true. but, we were coming from translations mainly urdu/english and elder is kabeer or akbar interchangeably; hence the jump. also if you check in lisan al-arab and taj al-arus you will notice that akbar is used as a substitute (in the meaning of) kabeer/elder. however, if we are talking of correct and exact plurals in arabic, you are right. -- taj al-arus: plural of akbar is akaabir or akbaruun. also see surah al-an'am, v.123. -- the plural of kabir as kubaraa is found in surah al-aHzab, v.67. and in taj al-arus, there are a few more: kibaar (commonly used in urdu as well), kubbaaruun, makbuura'a. in lisan al-arab: feminine of akbar is kubraa; plural of kubraa is kubar as in surah al-mudatthir, v.35. -- i am yet to find akabireen. Allah ta'ala knows best.
Kabeer is Not the singular of Akabir or akabireen....it is akbar and akabireen is one of plural wazn of munthal jamu...like afdhal's plural is afadhil etc...plural of kabeer is kubara just like adeeb plural udaba etc....please consult books on sarf and see the under the plurals of sift mushabba and also of jama aqsa etc....so when our akabireen have used the word 'akabireen' then they knew their sarf....
if am not wrong kuffar (كفار) and kaafiron (كافروں) are the plurals used in Urdu not kuffaron (كفاروں)
ah'kaam (أحكام) with fath'ah is the plural of hukum (حكم) in Arabic, whereas ahkamaat is the plural of the same word hukum in Urdu. there are other similar words with different h'arakat; حَكَم with fat'ha on both 'ha and kaaf - arbitrator حِكَم (plural of حِكمَة )with kasrah on 'ha and fath'a on kaaf - wisdom
are you on about kuffarun or kuffaroN? i am talking about the way we would say it in urdu, i.e. كفاروں just as we would say ni'matoN for the plural of ni'mat نعمتوں i am talking about the noon-gunna </O <O <Oi get the feeling you are talking about arabic rather than urdu</O
i was reading one of the periodicals the other day and saw the following and i think there was a mistake. it said kuffaroN kafir is singular kuffar is plural kuffaroN is a common mistake. is that right?
this is common mistake found in regular speech. the plural of kabeer is akaabir, not akaabireen. just as the plural of elder is elders. not elderses. wa'llahu a'alam.
