This original column was written for the guide. It presents an invented author's position about public-service digitization in contemporary Modern Standard Arabic (formal/opinion); it is not a report about a real city or program. Unlike news analysis, a column openly advances a thesis and arranges facts, concessions, and questions to persuade.
The grammar makes that stance audible. Rhetorical questions invite an answer already implied by the argument. إنما restricts what deserves the label “reform.” مع أنّ...إلا أنّ... acknowledges a cost without surrendering the thesis. Repeated contrasts place informational focus where the author wants it. These are reasoned authorial choices, not ornamental “high Arabic.”
The complete column
مدينة تقاس بوقت سكانها
تتسابق مدن كثيرة إلى إطلاق تطبيقات جديدة للخدمات العامة، وكأن زيادة عدد الشاشات تكفي لإثبات نجاح الإصلاح.
لا شك أن التقنية تستطيع اختصار بعض الإجراءات، لكن هل يحتاج الراكب إلى تطبيق آخر يخبره بتأخر الحافلة، أم يحتاج إلى حافلة تصل في موعدها؟
إنما تكون الرقمنة إصلاحا حين تختصر خطوة غير ضرورية، أو تتيح خدمة لمن كان محروما منها؛ أما نقل الطابور من باب المؤسسة إلى شاشة الهاتف فليس تقدما.
ومع أن تحديث الأنظمة مكلف، إلا أن كلفة الانتظار لا تختفي؛ بل يدفعها الناس من وقت العمل والراحة ورعاية أسرهم.
فما فائدة منصة سريعة إذا بقي القرار نفسه بطيئا؟
لذلك أرى أن المعيار الأول لأي مشروع رقمي يجب أن يكون الوقت الذي يعيده إلى الناس، لا عدد الخصائص التي يضيفها إلى التطبيق.
Faithful translation
A City Measured by Its Residents' Time
Many cities race to launch new public-service applications, as though increasing the number of screens were enough to prove that reform had succeeded.
There is no doubt that technology can shorten some procedures, but does a passenger need another application telling them that the bus is late, or a bus that arrives on time?
Digitization is reform only when it removes an unnecessary step or makes a service available to someone previously excluded from it. Moving the queue from the institution's door to a phone screen, however, is not progress.
Although updating systems is expensive, the cost of waiting does not disappear; rather, people pay it out of their work time, rest, and care for their families.
What use is a fast platform if the decision itself remains slow?
I therefore believe that the first criterion for any digital project should be the time it gives back to people, not the number of features it adds to the application.
The thesis begins with a skeptical frame
تتسابق مدن كثيرة إلى إطلاق تطبيقات جديدة للخدمات العامة، وكأن زيادة عدد الشاشات تكفي لإثبات نجاح الإصلاح.
tatasābaqu mudunun kathīratun ʾilā ʾiṭlāqi taṭbīqātin jadīdatin lil-khidamāti l-ʿāmma(h), wa-kaʾanna ziyādata ʿadadi sh-shāshāti takfī li-ʾithbāti najāḥi l-ʾiṣlāḥ.
Many cities race to launch new public-service applications, as though increasing the number of screens were enough to prove that reform had succeeded.
The column does not wait until the final sentence to reveal its view. Form VI تتسابق presents the cities as competing with one another, and كأنّ frames the sufficiency of more screens as an appearance the writer doubts. Heavy كأنّ makes the nominalized subject زيادة accusative; verbal sentence تكفي... is its predicate.
The iḍāfas إطلاق تطبيقات and زيادة عدد الشاشات compress two events. This density suits a short (formal/opinion) opening because the processes are familiar and their agents are recoverable. The marked comparison وكأن prevents the nominal style from sounding like neutral institutional reporting.
A rhetorical alternative exposes the value choice
لا شك أن التقنية تستطيع اختصار بعض الإجراءات، لكن هل يحتاج الراكب إلى تطبيق آخر يخبره بتأخر الحافلة، أم يحتاج إلى حافلة تصل في موعدها؟
lā shakka ʾanna t-tiqniyyata tastaṭīʿu khtiṣāra baʿḍi l-ʾijrāʾāt, lākin hal yaḥtāju r-rākibu ʾilā taṭbīqin ʾākhara yukhbiruhu bi-taʾakhkhuri l-ḥāfila(h), ʾam yaḥtāju ʾilā ḥāfilatin taṣilu fī mawʿidihā?
There is no doubt that technology can shorten some procedures, but does a passenger need another application telling them the bus is late, or a bus that arrives on time?
The first clause grants the opposing side a real point; this makes the following criticism narrower and more credible. Light لكنْ connects the concession to a complete interrogative clause. هل...أم...؟ presents an alternative question, yet the context makes the author's preferred answer obvious. It is therefore rhetorical in force even though its syntax is an ordinary question.
