LessonsAl-Taqdim wa al-Ta’khir: Word Order and Rhetorical PurposesQuiz

وَالَّذِي حَارَتِ الْبَرِيَّةُ فِيهِ حَيَوَانٌ مُسْتَحْدَثٌ مِنْ جَمَادٍ
And that which bewildered creation is a living being brought forth from inanimate matter.

The relative expression al-ladhi harat al-bariyyatu fihi appears first and presents a mysterious subject; hayawanun mustahdathun min jamad supplies the postponed predicate. The audience wants to know what the surprising thing is.

Grammatically, al-ladhi is a relative pronoun functioning as the initial subject, harat ... fihi is its relative clause, hayawanun is the predicate, and mustahdathun its adjective. The deferred identification produces suspense.

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The textbook’s example of suspense

Al-Taqdim wa al-Ta’khir: Word Order and Rhetorical Purposes

وَالَّذِي حَارَتِ الْبَرِيَّةُ فِيهِ حَيَوَانٌ مُسْتَحْدَثٌ مِنْ جَمَادٍ
And that which bewildered creation is a living being brought forth from inanimate matter.

The relative expression al-ladhi harat al-bariyyatu fihi appears first and presents a mysterious subject; hayawanun mustahdathun min jamad supplies the postponed predicate. The audience wants to know what the surprising thing is.

Grammatically, al-ladhi is a relative pronoun functioning as the initial subject, harat ... fihi is its relative clause, hayawanun is the predicate, and mustahdathun its adjective. The deferred identification produces suspense.