The path of those upon whom You have bestowed favor, not of those who have earned [Your] anger or of those who are astray.
Sahih International
Grammar, phrase by phrase
صِرَٰطَ
(The path…)
Root صرط — path, way · 45 times in the Quran
صِرَٰطَword 1
Noun · اسمA noun is a word that names a person, place, thing, or idea. صِرَٰطَ names such a thing: '(The) path', from the root صرط: path, way. L1 · R6
Masculine Noun · اسم مذكرArabic treats every noun — every naming word — as grammatically 'he' or 'she'. صِرَٰطَ carries no feminine marker — no ة at its end, no final ى, no اء — so it takes the default and is treated as 'he': a masculine noun. L2 · R3
Accusative · منصوبThe accusative is the ending a noun (a naming word) takes when an action lands on it, marked by a fathah ـَ — a small slanted stroke written above the final letter. صِرَٰطَ ends with exactly that fathah ـَ, wearing the same ending as the path it restates — the path the guiding is asked to land on: 'guide us to the straight path… the path of those…'. L2 · R11
Apposition (Badal) · بدلAn apposition is a second noun (naming word) that renames the one before it to make it clearer, matching it in case ending. صِرَٰطَ ٱلَّذِينَ أَنْعَمْتَ عَلَيْهِمْ restates and defines ٱلصِّرَٰطَ ٱلْمُسْتَقِيمَ — 'the straight path, that is, the path of those You favored' — and both carry the accusative fathah ـَ (a small slanted stroke above the letter). L7 · R4
This phrase defines the straight path just prayed for: the way of those upon whom Allah has bestowed His grace.
Ibn Kathir (abridged), on 1:7
ٱلَّذِينَ
(…of those…)
ٱلَّذِينَword 2
Relative Pronoun · اسم موصولA relative pronoun is a word like 'who' or 'those who' that hooks a whole describing sentence onto something specific. ٱلَّذِينَ is the form for a group of people — 'those who' — and the statement that follows ('You have bestowed favor upon them') tells us exactly who they are. L5 · R13
Possessive (Idafa) · مضاف إليهArabic says 'of' by chaining two naming words directly together: صِرَٰطَ ٱلَّذِينَ reads '(The) path — (of) those'. ٱلَّذِينَ fills the owner slot — the second position of the chain, the position that carries the genitive, the after-'of' ending usually shown by a kasrah ـِ (a small slanted stroke below the letter) — though this word is one of the fixed-shape words whose ending never changes to show it. L5 · R5
'Those upon whom Allah has bestowed His grace' are those named in Surat An-Nisa': the Prophets, the ever-truthful, the martyrs, and the righteous — 'and how excellent these companions are.'
Ibn Kathir (abridged), on 1:7
أَنْعَمْتَ
(…You have bestowed favor…)
Root نعم — to bestow favor, blessing; cattle, livestock; excellent · 140 times in the Quran
أَنْعَمْتَword 3
Verb · فعلA verb is a word for an action or happening that is always tied to a time — past, present/future, or a command. أَنْعَمْ speaks of an action already carried out: 'You have bestowed (Your) Favors', from the root نعم: to bestow favor, blessing; cattle, livestock; excellent. L1 · R7
Past Tense Verb · فعل ماضٍA past tense verb describes an action already completed, and it is recognized by who-did-it endings added to the verb's tail. Here the ending تَ ('you') is fastened to أَنْعَمْ: 'You bestowed favor' — a favor already granted. L8 · R1
Form IV Verb · أَفْعَلَArabic stamps roots into fixed patterns, and a hamzah أَ standing at the front of the three root letters is the fingerprint of the pattern that means causing or granting the action. On the root نعم — favor, blessing — it yields 'to bestow favor upon': أَنْعَمْتَ, You granted blessing. L12 · R5
Attached Pronoun · ضمير متصلAn attached pronoun is a mini-word for 'I / you / he' that cannot stand alone — it is glued onto the end of another word, and each form carries within it exactly who is meant. تَ · 'you/your' is fastened to the tail of the verb here — أَنْعَمْتَ — naming the one who did the action. L3 · R6
Doer (Fa'il) · فاعلThe doer is the one performing the action in a sentence that opens with its verb (its action-word). The doer need not be a separate word — it can be a pronoun ending fastened to the verb itself, and the تَ on أَنْعَمْتَ is exactly that: 'You' are the One who bestowed. L9 · R4
When mentioning His favor, Allah names Himself as its giver — 'You have bestowed' — while the anger, mentioned next, arrives with no doer named: the bounties are ascribed to Allah, the deviations are not.