The parallel repetition يحتاج...إلى تطبيق / يحتاج...إلى حافلة creates focus through contrast. Omitting the second يحتاج would remain grammatical, but repetition lets a reader hear the competing priorities. Relative clauses يخبره... and تصل... specify what each option actually does.
إنما restricts the definition of reform
إنما تكون الرقمنة إصلاحا حين تختصر خطوة غير ضرورية، أو تتيح خدمة لمن كان محروما منها.
ʾinnamā takūnu r-raqmanatu ʾiṣlāḥan ḥīna takhtaṣiru khuṭwatan ghayra ḍarūriyya(h), ʾaw tutīḥu khidmatan li-man kāna maḥrūman minhā.
Digitization is reform only when it removes an unnecessary step or makes a service available to someone previously excluded from it.
إنما has restrictive force: not every act of digitization counts as reform; only digitization satisfying the stated conditions does. It does not govern an accusative noun like free إنّ, so الرقمنة remains the nominative subject of تكون. Predicate إصلاحا is accusative after تكون.
The two coordinated predicates تختصر...أو تتيح... define alternative benefits: removal of friction or expansion of access. Singular feminine null subject in both verbs refers to الرقمنة. Attached منها in the second branch refers to خدمة, while من is a free relative “whoever / one who.”
أما نقل الطابور من باب المؤسسة إلى شاشة الهاتف فليس تقدما.
ʾammā naqlu ṭ-ṭābūri min bābi l-muʾassasati ʾilā shāshati l-hātifi fa-laysa taqadduman.
Moving the queue from the institution's door to a phone screen, however, is not progress.
أما...فـ places the contrasting topic نقل الطابور... in the foreground and requires the linking فـ before its comment. ليس rejects the classification “progress” rather than denying that the queue has moved. The image is memorable because it turns an abstract failure into a concrete location shift.
Concession acknowledges cost without yielding the claim
ومع أن تحديث الأنظمة مكلف، إلا أن كلفة الانتظار لا تختفي؛ بل يدفعها الناس من وقت العمل والراحة ورعاية أسرهم.
wa-maʿa ʾanna taḥdītha l-ʾanẓimati muklifun, ʾillā ʾanna kulfata l-intiẓāri lā takhtafī; bal yadfaʿuhā n-nāsu min waqti l-ʿamali wa-r-rāḥati wa-riʿāyati ʾusarihim.
Although updating systems is expensive, the cost of waiting does not disappear; rather, people pay it out of their work time, rest, and care for their families.
The paired structure مع أنّ...إلا أنّ... concedes the real cost of modernization, then introduces the counterweight. Each heavy أنّ has its own accusative noun: تحديث and كلفة. The concession does not claim that updating systems is cheap; it changes which costs count in the decision.
After the semicolon, بل corrects a possible inference. Waiting costs are not absent merely because they do not appear as a budget line; people bear them. Attached ـها in يدفعها resumes feminine كلفة. The three coordinated genitives after من وقت broaden the moral frame from paid work to rest and family care.
A second rhetorical question sharpens the paradox
فما فائدة منصة سريعة إذا بقي القرار نفسه بطيئا؟
fa-mā fāʾidatu minaṣṣatin sarīʿatin ʾidhā baqiya l-qarāru nafsuhu baṭīʾan?
What use is a fast platform if the decision itself remains slow?
Interrogative ما asks for the “use” of the platform, but the intended answer is “little or none.” إذا introduces the condition that empties superficial speed of value. Emphatic نفسه focuses the underlying decision, and the paired adjectives سريعة / بطيئا produce a compact antithesis.
English can put stress on decision itself. Written Arabic cannot rely on audible stress alone, so نفسه, word order, and lexical opposition jointly mark the focus. The question also links back to the opening contrast between more screens and actual reform.
The conclusion states ownership and criterion
لذلك أرى أن المعيار الأول لأي مشروع رقمي يجب أن يكون الوقت الذي يعيده إلى الناس، لا عدد الخصائص التي يضيفها إلى التطبيق.
li-dhālika ʾarā ʾanna l-miʿyāra l-ʾawwala li-ʾayyi mashrūʿin raqamiyyin yajibu ʾan yakūna l-waqta lladhī yuʿīduhu ʾilā n-nās, lā ʿadada l-khaṣāʾiṣi llatī yuḍīfuhā ʾilā t-taṭbīq.
I therefore believe that the first criterion for any digital project should be the time it gives back to people, not the number of features it adds to the application.
لذلك marks this as an inference from the preceding argument. First-person أرى identifies the conclusion as the columnist's judgment rather than disguising it as neutral fact. Within its content clause, يجب أن يكون expresses a normative standard; أن makes يكون subjunctive.
