Arabic 14 — Al-usrah bayna l-māḍī wa-l-ḥāḍir — the family then and now, its three differences, and the two comprehension exercises الأُسْرَةُ بَيْنَ المَاضِي وَالحَاضِرِ

1 · Today's title #

As in حَاضِرُ العَالَمِ الإِسْلَامِيِّ — "the present state of the Islamic world"; and العَالَمُ المَاضِي would be the world of the past.

So the title means family life between yesterday and today — what it was then, set beside what it is now.

2 · The warm-up, in Arabic #

Before the passage come the discussion questions printed above it, asked and answered in Arabic.

الجَدّ = grandfather; الجَدَّة = grandmother. Drill the question in two shapes — with مَعَ أُسْرَتِكُمْ ("with your family") and with فِي بَيْتِي ("in my house"). The answer given is no: they live separately.

It is سُؤَالٌ لَطِيفٌ, a nice question. عَامِلَة (ʿāmilah) — المَرْأَةُ العَامِلَةُ is a woman who works, who does a job. The follow-ups: هَلْ تَعْمَلُ أَنْتَ؟ · أَلَا تُحِبُّ أَنْ تَعْمَلَ؟ · مَا رَأْيُكَ؟

3 · Paragraph 1, read through #

The passage below follows the class's line-by-line reading; read the exact wording from the textbook.

"The family order of today differs from the family order of the past, and this difference has many forms, among them: the disappearance of the large family in many societies. The large family used to live in one big house that took in all of its members."

4 · يَخْتَلِفُ … عَنْ — the verb and its particle #

اخْتِلَاف (ikhtilāf) = difference, divergence. The verb is يَخْتَلِفُ, and the preposition that belongs to it is عَنْ — differs from what?

5 · نِظَام — the family's order #

نِظَام (niẓām) = order, system, arrangement.

Strip the sentence to one word each side and the shape is plain:

Expand the two sides and you have the passage's opening sentence exactly. "It is a small sentence — two words expanded, that is all there is to it."

6 · صُورَة / صُوَر — the forms of the difference #

صُورَة = a form, a shape, a picture; plural صُوَر. Read it as "shapes" or "patterns" — the difference shows itself in many.

7 · مِنْهَا — the partitive مِنْ #

مِنْهَا = مِنْ + هَا.

8 · اخْتَفَى vs أَخْفَى — لَازِم and مُتَعَدٍّ #

Two verbs from one root, and the passage wants the second:

اخْتِفَاء is the verbal noun of the second: things disappearing of themselves.

That is the first form of the difference.

9 · A digression: the magazine المُجْتَمَع #

There is an Arabic magazine called المُجْتَمَع (al-Mujtamaʿ), published out of Kuwait and well known, and available online. It carries a great many good articles of every kind and is very useful for reading practice — from the headlines down to the small pieces inside.

10 · مُجْتَمَع, and the كَثِيرٌ مِنَ pattern #

مُجْتَمَع = society; plural مُجْتَمَعَات. So كَثِيرٌ مِنَ المُجْتَمَعَاتِ = many societies. The pattern is worth keeping:

قَلِيل is deliberately loose — "a few", "a little". How few is not stated; the word says only that the quantity is small. And the مِنْ in all of these carries the sense of تَمْيِيز (tamyīz, specification): it specifies what the "many" or "few" is made of.

11 · The big house — and one noun with two adjectives #

يَضُمُّ = it contains, takes in, encloses. فَرْد = an individual, a member; plural أَفْرَاد. جَمِيعُ الأَفْرَادِ = all the members.

Now the grammar in the phrase بَيْتٍ وَاحِدٍ كَبِيرٍ:

12 · The large family goes, the small one comes #

اخْتَفَى and ظَهَرَ are opposites — to vanish, and to come into view.

أَوْلَاد, the plural of وَلَد, is not restricted here to "sons" — in general use it means children, and that is its sense in this passage.

That is the first of the three differences.

