مَا ضَرَبْتُ إِلَّا زَيْدًا
I struck no one except Zayd.
The first-person verb already supplies the agent. Zayd is the direct object, so the alternatives being excluded are other possible objects, not other agents.
The sense is that the speaker struck none of the other relevant people and did strike Zayd. This confines this speaker’s striking to one object; it does not assert that nobody else ever struck Zayd.
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How Restrictive Constructions Convey Qasr: Ellipsis and Scope
مَا ضَرَبْتُ إِلَّا زَيْدًا
I struck no one except Zayd.
The first-person verb already supplies the agent. Zayd is the direct object, so the alternatives being excluded are other possible objects, not other agents.
The sense is that the speaker struck none of the other relevant people and did strike Zayd. This confines this speaker’s striking to one object; it does not assert that nobody else ever struck Zayd.