Rule 1: 1. Reported speech
Arabic reports speech with قَالَ إِنَّ or with أَنَّ after any other verb of saying or informing (أَخْبَرَ، ذَكَرَ، أَجَابَ بِـ). Unlike English, the tense does not change: what was present for the speaker stays imperfect (أَخْبَرَنِي أَنَّ الصَّبِيَّ يَبْدَأُ 'he told me that the boy begins / began'). Only the persons change: the speaker's 'I' becomes 'he' (أَقَمْتُ → ذَكَرَ أَنَّهُ أَقَامَ). A second statement in the same report repeats وَأَنَّ.
قَالَ: «أَقَمْتُ فِي الْهِجْرَةِ سَبْعَ سِنِينَ».
qāla: aqamtu fi l-hijrati sabʿa sinīna
He said: 'I stayed in the hijra seven years.'
ذَكَرَ أَنَّهُ أَقَامَ فِي الْهِجْرَةِ سَبْعَ سِنِينَ.
dhakara annahu aqāma fi l-hijrati sabʿa sinīna
He mentioned that he had stayed in the hijra seven years.
أَخْبَرَنِي أَنَّ الصَّبِيَّ يَبْدَأُ بِالْفَاتِحَةِ وَأَنَّ بَعْضَهُمْ يَخْتِمُ فِي ثَلَاثِ سِنِينَ.
akhbaranī anna ṣ-ṣabiyya yabdaʾu bi-l-fātiḥati wa-anna baʿḍahum yakhtimu fī thalāthi sinīna
He told me that a boy begins with the Fātiḥa and that some finish in three years.
قَالَ إِنَّ الْعِلْمَ أَمَانَةٌ.
qāla inna l-ʿilma amānatun
He said that knowledge is a trust.
After قَالَ: إِنَّ, not أَنَّ.