إِذَا

denotes a thing's happening suddenly, or unexpectedly; (Mughnee, K;) or one's experiencing the occurrence of a thing when he is in a particular state; (S;) like إِذٌ: (S voce إِذٌ:) it pertains only to nominal phrases; does not require to be followed by a reply, or the complement of a condition; does not occur at the commencement of a sentence; and signifies the present time, (Mughnee, K,) not the future; (Mughnee;) as in خَرَجْتُ فَإِذَا الأَسَدُ بالبَابِ [I went forth, and lo, or behold, or there, or then, at that present time, (according to different authorities, as will be seen below,) the lion was at the door]; and (in the saying in the Qur'an, 20:21, TA,) فَإِذَا هِىَ حَيَّةٌ تَسْعَى [And lo, or behold, &c., it was a serpent running]; (Mughnee, K;) and in the saying, خَرَجْتُ فَإِذَا زَيْدٌ قَايءِمٌ, which means I went forth, and Zeyd presented himself to me suddenly, or unexpectedly, at the time, by standing. (S, TA.) Accord. to Akh, it is a particle, (Mughnee, K,) and his opinion is rendered preferable by their saying, خَرَجْتُ فَإِذَا إِنَّ زِيْداً بِالبَابِ [I went forth, and lo, or behold, verily Zeyd was at the door]; for [اذا cannot here be a noun governed in the accusative case, as] what follows إِنَّ, which is with kesr, does not govern what precedes it: (Mughnee:) according to Mbr, it is an adverbial noun of place: according to Zj, an adverbial noun of time. (Mughnee, K.) Ibn-Málik adopts the first of these opinions; Ibn-'Osfoor, the second; (Mughnee;) and so El-Fenjedeehee; (TA;) and Z, the third; and he asserts that its governing word is a verb understood, derived from المُفَاجَأَةُ; [agreeably with the explanation cited above from the S;] but others hold that the word which governs it in the accusative case is the enunciative, which is either expressed, as in خَرَجْتُ فَإِذَا زَيْدٌ جَالِسٌ [I went forth, and there, in that place, or then, at that time, Zeyd was sitting], or meant to be understood, as in فَإِذَا الأَسَدُ, i. e. حَاضِرٌ [And there, or then, the lion was present]; or if it be supposed to be [itself] the enunciative, its governing word is مُسْتَقِرُّ or اِسْتَقَرَّ [understood]: and in the last of the phrases here mentioned, it may be an enunciative according to the opinion of Mbr, the meaning being فَبِالْحَاضِرَةِ الأَسَدُ [And among the things present was the lion]; but not according to the opinion of Zj, because a noun signifying time cannot be the enunciative of one signifying a corporeal thing; nor accord to the opinion of Akh, because a particle cannot be used to denote the enunciative of such a thing; or, as signifying time, it may be the enunciative of such a thing if we suppose a prefixed noun to be suppressed, the meaning of فَإِذَا الأَسَدُ being فَإِذاَ حُضُورُ الأَسَدِ [And then was the presence of the lion]. (Mughnee.) You may say either خَرَجْتُ فَإِذَا زَيْدٌ جَالِسٌ or جَالِساً [I went forth, and lo, or behold, &c., Zeyd was sitting or Zeyd was there sitting], with the nom. as an enunciative and with the accusative as a denotative of state. (Mughnee.) The Arabs said, قَدْ كُنْتُ أَظُنُّ أَنَّ العَقْرَبَ أَشَدُّ لَسْعَةً مِنَ الزُّنْبُورِ فَإِذاَ هُوَ هِى [I used to think that the scorpion was more vehement in stinging than the hornet, and lo, he is (as vehement as) she], and also, فَإِذاَ هُوَ إِيَّاهَا, which Sb disallowed, in contending with Ks, who allowed it, and appealed for confirmation thereof to certain Arabs, whose judgment was pronounced in his favour; but it is said that they were bribed to give this judgment, or that they knew the place which Ks held in the estimation of Er-Rasheed; and if the latter expression be of established authority, it is irregular and unchaste. (Mughnee.)

