أَتَاهُمْcame to them

Example sentences

• فَأَتَاهُمْ مَلَكٌ فِي صُورَةِ آدَمِيٍّ

  Then an angel came to them in the form of a human.

  فَأَتَاهُمْ — then came to them. This single word is a past-tense verb 'came' with its 'he' subject inside, plus an attached plural pronoun on the end pointing to the disputing angels: 'came to them'. The leading 'fa-' marks the arrival as the next turn in the narrative, and Arabic stacks the object pronoun onto the verb where English would use a separate phrase.

  From: The Joy of Repentance →