Root · 2 in the Quran · 115 in 16 texts of the library
جللTo be great, thick, or coarse in magnitude; hence the chief or bulk part of a thing, and, … (root jll)
الجيم واللام أصول ثلاثة جل الشيء عظم وجل الشيء معظمه وجلال الله عظمته وهو ذو الجلال والإكرام والجلل الأمر العظيم والجلة …
Ibn Fāris, Maqāyīs al-lugha · English rendering AI
The family of the root
Patterns computed · our dataThe words of ج ل ل that our sources attest: the root's letters in green, the added letters in gold.
32 words6 verbs5 verbal nouns3 participles1 intensive or elative15 other nouns2 plurals
- جَلَالloftiness; splendor
- جَلِيلlarge trees
- جَلَّلَclouds that include the land in common, or generally, or universally, within …
- إِجْلالreverence
- تَجَلَّلَhe took the greater, main, principal, or chief, part of it
The whole family6 groups, by pattern; tap a pattern to see what it does
Verbs6جَلَّ · جَلَّلَ · أَجَلَّ
The root as an action: the bare Form I, and the Forms made by adding letters before, inside or after the root.grammar →
Verbal nouns5جَلَال · إِجْلال · جَلَالَة
The action itself, named as a noun (maṣdar).grammar →
Participles3مُجَلَّل · مُجَلِّل · مَجْلُول
The one who does it, and the one it is done to.grammar →
Intensives, qualities and the elative1جَلِيل
The quality carried far, held as a trait, or compared.grammar →
- جَلِيلlarge treesLanequality (faʿīl)library ×4LaneIbn Fāris
Other nouns15جَلَل · جَلَّالَة · جَلِيلَة
Nouns on other patterns; their meaning is learned word by word.grammar →
Reference
Why this shape?What each of the 14 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
This root has a weak or doubled letter, so real words change shape (qāla → qāʾil, not qāwil); the machine pours the letters in as they are, and matches attested words by their regular pattern.
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-Khalīl · 170Jalla fī ‘aynī (جَلَّ فِي عَيْنِي) means it became great in my eye, and ajlaltuhu (أَجْلَلْتُهُ) means I regarded him as great.
al-Khalīl b. Aḥmad (d. c. 170/786), Kitāb al-ʿAyn. The first Arabic dictionary, arranged by permutations of the root letters.
AI AI translation of the Arabic belowal-Jawharī · 393Al-jill (الجِلّ), with fatḥah, is the sail (ash-shirā‘);
al-Jawharī (d. c. 393/1003), al-Ṣiḥāḥ. Admits only usage he judged sound.
AI AI translation of the Arabic belowIbn Fāris · 395The letters jīm and lām have three root meanings.
Ibn Fāris (d. 395/1004), Maqāyīs al-Lugha. Seeks each root's original sense (aṣl).
AI AI translation of the Arabic belowal-Rāghib · 502[Second usage of ja‘ala]: '...and He made the darknesses and the light' (Quran 6:1), 'And He made for you hearing, sight, and hearts' (Quran 16:78).
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 · 711Allah, al-Jalīl (الجَلِيل), glory be to Him, is Dhū al-Jalāl wa-l-Ikrām (ذُو الْجَلَالِ وَالْإِكْرَامِ).
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 definitions3 · Ibn ʿArabī’s Iṣṭilāḥ, al-Jurjānī’s Taʿrīfāt
الجلال
نعوت القهر من الحضرة الالهية.
Al-Jalāl (الجلال): the epithets/attributes of overpowering might (qahr) proceeding from the Divine Presence. AI
الجلال من الصفات
ما يتعلق بالفهر والغضب.
Al-Jalāl (الجلال) among the [divine] attributes: that which pertains to overpowering might (qahr) and wrath (ghaḍab). AI
المجلة
هي الصحيفة التي يكون فيها الحكم.
Al-Mijallah (المجلة): it is the scroll/book in which the [divine] ruling/judgment is contained. AI
The same letters, turned
The same three letters in all their orders. Choose one.
