Root · 18 in the Quran · 200 in 22 texts of the library
ثبتdawām al-shayʾ — the duration, persistence, or fixedness of a thing (root thbt)
الثاء والباء والتاء كلمة واحدة وهي دوام الشيء
Ibn Fāris, Maqāyīs al-lugha · English rendering AI
The family of the root
Patterns computed · our dataThe words of ث ب ت that our sources attest: the root's letters in green, the added letters in gold.
25 words6 verbs6 verbal nouns4 participles2 intensives and elatives5 other nouns2 plurals
- اثْبُ—
- ثَبَّتَconfirm; reinforce
- إِثْباتconfirmation; verification
- ثَابِتcontinuing, subsisting, lasting, enduring, remaining, remaining fixed or …
- أَثْبَتَascertain; establish
The whole family6 groups, by pattern; tap a pattern to see what it does
Verbs6اثْبُ · ثَبَّتَ · أَثْبَتَ
The root as an action: the bare Form I, and the Forms made by adding letters before, inside or after the root.grammar →
- اثْبُForm IQurʾān ×1library ×25Lane
- ثَبَّتَconfirm; reinforceautoForm IIQurʾān ×10library ×6LaneIbn Fāris
- أَثْبَتَascertain; establishautoForm IVQurʾān ×2library ×10Lane
- اِسْتَثْبَتَverify; seek confirmationautoForm Xlibrary ×1Lane
Verbal nouns6إِثْبات · ثُبُوت · تَثْبِيت
The action itself, named as a noun (maṣdar).grammar →
- إِثْباتconfirmation; verificationautoForm IV · Lane: inf. n.library ×26Lane
- ثُبُوتconstancy; permanenceautoForm I · Lane: inf. n.Qurʾān ×1library ×5Lane
- تَثْبِيتForm IIQurʾān ×2
- ثَبَاتَةForm I · Lane: inf. n.Lane
Participles4ثَابِت · مُثَبِّت · مُثْبت
The one who does it, and the one it is done to.grammar →
- ثَابِتcontinuing, subsisting, lasting, enduring, remaining, remaining fixed or …Laneactive, Form IQurʾān ×2library ×12Lane
- مُثَبِّتfixative; fixing fluidautoactive, Form IVlibrary ×1
- مُثْبتpassive, Form IVLane
- مُثْبِتactive, Form IVLane
Intensives, qualities and the elative2أَثْبَت · ثَبِيت
The quality carried far, held as a trait, or compared.grammar →
- أَثْبَتmore; most reliableautoelative or colour adjective (afʿal)library ×12
- ثَبِيتquality (faʿīl)LaneIbn Fāris
Other nouns5ثَبَات · ثَبَت · ثَبْت
Nouns on other patterns; their meaning is learned word by word.grammar →
Reference
Why this shape?What each of the 15 patterns does
What each pattern does. The pattern gives a tendency, not a rule: many words have drifted into meanings of their own.
The pattern machinePour the root into a pattern; see whether the word exists
Choose a pattern; the root's letters pour into it. Then see whether the word exists in our sources. The machine makes shapes; only usage makes words.
Not in our sources. A possible shape, not a word we can show: the Quran, the library and Lane do not have it for this root.
Place noun with -a. The place noun with the feminine -a. Sometimes it is only a variant of mafʿal; often it names the place where a thing is found in abundance (maʾsada, 'a place full of lions'). So maktab is the place of writing, and maktaba, where writings are gathered: a library, a bookshop. Our summary AI
But: maktaba is not in our classical dictionaries for k-t-b: Lane and al-Jawharī give maktab ('a school'), none gives maktaba. Its sense of 'library, bookshop' fits the pattern of abundance, but that is our reading of the pattern, not a classical entry. Many mafʿala words are single items of usage (maqbara 'cemetery'), which the grammarians call heard, not formed by rule.
