A Comparative Analysis of the Applications of the ‘Past’ Tense in Arabic and Persian Using the Qur’an

Abstract ‘Verb’ is a main constituent of each sentence carrying its aspect and time. The Holy Qur’an is rich in past tense verbs whose various applications have so far been left mostly unexplored. Among the different types of verbs, the ‘past’ tense is extensively used in various structures in both Persian and English, showing the temporal aspect besides conveying the concepts of present and future. The present study, adopting a descriptive-analytical approach in the field of comparative grammar, is an attempt to deeply explore the past structures in these languages ​​and to explicate the various applications of this tense so as to clearly differentiate them and help translators not to misunderstand the different forms of verb tenses. In addition to integrating the past tense in Persian and Arabic grammar into a Qur’anic approach, the rules for simple past tense, present perfect, past continuous, past perfect and subjunctive mood along with their usages were explained. Furthermore, two new forms, namely ‘primitive past’ and ‘purposive past’, were added to the past tense, which have not been noted in the Persian and Arabic grammar sources or otherwise for which no clear framework and rule has been given. Finally, to expand on grammatical rules, 30 examples from Persian poetry, 13 Arabic couplets, and 50 Qur’anic ayahs were cited and overall 125 rules for different applications of the past tense in both Persian and Arabic were formulated.