ج ل ل
الجيم واللام أصول ثلاثة جل الشيء عظم وجل الشيء معظمه وجلال الله عظمته وهو ذو الجلال والإكرام والجلل الأمر العظيم والجلة الإبل المسان
j-l: three roots: jalla of a thing means it became great, and jull of a thing is its greater part, and jalāl Allāh is His greatness—He is the Possessor of Majesty and Honor; al-jalal is a great matter, and al-jalla is mature camels. AI
Ibn Fāris ↗Lisān ↗Quran ×2
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
- جjīmmiddle of the tongue · voiced, stopSīb. · I. Jinnī
- لlāmedge of the tongue · voiced, in betweenI. Jinnī
- لlāmedge of the tongue · voiced, in betweenI. 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
ج
ومن وسط اللسان بينه وبين وسط الحنك الأعلى مخرج الجيم والشين والياء
From the middle of the tongue, between it and the middle of the upper palate, is the place of the jīm, the shīn and the yāʾ. Sībawayh, line 26553 ↗
ومن وسط اللسان بينه وبين وسط الحنك الأعلى، مخرج الجيم والشين والياء
From the middle of the tongue, between it and the middle of the upper palate, is the place of the jīm, the shīn and the yāʾ. Ibn Jinnī, line 974 ↗
ل
ومن حافة اللسان من أدناها إلى منتهى طرف اللسان، من بينها وبين ما يليها من الحنك الأعلى، مما فويق الضاحك والناب والرباعية والثنية، مخرج اللام
From the edge of the tongue, from its nearest part to the end of its tip, between it and the upper palate next to it, just above the premolar, the canine, the lateral and the central incisor, is the place of the lām. Ibn Jinnī, lines 977–978 ↗
ل
ومن حافة اللسان من أدناها إلى منتهى طرف اللسان، من بينها وبين ما يليها من الحنك الأعلى، مما فويق الضاحك والناب والرباعية والثنية، مخرج اللام
From the edge of the tongue, from its nearest part to the end of its tip, between it and the upper palate next to it, just above the premolar, the canine, the lateral and the central incisor, is the place of the lām. Ibn Jinnī, lines 977–978 ↗
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
ج
Level of existence: الفلك الأطلس فلك البروج · the Atlas (starless) sphere, the sphere of the zodiacal signs
Divine Name: الغني · al-Ghanī, the Independent
Lunar mansion: الطرف · al-Ṭarf
Futūḥāt ch. 198, line 62085Spheres 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 2582ل
Level of existence: السماء الثالثة · the third heaven
Divine Name: القاهر · the Subduer (al-Qāhir)
Lunar mansion: العوا · al-ʿAwwā
Futūḥāt ch. 198, line 64654Spheres of its simples (ch. 2): 7 line 2576 ↗
Nature (ch. 2)
منها دون الألف فطبعها الحرارة واليبوسة
[Zāy and lām] of it, excluding alif: their nature is heat and dryness.
Ibn ʿArabī, al-Futūḥāt al-Makkiyya, line 2577ل
Level of existence: السماء الثالثة · the third heaven
Divine Name: القاهر · the Subduer (al-Qāhir)
Lunar mansion: العوا · al-ʿAwwā
Futūḥāt ch. 198, line 64654Spheres of its simples (ch. 2): 7 line 2576 ↗
Nature (ch. 2)
منها دون الألف فطبعها الحرارة واليبوسة
[Zāy and lām] of it, excluding alif: their nature is heat and dryness.
Ibn ʿArabī, al-Futūḥāt al-Makkiyya, line 2577Meaning by vowelal-Dabbāgh · a visionary claim about a primordial “Syriac”, not historical Syriac
English throughout: AI translation of the Arabic AI
ج
With fatḥa ـَ
فهي نبوة أو ولاية إذا كان قبلها أو بعدها ما يدل على ذلك، وإلا فهي للخير الذي لا يزول أبدا.
It is prophethood or sainthood (walāya) if something before or after it indicates that. Otherwise it is for the good that never ceases.
With ḍamma ـُ
فهي الخير الذي يؤكل أو ينتفع الناس منه.
It is the good that is eaten, or from which people derive benefit.
With kasra ـِ
فهي الخير القليل الذي في الذات من نور الإيمان.
It is the small good within the self from the light of faith.
ل
With fatḥa ـَ
فهي حصول المتكلم على شيء عظيم، وتكون إشارة إلى شيء عظيم.
It is the speaker's attaining of something great, and it serves as an indication of something great.
