Shouldn’t the مضارع be يَقْرَبُ if the Nahi is لا تَقْرَبْ?
Assalaamu Alaikum @Idris
The verb ‘تَقْرَبُوا’ is in the مضارع (present/future) tense, but it follows the second-person plural form (أنتم). The reason it is not ‘يَقْرَبُوا’ is because ‘يَقْرَبُ’ is the third-person singular form (هو), which means ‘he approaches.’
However, in this verse, the command is directed toward the audience (you all), so the verb must be in the second-person plural form, which is ‘تَقْرَبُونَ’ in its default state. Since ‘لا’ here is ‘لا الناهية’ (prohibitive), it makes the verb مجزوم (jussive), which drops the final ‘ن’ sound, resulting in ‘تَقْرَبُوا’ instead of ‘تَقْرَبُونَ’.
I hope this answers your question, and I hope it helps. May Allah make it easy for you!
Jazakallah Khairan for the details, but I’m sorry my point of the question wasn’t very clear. In the second card it shows a dhamma on the Mudhaari’ form meaning that it thinks this ayah from the Quran is using the قَرُبَ يَقْرُبُ family, but the ayah has a fathah on the middle letter so I thought is using the قَرِبَ يَقْرَبُ family. The meaning of the word seems to be identical in both families but since the vowel on the ر isn’t matching on the grammar card it made me confused.
Wa iyyak, and thank you for clarifying further.
The word تَقْرَبُوا comes from the root ق-ر-ب. When looking at the base form, Arabic verbs generally start from فَعَلَ (fa‘ala) or فَعُلَ (fa‘ula). In this case, it comes from قَرُبَ (qaruba), meaning to be near.
The reason the ayah has رَ (fathah) instead of رُ (dammah) is because of a natural vowel shift that happens when words enter different patterns. In this case, it follows a pattern where the middle vowel changes from dammah to fathah for ease of pronunciation.
There is no such pattern as قَرِبَ يَقْرَبُ in Arabic. The only valid pattern for this root is قَرُبَ يَقْرُبُ. The vowel difference in the ayah happens due to the pattern change, not because the verb belongs to a different family.
Specifically when it comes to grammar, the more roots and words you are exposed to, the easier it gets. In addition to understanding the rules, it’s a matter of memorization over time. After a while, your brain just recalls the forms of different root words naturally. I hope this all makes sense and helps in sha Allah!
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