Bismillah.
Learning Arabic as a second language may be difficult for many, so I decided to share some tips that assist with learning the meanings of words and their structures.
Words that begin with ف usually will always mean something that breaks open, separates, or breaks apart. Check out these examples:
الفجر (Al-Fajr) from ف ج ر means the dawn, but it literally means when the daylight breaks/crack through the darkness. If you’ve ever seen the sky at Fajr time, you can see a thread of light near the horizon, while the rest of the sky is dark with the night. Allah (سبحانه وتعالى) tells us in Surah Baqarah to stop eating suhoor when the “white thread” is distinguishable from the “black thread.”
Another word from this root is fajjara, with a shadda on the jeem, which means to break open and gush forth. Another word from this root is الفاجر (Al-Faajir), the fujjar (plural of faajir) cross the limits and breaks the rules.
الفرقان (Al-Furqaan) derives from ف ر ق, which means to break through, to distinguish. Al-Furqan, which is another name of the Qur’an, means the Criterion that distinguishes truth from falsehood.
الفريق (Al-Fareeq) also from ف ر ق means a party or a group. A group is one that breaks off from the majority.
الفاسقون (Al-Faasiqoon) from ف س ق and fisq, literally means when a flower breaks through the bud to bloom. The Fasiqoon are those who transgress the bounds of Allah, and go beyond them.
الفضة (Al-Fiddah) from ف ض ض, which means silver, but literally means to scatter. When you scatter something, the first thing you do is break it apart then you throw it all over the place. What does this have to do with silver? Silver is ‘scattered’ when zakah is paid on it and when someone spends it. And after someone dies, their silver is ‘scattered’ to the heirs.
InshaAllah try and look through the Qur’an for words beginning with ف that follow this pattern and post them in the comments! (You may need a dictionary, such as this one.)
Wa lillahil hamd.
Some more examples:
-Fam, singular for “mouth” in arabic. From the letters fa wow haa. Our mouths seperate, or split..like this :-D
-one we are all familiar with: fitr or iftaar, from fa ta raa, when we break the fast. Eid ul Fitr breaks the fasting of the month of Ramadan.
-Muflihoon (ones who are successful), from fa laam haa, a falaah is a farmer. A farmer breaks open the earth and plants agriculture. Also just a very nice side point about how a farmer connects with being a “muflih” (successful person), subhanAllah a farmer tills his land, he looks after it everyday, he waters it, irrigates it—he really takes care of it. A successful person is the same, they work hard for their deeds and do as many as they can. So being a Muflih is NOT by chance, those who are truly successful are successful because they worked hard and in return Allah ta’ala blessed them with sucess. Next we read muflihoon in the Qur’an, let’s remind ourselves of the work a farmer puts into his land inshaAllah.
wa Allahu ‘alam.
Can anyone think of any more words beginning with “fa” that follow this pattern?
Here’s another one: the name given to Umar radi Allahu anhu, al-Farooq. Now Farooq also comes from the letters fa ra qaaf, but the way the word is shaped is known as “mubaalagah” in arabic. Mubaalagah (inshaAllah a post about this will be made in the future) is a hyperbole; basically taking a word and giving it steriods–it’s strengthened and has a stronger and more powerful meaning. So “Farooq” has the same meaning of seperating, but it means to seperate two things so greatly that it cannot in anyway shape or form be put back together. SubhanAllah, Umar radi Allahu anhu clearly seperated truth from falsehood that no one could confuse them, and this is how he received the name, Al-Farooq.
Another one is Fath, from fa ta ha, as we all know surah Al-Fatihah means the Opening and the “Futahaat” are the Openings–meaning the cities like Jerusalem that were opened, or like Fath Makkah, opening of makkah.
SubhanAllah, indeed the arabic language is like a deep ocean, and we are only tasting a drop of it. Allah ta’ala says in Surah Yusuf that He made the Qur’an, an arabic Qur’an so that we can have AQL. And ‘aql literally means to tie a rope together, so by defintion having ‘aql means to be able to connect issues/topics/thoughts together and ponder. InshaAllah let’s ponder on this beautiful language and study it.
So I’m wondering how that would apply to the word for class room, meat and fruit: faslu, famu and faakihat? You analyzed the other words very clearly, insha Allah you can show me with these too.
Sorry, just realized “meat” in arabic doesn’t start with a fa.