With ḍamma ـُ
فهي إشارة إلى الشيء الذي لا نهاية له.
It is an indication of the thing that has no end.
With kasra ـِ
فهي إشارة من المتكلم إلى وجود ذاته أو إلى ذاته.
It is an indication by the speaker of the existence of his self, or of his self.
ل
With fatḥa ـَ
فهي حصول المتكلم على شيء عظيم، وتكون إشارة إلى شيء عظيم.
It is the speaker's attaining of something great, and it serves as an indication of something great.
With ḍamma ـُ
فهي إشارة إلى الشيء الذي لا نهاية له.
It is an indication of the thing that has no end.
With kasra ـِ
فهي إشارة من المتكلم إلى وجود ذاته أو إلى ذاته.
It is an indication by the speaker of the existence of his self, or of his self.
Two-letter nucleus11 roots in Ibn Fāris’s chapterج ل
Ibn Fāris groups his roots under two-letter chapters (“the X and the Y and what makes them three”). These are the roots of this root's chapter with the core sense he gives each. Setting them side by side is our juxtaposition; he does not himself draw a shared meaning. His chapter heading, line 5746 ↗
- جلمالجيم واللام والميم أصلان أحدهما القطع والآخر جمع الشيءL5747
- جلهالجيم واللام والهاء أصل واحد يدل على انكشاف الشيء فالجله انحسار الشعر عن جانبي الرأسL5752
- جلوالجيم واللام والحرف المعتل أصل واحد وقياس مطرد وهو انكشاف الشيء وبروزهQ 5 · L5757
- جلجالجيم واللام والجيم ليس أصلا لأن فيه كلمتينL5780
- جلحالجيم واللام والحاء أصل واحد وهو التجرد وانكشاف الشيء عن الشيء فالجلح ذهاب شعر مقدم الرأس ورجل أجلح والسنون المجاليح اللواتي تذهب بالمال والسيل الجلاحL5784
- جلخالجيم واللام والخاء ليس أصلا ولا فيه عربية صحيحة فإن كان شيء فالخاء مبدلة من حاء وقد مضى ذكرهL5792
- جلدالجيم واللام والدال أصل واحد وهو يدل على قوة وصلابة فالجلد معروف وهو أقوى وأصلب مما تحته من اللحم والجلد صلابة الجلد والأجلاد الجسمQ 13 · L5794
- جلذالجيم واللام والذال يدل على ما يدل عليه ما قبله من القوة فالجلذاءة الأرض الغليظة الصلبة والجلذية الناقة القوية السريعة والجلذي السير القوي السريعL5810
- جلسالجيم واللام والسين كلمة واحدة وأصل واحد وهو الارتفاع في الشيءQ 1 · L5821
- جلطالجيم واللام والطاء أصل على قلته مطرد القياس وهو تجرد الشيءL5836
- جلقالجيم واللام والقاف ليس أصلا ولا فرعا وجلق بلد وليس عربياL5848
In the sister scriptsHebrew ג ל לSyriac ܓ ܠ ܠ
| Arabic | ج ل ل |
| Hebrew | ג ל ל |
| Syriac | ܓ ܠ ܠ |
| Ancient South Arabian (musnad) | 𐩴 𐩡 𐩡 |
| Phoenician | 𐤂 𐤋 𐤋 |
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 lexiconLane's citation shows the verb's physical root sense: jalla, yajillu is properly 'to be thick, gross, coarse, big, or bulky,' and only derivatively, of a man, 'to be great' in rank.well attested
The lexicographers in chronological order, from al-Khalīl to Lane.
Lane's citation shows the verb's physical root sense: jalla, yajillu is properly 'to be thick, gross, coarse, big, or bulky,' and only derivatively, of a man, 'to be great' in rank. Al-Khalīl's ʿAyn already shows this concrete field beside the abstract: jalla fī ʿaynī, 'it loomed great in my eye,' stands next to jilāl as a beast's large covering-cloth (pl. ajilla) and jilla as collected dung, the coarse residue set against what is daqīq, fine. Ibn Fāris in the Maqāyīs resolves the root into three converging senses—greatness (jalla al-shayʾ, ʿaẓuma), the chief or bulk part of a thing (al-jall = muʿẓamuhu), and, restricted to God, jalāl as His azma, dhū l-jalāl wa-l-ikrām—while his citations of daqīqa wa-jalīla (small stock and large stock) show the term still operating in a pastoral register even as it reaches toward the divine name. Ibn Manẓūr's Lisān completes the narrowing: al-jalāl, he insists, 'is said only of God' (lā yuqālu al-jalāl illā lillāh), glossing al-Jalīl as the name comprehending the totality of God's perfect attributes, paired functionally with al-Kabīr and al-ʿAẓīm.
