقوم (he stands/ is standing) and قم(stand) and so on) End quote.

For example, it came in the commentary of al-Uthaymeen on Ibn Malik's al-Alfiyah (3/11, in ash-Shamilah autonumbering):

[The author (may Allah have mercy on him) said: “Verbs in the command (Amr) tense and the past tense are Mabni (fixed), and verbs in the present are Mu'rabah ( words change their endings due to I’rab) if they are not attached to a direct Nun at-Tawkeed (for emphasis or confirmation) or Nun an-Niswa (Feminine Plural) such as يرعن من فتن”. Then he said:(وفعل أمر ومضي بنيا) it means that: the command verb is Mabni and the verb in the past tense is Mabni, and the Alif (ا) in the word (بنيا) is for the dual form because it refers to two.

Thus, the command verb is Mabni, and it was said: Mu’rab (words change their endings due to I’rab), and the correct is that it is Mabni, and it is fixed by the indicator of Jazm of its present tense verb. So, if the Jazm for its present tense verb is indicated by Sukun, then it (the command verb) is fixed by Sukun, and if the Jazm of its present tense verb is indicated by hiding the letter of illa (weak letter) or Nun, then it is also fixed by hiding the letter of illa or Nun. Therefore, they say: If you want to formulate the command verb, then take a verb in the present tense that is in the state of Jazm, and then remove the present form letter from it and the particle of Jazm.] End.

To illustrate this based on the grammar research from its sources, we say, and Allah is the guardian of success:

1- The command verb is taken in terms of the formula from the present tense verb after the removal of present form letter, but because the command verb is in the state of Jazm, its wording is taken from the present tense verb which is in the state of Jazm after the removal of present form letter and of course after dropping the particle of Jazm, because it is not part of the verb. So, if you want to derive the command verb from the present verb, put first particle of Jazm such as"لم" to the present verb to become a present tense verb in the state of Jazm and then drop the letter "لم", i.e., keep the formula of the present tense without the particle of Jazm, and then remove the present form letter from the present tense in the state of Jazm, and the command verb will appear to you.

2- For example, the verb "يخاف" “fears”, becomes, "لم يخَفْ" “did not fear” after the introduction of “لم”, and by dropping “لم” it becomes "يخَفْ", and by deleting the present form letter "ي" which is at the beginning of the verb it becomes "خَفْ" “fear” which is the command verb of the verb "خاف" “feared”; similarly can be done with the verbs (sleeps, stands, says, visits ...).

3- For example, the verb "يفي" "fulfills” becomes "لم يفِ" "did not fulfill", after the introduction of “لم”, and by dropping “لم” it becomes "يفِ", and by deleting the present form letter "ي" which is the at beginning of the verb it becomes "فِ" "fulfill", which is the command verb of the verb "وفى" “fulfilled”. Similarly can be done with the verbs (comprehended, prevented, saw ...).

4- For example, the verb"يضرب" "hits" becomes "لم يضْرِبْ" "did not hit", after the introduction of “لم”, and by dropping “لم” it becomes "يضْرِبْ" "hits", and by deleting the present form letter "ي" which is the at beginning of the verb it becomes "ضْرِبْ", but the first letter in it which is الضاد is a Saakin (silent) letter, and it is not possible to start pronouncing a Saakin letter except with Hamzatul wasl or the connecting hamzah, then it becomes "اضْرِبْ" "hit", which is the command verb of "he hit". The same happens with the following verbs: (worked, called, built ...).

5- The conclusion is that if the present form letter from the present tense verb which is in the state of Jazm is removed, the resulting verb is the command verb (Fi’l ul-Amr) and not the past verb, and therefore what is stated in Islamic Personality Volume 3 is true according to the above, and there are no "misprinted words" in it.
I hope the matter is clear now.

Your brother,
Ata Bin Khalil Abu Al-Rashtah

14th Shawwal 1440 AH
17/06/2019 CE

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