The Grammatical Construction of “lā ṭāʻata fī l-maʻṣiya”

Question

Please clarify: concerning the text of the hadith [ar]لَا طَاعَةَ لِمَخْلُوقٍ فِي مَعْصِيَةِ الْخَالِقِ[/ar] “There is no obedience to a creature in disobedience to the Creator”, a dispute has arisen. Amirullah and Zafir maintain that here “lā ṭā‘a” is a negated past-tense verb of the pattern “tafa‘ul”, and “li-makhluq” is its direct object; their argument being that the letter “ة” [ta’ marbuta] does not attach to a noun [in this position].

Answer

The words of the noble hadith are: [ar]لَا طَاعَةَ لِمَخْلُوقٍ فِي الْمَعْصِيَةِ[/ar] “There is no obedience to a creature in disobedience.” Here “lā” is the particle of absolute negation of genus (lā nāfiya li-l-jins), not “lā” resembling “laysa” (lā mushabbaha bi-laysa); otherwise its noun (ism) would stand in the nominative case (marfu‘)

Source: Fatawa Mahmudiyya

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