It also denotes the complement of a condition, like فَ, (S, Msb,) with which it is in this case synonym, (Msb,) as in the words of the Qur'an, 30:35, وَإِنْ تُصِبْهُمْ سَيِّيءَةٌ بِمَا قَدَّمَتْ أَيْدِيهِمْ إِذَا هُمُ يَقْنَطُون [And if an evil befall them for that which their hands have sent before, (i. e. for sins which they have committed,) then they despair]. (S, Msb.)

It is also an adverbial noun denoting future time, (S, Msb, Mughnee, K, *) and implying the meaning of a condition, (Msb, Mughnee,) and this is generally the case when it is not used in the manner first explained above. (Mughnee.) In this case it is not used otherwise than as prefixed to a proposition, (S, Mughnee,) which is always verbal, as in the words of the Qur'an, 30:24, ثُمَّ إِذَا دَعَاكُمَ دَعْوَةً مِنَ الأَرْضِ إذَا أَنْتُمْ تَخْرُجُونَ [Then, when He shall call you, or when He calleth you, (for, as in Arabic, so in English, a verb which is properly present is often tropically future,) with a single call from out the earth, lo, or behold, or then, ye shall come forth], in which occur both the usages of اذا here mentioned; (Mughnee;) and in the phrase, إِذَا جِيءْتَ أَكْرَمْتُكَ [When thou shalt come, I will treat thee with honour]; (Msb;) and in the phrase, أَجِيْوءُكَ إِذَا احْمَرَّالبُسْرُ [I will come to thee when the fullgrown unripe dates shall become red], and إِذَا قَدِمَ فُلَانٌ [when such a one shall arrive], which shows it to be a noun because this is equivalent to يَوْمَ يَقْدَمُ فُلَانٌ [on the day when such a one shall arrive]: (S:) or in the phrase قُمْ إِذَا احْمَرَّ البُسْرُ [and in many other cases] it denotes time divested of any accessory idea, the meaning being [Arise thou] at the time of the full-grown unripe dates' becoming red: and so in the saying of EshSháfi'ee, If a man were to say, أَنْتِ طَالِقٌ إِذَا لَمْ أُطَلِّقْكِ, or مَتَى لم اطلّقك, [Thou art divorced when I do not divorce thee,] and then be silent for a time sufficient for the divorce to be pronounced therein, she would be divorced; but should he make it dependent upon a thing in the future, the divorce would be delayed to that time, as if he said, اذا احمرّ البسر [using it in the sense first assigned to this phrase above]. (Msb.) The verb after it is in most cases a pret.: in other cases, an aorist: both occur in the saying of Aboo-Dhu-eyb,

وَ النَّفْسُ رَاغِبَةٌ إِذَا رَغَّبْتَهَا

وَإِذَا تُرَدُّ إِلَى قَلِيلٍ تَقْنَعُ

[And the soul is desirous when thou makest it desirous; and when thou reducest it, or restrictest it, to little, it is content]. (Mughnee.) When it is immediately followed by a noun, as in [the phrase in the Qur'an, 84:1,] إذَا السَّمَاءُ انْشَقَّتْ, the noun is an agent with a verb suppressed, explained by what follows it; contr. to the opinion of Akh; (Mughnee;) the complete phrase being إِذَا انْشَقَّتِ السَّمَاءُ انْشَقَّتْ [When the heaven shall be cleft, (when) it shall be cleft]; and in like manner, إِنْ, as in the saying, in the Qur'an, 9:6, وَ إِنْ أَحَدٌ مِنَ المُشْرِكِينَ اسْتَجَارَكَ. (I 'Akp. 123.) And in the saying of the poet,

إِذَا بَاهِلِىٌّ تَحْتَهُ حَنْظَلِيَّةٌ

لَهُ وَلَدٌ مِنْهَا فَذَاكَ المُدَرَّعُ

كَانَ is meant to be understood after اذا [so that the meaning is, When a Báhilee (a man of the tribe of Báhileh) has, or shall have, as his wife a Handhaleeyeh (a woman of the tribe of Handhaleh, who were renowned for generosity), he having offspring from her, that (offspring) is, or will be, the mail-clad]. (Mughnee.)

