The linguistic definition of Sarf is a word ‫صرف‬that is derived from the linguistic root ‫ص ر ف‬meaning “to

change/turn.” From this we have a hadith:

 ."‫ "ال يقبل هللا منه يوم القيامة صرفا وال عدال‬........
 996‫الحديث»صحيح مسلم » كتاب الحج » باب فضل المدينة ص‬
 Neither forfeiture (‫ )صرف‬nor its equivalent (‫ )عدل‬will be accepted from him.

Additionally, it is said:

 ‫اللبن ينصرف به عن الضرع حارا إذا حلب‬

 Milk leaves (‫ )ينصرف‬the udder warm when milked.

A crook is called ‫الصريف‬as he is the agent of changing affairs. It looks like Lesaan al'arab and Alqamoos
almoheet, the root of ‫صرف‬.

A banker is called ‫ الصيرفي‬as he is the changer of money. There are many similar usages that indicate
changing or moving from one condition to another.

The grammatical term ‫الصرف‬is defined as the changing of the original root into different forms to create an
intended meaning that cannot be attained except by means of this change. An example of this would be
changing the root word ‫ َق ْطع‬into the past tense ‫قطع‬, the present tense ‫يقطع‬or the command ‫اقطع‬, and so
forth. ‫الصرف‬includes all the derivatives of the root such as the active participle, passive participle and
adjectives. It is a science that investigates the forms and shapes of word types, as well as why they are
presented as sound, weak or substituted.

Not all early scholars agreed on the details of this science. The purpose of this science was stated by the
Scholar Ibn al-Haajib in his commentary on Ash-Shaafiya. He stated, “Morphology is the science of word
origins, by them the conditions of the forms of the words are known without their declensions.

 1‫(انظر شرح الشافية البن الحاجب الجزء األول ص‬Look at the explanation of Alshafeya for Ibn alhajib, part one,
page one).

The scholar Ar-RaDHi argued for the earlier description in his explanation of Ash-Shafiya and clarified his
arguments in his summary.

The Field of Morphology

Sarf can be categorized into two types of words.

1. ‫المتصرفة‬
ِ ‫األفعال‬or derived verbs.
2. ‫األسماء المتمكِنة‬of nouns.

Those words that do not fall into these two categories are not included in the Science of Morphology. This
includes single letter words (‫)و ب ف‬, pronouns (‫)إذا أين حيث‬, personal pronouns (‫)أنا هو‬, demonstrative
pronouns (‫)هذا هناك‬, relative pronouns (‫)الذي التي‬, conditional nouns (‫)ما من مهما‬, interrogative nouns (‫)ما من متى‬,
nouns that imitate letters (‫)كم إذ‬, proper nouns of foreign origin (‫)إبراهيم هسماعيل‬, rigid verbs (‫ )نعم بئس عسى‬and
any verb or noun consisting of one or two letters that is not ‫مجزوم‬. This last one is due to fact that the
smallest allowable derived verb or established noun must be built upon a three letter root.

Scales of Sarf
After having established through research and investigation that most Arabic words consist of three letter
roots, the scholars of Sarf devised scales to measure the conditions of the various forms of the words.

They devised a scale consisting of three original letters (‫)ف ع ل‬. This three letter scale represents the word
that is to be measured, such that the ‫ف‬represents the first letter, the ‫ع‬represents the second letter, and
the ‫ل‬represents the last letter of the root. The form and shape of the scale is identical to the forms and
shapes of the scaled word. For instance, the vowels and consonants are alike.

Scholars chose the word ‫فعل‬to be used for the scale of Sarf for the reasons summarized below.

1. The word ‫فعل‬consists of a three lettered root, and the majority of Arabic words consist of three letter
roots. Words consisting of more than three letters do exist but are rare.
2. The word ‫فعل‬is semantically common. Every verb indicates an action (‫ )فِعْل‬so the verbs ، ‫ جلس‬، ‫أكل‬
‫ قام‬، ‫ نام‬، ‫ قتل‬، ‫ ضرب‬، ‫مشى وقف‬and so forth, all indicate an action.
3. Its letters are sound (stable). In other words, they are not subject to deletion such as the weak
letters ‫و‬and ‫ي‬. Verbs built upon these weak letters are exposed to weakness by alteration,
movement and deletion.
4. ‫فعل‬includes three separate phonetic sounds. The letter ‫ف‬is formed by the lips, ‫ع‬comes from the
back of the throat and ‫ل‬is formed in the middle of the mouth.

