A Question for instructor

[Muslimah56]

as salam alykom brother instructor
I have a qustion, yes I am an Arabic native speaker but Mash a Allah u r a pro.
When shall we use ãÇ ma and ãÇÐÇ madha for asking questions???
:o

[.: Anna :.]

salaam

Im not instructor and i'm not at all a pro...but I thought you say madha when it goes before a verb and ma when it is before a noun? but then again that could be completely wrong :p n I dunno anything else about it

[Ayah]

I believe sis Anna is correct!! :)

[.: Anna :.]

Originally posted by Ayah
I believe sis Anna is correct!! :) nice one....noone even taught me that, i jus noticed it :p

[Instructor]

k....insha Allah...sorry for the delay...my comp is messed and I just moved houses..

according to the ppl of balaagha...nothing is interchangeable...so, Yes, there is a difference here..like in all two or more particals etc. that have the same BASIC meaning such as 'in' and i'dha..the first of which is used in conditional sentences where there is no certitude of the condition occurring...and 'i'dha...is when the condition will surely occur....like i'dhaa jaa'a nasrulllahi wal-fathu..

so the agent of istifhaam...maa..is for asking clarification of nouns...like if you dont understand the clear meaning of a word...u ask using maa...e.g. maa al-kummathraa...waht's a kummathraa??...it means a guava (the fruit)..

it is also used when someone is sure of the existence of an object or action...but is not sure of exactly what it is..this is also when you couple it with ..haadha or dha or dhalika....well there u go....maadha is actually ...the same maa...coupled with 'dha' ....dha is a demonstrative pronoun (ism ishaara) just like haadha and dhalika...the difference is haadha is for near and dha...is irrespective and dhalika is for far...the irrespective one is usually left untranslated in this case. In english we don't have an irrespective one...they only have 'this' and that'.

maadha 'ala al-kurisiyyi...means 'what is on the chair'...but more specifically the litteral translation would be 'what is that on the chair...

so 'maadha' basically means the same as just maa...except that theres an added elemant of ishaarah (pointing or referring to something visible or known to the listener)...in maadha which is not in just 'maa'...the element is subtle and not usually translated.

Hope that helps...insha Allah

[Muslimah56]

Of course it does help instructor, Mash a Allah, jazakum Allah khairan