The grammarians on this pattern (4)
ما يكون مفعلة لازمة لها الهاء والفتحة … وذلك إذا أردت أن تكثر الشيء بالمكان، وذلك قولك: أرض مسبعة، ومأسدة
Chapter on what is mafʿala, with the -a and the a-vowel always: that is when you mean that a thing abounds in a place, as you say 'a land of many beasts of prey (masbaʿa), of many lions (maʾsada)' AI
Sībawayh (d. c. 180/796), al-Kitāb, ed. ʿAbd al-Salām Hārūn, 3rd ed. (Cairo: al-Khānjī, 1988), 4:94 · OpenITI line 21027–21028 ↗ · on this site · OpenITI RELEASE v2025.1.9, CC BY-NC-SA 4.0
و نحو المظنة و المقبرة فتحا و ضما ليس بقياس
and words like maẓinna and maqbara (with a or u) are not by rule AI
Ibn al-Ḥājib (d. 646/1249), al-Shāfiya fī ʿilm al-taṣrīf, ed. Ḥasan Aḥmad al-ʿUthmān (Mecca: al-Maktaba al-Makkiyya, 1995), 1:30 · OpenITI line 223 ↗ · on this site · OpenITI RELEASE v2025.1.9, CC BY-NC-SA 4.0
- “designate the place where the object signified by the noun from which they are formed, is found in large numbers or quantities” Wright, Grammar I, §247, p. 148 ↗ · on nouns of abundance, maf'ala · 3rd ed. (Cambridge, 1896) · public domain
- “Nouns of time and place not unfrequently take the feminine form” Wright, Grammar I, §225, p. 128 ↗ · on maf'ala as a variant of maf'al · 3rd ed. (Cambridge, 1896) · public domain
About thisWhat “attested” means here; the sources
Attested means found in our data: the Quranic Arabic Corpus (lemmas, verb Forms, participles, verbal nouns, plurals), the library's words (automatic analysis), Lane's Lexicon (his headwords, the Forms he numbers, the verbal nouns and plurals he names) and Ibn Fāris's entry. Nothing is generated for this list. Meanings are Lane's first gloss in his entry, or else the analyser's gloss (“auto”). Vowelling follows the corpus, then Lane, then the analyser; verbs are given in the regular perfect. Lane's Lexicon thins out after qāf, and a few of his entries cover several roots at once: those roots show no Lane. The patterns, written with ف ع ل, are computed by us.
The dictionaries
English: AI translation AIal-Jawharī · 393Thabata al-shayʾ (ثبت الشيء), thabātan (ثباتا) and thubūtan (ثبوتا) [means 'the thing became firm/established'];
al-Jawharī (d. c. 393/1003), al-Ṣiḥāḥ. Admits only usage he judged sound.
AI AI translation of the Arabic belowIbn Fāris · 395The letters thāʾ, bāʾ, and tāʾ form a single root meaning the permanence/continuance of a thing.
Ibn Fāris (d. 395/1004), Maqāyīs al-Lugha. Seeks each root's original sense (aṣl).
AI AI translation of the Arabic belowal-Rāghib · 502Al-thabāt (الثبات) is the opposite of zeval [passing away/disappearance].
al-Rāghib al-Iṣfahānī (d. c. 502/1108), al-Mufradāt. Quranic vocabulary, from core sense to Quranic usage.
AI AI translation of the Arabic belowLisān · 711Thabata al-shayʾ (ثبت الشيء) — yathbutu (يثبت), thabātan (ثباتا) and thubūtan (ثبوتا);
Ibn Manẓūr (d. 711/1311), Lisān al-ʿArab. The great compendium of the earlier dictionaries (entry shortened).
AI AI translation of the Arabic belowLane · 1876English, synthesising the classical dictionaries.
