حِيلَةstrategy

Example sentences

• زين للناس حب الشهوات من النساء والبنين والقناطير المقنطرة من الذهب والفضة والخيل المسومة والأنعام والحرث فللشهوات حيلة غيار،

  Beautified for people is the love of desires: from women and children, and heaped-up treasures of gold and silver, and branded horses, and cattle and tilled land; but desires have a deceptive strategy,

  حِيلَةٌ — a strategy. This is the delayed subject of a 'there is...' statement, presented indefinite to introduce something new: a strategy that desires possess. Arabic commonly fronts the possessor with 'for', then lets the new thing follow in the subject ending, so word order signals what is being announced.

  From: Preferring the Hereafter →

• وما أبقى حيلة لي في مكائده ولا ترك،

  He left me no option in his schemes nor did he abstain.

  حِيلَةً — any option. This is the object of the verb 'leave', and its -an ending marks it as an indefinite object, 'an option'. That ending is the standard Arabic tag for the indefinite thing an action targets.

  From: Victory Belongs to God →