Draws on: al-Khalīl al-ʿAyn · al-Jawharī al-Ṣiḥāḥ · Ibn Fāris Maqāyīs · Ibn Manẓūr Lisān · Lane
Letters & soundIbn ʿArabī assigns jīm to the Atlas Sphere, the starless outermost sphere of the zodiacal signs, and lām to the third heaven, placing both letters among the highest cosmic strata—a suggestive resonance with jalāl's sense of supreme majesty.speculative
What the theorists of sound symbolism would say of these letters. Speculative by nature.
Ibn ʿArabī assigns jīm to the Atlas Sphere, the starless outermost sphere of the zodiacal signs, and lām to the third heaven, placing both letters among the highest cosmic strata—a suggestive resonance with jalāl's sense of supreme majesty. Al-Dabbāgh's reading of lām as 'the speaker's attaining of something great, and an indication of something great' is strikingly close to the root's own content, since جلل is precisely doubled lām; his jīm, read as prophethood or sainthood when context indicates, or otherwise the good that never ceases, would likewise fit a word reserved for God's own majesty. These correspondences belong to a mystical hermeneutic of the alphabet and are not endorsed by historical or comparative linguistics, which finds no causal link between a letter's shape and meanings later mapped onto it.
Draws on: Ibn ʿArabī letters-in-the-Breath · al-Dabbāgh letter meanings
Root structureIbn Fāris's ج-ل chapter groups several roots of uncovering or manifestation—جلو (a thing's becoming uncovered and standing forth, inkishāf al-shayʾ wa-burūzuh), جله and جلح (baldness uncovering the head)—alongside a smaller cluster of firmness (جلد, جلذ) and elevation (جلس, rising to sit).plausible
The two-letter nucleus (Ibn Fāris's own chapters) and the permutations of the letters (Ibn Jinnī).
Ibn Fāris's ج-ل chapter groups several roots of uncovering or manifestation—جلو (a thing's becoming uncovered and standing forth, inkishāf al-shayʾ wa-burūzuh), جله and جلح (baldness uncovering the head)—alongside a smaller cluster of firmness (جلد, جلذ) and elevation (جلس, rising to sit). جلل, 'greatness,' sits adjacent to both: a great thing is, in this neighborhood, one that stands out manifestly (like جلو) and one that is raised up (like جلس). This is worth flagging for the Akbarian reader especially, since جلو is the root of tajallī, 'self-disclosure'—paradigmatically close to جلل though Ibn Fāris does not himself connect them; the resonance is a matter of root-cluster juxtaposition, not an asserted derivation.
Draws on: Ibn Fāris nucleus siblings ج-ل
- Ibn Jinnī, al-Khaṣāʾiṣ, chapter on al-ishtiqāq al-akbar (link not verified)
Semitic kin & loanwordsThere is no confident Semitic cognate for جلل in the sense 'to be great.' Hebrew and Aramaic possess a root g-l-l (Hebrew galal, Aramaic/Syriac glal), but its core sense there is 'to roll' (as in Gilgal, 'the rolling'), a different semantic field;plausible
Cognates in the sister languages, and whether the word was borrowed.
There is no confident Semitic cognate for جلل in the sense 'to be great.' Hebrew and Aramaic possess a root g-l-l (Hebrew galal, Aramaic/Syriac glal), but its core sense there is 'to roll' (as in Gilgal, 'the rolling'), a different semantic field; the shared root letters are likely coincidental rather than evidence of a shared etymon. The ordinary Northwest Semitic word for 'great' is instead g-d-l (Hebrew gāḏôl), and the common Semitic word for a great one or lord is r-b-b (Hebrew rab, Arabic rabb), not jll. Arabic jalāl/jalīl in the sense of magnitude and majesty therefore appears to be a development specific to Arabic, without a confident cross-Semitic parallel, and is not a loanword.