E. W. Lane (d. 1876), An Arabic-English Lexicon. English, synthesising the classical dictionaries.
Lane, Arabic-English Lexiconread Lane's entry online ↗
Technical definitions4 · Ibn ʿArabī’s Iṣṭilāḥ, al-Jurjānī’s Taʿrīfāt
الاثبات
اقامة احكام العبادة وقيل اثبات المواصلات.
الإثبات
هو الحكم بثبوت شيء آخر.
الأعيان الثابتة
هي حقائق الممكنات في علم الحق تعالى، وهي صور حقائق الأسماء الإلهية في الحضرة العلمية لا تأخر لها عن الحق إلا بالذات لا بالزمان، فهي أزلية، وأبدية، والمعنى بالإضافة التأخر بحسب الذات لا غير.
العين الثابتة
هي حقيقة في الحضرة العلمية ليست بموجودة في الخارج، بل معدومة ثابتة في علم الله تعالى.
The same letters, turned
The same three letters in all six orders. Choose one.
ث ب ت
الثاء والباء والتاء كلمة واحدة وهي دوام الشيء
th-b-t is a single word, and it is the continuance of a thing. AI
Ibn Fāris ↗Lisān ↗Lane ↗Quran ×18
an entry in Ibn Fārislater sources onlyin none of them
Do these six share one core meaning?
Reference
About thisal-Khalīl, Ibn Jinnī, Ibn Fāris; the counts across the dictionary
al-Khalīl (d. c. 170/786), Kitāb al-ʿAyn, as transmitted by al-Layth: a two-letter word “turns in two ways”, a three-letter word “in six ways” (masdūsa), four letters in 24, five in 120; “its used forms are written down and its unused ones dropped” (line 975 ↗). The dictionary is built on this: each chapter takes a set of letters and names which orders are used (mustaʿmal) and which unused (muhmal). The ring shows that verdict, from the chapter heading as edited (documented in the text; how much of the book is al-Khalīl's own is disputed).
A reported total. al-Suyūṭī transmits, from Ḥamza al-Iṣfahānī, that al-Khalīl put the possible forms, used and unused, of two to five letters at 12,305,412 (al-Muzhir, line 1347 ↗). It is reported, not found in the ʿAyn. It equals exactly the arrangements of 2 to 5 different letters out of 28 (756 + 19,656 + 491,400 + 11,793,600); the breakdown printed beside it is corrupt, and al-Zubaydī's count, given next, differs (6,659,400).
Ibn Jinnī (d. 392/1002), al-Khaṣāʾiṣ, names the greater derivation (al-ishtiqāq al-akbar): bind a three-letter root and its six orders to one meaning, and bring stray members back “by the subtlety of the craft and interpretation” (line 7536 ↗). He says himself that it does not hold for every root (line 167 ↗; line 7603 ↗).
Ibn Fāris (d. 395/1004) gives each root its own aṣl and treats a rearranged word as maqlūb, “turned round”, and so not a root of its own: “j-b-dh is not a root, because it is a single word, turned round” (Maqāyīs, line 6147 ↗). The ring sets his aṣl for each order side by side; whether they meet is the question.
Neighbours on the ring differ by one swap of two letters.
The critique. A source quoted by al-Suyūṭī calls the greater derivation Ibn Jinnī's innovation, “not relied on in the language” (al-Muzhir, line 6159 ↗).
The other axis. The root's letters also go into patterns that keep their order and change the frame: the patterns (awzān) and the verb Forms I–X.
Across Ibn Fāris's dictionary. Of the 2,300 possible sets of three different sound letters (no hamza, w or y), 1,021 have at least one order as an entry. How many of their six orders are entries:
- 1 of 6319
- 2 of 6218
- 3 of 6164
- 4 of 6155
- 5 of 6107
- 6 of 658
- 1 of 6148
- 2 of 6108
- 3 of 6157
- 4 of 6179
- 5 of 6111
- 6 of 643
Of the orders al-Khalīl calls used, 2,097 are entries in Ibn Fāris and 267 are not; 17 that he calls unused are entries in Ibn Fāris.
