Regulations rarely sound like one person ordering another face to face. Formal Arabic can certainly use an imperative—قدّم الطلب “submit the application”—but legal and administrative prose more often presents an obligation, prohibition, assigned responsibility, or automatic consequence as an impersonal rule. The central constructions are يجب أن “must,” passive يُمنع “is prohibited,” على + responsible party + maṣdar, and passive statements such as يُلغى الترخيص “the licence is cancelled.”
These constructions are not interchangeable decorations. They locate authority differently: يجب أن states necessity, يُمنع prohibits an act, على assigns a duty to a named party, and a passive present can state what the institution does when a condition is met.
When a rule needs to background the agent without assigning legal force, compare the broader passive-imperative alternatives.
A map of directive force
| Construction | Typical force | Grammar after it |
|---|---|---|
| اِمْلَأِ النَّمُوذَجَ | direct instruction | active imperative |
| يَجِبُ أَنْ تَمْلَأَ النَّمُوذَجَ | general obligation | أن + subjunctive |
| يُمْنَعُ الدُّخُولُ | prohibition | passive imperfect + maṣdar |
| عَلَى الْمُتَقَدِّمِ مَلْءُ النَّمُوذَجِ | assigned duty | على + party + nominative maṣdar phrase |
| يُرْفَضُ الطَّلَبُ النَّاقِصُ | institutional consequence | passive imperfect |
All five are (formal). Direct imperatives suit instructions addressed to an identified reader; the impersonal patterns suit statutes, contracts, signs, policies, and procedural rules.
املأ النموذج إلكترونيا ثم أرسله إلى القسم المختص
imlaʾi n-namūdhaja ʾiliktrūniyyan thumma ʾarsilhu ʾilā l-qismi l-mukhtaṣṣ
Complete the form electronically, then send it to the relevant department. (Formal instruction; one male addressee.)
املأن النماذج بخط واضح ثم سلمنها إلى الموظفة
imlaʾna n-namādhija bikhaṭṭin wāḍiḥin thumma sallimnahā ʾilā l-muwaẓẓafa
Complete the forms in clear handwriting, then hand them to the employee. (Formal instruction to an all-female group.)
يجب أن: a requirement with a finite clause
يجب is an imperfect verb used impersonally: literally, “it is necessary.” It does not agree with the person who must act. أن governs the following imperfect in the subjunctive. Thus indicative يلتزمُ contrasts with required أن يلتزمَ; in the five verbs, يلتزمونَ becomes أن يلتزموا through deletion of nūn.
يجب أن يلتزم الموظفون بإجراءات السلامة
yajibu ʾan yaltazima l-muwaẓẓafūna biʾijrāʾāti s-salāma
Employees must comply with the safety procedures. (Formal VSO; singular verb before a human plural subject.)
الموظفات يجب أن يلتزمن بإجراءات السلامة
al-muwaẓẓafātu yajibu ʾan yaltazimna biʾijrāʾāti s-salāma
The female employees must comply with the safety procedures. (Formal SVO; feminine-plural subject is explicit.)
يجب أن تقدم الطلبات قبل انتهاء المهلة
yajibu ʾan tuqaddama ṭ-ṭalabātu qabla ntihāʾi l-muhla
Applications must be submitted before the deadline expires. (Formal; non-human plural with feminine-singular passive agreement.)
Form VIII اِلْتَزَمَ / يَلْتَزِمُ “comply, commit oneself,” root ل-ز-م, governs بـ for the rule complied with. Form II قَدَّمَ / يُقَدِّمُ “submit,” root ق-د-م, has passive subjunctive تُقَدَّمَ here.
يُمنع: prohibition without a personal prohibitor
يُمْنَعُ is the passive imperfect of Form I مَنَعَ / يَمْنَعُ “prevent, prohibit,” root م-ن-ع. It often takes a following maṣdar as the prohibited activity. Because the construction describes an enduring rule, the imperfect is appropriate; passive perfect مُنِعَ normally reports that someone or something was prevented in a particular past event.
يمنع الدخول إلى المختبر دون تصريح
yumnaʿu d-dukhūlu ʾilā l-mukhtabari dūna taṣrīḥ
Entry to the laboratory without authorization is prohibited. (Formal notice.)
يمنع على الشركتين تبادل البيانات السرية
yumnaʿu ʿalā sh-sharikatayni tabādulu l-bayānāti s-sirriyya
The two companies are prohibited from exchanging confidential data. (Formal contractual wording.)
منع الزائران من الدخول بعد انتهاء الموعد
muniʿa z-zāʾirāni mina d-dukhūli baʿda ntihāʾi l-mawʿid
The two visitors were prevented from entering after the appointment ended. (A reported past event, not a standing directive.)
