Lane's Arabic-English Lexicon

إِذَا

Root: اذا

Full Definition

إِذَا denotes a thing's happening suddenly, or unexpectedly; or one's experiencing the occurrence of a thing when he is in a particular state; like إِذٌ: (S voce إِذٌ:) it pertains only to nominal phrases; does not require to be followed by a reply, or the complement of a condition; does not occur at the commencement of a sentence; and signifies the present time, not the future; as in خَرَجْتُ فَإِذَا الأَسَدُ بالبَابِ [I went forth, and lo, or behold, or there, or then, at that present time, the lion was at the door]; and فَإِذَا هِىَ حَيَّةٌ تَسْعَى [And lo, or behold, &c., it was a serpent running]; and in the saying, خَرَجْتُ فَإِذَا زَيْدٌ قَائِمٌ, which means I went forth, and Zeyd presented himself to me suddenly, or unexpectedly, at the time, by standing. Accord. to Akh, it is a particle, and his opinion is rendered preferable by their saying, خَرَجْتُ فَإِذَا إِنَّ زِيْداً بِالبَابِ [I went forth, and lo, or behold, verily Zeyd was at the door]; for [اذا cannot here be a noun governed in the accus. case, as] what follows إِنَّ, which is with kesr, does not govern what precedes it: accord. to Mbr, it is an adverbial noun of place: accord. to Zj, an adverbial noun of time. Ibn-Málik adopts the first of these opinions; Ibn-'Osfoor, the second; and so El-Fenjedeehee; and Z, the third; and he asserts that its governing word is a verb understood, derived from المُفَاجَأَةُ; [agreeably with the explanation cited above from the S;] but others hold that the word which governs it in the accus. case is the enunciative, which is either expressed, as in خَرَجْتُ فَإِذَا زَيْدٌ جَالِسٌ [I went forth, and there, in that place, or then, at that time, Zeyd was sitting], or meant to be understood, as in فَإِذَا الأَسَدُ, i. e. حَاضِرٌ [And there, or then, the lion was present]; or if it be supposed to be [itself] the enunciative, its governing word is مُسْتَقِرُّ or اِسْتَقَرَّ [understood]: and in the last of the phrases here mentioned, it may be an enunciative accord. to the opinion of Mbr, the meaning being فَبِٱلْحَاضِرَةِ الأَسَدُ [And among the things present was the lion]; but not accord. to the opinion of Zj, because a noun signifying time cannot be the enunciative of one signifying a corporeal thing; nor accord to the opinion of Akh, because a particle cannot be used to denote the enunciative of such a thing; or, as signifying time, it may be the enunciative of such a thing if we suppose a prefixed noun to be suppressed, the meaning of فَإِذَا الأَسَدُ being فَإِذاَ حُضُورُ الأَسَدِ [And then was the presence of the lion]. You may say either خَرَجْتُ فَإِذَا زَيْدٌ جَالِسٌ or جَالِساً [I went forth, and lo, or behold, &c., Zeyd was sitting or Zeyd was there sitting], with the nom. as an enunciative and with the accus. as a denotative of state. The Arabs said, قَدْ كُنْتُ أَظُنُّ أَنَّ العَقْرَبَ أَشَدُّ لَسْعَةً مِنَ الزُّنْبُورِ فَإِذاَ هُوَ هِى [I used to think that the scorpion was more vehement in stinging than the hornet, and lo, he is she], and also, فَإِذاَ هُوَ إِيَّاهَا, which Sb disallowed, in contending with Ks, who allowed it, and appealed for confirmation thereof to certain Arabs, whose judgment was pronounced in his favour; but it is said that they were bribed to give this judgment, or that they knew the place which Ks held in the estimation of Er-Rasheed; and if the latter expression be of established authority, it is irregular and unchaste.
2 It also denotes the complement of a condition, like فَ, with which it is in this case syn., as in the words of the Kur [xxx. 35], وَإِنْ تُصِبْهُمْ سَيِّئَةٌ بِمَا قَدَّمَتْ أَيْدِيهِمْ إِذَا هُمُ يَقْنَطُون [And if an evil befall them for that which their hands have sent before, then they despair].
3 It is also an adverbial noun denoting future time, and implying the meaning of a condition, and this is generally the case when it is not used in the manner first explained above. In this case it is not used otherwise than as prefixed to a proposition, which is always verbal, as in the words of the Kur [xxx. 24], ثُمَّ إِذَا دَعَاكُمَ دَعْوَةً مِنَ الأَرْضِ إذَا أَنْتُمْ تَخْرُجُونَ [Then, when He shall call you, or when He calleth you, with a single call from out the earth, lo, or behold, or then, ye shall come forth], in which occur both the usages of اذا here mentioned; and in the phrase, إِذَا جِئْتَ أَكْرَمْتُكَ [When thou shalt come, I will treat thee with honour]; and in the phrase, أَجِيْؤُكَ إِذَا ٱحْمَرَّالبُسْرُ [I will come to thee when the fullgrown unripe dates shall become red], and إِذَا قَدِمَ فُلَانٌ [when such a one shall arrive], which shows it to be a noun because this is equivalent to يَوْمَ يَقْدَمُ فُلَانٌ [on the day when such a one shall arrive]: or in the phrase قُمْ إِذَا ٱحْمَرَّ البُسْرُ [and in many other cases] it denotes time divested of