The great benefit of the scales of Sarf is that they define the characteristics of words and clarify whether
the word has been increased in form, augmented in form, or is in its original form. The scales also
distinguish the letters of a word from its vowels, the root of a word from its additional letters and the
word’s degree of weakness or soundness.
  5‫ دكتور مسعد زيادة ص‬:‫الوجيز في الصرف‬
 Alwajeez fi alsarf: doctor: mos'ad zeyada page five.

How to Use the Scale of Sarf

When scaling words, the following is noted:

Three letter words:

‫المعنىالكلمة‬ ‫المعنىالكلمةالميزان‬ ‫الميزان‬

‫ب‬
َ ‫ ض ََر‬hit ‫فَعَ َل‬ ‫ض ُخ َم‬
َ big ‫فَعُ َل‬
‫ع ِل َم‬
َ knew ‫فَ ِع ِل‬ ‫ قُتِ َل‬was killed‫فُ ِع َل‬
‫ َج َمل‬camel ‫فَ َعل‬ َ brachium ‫فَعُل‬
‫عضُد‬
‫ َكتِف‬shoulder‫فَعِل‬ ‫ ِرجْ ل‬leg ‫فِعْل‬
‫ ج ُْرح‬wound ‫فُعْل‬ ‫ ص َْرح‬pylon ‫فَعْل‬
‫ ِعنَب‬grape ‫فِعَل‬ ‫عنُق‬
ُ neck ‫فُعُل‬

From the chart it can be seen that a word’s scale is found by placing it in opposition to the standard scale
(‫)فعل‬, with precise awareness of the form.

For example, the first letter of the word ‫ضرب‬is placed in opposition to the first letter of the word ‫فعل‬by
adjusting the vowels of the scaled word with a Fat'ha َ because the ‫ض‬in ‫ضرب‬has a Fat'ha َ. Likewise
the second letter of ‫ضرب‬i.e. ‫ر‬is placed in opposition to the ‫ع‬of ‫فعل‬and given a Fat'ha َ because the ‫ر‬
has a Fat'ha َ. The third letter ‫ب‬is placed in opposition to the ‫ل‬of the scale and given the same vowel as
the original word. Thus, from the word ‫ب‬ َ ‫ض ََر‬we have the equivalent scale of ‫فَعَ َل‬, and in this particular case
the ‫ض‬is called ‫فاء الكلمة‬, the ‫ر‬is called ‫عين الكلمة‬and the ‫ب‬is called ‫الم الكلمة‬.

Further examples:

 ‫ النون الم الكلمة‬. ‫ السين عين الكلمة‬. ‫ الحاء فاء الكلمة‬. ‫س نَ ـ فَعُ َل‬ُ ‫ َح‬.
 ‫ الميم الم الكلمة‬. ‫ الالم عين الكلمة‬. ‫ العين فاء الكلمة‬. ‫ ع ِل م ـ فعِل‬.

Words with more than three letters

If the root of the word consists of more than three letters and the additional letters cannot be deleted
because they are from the original construction of the word (thus the meaning is dependant on them), the
scale is increased in letters in order to accommodate it. If the word is four letters, an additional ‫ل‬is used
in the scale:

Examples:

 ‫دحرج‬: roll
 ‫فعلل‬

 ‫بعثر‬: scatter
 ‫فعلل‬

 ‫زلزل‬: shake
 ‫فعلل‬

 ‫طمأن‬
ْ : assure
 ‫فعلل‬

 ‫وسوس‬: meticulous
 ‫فعلل‬

 ‫د ِْر َهم‬: dirham

 ‫فِ ْع َلل‬

 ‫ج َْرهُم‬: tribe name

 ‫فُ ْعلُل‬

 ‫بَ ْيدَر‬: threshing floor

 ‫فَ ْع َلل‬

If the root of the word is five letters, two additional ‫ل‬are added. However a ّ is used for the first two,
rather than each being written out.