The second example names the regulated parties after على. The third is a passive perfect and therefore reports enforcement rather than wording a prohibition.
على + responsible party + maṣdar assigns a duty
The preposition على marks the person or body bearing responsibility; a following maṣdar names the required act. In fully inflected prose, the party after على is genitive and the maṣdar is normally nominative as the delayed subject of the obligation phrase: على المستأجرِ دفعُ الإيجارِ.
على المستأجر دفع الإيجار في اليوم الأول من كل شهر
ʿalā l-mustaʾjiri dafʿu l-ʾījāri fī l-yawmi l-ʾawwali min kulli shahr
The tenant shall pay the rent on the first day of every month. (Formal contractual obligation.)
على الجهتين الاحتفاظ بنسخة من الاتفاق لمدة خمس سنوات
ʿalā l-jihatayni l-iḥtifāẓu binuskhatin mina l-ittifāqi limuddati khamsi sanawāt
Both parties shall retain a copy of the agreement for five years. (Formal legal drafting.)
This is not an imperative form, and it has no second-person agreement. It is especially useful when a contract must allocate a duty precisely. على أن is a different connector in many contexts (“provided that / on condition that”) and should not be substituted mechanically.
Passive presents state institutional consequences
A rule can state what happens automatically if a condition is met. Passive imperfect يُرفض، يُلغى، تُسحب backgrounds the official who executes the decision and foregrounds the application, licence, or authorization affected.
يرفض الطلب إذا كانت البيانات الأساسية ناقصة
yurfaḍu ṭ-ṭalabu ʾidhā kānati l-bayānātu l-ʾasāsiyyatu nāqiṣa
The application is rejected if essential information is missing. (Formal rule.)
يلغى الترخيص عند ثبوت تقديم معلومات مضللة
yulghā t-tarkhīṣu ʿinda thubūti taqdīmi maʿlūmātin muḍallila
The licence is cancelled upon proof that misleading information was submitted. (Formal legal consequence.)
Final-weak Form IV أَلْغَى / يُلْغِي “cancel,” root ل-غ-و, has passive imperfect يُلْغَى; the final alif maqṣūra is not regularized to yāʾ. Compare past event أُلْغِيَ الترخيص أمس “the licence was cancelled yesterday” with standing rule يُلغى الترخيص عند….
Common Mistakes
Using future marking to express obligation
❌ سوف يقدم الموظف التقرير قبل الجمعة
Incorrect if the intended force is ‘must’; سوف only predicts a future submission.
✅ يجب أن يقدم الموظف التقرير قبل الجمعة
yajibu ʾan yuqaddima l-muwaẓẓafu t-taqrīra qabla l-jumuʿa
The employee must submit the report before Friday.
Retaining indicative nūn after أن
❌ يجب أن يلتزمون المتقدمون بالشروط
Incorrect—أن deletes the mood nūn: يلتزموا; neutral VSO also uses singular agreement before the explicit plural subject.
✅ يجب أن يلتزم المتقدمون بالشروط
yajibu ʾan yaltazima l-mutaqaddimūna bish-shurūṭ
Applicants must comply with the conditions.
Treating non-human plural subjects as human plurals
❌ يجب أن يقدموا الطلبات قبل الموعد
Incorrect passive agreement—الطلبات is a non-human plural and takes feminine-singular تقدم when it is the affected subject.
✅ يجب أن تقدم الطلبات قبل الموعد
yajibu ʾan tuqaddama ṭ-ṭalabātu qabla l-mawʿid
Applications must be submitted before the deadline.
Using a passive perfect for a standing ban
❌ منع الدخول دون تصريح
Incorrect for an ongoing sign if read muniʿa ‘was prohibited’; a standing rule uses يمنع.
✅ يمنع الدخول دون تصريح مسبق
yumnaʿu d-dukhūlu dūna taṣrīḥin musbaq
Entry without prior authorization is prohibited.
Making the maṣdar after على genitive
❌ على المستأجر دفع الإيجار
Incorrect in fully inflected reading if دفع is made genitive merely because على appears earlier; المستأجر is genitive, but دفع is the nominative duty.
✅ على المستأجر دفع الإيجار في موعده
ʿalā l-mustaʾjiri dafʿu l-ʾījāri fī mawʿidih
The tenant shall pay the rent on time.
Key Takeaways
- Use a bare imperative for direct procedural instructions to a known reader.
- يجب أن requires a subjunctive imperfect and states obligation.
- Passive يُمنع plus a maṣdar states a standing prohibition; passive perfect reports a past event.
- على + party + maṣdar assigns responsibility precisely.
- Passive imperfect statements foreground the regulated consequence and suppress institutional agents.
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