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Bi
ب
The
preposition Bi
ب has various usages. It is
used to express adhesion
إلصاق;
time and place
ظرفية; swearing
قسم;
companionship and connection
مصاحبة or
ملابسة; to render an
(intransitive) verb transitive
تعدية or
نقل; to indicate the instrument
of whose aid we avail ourselves
استعانة; to express the reason
of cause
علة or
سبب, and to state the
recompense, equivalent, or price given for anything
تعويض
,
مقابلة, or
ثمن [A Grammar of the Arabic
Language by W. Wright]. It has diverse significations,
including ‘in’, ‘by’, ‘at’, ‘with’, ‘from’, ‘to’, ‘into’,
‘upon’, ‘for’, or ‘by reason of’ [A Dictionary and Glossary
of the Koran by John Penrice]. Some examples of various
usages of Bi
ب
are given as follows:
1.
To denote adhesion (and adjunction, or association)
of the verb to its objective complement, or of a noun or
verb to that to which it is itself prefixed. It indicates
whether one thing is attached, affixed, neighbouring,
bordering, adjoining, in contact, meeting or touching,
connected or contiguous to another.
Amsaktu
bi-Zeydin: ‘I laid hold upon or seized somewhat of the
body of Zeyd, or what might detain him, as an arm or a hand,
or a garment, or the like.’
Whereas
Amsaktuhu may mean ‘I withheld him or restrained him
from acting according to his own free will’.
Marartu
bi-Zeydin: ‘I passed by Zeyd’; ‘I made my passing to
adhere to Zeyd’.
Bihi
daa’un: ‘In him is a disease’, i.e. ‘a disease is
cleaving (or adhering) to him’.
Aqsamtu
Billah: ‘I swear by God’.
Ashraka
Billahi: ‘He associated another with God’.
Wakkaltu
bifulanin: ‘I associated a wakeel with such a
one’.
Alaika
bi-Zeydin: ‘Keep thou to Zeyd or Take thou Zeyd’.
جلس
به
Jalasa bihi: He sat beside (or by) him.
2. To
render a verb transitive.
In such
cases, it must be translated into English by transitive
verbs.
فَأْتُوا بِسُورَةٍ مِنْ مِثْلِهِ
: ‘then bring (lit. come with) a sura like it’.
[2:23, 10:38]
ذَهَبَ اللَّهُ
بِنُورِهِمْ : ‘Allah took away (lit.
went away with) their light’. [2:17]
3. It
also denotes employing a thing as an aid or instrument.
كتبت بالقلم
katabtu bilqalam: ‘I wrote with the
pen’.
قَاتِلُوهُمْ يُعَذِّبْهُمُ اللَّهُ
بِأَيْدِيكُمْ :
‘Fight them, and Allah will punish them by your
hands’ [9:14].
4. To
denote concomitance as syn. with
مع.
وَقَدْ دَخَلُوا بِالْكُفْرِ وَهُمْ قَدْ
خَرَجُوا بِهِ : ‘and
indeed they come in with unbelief and indeed they go
forth with it’ [5:61].
ادْخُلُوهَا بِسَلامٍ آمِنِينَ:
‘Enter you here with peace and security’ [15:46].
5. It is
also syn. with ‘fi’ before a noun signifying a place or a
time.
Fi
فى (in) shows that one
thing is actually in the midst of another, surrounded by it
on all sides; whereas bi
ب indicates that one is
close by the other or in contact with it.
وَلَقَدْ
نَصَرَكُمُ اللَّهُ بِبَدْرٍ :‘And Allah
did certainly assist you at Badr’ [3:123].
وَهُوَ الَّذِي يَتَوَفَّاكُمْ بِاللَّيْلِ
وَيَعْلَمُ مَا جَرَحْتُمْ بِالنَّهَارِ ‘And He
it is Who takes your souls at night (in sleep), and He knows
what you acquire in the day’ [6:60].
6. It
also denotes substitution, meaning ‘instead of’ or ‘in place
of’
لقيت بزيد بحرا
laqeetu bi-zyedin bahran: ‘I
found, in the place of Zyed, a man of abundant generosity.’
7. It
also denotes requital, or the giving or doing in return.
أُولَئِكَ
الَّذِينَ اشْتَرَوُا الضَّلالَةَ بِالْهُدَى
: ‘These are they who have bartered Guidance for
error’ [2:16].
