Lesson 6 of 16 · Words joined into phrases
Describing a noun
الْمَوْصُوف وَالصِّفَة
After this lesson: Tell a description phrase from an 'of' phrase, using agreement.
In Arabic the description comes after the thing described, not before it: al-ṣirāṭ al-mustaqīm, 'the straight path', literally 'the path, the straight'.
The giveaway is agreement. A description matches the noun it describes in four things at once: definiteness (both with al- or both without), gender, number, and the case ending. So if both words carry al-, you are looking at a description, not an 'of' phrase.
This is why the opening of the Qur'an reads as it does: al-raḥmān al-raḥīm both carry the article and both end the same way, so both are describing Allah, not possessing anything.
In the Qur'an
ٱهْدِنَا ٱلصِّرَٰطَ ٱلْمُسْتَقِيمَ
ihdinā ṣ-ṣirāṭa l-mustaqīm
Guide us to the straight path.
Notice. Both words carry al- and both end in -a. Matching on all four counts means the second describes the first.
مِن شَرِّ ٱلْوَسْوَاسِ ٱلْخَنَّاسِ
min sharri l-waswāsi l-khannās
From the evil of the retreating whisperer.
Notice. Both patterns in one line: sharri l-waswās is 'of', and al-khannās then describes al-waswās.
Check yourself
Nothing is scored or saved here — answering is how the rule sticks. When you want a score, the same checks are drilled to mastery below.
Both nouns carry al-. What kind of phrase is it?
A description must agree with its noun in how many things?
Word morphology, grammar and syntax trees are shown by the Quranic Arabic Corpus (corpus.quran.com), the annotated linguistic resource developed at the University of Leeds.