Draws on: comparison with Hebrew gdl · Hebrew/Aramaic gll
- Brown–Driver–Briggs, s.v. גלל
Quranic exegesisBoth Quranic occurrences of jalāl fall in Sūrat al-Raḥmān, in the central refrain (55:27, 'wa yabqā wajhu rabbika dhū l-jalāli wa-l-ikrām') and the sūra's closing verse (55:78, 'tabāraka ismu rabbika dhī l-jalāli wa-l-ikrām').well attested
How the classical exegetes read the word in the Quran.
Both Quranic occurrences of jalāl fall in Sūrat al-Raḥmān, in the central refrain (55:27, 'wa yabqā wajhu rabbika dhū l-jalāli wa-l-ikrām') and the sūra's closing verse (55:78, 'tabāraka ismu rabbika dhī l-jalāli wa-l-ikrām'). Al-Ṭabarī glosses dhū l-jalāl as the Possessor of greatness and sovereign majesty (al-ʿaẓama wa-l-kibriyāʾ), attached to God's enduring 'Face' as contrast to the perishing of all else mentioned just before it. Al-Zamakhsharī reads the pairing of jalāl with ikrām (bounteous generosity) as joining awesome transcendence with generous bestowal, a pairing later Sufi commentators treat as foreshadowing the jalāl/jamāl polarity worked out fully in later mystical theology. Al-Rāzī, in his Tafsīr al-Kabīr, emphasizes that dhū l-jalāl marks God's self-subsistent independence (ghinā) and the magnitude of His attributes of perfection, distinguishing jalāl, majesty commanding awe, from mere greatness of size.
Draws on: Quran 55:27 · Quran 55:78 · al-Ṭabarī · al-Zamakhsharī · al-Rāzī
Philosophy & kalāmAl-Jalīl functions in kalām as one of the ninety-nine divine names;plausible
The word as a technical term in falsafa and theology.
Al-Jalīl functions in kalām as one of the ninety-nine divine names; al-Ghazālī in al-Maqṣad al-Asnā treats it as denoting the completeness and perfection of God's attributes taken together, distinct from al-ʿAẓīm (magnitude of essence alone) in its emphasis on comprehensive perfection. In later theological and Sufi usage, jalāl becomes the technical counterpart to jamāl (beauty): jalāl names the register of transcendence, incomparability (tanzīh), and awe-inspiring overwhelming, while jamāl names immanence, similarity (tashbīh), and gentle attraction. This pairing, only latent in earlier kalām, becomes foundational in the metaphysics of divine names elaborated by later Sufi theorists, Ibn ʿArabī prominent among them.
Draws on: al-Ghazālī al-Maqṣad al-Asnā · kalām doctrine of divine names
Akbarian readingIbn ʿArabī's own definition is precise: al-jalāl is 'the attributes of overwhelming (qahr) belonging to the Divine Presence' (nuʿūt al-qahr min al-ḥaḍra al-ilāhiyya)—jalāl is classed with the compulsive, majestic register of divine self-disclosure, against jamāl, the register of gentleness and attraction.well attested
The word in Ibn ʿArabī's text and terminology.
Ibn ʿArabī's own definition is precise: al-jalāl is 'the attributes of overwhelming (qahr) belonging to the Divine Presence' (nuʿūt al-qahr min al-ḥaḍra al-ilāhiyya)—jalāl is classed with the compulsive, majestic register of divine self-disclosure, against jamāl, the register of gentleness and attraction. The supplied Faṣṣ Ādam passage makes this the structural principle of the human constitution: God 'described Himself as beautiful and possessor of majesty, and so brought us into being upon awe (hayba) and intimacy (uns),' paired with fear and hope toward His wrath and pleasure. For Ibn ʿArabī, jalāl is thus one pole of a necessary polarity with jamāl, whose joint imprint on Adam—unlike the angels, who reflect jalāl alone, or the animals, jamāl alone—constitutes the human being's unique comprehensiveness (jamʿiyya) as locus of the Divine Image.
Draws on: Ibn ʿArabī's own Iṣṭilāḥ definition · Faṣṣ Ādam excerpt
Reference