Attested here means found in our digital texts (Ibn Fāris, Lisān al-ʿArab, Lane, the Quranic Arabic Corpus), with w and y kept apart and hamza spellings merged; it is our data, not a classical verdict. English beside the Arabic is AI translation. Sources and grades: docs/research/root-permutations.md.
Letters & sound
- ثthāʾtongue-tip, edges of the teeth · voiceless, continuantSīb. · I. Jinnī
- بbāʾbetween the lips · voiced, stopSīb. · I. Jinnī
- تtāʾtongue-tip, roots of the teeth · voiceless, stopSīb. · I. Jinnī
How each letter is made, in brief, from Sībawayh's and Ibn Jinnī's own sentences (linked); their words are under Reference.
Sharing two of its three letters (computed; kinship of form, not of meaning)
Reference
How it is madeSībawayh and Ibn Jinnī · phonetics
English throughout: AI translation of the Arabic AI
ث
ومما بين طرف اللسان وأطراف الثنايا مخرج الظاء والذال، والثاء
From between the tip of the tongue and the edges of the front teeth is the place of the ẓāʾ, the dhāl and the thāʾ. Sībawayh, line 26561 ↗
ومما بين طرف اللسان وأطراف الثنايا، مخرج الظاء والذال والثاء
From between the tip of the tongue and the edges of the front teeth is the place of the ẓāʾ, the dhāl and the thāʾ. Ibn Jinnī, line 984 ↗
ب
ومما بين الشفتين مخرج الباء، والميم، والواو
From between the two lips is the place of the bāʾ, the mīm and the wāw. Sībawayh, line 26563 ↗
ومما بين الشفتين مخرج الباء والميم والواو
From between the two lips is the place of the bāʾ, the mīm and the wāw. Ibn Jinnī, line 986 ↗
ت
ومما بين طرف اللسان وأصول الثنايا مخرج الطاء، والدال، والتاء
From between the tip of the tongue and the roots of the front teeth is the place of the ṭāʾ, the dāl and the tāʾ. Sībawayh, line 26559 ↗
ومما بين طرف اللسان وأصول الثنايا، مخرج الطاء والدال والتاء
From between the tip of the tongue and the roots of the front teeth is the place of the ṭāʾ, the dāl and the tāʾ. Ibn Jinnī, line 982 ↗
Sībawayh, al-Kitāb (ed. Hārūn) and Ibn Jinnī, Sirr ṣināʿat al-iʿrāb; OpenITI digital texts (CC BY-NC-SA 4.0). Full credits on each letter's page.
In the Breath of the All-MercifulIbn ʿArabī · metaphysics
English throughout: AI translation of the Arabic AI
ث
Level of existence: النبات · plants
Divine Name: الرزاق · al-Razzāq, the Provider
Lunar mansion: بلع · Balaʿ
Futūḥāt ch. 198, line 62114Spheres of its simples (ch. 2): 10 line 2573 ↗
Nature (ch. 2)
المرتبة العشرية فحروفها حارة يابسة
The tenfold rank: its letters are hot and dry.
Ibn ʿArabī, al-Futūḥāt al-Makkiyya, line 2582ب
Level of existence: الجن · the jinn
Divine Name: اللطيف · al-Laṭīf, the Subtle
Lunar mansion: الفرع المقدم · al-Farʿ al-Muqaddam
Futūḥāt ch. 198, line 62118Spheres of its simples (ch. 2): 10 line 2573 ↗
Nature (ch. 2)
المرتبة العشرية فحروفها حارة يابسة
The tenfold rank: its letters are hot and dry.
Ibn ʿArabī, al-Futūḥāt al-Makkiyya, line 2582ت
Spheres of its simples (ch. 2): 10 line 2573 ↗
Nature (ch. 2)
المرتبة العشرية فحروفها حارة يابسة
The tenfold rank: its letters are hot and dry.
