The Encyclopedic Treatment of Arabic Particles

The first and largest section of the Mughni al-Labib is an encyclopedic treatment of Arabic particles — the indeclinable words that serve grammatical and semantic functions in Arabic sentences. This section is organized alphabetically by the particle being treated, and each entry is potentially extensive, covering all the grammatical functions the particle can serve with examples and analysis of each function. The comprehensiveness of this section makes the Mughni the primary reference for any scholar who needs to analyze the function of a particle in a classical Arabic text.

The entry on the particle wa ('and') illustrates the scope of this treatment. Wa is the most common particle in Arabic and serves numerous functions: it conjoins nouns, verbs, clauses, and sentences; it introduces oaths (waw al-qasam); it serves as a circumstantial particle (waw al-hal); it marks accompaniment (waw al-ma'iyyah); and it occasionally serves functions that overlap with other particles in certain dialects and registers. Ibn Hisham's entry on wa analyzes each of these functions in turn, citing Quranic examples and classical poetry for each, distinguishing the conditions under which each function occurs, and addressing disputes in the grammatical tradition about which function applies in specific contested cases.

The entry on inna and its sisters (inna, anna, kanna, layta, la'alla, lakinna) is another example of the Mughni's depth. These particles collectively constitute one of the most important grammatical phenomena in Arabic — they alter the case marking of nominal sentences, converting the nominative mubtada' into the accusative ism (subject of inna) — and their analysis requires understanding not just the basic rule but all the conditions and exceptions that govern it. The Mughni's entry addresses the basic function, the conditions on each particle, the meaning differences between them, and the disputed cases where scholars have disagreed about which particle best explains an attested usage.

The treatment of conditional particles (in, idha, law, lamma, kullamaa, man, ma, mahma, and others) is similarly comprehensive. Each conditional particle introduces a protasis ('if' clause) and governs a particular relationship between the protasis and apodosis ('then' clause). The Mughni analyzes the semantic relationship each particle expresses, the grammatical requirements it imposes on the verb forms in each clause, and the cases in which the expected grammatical form may be modified for rhetorical or semantic reasons.

For scholars working on Quranic exegesis, the Mughni's particle section is indispensable. Quranic Arabic uses particles in all their classical functions, and often in constructions that have been disputed by commentators. When a particle's function in a verse is ambiguous, and different readings of the verse depend on which function the particle serves, the Mughni provides the systematic analysis of the particle's possible functions that allows the exegete to evaluate each reading on grammatical grounds.