قَبْلَهُ فِعْلٌ أَوْ صِفَةٌ — Translation: “a verb or descriptive form precedes it.”
In the first example, قَامَ is a verb. In the second, ضَارِبٌ is an active participle, a derived descriptive form. Here صفة does not mean any adjective whatsoever; it refers to a derived form that can govern a subject-like noun, similarly to its verb.
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Al-Marfūʿāt: The Fāʿil, Its Definition and Full Parsing
قَبْلَهُ فِعْلٌ أَوْ صِفَةٌ — Translation: “a verb or descriptive form precedes it.”
In the first example, قَامَ is a verb. In the second, ضَارِبٌ is an active participle, a derived descriptive form. Here صفة does not mean any adjective whatsoever; it refers to a derived form that can govern a subject-like noun, similarly to its verb.