A Treatise on al-Iḍāfa (Genitive Construction) and Its Applications in Sūrat al-Fātiḥa by Shihāb al-Dīn al-Khafājī (d. 1069 AH / 1659 CE) A Critical Edition and Study

Abstract

This research is concerned with the study and critical edition of the thirty-fifth epistle from the collection of Shihab al-Din al-Khafaji, titled Qayd al-Awābid fī Muhimmāt al-Fawā'id (Restraining the Fleeting Ideas regarding Important Benefits).

Al-Khafaji devoted this epistle to explaining the type of genitive construction (Iḍāfah) in the phrase (Fātiḥat al-Kitāb / The Opening of the Book). He achieved this by presenting the views of grammarians and their differences regarding the identification of instances where the genitive implies the meaning of lām (possession/specialization) versus instances where it implies the meaning of min (partition/explication), and applying these views to the genitive in (Fātiḥat al-Kitāb).

He concluded by endorsing Al-Qazwini’s view that the genitive in this phrase implies the meaning of min. In this judgment, he relied on the views of certain grammarians who classify this type of genitive as meaning min, corroborating this with two interpretations by Al-Zamakhshari in which he ruled the genitive to imply min in two similar Quranic contexts. Furthermore, he refuted the interpretations presented by Al-Sharif Al-Jurjani and "The Learned Annotator" (Al-Fāḍil Al-Muḥashshī), which attempted to invalidate the deduction based on Al-Zamakhshari’s texts and divert his intended meaning from its apparent implication. Al-Khafaji concluded his epistle by reviewing the sayings of grammarians regarding the positions where lām is estimated and where min is estimated.