One person asks, “Was the article written by Zayd or ʿAmr?” The response is مَا كَتَبَ الْمَقَالَ إِلَّا زَيْدٌ
No one wrote the article except Zayd.
The statement does more than name the author: it negates other possible agents and affirms authorship of one person. Mā ... illā creates restriction and corrects the assumption that another writer might have done it.
A bare “Zayd wrote the article” would deliver the information without the same exclusionary force.
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Supplementary Applied Practice — Maʿānī, Bayān and Badīʿ
One person asks, “Was the article written by Zayd or ʿAmr?” The response is مَا كَتَبَ الْمَقَالَ إِلَّا زَيْدٌ
No one wrote the article except Zayd.
The statement does more than name the author: it negates other possible agents and affirms authorship of one person. Mā ... illā creates restriction and corrects the assumption that another writer might have done it.
A bare “Zayd wrote the article” would deliver the information without the same exclusionary force.