تَكُنbeen

Example sentences

• وأنْبت الله شَجَرَة لم تكن قبل

  And Allah caused a tree to grow that had not been there before.

  تَكُنْ — had been. A present-tense 'to be' verb clipped to the jussive by 'did not' (the final vowel dropped) — together 'was not', feminine to fit 'tree'. It says the tree had no prior existence.

  From: The Night of the Migration →

• ولا تكن كالبهيمة التي لا همَّ لها إلا مرعاها،

  and do not be like the beast whose only concern is its pasture,

  تَكُنْ — you be. This is a form of the verb 'to be' clipped into the command-negation shape by the forbidding particle, so the ending is shortened. The 'you' subject is inside it, and it links you to the predicate that follows, 'do not be like...'.

  From: Think Before You Act →