كُنتُI was

Example sentences

• قَالَتْ إِذًا كُنتُ أَشْفَعُ لَهُ

  She said, "Then I was interceding for him."

  كُنتُ — I was. The past-tense 'to be' with first-person 'I' in its -tu ending, here a frame-setter rather than a claim of existence. Paired with the present verb after it, it builds an 'I was (in the act of)...' frame, placing an ongoing action in past time. Its job is to time-stamp the interceding as past-continuous.

  From: A Mother's Forgiveness →

• كُنتُ مَعَ النَّبِيِّ صَلَّى اللَّهُ عَلَيْهِ وَسَلَّمَ فِي غَزَاةٍ،

  I was with the Prophet, may God bless him and grant him peace, on an expedition,

  كُنتُ — I was. This is the past tense of the 'to be' verb with the -tu ending that fixes the speaker as 'I'. Arabic usually drops a plain 'am/was', but here it appears because the sentence sets a past scene ('I was...'), and the verb itself carries the subject so no separate 'I' is needed.

  From: Marriage and Financial Justice →

• كَمَا قَالَ القَائِلُ وَكُنتُ امْرَأً مِنْ جُنْدِ إِبْلِيسِ

  As the speaker said, I was one of Iblis's troops.

  كُنتُ — I was. This is the past tense of 'to be' carrying a first-person singular subject, 'I was'. It sets up an equational statement in the past and takes a following accusative predicate, so its job is to anchor 'I was a man' in past time.

  From: Three States of the Heart →