Journal of Islamic Studies > Volume 27, No. 2, 2015

Arabic Conjunction "Lawla": Linguistic Explanatory Study / Al Abbas Hussien Ali Al Hazemi

This research is concerned with the study of the usage of the Arabic conjunction "lawla" in the Qur'an. It attempts to distinguish between two meanings and to identify the linguistic states of "lawla" in relation to its explanatory meanings. The research is explanatory and linguistic. It follows an analytical deductive approach to the study of "lawla" usage in the Qur'an. The research cites seventyfive places of "lawla" in the Qur'an, thirty-four of which are used to express imtinaa' (prevention of one thing due to the presence of another, and forty-one to express tahdheedh (primarily motivation,. The latter accommodates meanings such as offers, requests, wishing and interrogation. Each of the two ''lawla" usages has a specific structure of its own: one (imtinaa', is followed by an explicit or implicit noun, while the other (tahdheedh, is followed by a verb in the present or past tense; imtin'ah lawla's principal clause sometimes starts with the Arabic letter "laam", while that of tahdheedh "lawla" starts with the letter "faa'". The imtinaa' predicate is elliptical, and so is the tahdheedh predicate. The elliptical character of the predicate in the two cases is explained by linguists and interpreters. The meaning of the imtinaa' "lawla" depends on the meaning of its conditional clause, which starts with "lawla". The tahdheedh "lawla" needs a principal clause, which can be explicit or implicit. Conjunctions that can perform the same function as "lawla" are: "halla", "alla", "lawma" and "ala"