Ibn Kathir (abridged), on 1:7
عَلَيْهِمْ
(…upon them,)
عَلَيْهِمْword 4
Particle · حرفA particle is a small helper word of one to three letters that works like glue — it connects or adjusts other words rather than naming something or describing an action, and it can never be the one a sentence is about. عَلَيْ · 'on/upon' is such a helper. L1 · R9
Preposition · حرف جرA preposition is a little helper word that relates one thing to another; Arabic keeps a short list of them — small words like فِي 'in', مِنْ 'from', and عَلَىٰ 'on'. عَلَيْ · 'on/upon' is one of these relation-words — it is عَلَىٰ 'on' in the shape it takes when a suffix is fastened to its end. L4 · R2
Attached Pronoun · ضمير متصلAn attached pronoun is a mini-word for 'me / us / them' that cannot stand alone — it is glued onto the end of another word, and each form carries within it exactly who is meant. هِمْ · 'them/their' hangs on the little relation-word in عَلَيْهِمْ, governed by the word it is fastened to. L3 · R6
So far: “The path of those upon whom You have bestowed favor,”
غَيْرِ
(…not…)
Root غير — other than, different from; to change, alter · 154 times in the Quran
غَيْرِword 5
Noun · اسمA noun is a word that names a person, place, thing, or idea. غَيْرِ names such a thing: 'not (of)', from the root غير: other than, different from; to change, alter. L1 · R6
Masculine Noun · اسم مذكرArabic treats every noun — every naming word — as grammatically 'he' or 'she'. غَيْرِ carries no feminine marker — no ة at its end, no final ى, no اء — so it takes the default and is treated as 'he': a masculine noun. L2 · R3
Genitive · مجرورThe genitive is the ending a noun (a naming word) takes after a preposition or as the owner in an 'of' phrase, marked by a kasrah ـِ — a small slanted stroke written below the final letter. غَيْرِ ends with that kasrah ـِ because it restates 'those' in 'the path of those…', which sits in the genitive owner slot of that 'of' phrase. L2 · R12
Apposition (Badal) · بدلAn apposition is a second noun (naming word) that follows to clarify the one before it, matching its case ending. غَيْرِ ('other than') restates 'those You favored' by exclusion — the favored ones, not those under anger — and carries the matching genitive kasrah ـِ (a small slanted stroke below the letter). L7 · R4
ٱلْمَغْضُوبِ
(…of those who have earned [Your] anger…)
Root غضب — to be angry, anger, wrath · 24 times in the Quran
ٱلْمَغْضُوبِword 6
Definite Article · أل التعريفThe definite article is the prefix ٱلْ at the front of a noun (a naming word); it means 'the' — one specific, known one. The letter after it is a 'moon' letter — a letter not made in the same part of the mouth as ل — so the ل of the prefix keeps its own sound, both written and heard, resting with the sukūn ـْ (a small circle written above the letter): ٱلْمَغْضُوبِ. L2 · R9
Noun · اسمA noun is a word that names a person, place, thing, or idea. مَغْضُوبِ names such a thing: 'those who earned (Your) wrath', from the root غضب: to be angry, anger, wrath. L1 · R6
Masculine Noun · اسم مذكرArabic treats every noun — every naming word — as grammatically 'he' or 'she'. ٱلْمَغْضُوبِ carries no feminine marker — no ة at its end, no final ى, no اء — so it takes the default and is treated as 'he': a masculine noun. L2 · R3
Genitive · مجرورThe genitive is the ending a noun (a naming word) takes as the owner in an 'of' phrase, marked by a kasrah ـِ — a small slanted stroke written below the final letter. غَيْرِ and ٱلْمَغْضُوبِ form such a pair, 'not (of) those who earned (Your) wrath', and as the owner-word of that pair, ٱلْمَغْضُوبِ ends with exactly that kasrah ـِ. L2 · R12
Possessive (Idafa) · مضاف إليهArabic says 'of' by chaining two nouns — two naming words — directly together: غَيْرِ ٱلْمَغْضُوبِ reads 'not (of) — those who earned (Your) wrath'. The second word of such a chain, the owner, always takes the genitive — the after-'of' ending, shown by a kasrah ـِ, a small slanted stroke written below the letter — and ٱلْمَغْضُوبِ ends with exactly that kasrah ـِ. L5 · R5
Passive Participle · اسم مفعولA passive participle is a noun built from a root's letters on the mold مَفْعُول to name the one an action was done to. مَغْضُوبِ sits on exactly that mold, from the root غضب — anger, wrath — naming those the anger has fallen upon, without saying who sent it. L11 · R2
Those who earned the anger are those who knew the truth yet deviated from it — the Prophet ﷺ said, 'Those who have earned the anger are the Jews'; and the anger is mentioned without naming its sender, though it is He who sent it down upon them.
