Come to prayer! حي على الصلاة – What form is hayya‎?

The phrase Come to prayer! حَيَّ عَلَى الصَّلاةِ is very famous. ‎حَيَّ is a special kind of word. Such words point to a verb and carry its meaning as well as its time and function. There are some important things to know.

What are the specialties of such words?

• Such a word is not a pure noun (اِسْم) only. Why? Other than nouns, a اِسْم الْفِعْل only conveys a meaning on itself when it is linked to time.
• We also don’t call it a pure verb be­cause it does not carry the signs and markers of a verb, i.e., the usual endings.
• All forms of a اِسْم الْفِعْل are indeclinable (مَبْنِيّ).
• Furthermore, it is not affected by other parts of the sen­tence. In other words, it does not have a regent (عامِل) and doesn’t have a po­sition in إعراب.
• However, a اِسْم الْفِعْل has governing power of a verb and works as a regent (عامِل). It can govern other words and in­duces cases – note the cases after such a word.
• Therefore, it can carry a direct object (مَفْعُول بِهِ) in the accusative case (مَنْصُوب). This object, however, can never precede the اِسْم الْفِعْل. It has to be placed after.

In Arabic grammar books, the اِسْم الْفِعْل is classified by the tense/time it relates to. Therefore, we have three types (imperative, past tense, present tense).

I only focus on the imperative here as this is the most common type.

The imperative force (اِسْم فِعْل أَمْر)

Many exclamations have a cer­tain verbal force are given the equivalent of an imperative.

REMARK:Christians use Amen a lot. Amen is probably of Aramaic origin: אמין, meaning strong, enduring, true, last­ing, eternal. In Hebrew, אָמֵן means so be it; truly. From Hebrew, it perhaps en­tered ancient Greek (ἀμήν) and from where it spread to other languages.

Muslims say ‘Āmīn as well, for example, after having read the first Sura al-Fātiha (سُورةالْفاتِحة).

Some linguists suggested that the آ – the Aleph Madd (أَلِف مَدّ) – is only there in the word آمِينَ to provide the fullness of the sound “a” (فَتْحة). What supports this idea is the fact that there is no word in Ara­bic following the pattern فَاعِيلٌ.

Many common expressions fit into this category.

They were origi­nally preposi­tional phrases (الْجَرّ وَالْمَجُرور) or adverbs of place (ظَرْف مَكان) but now have the meaning of an imperative. Grammari­ans call such expressions a اِسْم فِعْل مَنْقُول (transferred).

Notice in the examples the direct objects – the accusative case (مَنْصُوب)!

PS: My Arabic for Nerds 2 deals with stuff like that extensively.

• The Qur’an Revisited: The use of the passive voice
• How to build the passive voice in Arabic easily
• Why is كَأَنَّ a sister of إِنَّ but لِأَنَّ is not?
• How to handle the number 8 in Arabic – a core analysis
• What are the best Christmas gifts for Arabic nerds in 2023?

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