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The eleventh approach: Qarīb is a verbal noun, not an adjective, and functions like naqīd (creaking). It therefore lacks the feminine ending, since a verbal noun used as the predicate of a feminine subject does not take that ending.

Thus one says imra’a ‘adl (“a just woman”), not ‘adla. Likewise, one describes a woman using sawm (fasting), salāh (prayer), sidq (truthfulness), birr (righteousness), and similar verbal nouns.

This is among the most unsound explanations offered for qarīb. It is never known to be used as a verbal noun; rather, it is an adjective. The verbal noun is qurb, not qarīb.

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The twelfth approach: The patterns fa‘īl and fa‘ūl are invariably used unchanged for masculine and feminine alike, whether the gender is natural or merely grammatical. As Imru’ al-Qays said:

“Full-figured, youthful, tender,
like a supple, newly opening branch of the bān tree;
languid when rising, soft in speech,
she smiles, revealing a cool mouth with ‘uzūb.”

He also said:

“Woe to him if evening finds neither Umm Hāshim
nearby, nor al-Basbāsa, daughter of Yashkur.”

Jarīr said:

“Does life avail you when Umm ‘Amr is near,
yet neither visits nor is visited?”

Jarīr also said:

“It would be as though we had never fought, O Buthayn,
if she would dispel her gloom, while you remained a friend.”

He also said:

“They professed love, then held our hearts in pledge
with enemies’ arrows, though they were friends.”

They said: There are many poetic examples of this.