Ibn ʿArabī, al-Futūḥāt al-Makkiyya, line 2582Meaning by vowelal-Dabbāgh · a visionary claim about a primordial “Syriac”, not historical Syriac
English throughout: AI translation of the Arabic AI
ث
With fatḥa ـَ
فهي إشارة إلى النور أو الظلام.
It is an indication of light or darkness.
With ḍamma ـُ
فهي إشارة إلى زوال الشيء من الشيء.
It is an indication of a thing's departing from a thing.
With kasra ـِ
فهي إشارة إلى جعل الشيء على الشيء.
It is an indication of placing a thing upon a thing.
ب
With fatḥa ـَ
فهي إشارة إلى الشيء الذي هو في غاية العز أو في غاية الذل.
It is an indication of the thing that is at the utmost of might or at the utmost of abasement.
With ḍamma ـُ
فهي إشارة معها قبض.
It is an indication accompanied by contraction (qabḍ).
With kasra ـِ
فهي إشارة إلى ما دخل أو هو داخل على الذات.
It is an indication of what has entered, or is entering, upon the self.
ت
With fatḥa ـَ
فهي اسم للخير الكثير العظيم.
It is a name for abundant, great good.
With ḍamma ـُ
فهي اسم للقليل البارز.
It is a name for the small, protruding/manifest thing.
With kasra ـِ
فهي اسم لما صنع وأبرز.
It is a name for what has been made and brought forth.
In the sister scriptsHebrew ש ב תSyriac ܬ ܒ ܬ
| Arabic | ث ب ت |
| Hebrew | ש ב ת |
| Syriac | ܬ ܒ ܬ |
| Ancient South Arabian (musnad) | 𐩻 𐩨 𐩩 |
| Phoenician | 𐤔 𐤁 𐤕 |
Letter for letter, by the regular sound correspondences of the Semitic languages (Arabic keeps several sounds the others merged). This shows how the root would be spelled; whether a related word exists is a separate question, answered in the Semitic lens. Where an Arabic sibilant (s, sh) continues two older sounds, both spellings are shown.
Lenses
AIClassical lexiconAl-Jawharī records thabāt/thubūt as simple duration, glossing 'athbatahu al-suqm' (illness that never left him) and reading the Qurʾānic 'li-yuthbitūka' as a wound grave enough to disable, and notes 'thabt al-ghadr' for one whose tongue never falters in dispute.well attested
The lexicographers in chronological order, from al-Khalīl to Lane.
Al-Jawharī records thabāt/thubūt as simple duration, glossing 'athbatahu al-suqm' (illness that never left him) and reading the Qurʾānic 'li-yuthbitūka' as a wound grave enough to disable, and notes 'thabt al-ghadr' for one whose tongue never falters in dispute. Ibn Fāris (Maqāyīs) reduces the root to a single sense, dawām al-shayʾ, illustrated by Ṭarafa's verse where al-thubayt is the man whose heart has fahm, understanding, for its overseer. Al-Rāghib (Mufradāt) opposes thabāt to zawāl and, citing Qurʾān 8:45, distinguishes three registers of ithbāt: bringing a thing from non-existence into existence, a judge's ruling ithbāt, and mere verbal assertion, true or false. Ibn Manẓūr (Lisān) extends the field to a resident 'thābit' in a place, a sure-footed 'thabt' horse, locusts fixing their tails to lay eggs, and 'thabbatahu ʿan al-amr' used as a synonym of thabbaṭa, to hinder — thubūt shading toward restraint as well as permanence. Lane's summary, syn. dāma, captures the convergence of these strands.