any accessory idea, the meaning being [Arise thou] at the time of the full-grown unripe dates' becoming red: and so in the saying of EshSháfi'ee, If a man were to say, أَنْتِ طَالِقٌ إِذَا لَمْ أُطَلِّقْكِ, or مَتَى لم اطلّقك, [Thou art divorced when I do not divorce thee,] and then be silent for a time sufficient for the divorce to be pronounced therein, she would be divorced; but should he make it dependent upon a thing in the future, the divorce would be delayed to that time, as if he said, اذا احمرّ البسر [using it in the sense first assigned to this phrase above]. The verb after it is in most cases a pret.: in other cases, an Present.T: both occur in the saying of Aboo-Dhu-eyb, وَ النَّفْسُ رَاغِبَةٌ إِذَا رَغَّبْتَهَا وَإِذَا تُرَدُّ إِلَى قَلِيلٍ تَقْنَعُ [And the soul is desirous when thou makest it desirous; and when thou reducest it, or restrictest it, to little, it is content]. When it is immediately followed by a noun, as in [the phrase in the Kur lxxxiv. 1,] إذَا ٱلسَّمَآءُ ٱنْشَقَّتْ, the noun is an agent with a verb suppressed, explained by what follows it; contr. to the opinion of Akh; the complete phrase being إِذَا ٱنْشَقَّتِ السَّمَآءُ ٱنْشَقَّتْ [When the heaven shall be cleft, it shall be cleft]; and in like manner, إِنْ, as in the saying, in the Kur [ix. 6], وَ إِنْ أَحَدٌ مِنَ المُشْرِكِينَ ٱسْتَجَارَكَ. And in the saying of the poet, إِذَا بَاهِلِىٌّ تَحْتَهُ حَنْظَلِيَّةٌ لَهُ وَلَدٌ مِنْهَا فَذَاكَ المُدَرَّعُ كَانَ is meant to be understood after اذا [so that the meaning is, When a Báhilee has, or shall have, as his wife a Handhaleeyeh , he having offspring from her, that is, or will be, the mail-clad].
4 Sometimes it denotes past time, like as إِذْ sometimes denotes future time, as in [the saying in the Kur lxii. 11,] وَ إِذَا رَأَوْا تِجَارَةً أَوْ لَهْواً ٱنْفَضُّوا إِلَيْهَا [And when they saw merchandise or sport, they dispersed themselves to it]. [Thus] it occurs in the place of إِذْ, like as إِذْ occurs in the place of إِذَا.
5 And sometimes it denotes the present time; and this is after an oath, as in [the phrase in the Kur xcii. 1,] وَاللَّيْلِ إِذَا يَغْشَى [By the night when it covereth with its darkness].
6 It also occurs in the sense of the conditional إِنْ, as in the saying, أُكْرِمُكَ إِذَا أَكْرَمْتَنِى, meaning إِنْ أَكْرَمْتَنِى [I will treat thee with honour if thou treat me with honour]: [for] what is possible is made dependent upon it as well as what is known to be certain, as in the phrases, إِذَا جَآءَ زَيْدٌ [If Zeyd come] and إِذَا جَآءَ رَأْسُ الشَّهْرِ [When the beginning of the month shall come]; or, accord. to Th, there is a difference between إِذَا and إِنْ; the latter being held by him to denote what is possible, and the former to denote what is ascertained; so that one says, إِنْ جَآءَ زَيْدٌ and إذَا جَآءَ رَأْسُ الشَّهرِ. (Msb in art. ان.)
7 When a verb in the first person sing. of the pret. is explained by another verb after it immediately preceded by إِذَا, [تَقُولُ is understood before the former verb, and therefore] the latter verb must be in the second pers. sing., as in لُجْتُهُ إِذَا أَدَرْتَهُ فِى فيِكَ [meaning Thou sayest لُجْتُهُ when, or if, thou hast turned it about in thy mouth]. (MF in art. لوج. See also أَىْ; last sentence but one.)
8 It is sometimes redundant, like as إِذْ is sometimes [accord. to some], as in the saying of 'Abd-Menáf Ibn-Riba El-Hudhalee, حَتَّى إِذَا أَسْلَكُوهُم فِى قُتَائِدَةٍ شَلَّا كَمَا تَطْرُدُ الجَمَّالَةُ الشُّرُدَا [Until they made them to pass along Kutáīdeh, (here meaning a certain mountain-road so named, S in art. قتد,) urging on, like as the owners, or attendants, of camels drive those that take fright and run away]; for it is the end of the poem: or he may have abstained from mentioning the enunciative because of its being known to the hearer. When إِذَا is preceded by حَتَّى, [as in this instance,] it is generally held that اذا is not governed by حتّى in the gen. case, but is still an adverbial noun, حتّى being an inceptive particle without government.
9 As to what it is that governs إِذَا in the accus. case, there are two opinions; that it is its conditional proposition; or a verb, or the like, in the complement thereof: the former is the opinion of the critical judges; so that it is in the predicament of مَتَى and حَيْثُمَا and أَيَّانَ.
10 Sometimes it is used so as not to denote a condition, as in the words of the Kur [xlii. 35], وَإِذَا مَا غَضِبُوا هُم يَغفِرُونَ [And when, or whenever, they are angry, they forgive], in which it is an adverbial noun relating to the enunciative of the inchoative after it; for if it denoted a condition, and the nominal proposition were a complement, it would be connected by فَ: and the same is the case when it is used after an oath, as in an ex. given above.
11 See also what follows.


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