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26 Questions
26.3 مَنْ “Who” questions
In chapter 25 we have studied the use of مَنْ man as a connected noun. Now, we will study its use as a question noun. مَنْ is used to formulate “who” questions. As with connected-nouns مَنْ is typically used for intelligent beings. (See section 25.4.3 for when مَنْ may be used for non-intelligent beings.) Except in case that we will note below, مَنْ is usually placed in the beginning of the question sentence. Being a noun, مَنْ may be in one of the three states but because it is a rigid noun, its state will not be apparent. مَنْ is considered a singular masculine noun but it is used for all numbers and genders.
26.3.1 مَنْ in the u-state
Here are some examples of the question noun مَنْ as the subject of a sentence:
مَنْ زَيْدٌ؟
“Who is Zayd?”
مَنْ أَخُوهُ زَيْدٌ؟
“Whose brother is Zayd?”
مَنْ أَنْتِ؟
“Who are you1f?”
مَنِ هَـٰؤُلَاءِ ٱلنِّسَاءُ؟
“Who are these women?”
مَنْ ٱلرِّجَالُ ٱلَّذِينَ جَاءُوا؟
“Who are the men that have come?
In all the above sentences مَنْ is the subject of the sentence, and the rest of the sentence constitutes the information. The noun following مَنْ, even when indefinite, cannot be considered its describer or replacement. Therefore, مَنْ رَجُلٌ؟ can only mean “Who is a man?”, not “Which man?”.
When مَنْ is used to ask about the doer of a verb, the verb is generally used with a singular masculine doer pronoun. For example:
مَنْ جَاءَ؟
“Who came?”
However, occasionally, the verb’s doer pronoun can be made to match the gender of the person(s) who are being asked about, especially if the question is specific to a gender. For example:
مَنْ كَانَتْ أُمَّكَ؟
“Who was your mother?”
Note how كَانَتْ has a feminine doer pronoun to match the gender of أُمَّكَ.9
If the question is regarding a specific number and gender, then we are more likely to insert the corresponding specific connected noun (ٱلَّذِي, etc.) between the question noun مَن and the verb. For example:
مَنِ اللَّتَانِ تَظَاهَرَتَا عَلَى النَّبِيِّ صلى الله عليه وسلم مِنْ أَزْوَاجِهِ
“Who are the ones2f, from his wives, who aided one another against the Prophet ﷺ ?
sunnah.com/bukhari:4913
Note that now the dual feminine doer pronoun in تَظَاهَرَتَا is the link-back pronoun that matches the connected noun ٱللَّتَانِ.
26.10 Differentiating question words from their other functions
Many of the question words (أَ, مَنْ, مَا, كَيْفَ, etc.) also have other functions. For example, in chapter 25 we learned that مَنْ, مَا, and أَيّ are also connected nouns. Many of the question nouns can also be used as conditional nouns that we will study in chapter @ref(…), if Allāh wills.
In this section, we will discuss briefly how to determine when words like أَ, مَنْ, مَا, كَيْفَ, etc. are question words, and when they could have one of their other functions.
The basic principle regarding a question sentence is that it is to be treated as one unit. A word from within a question sentence is not, individually, affected by anything outside the question. Let’s try to understand this using an example.
Consider the following sentence:
ٱِسْأَلْ أَيُّهُمْ قَامَ
ʾisʾal ʾayyuhum qām
“Ask: ‘Which of them stood?’”
The speaker is commanding the addressed person to ask a group of people the question: “Which of them stood”.
The question sentence is أَيُّهُمْ قَامَ ʾayyuhum qām “Which of them stood”. This entire sentence is considered the direct doee of the verb of command ٱسْأَلْ “ask!”. The question noun أَيُّ ʾayyu is in the u-state because it is the subject of the question sentence. It does not become أَيَّ ʾayya in the a-state because it is not, by itself, the direct doee of ٱسْأَلْ. Rather, as we have just stated, the entire question sentence is the direct doee. But because the direct doee is a sentence, and not an individual word, it does not indicate its state using, for example, an a-mark ◌َ.
Now, let’s modify the example. Consider now this sentence:
ٱِسْأَلْ أَيَّهُمْ قَامَ
ʾisʾal ʾayyahum qām
Ask the one of them who stood!
Now, the noun أَيَّ is in the a-state because it (individually) is the direct doee of the verb of command ٱسْأَلْ. The speaker is now commanding the addressed person to ask (something) of only the person who stood, out of a group of people. The rest of the people are not to be asked. Because the noun أَيَّ is individually affected by the preceding verb ٱسْأَلْ it is now not a question noun, and must be one of the other functions that the word أَيّ can have. As a matter of fact, it is here a connected noun, and the sentence following it: قَامَ “he stood” is its connector.
The other noteworthy point regarding questions (besides their being considered one unit) is that they may only be preceded either by a verb of knowledge, (like عَلِمَ, دَرىٰ, etc.) or by an expression indicating that the question is being quoted. We have already seen an example of the question being quoted in the example:
ٱِسْأَلْ أَيُّهُمْ قَامَ
“Ask: ‘Which of them stood?’”
An example of a question being preceded by a verb of knowledge is:
مَا عَلِمْتُ أَذَهَبَ أَمْ مَكَثَ
I don’t know whether he went or stayed.
Here the question sentence is: أَذَهَبَ أَمْ مَكَثَ “Did he go or did he stay?”
By the way, a question sentence may be part of a bigger question as well. For example:
أَتَدْرِي أَيُّهُمْ فِي ٱلدَّارِ؟
ʾatadrī ʾayyuhum fi -ddār
Do you know: which of them is in the house?
Note now the subtle difference in meaning if we change the state of أَيّ in the above example from the u-state to the a-state:
أَتَدْرِي أَيَّهُمْ فِي ٱلدَّارِ؟
ʾatadrī ʾayyahum fi -ddār
Do you know the one of them who is in the house?
When أَيّ was in the u-state it was a question noun. And the speaker was asking the addressed person if he could figure out who, from among the group of people, was in the house.
When أَيّ is in the a-state it is now a connected noun. The connector’s link-back pronoun is omitted (as is permissible in this case, see section @ref(…)). With the link-back pronoun restored, the sentence is أَتَدْرِي أَيَّهُمْ هُوَ فِي ٱلدَّارِ؟ And the speaker is asking the addressed person if he is familiar with the person who is in the house. Now he is not asking the addressed person to identify him, but rather if knows him as a person.
This difference is apparent with أَيّ because it is a flexible noun whose state is indicated by the vowel mark at its end. The same occurs in the other question nouns that are also connected nouns: مَا, and مَنْ but it won’t often be as apparent because they are rigid nouns.
As a final note, sometimes, one of the words like أَ, مَنْ, مَا, كَيْفَ, etc. may be preceded by parts of a sentence that are neither quoting, nor a verb of knowledge. Here we can be sure that the word is not a question word and must be one of its other functions. However, it still may not be easy to figure out what that other function is. Nevertheless, the meaning of the sentence can still usually be gleaned. For example:
فَلْتَدْخُلْ مِنْ أَيِّ أَبْوَابِ الْجَنَّةِ شَاءَتْ
“then let her enter from whichever of the doors of paradise she wishes.”10