Draws on: sihah · Ibn Fāris · mufradat · lisan · Lane
- al-Jawharī, al-Ṣiḥāḥ, s.v. ث-ب-ت
- Ibn Fāris, Maqāyīs al-Lugha, s.v. ث-ب-ت
- al-Rāghib al-Iṣfahānī, al-Mufradāt, s.v. ث-ب-ت
- Ibn Manẓūr, Lisān al-ʿArab, s.v. ث-ب-ت
Letters & soundAl-Dabbāgh assigns thāʾ to light or darkness, bāʾ to the extremity of might or abasement, and tāʾ to abundant, great good;speculative
What the theorists of sound symbolism would say of these letters. Speculative by nature.
Al-Dabbāgh assigns thāʾ to light or darkness, bāʾ to the extremity of might or abasement, and tāʾ to abundant, great good; read sequentially this could be taken to move from an ambiguous illumination through an extremity toward a settled, abundant good, echoing the semantic arc from mere persistence to established firmness. Al-Akbarī's letter-cosmology (§198) assigns thāʾ to plants and bāʾ to the jinn, with no entry given for tāʾ. These are the correspondences of Ibn ʿArabī's and al-Dabbāgh's traditions of ḥurūf as meaningful; mainstream historical linguistics treats such letter-meaning correspondences as unverifiable and at most suggestive, never as etymological evidence.
Draws on: dabbagh_fatha · akbari198
Root structureNo two-letter nucleus-siblings for ث-ب are supplied in the material at hand, and of the six possible triliteral permutations of these letters only ث-ب-ت itself is attested as a living root, carrying dawām al-shayʾ, while ثتب، بثت، بتث، تثب، تبث are all unattested.uncertain
The two-letter nucleus (Ibn Fāris's own chapters) and the permutations of the letters (Ibn Jinnī).
No two-letter nucleus-siblings for ث-ب are supplied in the material at hand, and of the six possible triliteral permutations of these letters only ث-ب-ت itself is attested as a living root, carrying dawām al-shayʾ, while ثتب، بثت، بتث، تثب، تبث are all unattested. Under Ibn Jinnī's theory of al-ishtiqāq al-akbar, which expects some semantic resonance across permutations of a shared triliteral, this absence of parallel forms leaves ثبت semantically isolated rather than part of a permutational cluster — a juxtaposition worth noting, not an established fact of kinship.
Draws on: maqayis-permutations · ibn-jinni-khasais
- Ibn Jinnī, al-Khaṣāʾiṣ, chapter on al-ishtiqāq al-akbar (link not verified)
- Wiktionary, Arabic root appendix ث-ب-ت ↗
Semitic kin & loanwordsArabic ث corresponds regularly to Hebrew/Aramaic š (as in Arabic thalātha / Hebrew shalosh), which makes the Hebrew and Aramaic/Syriac root š-b-t — 'to cease, desist, rest,' whence Sabbath — a plausible cognate of ث-ب-ت, though only with medium confidence, since the semantic link runs through 'coming to rest' yielding 'becoming fixed, permanent' rather than a direct match.plausible
Cognates in the sister languages, and whether the word was borrowed.
Arabic ث corresponds regularly to Hebrew/Aramaic š (as in Arabic thalātha / Hebrew shalosh), which makes the Hebrew and Aramaic/Syriac root š-b-t — 'to cease, desist, rest,' whence Sabbath — a plausible cognate of ث-ب-ت, though only with medium confidence, since the semantic link runs through 'coming to rest' yielding 'becoming fixed, permanent' rather than a direct match. No confident Akkadian, Geʿez, or South Arabian cognate for this root has been identified in the material available. There is no reason to treat ثبت as a loanword; it patterns as an inherited Semitic root, if the š-b-t connection holds.
Draws on: phonological-correspondence
Quranic exegesisAt 13:39 ('God effaces what He wills and confirms/yuthbitu what He wills'), al-Ṭabarī and al-Rāzī read yuthbitu against the question of abrogation (naskh) and the relation of the divine decree to the Preserved Tablet, debating whether what is 'confirmed' concerns rulings, terms of life, or provisions.plausible
How the classical exegetes read the word in the Quran.
