قَعَدَ sat in Arabic

قال بلى، قعدت أنت وصفوان في الحجر

He said: Yes, you and Safwan sat in the stone enclosure.

قَعَدْتَ you sat

Past-tense verb 'sat', 'you' form (the '-ta' = you).

From Early Converts to Islam

ثم قاموا كما قعدوا،

Then they stood up as they sat down,

قَعَدُوا they sat down

Another 'they' past verb, 'they sat', closing the comparison. Set against 'they stood', it makes the sermon's effect vanish: they got up exactly as they had sat down. The '-u' again packs the plural subject inside.

From Sincere Preaching

والذي نفس محمد بيده لولا أن يشق على المسلمين ما قعدت خلاف سرية تغزو في سبيل الله أبدا،

By the One in whose hand is Muhammad's soul, if it were not hard on the Muslims, I would never remain behind any expedition that fights in the cause of Allah, ever,

قَعَدْتُ remain behind

A past-tense verb, 'I stayed/sat behind', with the 'I' subject built into its ending. Under the negation and the counterfactual it reads as 'I would not stay behind'; Arabic folds the speaker into the verb's form, needing no separate 'I'.

From Paradise for Those Who Strive

فَإِذَا كَانَ الشِّتَاءُ جَاءَ حَتَّى قَعَدَ خَلْفِي وَأَنَا أُصَلِّي،

When winter came, he would come until he sat behind me while I prayed.

قعد sat

A plain past verb, 'he sat'. The doer is not written as a separate word; the 'he' is folded into the verb form itself, and it reaches back to the same person who came in the earlier clause. Following the limit-particle before it, this is the action that the coming continued up to.

From Mothers and the Companions

قَالَ ضَعُوا لِيَّ مَاءً فِي الْمِخْضَبِ قَالَتْ فَقَعَدَ فَاغْتَسَلَ،

He said, "Put water for me in the basin." She said; then he sat down and washed himself.

فَقَعَدَ then he sat down

A sequencing fa-, 'then he sat', linking the next action tightly to the last. The completed past verb carries 'he' within it.

From Prayer During Illness

فَقَعَدَ فَاغْتَسَلَ، ثُمَّ ذَهَبَ لِيَنُوءَ فَأُغْمِيَ عَلَيْهِ،

He sat down, washed himself, went to lie down, and fainted.

فَقَعَدَ then he sat down

A sequencing fa-, 'then he sat', binding this action tightly to the previous; the completed past verb carries 'he' within.

From Prayer During Illness

وَلَقَدْ قَعَدْتُ يَوْمًا عَلَى طَرِيقِهِمْ الَّذِي يَخْرُجُونَ مِنْهُ،

And indeed, one day I sat on their road, the road they used to go out from,

قَعَدْتُ I sat

A past-tense verb with the speaker 'I' built into its ending, so no separate pronoun is needed. It anchors the narrator's action of sitting. The certainty particle just before it colours this as a definitely-completed past deed.

From Generosity to the Poor

وفى رواية فلما قعدت بين رجليها، قالت اتق الله ولا تفض الخاتم إلا بحقه، فانصرفت عنها وهى أحب الناس إلى وتركت الذهب الذى أعطيتها،

In another version: 'When I sat between her legs, she said: Fear Allah and do not break the seal except with its due right. So I refrained from her though she was the most beloved to me, and I left the gold that I had given her.'

قَعَدْتُ I sat

This is a past-tense verb with 'I' in the ending, the action of the 'when' clause. It sets the moment in completed past time and leads into what she then said, the main event the time-clause points toward.

From Three Men Saved by Sincerity