بِـby

Example sentences

• ثم أقسم سبحانه ب ﴿وَالسَّمَاءِ ذَاتِ الرَّجْعِ وَالأَرْضِ ذَاتِ الصَّدْعِ﴾

  Then He, the Exalted, swore by "the sky with its returning rain and the earth with its splitting growth."

  بِـ — by. A preposition 'by', the oath-marker fused as a bare prefix, introducing what is sworn upon. It forces the genitive ending on the following noun.

  From: Signs of Resurrection →

• ثم أقسم سبحانه ب ﴿وَالسَّمَاءِ ذَاتِ الرَّجْعِ وَالأَرْضِ ذَاتِ الصَّدْعِ﴾

  Then Allah, the Exalted, swore by 'the sky which returns' and 'the earth which cleaves open.'

  بِـ — by. This is the bare oath preposition 'by', the standard particle Arabic uses to swear by something. It governs the noun it is attached to in the genitive and marks whatever follows as the thing sworn by. English says 'I swear by'; Arabic loads that 'by' onto this small prefix.

  From: Oaths That Seal the Truth →