Ibn Kathir (abridged), on 1:7
عَلَيْهِمْ
(…upon themselves,)
عَلَيْهِمْword 7
Particle · حرفA particle is a small helper word of one to three letters that works like glue — it connects or adjusts other words rather than naming something or describing an action, and it can never be the one a sentence is about. عَلَيْ · 'on/upon' is such a helper. L1 · R9
Preposition · حرف جرA preposition is a little helper word that relates one thing to another; Arabic keeps a short list of them — small words like فِي 'in', مِنْ 'from', and عَلَىٰ 'on'. عَلَيْ · 'on/upon' is one of these relation-words — it is عَلَىٰ 'on' in the shape it takes when a suffix is fastened to its end. L4 · R2
Attached Pronoun · ضمير متصلAn attached pronoun is a mini-word for 'me / us / them' that cannot stand alone — it is glued onto the end of another word, and each form carries within it exactly who is meant. هِمْ · 'them/their' hangs on the little relation-word in عَلَيْهِمْ, governed by the word it is fastened to. L3 · R6
So far: “The path of those upon whom You have bestowed favor, not of those who have earned [Your] anger”
وَلَا
(…or…)
وَلَاword 8
Conjunction · حرف عطفThe prefix وَ at the front of وَلَا is a conjunction — a small joining word meaning 'and' — linking what follows to what came before; the word it joins in must stand in the same grammatical case as its partner before the joint — the same role in the sentence, even when the two words write that case with different endings. L4 · R4
Particle · حرفA particle is a small helper word of one to three letters that works like glue — it connects or adjusts other words rather than naming something or describing an action, and it can never be the one a sentence is about. لَا · 'not/no' is such a helper. L1 · R9
Negation Particle · حرف نفيA negation particle is a word meaning 'not' that turns a statement into its opposite, and لَا is the 'not' used for general statements. Here it denies the second group any share of the path: nor of those who go astray. L4 · R5
By repeating the negation, Allah asserts that both ways — that of those under anger and that of those astray — are equally misguided paths the believer must beware of and avoid.
Ibn Kathir (abridged), on 1:7
ٱلضَّآلِّينَ
(…of those who are astray.)
Root ضلل — to err, go astray, be lost · 191 times in the Quran
ٱلضَّآلِّينَword 9
Definite Article · أل التعريفThe definite article is the prefix ٱل at the front of a noun (a naming word); it means 'the' — one specific, known one. Because the next letter, ض, is one of the fourteen 'sun-letters' — letters made in the same part of the mouth as ل itself, which swallow the ل of ٱل so it is written but not heard — the ل of the prefix melts into it and doubles it, shown by the shaddah ـّ — a small w-shaped doubling mark written above the letter: ٱلضَّآلِّينَ. L2 · R9
Noun · اسمA noun is a word that names a person, place, thing, or idea. ضَّآلِّينَ is such a naming word: '(of) those who go astray', from the root ضلل: to err, go astray, be lost. L1 · R6
Masculine Noun · اسم مذكرArabic treats every noun — every naming word — as grammatically 'he' or 'she'. Even as a plural, ٱلضَّآلِّينَ carries no feminine marker — no ة at its end, no final ى, no اء — so it takes the default and is a masculine noun; its ending is the 'sound' plural ending Arabic reserves for masculine nouns. L2 · R3
Plural Noun · جمعA plural noun refers to three or more of something. The sound masculine plural carries its role in its ending — ـُونَ for the nominative (the 'subject form', with the ḍammah ـُ sound), ـِينَ for the accusative and genitive (the 'object' and 'of' forms); ٱلضَّآلِّينَ closes with exactly such an ending: not one, but a whole group. L2 · R6
Genitive · مجرورThe genitive is the 'after-of / after-preposition' family of endings a noun — a naming word — can wear; on most nouns it is shown by a kasrah ـِ, a small slanted stroke written below the final letter. The sound masculine plural carries its role in its ending — ـُونَ for the nominative (the 'subject form', with the ḍammah ـُ sound), ـِينَ for the accusative and genitive (the 'object' and 'of' forms); ٱلضَّآلِّينَ wears its genitive inside that shared plural ending. L2 · R7
Active Participle · اسم فاعلAn active participle is a noun built from a root's letters on the mold فَاعِل to name the doer of the action. ضَّآلِّينَ is that mold in plural form, from the root ضلل — to err, to go astray — naming those who themselves go astray; the shaddah ـّ (a small w-shaped doubling mark above the letter) shows the root's doubled final letter. L11 · R1
Those astray are those who lost true knowledge and wander in misguidance, unable to find the correct path — the Prophet ﷺ said, 'Those who are led astray are the Christians'; the believer asks to avoid both ways.
Ibn Kathir (abridged), on 1:7
So far: “The path of those upon whom You have bestowed favor, not of those who have earned [Your] anger or of those who are astray.”