The passive verb in Arabic - الْفِعْلُ الماضِي المَجْهُولُ

The active voice verb, known as اَلْفِعْلُ الْمَعْرُوْفُ, is where the subject, or the doer of the action, is explicitly mentioned. We have extensively covered these types of verbs in previous chapters, particularly those following the patterns of فَعَلَ – فَعِلَ – فَعُلَ. However, Arabic also features the concept of an unknown or passive verb.

  Example:  

 أَن سَخِطَ اللَّـهُ عَلَيْهِمْ وَفِي الْعَذَابِ هُمْ خَالِدُونَ

That Allah has become angry with them, and in the punishment, they will abide eternally. (5:80)

حَتَّىٰ إِذَا بَلَغَ مَغْرِبَ الشَّمْسِ

Until, when he reached the setting of the sun (18:86)

In Arabic, we refer to the passive voice of a verb as الفِعْلُ المَجْهُولُ (the unknown verb). In this form, the subject or the doer of the action is not explicitly specified. Typically, we derive passive verbs from transitive verbs – الفِعْلُ الْمُتَعَدِّي, and they consist of two components: the passive verb itself and the object acting as the subject, as there is no explicit doer (فَاعِل) present. Therefore, the object will take the harakah of the subject, which is usually a dammah. In Arabic, this object is referred to as نَائِبُ الفَاعِل (the deputy of the doer).

For example:

وَوُضِعَ الْكِتَابُ

And the record [of deeds] will be placed [open] (18:49)

الْكِتَابُ = نَائِبُ الفَاعِل وُضِعَ= المَجْهُوْلُ  

In Arabic, the formation of a passive verb involves changing the harakah (vowel marking) of the active participle, which follows the pattern فَعَلَ – فَعِلَ – فَعُلَ, to فُعِلَ. This change is consistent across all verbs. Specifically, it involves replacing the original vowel markings with a dammah (ٌ) on the first radical and a kasrah (ٍ) on the second radical.