Arabic

Particle

إِيَّا • ‎(ʾiyyā)

1. particle attached to oblique pronoun forms when they are not attached to the verb or preposition governing them
   • Koran 1:5, translation by Muhammad Asad

     إِيَّاكَ نَعْبُدُ وَإِيَّاكَ نَسْتَعِينُ‎

     ʾiyyāka naʿbudu waʾiyyāka nastaʿīnu

     Thee alone do we worship; and unto Thee alone do we turn for aid.

Inflection

Usage notes

Arabic personal pronouns are suffixes, not complete words in their own right, except in the subject form. Because of this, Arabic grammar does not allow them to stand independently in a sentence; they must be attached to a "carrier" word. Normally, object pronouns immediately follow the verb, preposition, or particle governing them, and thus in the overwhelming majority of the time, this governing verb, preposition, or particle is also the "carrier" of the pronoun suffix. However, these object pronouns may be separated from the governing word for any of a number of reasons, in which case إِيَّا ‎(ʾiyyā) must be employed as a generic "carrier" word:

1. to delay the verb until after the object pronoun is introduced, usually to emphasize the pronoun (compare Chinese 把 ‎(bă))
   • Koran 1:5, translation by Muhammad Asad

     إِيَّاكَ نَعْبُدُ وَإِيَّاكَ نَسْتَعِينُ‎

     ʾiyyāka naʿbudu waʾiyyāka nastaʿīnu

     Thee alone do we worship; and unto Thee alone do we turn for aid.

     Without إِيَّا ‎(ʾiyyā), the pronouns would have to follow the verbs, and it would simply say نَعْبُدُكَ وَنَسْتَعِينُكَ ‎(naʿbuduka wanastaʿīnuka, “We worship Thee and turn to Thee for aid”).

2. to introduce a second object pronoun, when the other object pronoun is already attached to the verb, preposition, or particle
   • Koran 9:114, translation by Yusuf Ali

     وَمَا كَانَ ٱسْتِغْفَارُ إِبْرَاهِيمَ لِأَبِيهِ إِلَّا عَنْ مَوْعِدَةٍ وَعَدَهَا إِيَّاهُ‎

     wamā kāna stiḡfāru ʾibrāhīma liʾabīhi ʾillā ʿan mawʿidatin waʿadahā ʾiyyāhu

     And Abraham prayed for his father's forgiveness only because of a promise he had made to him.

     Arabic grammar requires that the object of a relative clause be restated with a redundant pronoun, so the sentence literally reads "about a promise he made it (to) him"; the indirect object ("him", i.e. Abraham's father) therefore requires إِيَّا ‎(ʾiyyā) to carry it, as وَعَدَ ‎(waʿada) is already carrying the relative pronoun referring back to the promise.

   أَعْطِيتُهُ السَّيَّارَةَ‎

   ʾaʿṭītuhu s-sayyārata

   I gave him the car.

   أَعْطِيتُهُ إِيَّاهَا‎

   ʾaʿṭītuhu ʾiyyāhā

   I gave him it.

3. to state the object of a verb, preposition, or particle that is elided or understood from context
   • Koran 12:40, translation by Muhammad Asad

     أَمَرَ أَلَّا تَعْبُدُوٱ إِلَّا إِيَّاهُ‎

     ʾamara ʾallā taʿbudū ʾillā ʾiyyāhu

     He has ordained that you should worship nought but Him (literally, "He has ordained that you should not worship except Him")

     إِلَّا ‎(ʾillā, “except, but”) functions as a conjunction, not a preposition; the implied sentence is أَمَرَ أَلَّا تَعْبُدُوٱ إِلَّا تَعْبُدُوهُ ‎(ʾamara ʾallā taʿbudū ʾillā taʿbudūhu, “He has ordained that you should not worship except [that you] worship Him”), but the repeated verb تَعْبُدُوٱ ‎(taʿbudū) is elided the second time. The remaining pronoun requires إِلَّا ‎(ʾillā) since the verb to which it would have been attached is gone.

   • Koran 34:24, translation by Muhammad Asad

     وَإِنَّا أَوْ إِيَّاكُمْ لَعَلَىٰ هُدًى أَوْ فِي ضَلَالٍ مُبِينٍ‎

     waʾinnā ʾaw ʾiyyākum laʿalā hudan ʾaw fī ḍalālin mubīnin

     And, behold, either we or you are on the right path, or have clearly gone astray!

     Because أَوْ ‎(ʾaw, “or”) is a conjunction, it cannot carry an object pronoun. Repeating إِنَّ ‎(ʾinna, “indeed; behold”) (إِنَّا أَوْ إِنَّكُم ‎(ʾinnā ʾaw ʾinnakum)) sounds clumsy and unidiomatic, so إِيَّا ‎(ʾiyyā) provides the carrier for the second pronoun.

See also

• 把 ‎(bă)
• את ‎(et)