بُرْهان

root: ب-ر-ه-ن / noun / plural: بَراهين / definition: proof

---

It seems that I’ve unintentionally created a new series of posts this Ramadan, and now I can’t help but add to it.

We’ve been looking at variations of ذلك/تلك in the Qur’an—specifically, how these demonstratives are modified with pronoun suffixes:

• Arabic Observations: ذلكَ and ذلكِ and ذلكُم
• Arabic Observations: تِلكَ and تِلكُما and تِلكُم

But things don’t end there. Twenty-eight chapters (سُوَر) in, we find another related particle-plus-pronoun-suffix: ذانِكَ.

Continue reading “Arabic Observations: ذانِكَ”

التَّوْطين

root: و-ط-ن / form II verbal noun / definition: to grant citizenship

---

Ten-thousand-and-something days after my birth, Cyprus has finally acknowledged my existence. I can’t blame them for not granting me citizenship earlier though, as—well, how could they have known me? I was born in a London borough and have, since then, spent a cumulative total of 192 hours in my “homeland”—little enough to invite quotation marks around that term.

But, glad tidings to me: I now have a piece of paper corroborating my Cypriot-ness. My looming late-20s identity crisis can breathe a sigh of relief. (On this front, at least.)

I’ll refrain from browsing suitable frames to display the evidence of my newly-acknowledged existence because, today, I need to fill in some gaps I left open with last week’s post.

Continue reading “Arabic Observations: تِلكَ and تِلكُما and تِلكُم”

مُنْتَشِر

root: ن-ش-ر / form VIII active participle / definition: widespread, ubiquitous

---

We all know ذٰلِكَ. And how could we not? It’s that ubiquitous demonstrative pronoun meaning “that”.

But have you also heard of ذٰلِكِ and ذٰلِكُمْ? Because those are demonstrative pronouns too—but ubiquitous? Not so much. More like rare, actually.

So, where can we find these other demonstratives? And how do their meanings differ?

Continue reading “Arabic Observations: ذلكَ and ذلكِ and ذلكُم”