Root · 33 in the Quran · 51 in 17 texts of the library
جنبThe side/flank, extended to being distant, foreign, or set apart (root jnb)
الجيم والنون والباء أصلان متقاربان أحدهما الناحية والآخر البعد فأما الناحية فالجناب
Ibn Fāris, Maqāyīs al-lugha · English rendering AI
The family of the root
Patterns computed · our dataThe words of ج ن ب that our sources attest: the root's letters in green, the added letters in gold.
46 words8 verbs7 verbal nouns5 participles2 places and instruments3 intensives and elatives12 other nouns7 plurals2 relatives and abstracts
- جَانِبthe two sides of the nose
- اِجْتَنَبَavoid
- جَنبthe side, or half, or lateral half
- جُنُوب—
- جُنُبthe person who is one's neighbour, but who belongs to another people
The whole family8 groups, by pattern; tap a pattern to see what it does
Verbs8اجْنُبَ · اِجْتَنَبَ · جَنَّبَ
The root as an action: the bare Form I, and the Forms made by adding letters before, inside or after the root.grammar →
Form I vowels: فَعُلَ يَفْعُلُ (u – u; the imperfect from Lane's “aor.”)
Verbal nouns7جَنَابَة · جَنَب · جُنُوب
The action itself, named as a noun (maṣdar).grammar →
Participles5جَانِب · مُجَنَّب · مُجَنِّب
The one who does it, and the one it is done to.grammar →
Place, time and instrument2مَجْنَب · مِجْنَب
Where or when it happens, and what it is done with: the m- nouns.grammar →
Intensives, qualities and the elative3جَنُوب · أَجْنَب · جَنِيب
The quality carried far, held as a trait, or compared.grammar →
- جَنُوبthe south windLaneintensive (faʿūl)library ×1LaneIbn Fāris
- أَجْنَبelative or colour adjective (afʿal)Lane
- جَنِيبone walking by the side of anotherLanequality (faʿīl)Lane
Other nouns12جَنب · جُنُب · جَنْبَة
Nouns on other patterns; their meaning is learned word by word.grammar →
Plurals7جُنُوب · جَوَانِب · أَجانِب
Broken plurals rebuild the word on a new pattern; sound plurals add an ending.grammar →
- جُنُوبbroken plural of جَنبQurʾān ×5Ibn Fāris
- جَوَانِبbroken plural of جَانِبlibrary ×2Lane
- أَجانِبplural of foreignfrom the singularbroken plural of أَجْنَبِيّlibrary ×1
- أَجْنَابbroken plural of جُنُبLane
Relative and abstract2أَجْنَبِيّ · جَنُوبِيّ
-iyy relates a thing to its source; -iyya makes an abstract noun.grammar →
- أَجْنَبِيّforeignautorelative adjective (-iyy)library ×3Lane
- جَنُوبِيّrelative adjective (-iyy)Lane
Reference
Why this shape?What each of the 23 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-Khalīl · 170Al-junūb (الجنوب) is the plural of al-janb (الجنب).
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-janb (الجنب) is well known.
al-Jawharī (d. c. 393/1003), al-Ṣiḥāḥ. Admits only usage he judged sound.
AI AI translation of the Arabic belowIbn Fāris · 395Jīm, nūn, and bāʾ (ج ن ب) form two closely related roots: one meaning 'side/direction' (al-nāḥiya) and the other 'distance' (al-buʿd).
Ibn Fāris (d. 395/1004), Maqāyīs al-Lugha. Seeks each root's original sense (aṣl).
AI AI translation of the Arabic belowal-Rāghib · 502The original meaning of al-janb (الجنب) is the bodily limb;
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 · 711Al-janb (الجنب), al-janba (الجنبة), and al-jānib (الجانب): the side/flank of a human being or anything else.
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 ↗
The same letters, turned
The same three letters in all six orders. Choose one.
ج ن ب
الجيم والنون والباء أصلان متقاربان أحدهما الناحية والآخر البعد
j-n-b has two close roots: one is the side, and the other is distance. AI
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
- نnūntip of the tongue · voiced, in betweenSīb. · I. Jinnī
- بbāʾbetween the lips · voiced, 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
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 ↗
ن
ومن حافة اللسان من أدناها إلى منتهى طرف اللسان ما بينها وبين ما يليها من الحنك الأعلى وما فويق الثنايا مخرج النون
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 and what is just above the front teeth, is the place of the nūn. Sībawayh, lines 26555–26556 ↗
ومن طرف اللسان بينه وبين ما فويق الثنايا، مخرج النون
From the tip of the tongue, between it and what is just above the front teeth, is the place of the nūn. Ibn Jinnī, line 979 ↗
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 ↗
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 2582ن
Level of existence: السماء الرابعة · the fourth heaven
Divine Name: النور · the Light (al-Nūr)
Lunar mansion: السماك · al-Simāk
Futūḥāt ch. 198, line 64663Spheres of its simples (ch. 2): 8 line 2571 ↗
Nature (ch. 2)
الثمانية فحروفها حارة يابسة
The eightfold [rank]: its letters are hot and dry.