The closing contrast الوقت...، لا عدد الخصائص... returns to the thesis. Both noun phrases are accusative predicates of يكون in this analysis. The relative clauses give each criterion an observable consequence: time returned to people versus features added to software. This makes the final recommendation testable rather than merely emotive.
Comprehension and production
- State the thesis in one neutral English sentence, then identify the opening phrase that anticipates it.
- Which proposition does the writer concede, and why does it not overturn the main claim?
- Explain the focus contribution of إنما, أما...فـ, بل, نفسه, and final لا.
- Which two questions are rhetorical, and what answer does each invite?
- Replace أرى with an impersonal passive. What happens to authorial accountability and tone?
For production, write a 120-word formal MSA column about whether a school should measure success by test scores alone. Include an explicit thesis, one genuine concession, إنما, one أما...فـ contrast, a rhetorical هل...أم...؟ question, and a conclusion beginning لذلك أرى أن.... Do not invent factual statistics.
Common Mistakes
Treating إنما like free إنّ
❌ إنما الرقمنة إصلاحا حين تختصر الوقت.
Incorrect—innamā does not assign the noun-and-predicate case pattern of free inna; this sentence also lacks the copular verb needed for the intended definition.
✅ إنما تصبح الرقمنة إصلاحا حين تختصر إجراء غير ضروري.
ʾinnamā tuṣbiḥu r-raqmanatu ʾiṣlāḥan ḥīna takhtaṣiru ʾijrāʾan ghayra ḍarūriyy.
Digitization becomes reform only when it removes an unnecessary procedure.
Using أو instead of أم in an alternative question
❌ هل نحتاج إلى تطبيق جديد أو إلى خدمة أسرع؟
Poor for the intended explicit alternative question—after hal, coordinated alternatives are conventionally contrasted with am.
✅ هل نحتاج إلى تطبيق جديد، أم إلى خدمة تعمل من دون انقطاع؟
hal naḥtāju ʾilā taṭbīqin jadīd, ʾam ʾilā khidmatin taʿmalu min dūni nqiṭāʿ?
Do we need a new application, or a service that works without interruption?
Forgetting the counterweight after أما
❌ أما سرعة التطبيق لا تعني جودة الخدمة.
Incorrect formal topic construction—ammā normally requires fa- before the comment.
✅ أما سرعة التطبيق فلا تعني بالضرورة جودة الخدمة.
ʾammā surʿatu t-taṭbīqi fa-lā taʿnī bi-ḍ-ḍarūrati jawdata l-khidma(h).
As for the application's speed, it does not necessarily mean service quality.
Using concession where the second event is expected
❌ تعطلت المنصة؛ ورغم ذلك، لم يتمكن المستخدمون من الدخول.
Wrong logical relation—the inability to log in is an expected result of the outage, not a counter-expectation.
✅ تعطلت المنصة؛ لذلك لم يتمكن المستخدمون من تقديم طلباتهم.
taʿaṭṭalati l-minaṣṣa(h); li-dhālika lam yatamakkani l-mustakhdimūna min taqdīmi ṭalabātihim.
The platform went down; therefore, users were unable to submit their applications.
Key Takeaways
- A column makes its authorial stance visible; it should not imitate the evidential distance of neutral reporting.
- Rhetorical questions use ordinary interrogative syntax but invite an answer already shaped by the argument.
- إنما, أما...فـ, repeated predicates, and corrective بل place focus precisely.
- مع أنّ...إلا أنّ... acknowledges an obstacle while preserving the main claim.
- Discourse markers should encode real relations: concession, correction, inference, and restriction are not interchangeable signs of formality.
Related Topics
- News Analysis: Cause, Evidence, and AttributionC1 — Read an original news analysis through sourced statistics, causal caution, complex numbers, conditional tests, and nominalized events.
- Public Policy SummaryC1 — Read an original policy summary through definitions, assigned obligations, direct passives, scoped exceptions, and administrative collocations.
- Concession: رغم ذلك، ومع أنّ، إلا أنّB2 — Acknowledge an obstacle without letting it overturn the main claim, using sentence-level رغم ذلك and embedded مع أنّ ... إلا أنّ.
- Rhetorical and Echo QuestionsB2 — Recognize questions that assert, challenge, or request repetition rather than neutrally seeking new information.
- إنما and Focus RestrictionC1 — Use إنما to restrict a proposition to one person, action, quality, or interpretation, and control its scope through context and word order.
- Contrastive Focus and FrontingB1 — Front objects, predicates, and frames for explicit contrast while preserving case, agreement, and the distinction between focus and resumed topics.