أَكُونَbe

Example sentences

• فقال رسول الله صلى الله عليه وسلم لا يقدمن أحد منكم إلى شيء حتى أكون أنا دونه

  The Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him) said: 'None of you should advance towards anything until I am ahead of him.'

  أَكُونَ — I am. A present-tense verb 'to be' with the 'I' subject built in, sitting in the subjunctive ending demanded by the preceding 'until', so it reads as the aim, 'until I am'. The subjunctive shape is the audible mark of being governed by that 'until'; the speaker is inside the form.

  From: A Handful of Dates and Paradise →