Sometimes it denotes past time, (Mughnee, K,) like as إِذْ sometimes denotes future time, (Mughnee,) as in [the saying in the Qur'an, 62:11,] وَ إِذَا رَأَوْا تِجَارَةً أَوْ لَهْواً انْفَضُّوا إِلَيْهَا [And when they saw merchandise or sport, they dispersed themselves to it]. (Mughnee, K.) [Thus] it occurs in the place of إِذْ, like as إِذْ occurs in the place of إِذَا. (TA.)

And sometimes it denotes the present time; and this is after an oath, as in [the phrase in the Qur'an, 92:1,] وَاللَّيْلِ إِذَا يَغْشَى [By the night when it covereth with its darkness]. (Mughnee, K.)

It also occurs in the sense of the conditional إِنْ, as in the saying, أُكْرِمُكَ إِذَا أَكْرَمْتَنِى, meaning إِنْ أَكْرَمْتَنِى [I will treat thee with honour if thou treat me with honour]: (T:) [for] what is possible is made dependent upon it as well as what is known to be certain, as in the phrases, إِذَا جَاءَ زَيْدٌ [If Zeyd come] and إِذَا جَاءَ رَأْسُ الشَّهْرِ [When the beginning of the month shall come]; or, according to Th, there is a difference between إِذَا and إِنْ; (Msb;) the latter being held by him to denote what is possible, and the former to denote what is ascertained; so that one says, إِنْ جَاءَ زَيْدٌ and إذَا جَاءَ رَأْسُ الشَّهرِ. (Msb in article ان.)

When a verb in the first person singular of the pret. is explained by another verb after it immediately preceded by إِذَا, [تَقُولُ is understood before the former verb, and therefore] the latter verb must be in the second pers. singular, as in لُجْتُهُ إِذَا أَدَرْتَهُ فِى فيِكَ [meaning Thou sayest (of a thing) لُجْتُهُ when, or if, thou hast turned it about in thy mouth]. (MF in article لوج. See also أَىْ; last sentence but one.)

It is sometimes redundant, like as إِذْ is sometimes [according to some], as in the saying of 'Abd-Menáf Ibn-Riba El-Hudhalee,

حَتَّى إِذَا أَسْلَكُوهُم فِى قُتَايءِدَةٍ

شَلَّا كَمَا تَطْرُدُ الجَمَّالَةُ الشُّرُدَا

[Until they made them to pass along Kutáīdeh, (here meaning a certain mountain-road so named, S in article قتد,) urging on, like as the owners, or attendants, of camels drive those that take fright and run away]; for it is the end of the poem: or he may have abstained from mentioning the enunciative because of its being known to the hearer. (S.) When إِذَا is preceded by حَتَّى, [as in this instance,] it is generally held that اذا is not governed by حتّى in the gen. case, but is still an adverbial noun, حتّى being an inceptive particle without government. (Mughnee.)

As to what it is that governs إِذَا in the accusative case, there are two opinions; that it is its conditional proposition; or a verb, or the like, in the complement thereof: (Mughnee, K:) the former is the opinion of the critical judges; so that it is in the predicament of مَتَى and حَيْثُمَا and أَيَّانَ. (Mughnee.)

Sometimes it is used so as not to denote a condition, as in the words of the Qur'an, 42:35, وَإِذَا مَا غَضِبُوا هُم يَغفِرُونَ [And when, or whenever, they are angry, they forgive], in which it is an adverbial noun relating to the enunciative of the inchoative after it; for if it denoted a condition, and the nominal proposition were a complement, it would be connected by فَ: and the same is the case when it is used after an oath, as in an example given above. (Mughnee.)

See also what follows.