Ibn ʿArabī, al-Futūḥāt al-Makkiyya, line 2580ب
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 2582Meaning 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.
ن
With fatḥa ـَ
فهي الخير الساكن في الذات الشاعل فيها.
It is the good that dwells in the self, kindling [al-shāʿil, as written] within it.
With ḍamma ـُ
فهي إشارة إلى الخير الكامل أو النور الساطع.
It is an indication of perfect good or radiant light.
With kasra ـِ
فهي إشارة إلى شيء يدركه المتكلم أو هو له.
It is an indication of something that the speaker perceives or that belongs to him.
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.
Two-letter nucleus6 roots in Ibn Fāris’s chapterج ن
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 5929 ↗
- جنهالجيم والنون والهاء ليس أصلا ولا هو عندي من كلام العرب إلا أن ناسا زعموا أن الجنة الخيزران وأنشدوا : — في كفه جنهي ريحه عبق … بكف أروع في عرنينه شمم —L5930
- جنأالجيم والنون والهمزة أصل واحد وهو العطف على الشيء والحنو عليهL5935
- جنبالجيم والنون والباء أصلان متقاربان أحدهما الناحية والآخر البعد فأما الناحية فالجنابQ 33 · L5939
- جنذالجيم والنون والذال يدل على التجمع والنصرةL5955
- جنزالجيم والنون والزاء كلمة واحدةL5959
- جنفالجيم والنون والفاء أصل واحد وهو الميل والميلQ 2 · L5970
In the sister scriptsHebrew ג נ בSyriac ܓ ܢ ܒ
| Arabic | ج ن ب |
| Hebrew | ג נ ב |
| Syriac | ܓ ܢ ܒ |
| Ancient South Arabian (musnad) | 𐩴 𐩬 𐩨 |
| Phoenician | 𐤂 𐤍 𐤁 |
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-Khalīl (al-ʿAyn) treats al-janb/al-jānib as the well-known side (pl.well attested
The lexicographers in chronological order, from al-Khalīl to Lane.
Al-Khalīl (al-ʿAyn) treats al-janb/al-jānib as the well-known side (pl. jawānib), janabtuhu ʿan kadhā as keeping harm from someone, and cites Ibrāhīm's prayer 'ujnubnī wa-banīyya an naʿbuda al-aṣnām' (keep me and my sons far from worshipping idols) for this averting sense. Al-Jawharī (al-Ṣiḥāḥ) fixes janb as the side and jānib as direction (citing 'al-nās janb wal-amīr janb'), and distinguishes al-jār al-junub (a stranger-neighbor, from another tribe) from al-jār al-janīb, and al-ṣāḥib bi-l-janb (a travel companion); ajnabī, ajnab, janib and jānib are given as synonyms for 'foreigner.' Ibn Fāris (Maqāyīs) organizes the root under two related origins, al-nāḥiya (the quarter/direction) and al-buʿd (distance, hence estrangement), covering jinba (withdrawing from people, praised in a ḥadīth as ʿafāf), the forbidden racing practice of jinab (leading a spare horse beside one's own), and janīb (a thirst-stricken camel whose lung sticks to its side). Al-Rāghib (al-Mufradāt) makes the bodily flank the root sense, citing Qurʾān 9:35, 32:16 and 3:191, and explains the extension to 'the adjacent quarter' as parallel to how yamīn and shimāl are likewise borrowed from bodily terms. Ibn Manẓūr (Lisān) compiles the same material, adding the ḥadīth image of junūb (roasted sides of sheep) filling an oven and darabahu fa-janabahu (he struck and broke his side); Lane confirms janaba as 'to hit or break the side' and 'to lead [a horse or captive] by the side,' with jinab forbidden in racing.
Draws on: al-Khalīl · al-Jawharī · Ibn Fāris · al-Rāghib · Ibn Manẓūr · Lane
- Wiktionary, Arabic root ج-ن-ب (link not verified)
Letters & soundAl-Akbarī's cosmological letter-values put jīm at the Atlas (starless) sphere, nūn at the fourth heaven, and bāʾ at the jinn;speculative
What the theorists of sound symbolism would say of these letters. Speculative by nature.
