Sentence Structure and Its Types in the Book Mirqāt al-Mafātīḥ Sharḥ Mishkāt al-Maṣābīḥ by ʿAlī ibn Sulṭān Muḥammad al-Qārī (d. 1014 AH)

Abstract

The book Mirqāt al-Mafātīḥ Sharḥ Mishkāt al-Maṣābīḥ by ʿAlī ibn Sulṭān al-Qārī (d. 1014 AH) was selected for this study because it represents a comprehensive and complete compilation of noble Prophetic traditions. Such a source offers the researcher a sense of confidence, assurance, and certainty that the work being undertaken is academically sound and capable of producing reliable and definitive results upon which one can depend.
Upon my initial reading of the book, I found it rich and abundant with syntactic material that directly relates to grammar and its connection to meaning, as well as the role of syntactic analysis in understanding the hadith and elucidating its significance.
This study aims to shed light on sentence structure in the Prophetic tradition and its various types. The first section addresses sentence construction, examining predication (isnād) and pronoun reference, while the second section explores the different types of sentences.
.Understanding the meanings of the noble Prophetic traditions (ahadith) and interpreting them accurately has a significant impact on determining the structure and type of sentences. This is evident in the Prophet’s (PBUH) hadith: “The believer to another believer is like a building whose different parts enforce each other.” Then he interlaced his fingers. Al-Qārī explained that interpreting the sentence “enforces each other” (yashuddu baʿḍuhu baʿḍan) as an independent clause (isti’nāf) is more evident than interpreting it as a circumstantial phrase (ḥāl) or an adjective (ṣifah), as this better conveys the intended comparison between believers. The Prophet (PBUH) physically demonstrated this meaning by interlacing his noble fingers, thereby reinforcing this image in the mind of the recipient.