ألمpain

Example sentences

• وكم من ألم احتمله في ساعة، فكان سببًا لنعيمه الدائم

  And how many a pain has someone endured in an hour, which then became a cause of his everlasting bliss!

  أَلَمٍ — pain. The noun governed by the partitive 'of', in that form, its bare ending marking it indefinite: a single pain standing for the many. It is what is marveled at here.

  From: Paradise Over Pleasure →

• ألم تر إلى المريض كيف يمتنع عن الطعام اللذيذ خوفًا من زيادة المرض، ويشرب الدواء المرّ رجاء للشفاء؟

  Have you not seen how a sick person refrains from delicious food fearing an increase in illness, and drinks bitter medicine hoping for a cure?

  أَلَمْ — have not. A negating question-opener, fusing the question-marker with the past-negating 'did not': have you not. It frames a rhetorical question that expects a yes and governs the verb that follows into the cut-short shape.

  From: Paradise Over Pleasure →

• وقال له ألم أقل لك أعطني دواء للحمار؟

  and said to him, 'Didn't I tell you to give me medicine for the donkey?'

  ألم — Didn't. A question-marker fused with the negator 'did not', forming 'did I not...'. Arabic stacks a yes/no question-prefix onto a negation to make a rhetorical 'didn't I?', expecting agreement.

  From: Reflections on Literal Obedience →