Uslub al-Taghlib

One interesting expression used in the Arabic language is what’s termed as Uslub al-Taghlib. This is an expression that consists of just one word, but it indicates two different things at the same time. How is that possible?!

Let’s take a look at the verse in Surah al-Kahf:

وَأَمَّا الْغُلَامُ فَكَانَ أَبَوَاهُ مُؤْمِنَيْنِ فَخَشِينَا أَن يُرْهِقَهُمَا طُغْيَاناً وَكُفْراً

“And as for the boy, his parents (abawaa) were believers, and we feared lest he should oppress them by rebellion and disbelief.” [al-Kahf: 80]

The word for parents here is not the usual ‘walidaahu.’ It’s actually abawaahu – the dual form of ‘Ab‘ meaning father. Of course, the verse does not mean ‘his two fathers’ but rather it’s uslub al-taghlib where one of the two being spoken of (in this case, the father) has taken on its dual form to indicate both parties – the mother as well as the father.

The expression is called taghlib because that is what happens here – one of the words takes preference or is treated as being in the majority, for a particular reason.

Other examples include:

قمران – qamaran (lit. 2 moons) this is the uslub al-taghlib used to indicate both the moon and the sun. The moon has taken preference here due to it being masculine.

عُمَران – ‘Umaran (lit. the 2 ‘Umars) – used to indicate Abu Bakr and ‘Umar. The name Abu Bakr should have taken preference here however it’s murakkab (consisting of 2 words itself), which means it cannot be placed into dual. Therefore uslub al-taghlib has taken the name ‘Umar into its expression as it’s mufrad (single).

مكتان – Makkatan (lit. the 2 Makkahs) – an expression for Makkah and Madinah. Makkah has taken preference here because of its virtue over Madinah.

الحسنان – al-Hasnan (lit. the 2 Hasans) – an expression for al-Hasan and al-Husayn, grandchildren of the Messenger (sallallahu `alayhi wa sallam). Preference has gone to al-Hasan due to him being older than al-Husayn (radhiallahu `anhuma).

The word that takes preference may do so for different reasons e.g. its grammatical make-up (a singular word will take preference over a plural/murakkab), it’s gender in language, it’s virtue and so on etc.