At 13:39 ('God effaces what He wills and confirms/yuthbitu what He wills'), al-Ṭabarī and al-Rāzī read yuthbitu against the question of abrogation (naskh) and the relation of the divine decree to the Preserved Tablet, debating whether what is 'confirmed' concerns rulings, terms of life, or provisions. At 2:250 and 3:147 ('thabbit aqdāmanā,' spoken before the battles with Jālūt and at Uḥud), the exegetes read the plea metaphorically, as courage and steadiness under fear rather than literal bodily support, al-Zamakhsharī stressing 'foot' as figure for resolve. At 2:265, the parable of the garden planted 'tathbītan min anfusihim,' the phrase is read as sincerity issuing from the believers' own souls rather than ostentation, close to al-Rāghib's distinction between ithbāt by inner conviction and by mere speech. Al-Rāghib's Mufradāt entry is itself repeatedly drawn on by later exegetes to gloss these Qurʾānic senses of ithbāt, from ontological bringing-into-being to judicial and rhetorical affirmation.
Draws on: tabari · zamakhshari · razi · raghib
Philosophy & kalāmThough ثبت is not among falsafa's primary technical nouns (unlike wujūd or ḥaqīqa), ithbāt is basic kalām vocabulary: ithbāt al-ṣāniʿ names the theologians' proof of a Maker, and the Ashʿarī–Muʿtazilī dispute over the divine attributes is standardly framed as ithbāt al-ṣifāt (Ashʿarī affirmation) versus nafy al-ṣifāt (Muʿtazilī denial).plausible
The word as a technical term in falsafa and theology.
Though ثبت is not among falsafa's primary technical nouns (unlike wujūd or ḥaqīqa), ithbāt is basic kalām vocabulary: ithbāt al-ṣāniʿ names the theologians' proof of a Maker, and the Ashʿarī–Muʿtazilī dispute over the divine attributes is standardly framed as ithbāt al-ṣifāt (Ashʿarī affirmation) versus nafy al-ṣifāt (Muʿtazilī denial). In logic, ithbāt/nafy (affirmation/negation) is the basic polarity of the proposition (qaḍiyya). The root thus supplies kalām's ordinary vocabulary for affirming realities or attributes against those who would deny or explain them away.
Draws on: kalam
Akbarian readingIbn ʿArabī's own gloss defines al-ithbāt as 'the establishing of the rulings of worship,' or, alternatively, 'the establishing of connections (muwāṣalāt).' In Faṣṣ Ādam the root recurs where he distinguishes the irtibāṭ, the binding-relation, between what possesses concrete existence (wujūd ʿaynī) and what does not yet possess it but 'has been established' (qad thabata) — these being nisab ʿadamiyya, non-existential relations — and states that the originated thing's ḥudūth and its need for an originator are themselves established (thabata) as such.well attested
The word in Ibn ʿArabī's text and terminology.
Ibn ʿArabī's own gloss defines al-ithbāt as 'the establishing of the rulings of worship,' or, alternatively, 'the establishing of connections (muwāṣalāt).' In Faṣṣ Ādam the root recurs where he distinguishes the irtibāṭ, the binding-relation, between what possesses concrete existence (wujūd ʿaynī) and what does not yet possess it but 'has been established' (qad thabata) — these being nisab ʿadamiyya, non-existential relations — and states that the originated thing's ḥudūth and its need for an originator are themselves established (thabata) as such. This use of thubūt as a mode of fixed reality anterior to wujūd is the same move underlying his doctrine of al-aʿyān al-thābita, entities possessing thubūt without ʿaynī existence. A third passage speaks of proceeding 'ʿalā ḥaddi mā thabata fī umm al-kitāb,' as it is fixed in the Mother of the Book — thubūt as an archetype's fixity in the divine record prior to its temporal unfolding.
Draws on: ibnArabiDefinitions · fassAdam
Reference