أَحْيَانًاsometimes

Example sentences

• وَمِنْهُمْ أَقْوَامٌ يَمِيلُ بِهِمْ الطَّبْعُ إِلَى الْغَفْلَةِ أَحْيَانًا،

  And among them are people whose nature sometimes inclines them toward heedlessness.

  أَحْيَانًا — sometimes. This adverb of time marks the action as occasional: 'sometimes'. It qualifies the whole inclining as intermittent rather than constant.

  From: Guarding the Heart from Heedlessness →

• وَيَدْعُوهُمْ مَا تَقَدَّمَ مِنَ الْمَوَاعِظِ إِلَى الْعَمَلِ أَحْيَانًا،

  And the admonitions mentioned earlier sometimes urge them to act.

  أحيانًا — sometimes. This adverb of time marks the urging as occasional: 'sometimes'. It balances the earlier 'sometimes', framing both pulls as intermittent.

  From: Guarding the Heart from Heedlessness →

• أَمْزَحُ فِيهِ مَزْحَ أَهْلِ الْفَضْلِ وَالْمُزْحُ أَحْيَانًا جَلَاءُ الْعَقْلِ

  I joke in it as people of merit do, and jesting sometimes clears the mind.

  أحيانًا — sometimes. A time adverb, 'sometimes', here qualifying how often the following claim holds. Its job is to scope the statement to occasions rather than always, softening 'jesting clears the mind' into a sometimes-true observation.

  From: Permissible Laughter and Conduct →

• وكان أحياناً يدعو بعد التحميد بقوله اللهم باعد بيني وبين خطاياي

  And sometimes he would supplicate after the praise by saying: 'Oh Allah, distance me from my sins.'

  أَحْيَانًا — sometimes. This is an adverb in the accusative, 'sometimes', and the accusative is Arabic's regular way of turning a noun into an adverb of time or manner. It modifies the habitual action, softening it from 'always' to 'on some occasions', and its case is the grammatical mark of that adverbial role.

  From: Praise and Supplication in Prayer →

• وما داوم عليه وقدمه وأمر به أفضل مما كان يفعله أحياناً، ويؤخره، ولم يأمر به

  And what he persisted in and ordered is better than what he occasionally did, delayed, and did not order.

  أَحْيَانًا — occasionally. This is an adverb in the accusative, 'occasionally', and the accusative is Arabic's standard way of turning a noun into an adverb of frequency. It qualifies the habit as irregular, sharpening the contrast with the steadily maintained practice praised earlier.

  From: Praise and Supplication in Prayer →