13 · Paragraph 2 — ضَعْفُ العَلَاقَةِ #

عَلَاقَة = a relationship, a connection. ضَعْف = weakness — the same word you know from ضَعْفُ الإِيمَانِ.

And the passage's explanation:

14 · لَا … إِلَّا — the frame you already know #

You know the frame from لَا إِلٰهَ إِلَّا اللهُ — "there is no god except Allah": a negation followed by an exception. لَا يَرَوْنَ = "they do not see"; إِلَّا قَلِيلًا = "except a little."

And why:

يَجِدُونَ is from وَجَدَ — the same verb, the same dropped wāw.

15 · وَمِنْ نَاحِيَةٍ أُخْرَى — the same thing from the children's side #

نَاحِيَة = a side, a direction, an aspect — "looked at from another angle". يُغَادِرُ = to leave, to depart from, the equivalent of تَرَكَ / يَتْرُكُ.

بَقِيَ / يَبْقَى = to remain, to stay; وَحْدَهَا = by herself, alone; and مُعْظَمَ الوَقْتِ again.

16 · A digression: how little a family actually talks #

The bond — the عَلَاقَة — weakens, and psychologists speak about this too. A practical illustration: a man who goes out for the day speaks most of his day's words outside — at the office, at school — and only a small share at home. Everything is talked out there, and by the time he is home there is nothing left to say.

The remedy the passage points to is حِوَار — conversation, dialogue. Problems need talking through.

That is the second of the three differences: ضَعْفُ العَلَاقَةِ.

17 · Paragraph 3 — خُرُوجُ بَعْضِ النِّسَاءِ #

Each sentence here is a usable sentence pattern in its own right.

خُرُوج — the verbal noun of خَرَجَ / يَخْرُجُ — = going out.

The لَا … إِلَّا frame again, the same one from §14. ضَرُورَة = necessity, compulsion, a forced circumstance.

18 · A digression: الضَّرُورَاتُ تُبِيحُ المَحْظُورَاتِ #

That word gives the fiqh maxim:

These maxims are rules the imams derived from the Qurʾān and the Sunnah: when a new problem comes up you refer it back to the rule and find your answer there.

19 · أَمَّا … فَـ #

أَمَّا = "as for …", "so far as … is concerned". It must be followed by a noun or a pronoun, and the clause is then answered by فَـ. You have heard it every Friday: أَمَّا بَعْدُ in the khuṭbah is this same أَمَّا.

20 · مُرْهَق / مُتْعَب, and قَامَ بِـ #

مُرْهَق (murhaq) = worn out, exhausted — "أَنَا مُرْهَقٌ". Its equivalent is مُتْعَب.

عِنْدَمَا = "when, at the time that". And note the construction:

You know it from قِيَامُ اللَّيْلِ, and from the ḥadīth wording مَنْ قَامَ رَمَضَانَ … — "whoever stands [in prayer through] Ramadan …"

So لَا تَقُومُ بِأَعْمَالِ البَيْتِ = she does not take on the work of the house —

نَظَافَة = cleaning, cleanliness; إِعْدَادُ الطَّعَامِ = the preparation of food.

21 · وَلَا تَجِدُ وَقْتًا … #

تَجِدُ — from وَجَدَ / يَجِدُ, feminine present: she finds. لِتَجْلِسَ = "so that she may sit". أَمْر → أُمُور = a matter, an affair → affairs. الحَدِيث here is simply talking, conversation.

That is the third of the three differences.

22 · The three differences, together #

The passage gives you three, and you should be able to state them.

Read the passage many times over. Then do the exercises printed below it.

23 · Practice — the two exercises #

Exercise 1 gives nine sentences drawn from the passage, to be read through and worked out.

Exercise 2 asks for the main idea of each paragraph:

Three options — أ، ب، ج — are given each time, and you pick one. To do it you must re-read the paragraph, which is the point: the exercise makes you read all three again.

And one more alongside them: if you were to put a title on the paragraph, what title would you give it?