إِنَّ اللَّهَ اشْتَرَى مِنَ الْمُؤْمِنِينَ
أَنْفُسَهُمْ وَأَمْوَالَهُمْ بِأَنَّ لَهُمُ الْجَنَّةَ:
‘Allah hath purchased of the believers their persons and
their goods; for theirs (in return) is the garden (of
Paradise)’ [9:111].
8. It is
also syn. with عن
‘an’ and is said to be peculiar to interrogation.
فَاسْأَلْ بِهِ
خَبِيرًا : ‘so ask respecting it one
aware’ [25:59].
يَا أَيُّهَا الإنْسَانُ مَا غَرَّكَ بِرَبِّكَ
الْكَرِيمِ: ‘O Man! What has lured you away
from your Sustainer, the Bountiful?’ [82:6]
9. It is
also syn. with على
‘ala’.
لَوْ تُسَوَّى
بِهِمُ الأرْضُ :
‘That the ground were made even over them’ [4:42]
10. It
also denotes part of a whole, as syn. with ‘min’
مِنْ.
عَيْنًا يَشْرَبُ بِهَا عِبَادُ اللَّهِ:
‘A fountain from which the servants of Allah shall drink’
[76:6]
عَيْنًا يَشْرَبُ بِهَا الْمُقَرَّبُونَ:
‘A fountain from which drink they who are drawn near (to
Allah)’. [83:28]
11. It
is also used to denote swearing.
Billah
or uqsimu billah: I swear by God
لا أُقْسِمُ بِهَذَا الْبَلَدِ
: ‘I do call to witness this City’ [90:1]
12. It
is also syn. with ‘ila’
إِلَى as denoting the end
of an extent or interval.
Examples:
Ahsana
bi: ‘he did good to me’.
13. It
is also sometime redundant (expletive). Mostly in case
of the agent
كَفَى
Examples:
وَكَفَى
بِاللَّهِ حَسِيبًا : ‘Allah is
sufficient as a Reckoner’ [4:6].
وَكَفَى بِاللَّهِ وَلِيًّا وَكَفَى بِاللَّهِ
نَصِيرًا : ‘Allah is enough as a protector,
and Allah is enough as a Helper’ [4:45].
وَكَفَى بِاللَّهِ عَلِيمًا :
‘And sufficient is Allah as the Knower’ [4:70].
Also see
4:50, 4:55, 4:79, 4:81, 4:132, 4:166, 4:171, 10:29, 13:43,
17:14, 17:17, 17:65, 17:96, 21:47, 25:31, 25:58, 29:52,
33:3, 33:39, 33:48, 46:8, 48:28.
Ahsinu
bi-zaidin: ‘Zaid became possessed with goodness or
beauty.’
Bi-hasbika
dirhamun: ‘A thing sufficing thee is a dirhem.’
وَمَا اللَّهُ بِغَافِلٍ عَمَّا تَعْمَلُونَ
: ‘And Allah is not unmindful of what you do’. [2:74]
وَالَّذِينَ كَسَبُوا السَّيِّئَاتِ جَزَاءُ
سَيِّئَةٍ بِمِثْلِهَا : ‘And (as for) those
who have earned evil, the punishment of an evil is the like
of it’ [10:27]
Also see
2:137, 17:88, 18:109, 25:33.
14. It
also denotes a reason or cause
علة or
سبب (means for
obtaining something; reason; cause; motive) translated e.g.
as because of; on account of; due to; by
فَبِظُلْمٍ
مِنَ الَّذِينَ هَادُوا حَرَّمْنَا عَلَيْهِمْ طَيِّبَاتٍ
أُحِلَّتْ لَهُمْ وَبِصَدِّهِمْ عَنْ سَبِيلِ اللَّهِ كَثِيرًا
: ‘Because of the wrongdoing of
the Jews We forbade them good things which were (before)
made lawful unto them, and because of their much
hindering from Allah's way’ [4:160].
It is also
used to denote a cause when prefixed with anna
أَنَّ and ma
مَا
ذَلِكَ بِأَنَّهُمْ قَوْمٌ لا يَعْقِلُونَ
: ‘that is because they are a people without
understanding’ [5:58].
ذَلِكَ بِمَا
عَصَوْا : ‘that is because they
disobeyed’ [2:61, 3:112].
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