نَفْسَهُself of him

Example sentences

• فَمَا مَلَكَ عُمَرُ نَفْسَهُ فَقَالَ

  Umar could not restrain himself, so he said:

  نَفْسَهُ — self of him. A noun 'self' with a single male 'his' ('-hu') tail attached, so one word means 'himself'; it stands as the object of the controlling verb, the thing Umar could not master. The reflexive sense comes from 'his self'.

  From: A Companion at Battle →

• فَحَبَسَ أَبُو بَكْرٍ نَفْسَهُ عَلَى النَّبِيِّ صَلَّى اللَّهُ عَلَيْهِ وَسَلَّمَ لِصُحْبَتِهِ،

  So Abu Bakr kept his self near the Prophet, may God bless him and grant him peace, for his companionship.

  نَفْسَهُ — his self. A noun meaning 'self' with 'his' fused on as a suffix, which is exactly how Arabic builds the reflexive 'himself'. It is the object of 'kept', so it wears the -a accusative; the attached -hu points back to Abu Bakr, the actor, making him both subject and object.

  From: The Secret Migration →

• الْعَاجِزُ مَنْ أَتَّبَعَ نَفْسَهُ هَوَاهَا وَتَمَنَّى عَلَى اللَّهِ الأَمَانِيَ

  The helpless one is the one who follows his own self its desire and wishes on Allah the wishes.

  نَفْسَهُ — his own self. A noun meaning 'self/soul' with -hu ('his') fused to its end, standing as the object of 'follows'. Here it works reflexively, so the man follows his own self, and the attached pronoun ties the self back to him as its owner.

  From: Three States of the Heart →

• وَأَقَامَ بِوَاسِطِ خَمْسِ سِنِينَ يَخْدِمُ نَفْسَهُ بِنَفْسِهِ،

  He remained for five years, attending to his own needs by himself.

  نَفْسَهُ — himself. This is the object of the verb with the pronoun -hu ('himself') attached. Because that pronoun points back to the same person who is the subject, it works reflexively: he serves his own self. The word for 'self' plus a matching pronoun is exactly how Arabic builds a reflexive, since it has no separate word like English '-self'.

  From: An Exiled Scholar's Trials →