Al-Akbarī's cosmological letter-values put jīm at the Atlas (starless) sphere, nūn at the fourth heaven, and bāʾ at the jinn; al-Dabbāghī reads jīm as prophecy or sainthood (or an unceasing good), nūn as an inward good kindling within the self, and bāʾ as an indicator of utmost might or utmost abasement. None of this evidently motivates 'side, direction, foreignness' as a meaning; the correspondence looks like an independently applied cosmological scheme rather than an explanation of this root. This kind of analysis is speculative and not endorsed by mainstream historical linguistics.
Draws on: al-Akbarī · al-Dabbāgh
Root structureIbn Fāris's chapter neighbors are suggestive: janaʾa (to bend or lean over something compassionately) and janafa (to deviate, incline) sit beside janaba, all involving lateral orientation, though he treats them as separate roots rather than derivations of one another.plausible
The two-letter nucleus (Ibn Fāris's own chapters) and the permutations of the letters (Ibn Jinnī).
Ibn Fāris's chapter neighbors are suggestive: janaʾa (to bend or lean over something compassionately) and janafa (to deviate, incline) sit beside janaba, all involving lateral orientation, though he treats them as separate roots rather than derivations of one another. Among the permutations, jabn (cheese; cowardice; the temple, jabīn) is attested but bundles unrelated senses; najaba (nobility, excellence, selecting the choice one) and nabaja (a loud voice) are attested with unrelated senses; bajn is unattested; banj (a stupefying plant) appears as a fixed word rather than a productive root, likely itself a borrowing. Any resonance between janaba's 'side/distance' and najaba's 'selecting out' remains a juxtaposition of letters, not an argued derivation.
Draws on: Ibn Fāris - nucleus siblings · permutations
Semitic kin & loanwordsNo confident Semitic cognate for this root is available: Hebrew and Aramaic express 'side' with different roots (e.g.plausible
Cognates in the sister languages, and whether the word was borrowed.
No confident Semitic cognate for this root is available: Hebrew and Aramaic express 'side' with different roots (e.g. Hebrew ṣad, ʿēver), and standard comparative lexica record no cognate for jnb meaning side or flank elsewhere in Semitic. The productive Arabic derivational family — janb, jānib, junub, ijtanaba, tajannaba — looks native rather than borrowed. It is not a loanword.
Draws on: Hebrew · Aramaic
Quranic exegesisAt Qurʾān 4:36 the exegetes debate al-jār al-junub, generally the neighbor who is a stranger or distant in kinship (as opposed to dhī al-qurbā, the near kinsman-neighbor), and al-ṣāḥib bi-l-janb, read as a travel companion, a spouse, or simply whoever is beside you.well attested
How the classical exegetes read the word in the Quran.
At Qurʾān 4:36 the exegetes debate al-jār al-junub, generally the neighbor who is a stranger or distant in kinship (as opposed to dhī al-qurbā, the near kinsman-neighbor), and al-ṣāḥib bi-l-janb, read as a travel companion, a spouse, or simply whoever is beside you. At 3:191, 'those who remember God standing, sitting, and on their sides' is read as covering every bodily posture, including the sick or reclining, so remembrance is not tied to one physical state. Junub as the post-coital state requiring ghusl (4:43, 5:6) is the standard exegetical-legal sense, taken literally as ritual impurity. Most debated is 39:56, 'lest a soul say, alas for what I neglected in janb Allāh' — al-Ṭabarī glosses janb Allāh as amr Allāh or ḥaqq Allāh (God's command or due), and al-Rāzī defends this figurative reading explicitly to avoid attributing a bodily side to God, following the idiom 'fī jānib fulān' (concerning so-and-so's affair).
Draws on: al-Ṭabarī · al-Zamakhsharī · al-Rāzī
Akbarian readingIn Faṣṣ Ādam, Ibn ʿArabī writes of divine comprehensiveness (al-jamʿiyya al-ilāhiyya) returning 'ilā al-janāb al-ilāhī' (to the Divine Presence/Threshold) and 'ilā jānib ḥaqīqat al-ḥaqāʾiq' (to the side of the Reality of realities);plausible
The word in Ibn ʿArabī's text and terminology.
In Faṣṣ Ādam, Ibn ʿArabī writes of divine comprehensiveness (al-jamʿiyya al-ilāhiyya) returning 'ilā al-janāb al-ilāhī' (to the Divine Presence/Threshold) and 'ilā jānib ḥaqīqat al-ḥaqāʾiq' (to the side of the Reality of realities); janāb is the honorific Sufi term for the divine court, and jānib marks the relational orientation of the human configuration (nashʾa) toward that Reality. The human being's comprehensiveness is thus described spatially, facing two 'sides' — the Divine Presence and the Reality of realities — within the single receiving constitution that carries these attributes. This use of janāb as 'presence, threshold' is a standing Sufi idiom that Ibn ʿArabī deploys here to locate Adam/the Perfect Human relative to God.
Draws on: Faṣṣ Ādam
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