Root · 287 in the Quran · 857 in 26 texts of the library
حققIbn Fāris gives a single root sense: the firmness and soundness of a thing. Ḥaqq, the … (root hqq)
الحاء والقاف أصل واحد وهو يدل على إحكام الشيء وصحته فالحق نقيض الباطل ثم يرجع كل فرع إليه بجودة الاستخراج وحسن التلفيق …
Ibn Fāris, Maqāyīs al-lugha · English rendering AI
The family of the root
Patterns computed · our dataThe words of ح ق ق that our sources attest: the root's letters in green, the added letters in gold.
28 words9 verbs5 verbal nouns4 participles1 intensive or elative6 other nouns1 plural2 relatives and abstracts
- حَقِيقَةtruth; reality
- حَقَائِق—
- حَقَّ—
- تَحْقِيقinvestigation; verification
- تَحَقَّقَit was, or became, or proved to be, a truth, a reality, or a fact
The whole family7 groups, by pattern; tap a pattern to see what it does
Verbs9حَقَّ · تَحَقَّقَ · أَحَقَّ
The root as an action: the bare Form I, and the Forms made by adding letters before, inside or after the root.grammar →
- حَقَّForm IQurʾān ×20LaneIbn Fāris
- تَحَقَّقَit was, or became, or proved to be, a truth, a reality, or a factLaneForm Vlibrary ×22Lane
- أَحَقَّhe spoke truthLaneForm IVQurʾān ×4LaneIbn Fāris
- حَقَّقَthe uttering of the hemzeh with its ture, or proper, soundLaneForm IIlibrary ×6LaneIbn Fāris
Verbal nouns5تَحْقِيق · اِسْتِحْقاق · تَحَقُّق
The action itself, named as a noun (maṣdar).grammar →
- تَحْقِيقinvestigation; verificationautoForm II · Lane: inf. n.library ×25Lane
- اِسْتِحْقاقworthiness; claimautoForm Xlibrary ×5
- تَحَقُّقascertainment; verificationautoForm Vlibrary ×2
- حِقَاقForm III · Lane: inf. n.LaneIbn Fāris
- إِحْقَاقForm I · Lane: inf. n.Lane
Participles4مُحَقِّق · مُحَقَّق · مُتَحَقِّق
The one who does it, and the one it is done to.grammar →
- مُحَقِّقinvestigator; editorautoactive, Form IVlibrary ×5LaneIbn Fāris
- مُحَقَّقestablished; acceptedautopassive, Form IVlibrary ×3LaneIbn Fāris
- مُتَحَقِّقcertain; convincedautoactive, Form Vlibrary ×3
- مَحْقُوقpassive, Form ILaneIbn Fāris
Intensives, qualities and the elative1حَقِيق
The quality carried far, held as a trait, or compared.grammar →
Other nouns6حَقِيقَة · حَقَق · حُقُق
Nouns on other patterns; their meaning is learned word by word.grammar →
Plurals1حَقَائِق
Broken plurals rebuild the word on a new pattern; sound plurals add an ending.grammar →
- حَقَائِقbroken plural of حَقِيقَةlibrary ×79LaneIbn Fāris
Relative and abstract2حَقِيقِيّ · حَقِيقَيّ
-iyy relates a thing to its source; -iyya makes an abstract noun.grammar →
- حَقِيقِيّtrue; realautorelative adjective (-iyy)library ×5
- حَقِيقَيّessentialLanerelative adjective (-iyy)Lane
Reference
Why this shape?What each of the 18 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 · 170Al-ḥaqq (الحق) is the opposite of al-bāṭil.
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-ḥaqq (الحق): the opposite of al-bāṭil.
al-Jawharī (d. c. 393/1003), al-Ṣiḥāḥ. Admits only usage he judged sound.
AI AI translation of the Arabic belowIbn Fāris · 395Ḥā' and qāf form one root indicating the soundness and correctness of a thing (iḥkām al-shay' wa-ṣiḥḥatuhu).
Ibn Fāris (d. 395/1004), Maqāyīs al-Lugha. Seeks each root's original sense (aṣl).
AI AI translation of the Arabic belowal-Rāghib · 502The root [meaning] of al-ḥaqq (الحق) is correspondence and agreement (al-muṭābaqa wa-al-muwāfaqa), like the correspondence of a door's pivot in its socket (ḥaqq) so that it turns evenly.
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-ḥaqq (الحق): the opposite of al-bāṭil;
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 definitions10 · Ibn ʿArabī’s Iṣṭilāḥ, al-Jurjānī’s Taʿrīfāt
الحقيقة
سلب آثار اوصافك عنك باوصافه بأنه الفاعل بك فيك منك لا انت (ما مِنْ دَابَّةٍ إِلاّ هُوَ آخِذٌ بِناصِيَتِها) .
Al-ḥaqīqa (الحقيقة): the stripping away of the traces of your [own] attributes from you by [substituting] His attributes — [i.e., realizing] that He is the Actor upon you, within you, from you, not you [yourself]: '[There is] no creature but He holds it by its forelock' [Q11:56]. AI
حق اليقين
ما حصل من العلم بما اريد له ذلك المشهود.
Ḥaqq al-yaqīn (حق اليقين, the truth of certainty): that which is attained of knowledge concerning that for which the witnessed [reality] was intended. AI
الاستطاعة الحقيقية
هي القدرة التامة التي يجب عندها صدور الفعل، فهي لا تكون إلا مقارنة للفعل.
Al-istiṭā'a al-ḥaqīqiyya (الاستطاعة الحقيقية, real capacity): it is the complete power at which the occurrence of the act becomes necessary; hence it can only exist concurrent with the act. AI
التحقيق
إثبات المسألة بدليلها.
Al-taḥqīq (التحقيق, verification): the establishment of a proposition together with its proof. AI
الجزئي الحقيقي
ما يمنع نفس تصوره من وقوع الشركة، كزيد، ويسمى جزئيا؛ لأن جزئية الشيء إنما هي بالنسبة إلى الكلي، والكلي جزء الجزئي، فيكون منسوبا إلى الجزء، والمنسوب إلى الجزء جزئي، وبإزائه الكلي الحقيقي.
Al-juz'ī al-ḥaqīqī (الجزئي الحقيقي, the real particular): that whose very conception precludes the occurrence of sharing [among many], such as 'Zayd'; it is called 'particular' (juz'ī) because the particularity of a thing is only in relation to the universal, and the universal is [as it were] a part of the particular, so it is attributed to 'part,' and what is attributed to 'part' is 'particular.' Opposite it is the real universal (al-kullī al-ḥaqīqī). AI
الحقيقة
اسم أريد به ما وضع له، فعيلة من: حق الشيء، إذا ثبت، بمعنى فاعلة، أي حقيق، والتاء فيه للنقل من الوصفية إلى الاسمية كما في العلامة، لا للتأنيث، وفي الاصطلاح: هي الكلمة المستعملة فيما وضعت له في اصطلاح به التخاطب احترز به عن المجاز، الذي استعمل فيما وضع له في اصطلاح آخر غير اصطلاح التخاطب، كالصلاة إذا استعملها المخاطب بعرف الشرع في الدعاء، فإنها تكون مجازا؛ لكون الدعاء غير ما وضعت هي له في اصطلاح الشرع؛ لأنها في اصطلاح الشرع وضعت للأركان والأذكار المخصوصة، مع أنها موضوعة للدعاء في اصطلاح اللغة.
Al-ḥaqīqa (الحقيقة): a noun by which is intended what it was coined for; [it is on] the pattern fa'īla from 'ḥaqqa al-shay'' (it became established), in the sense of the active participle, i.e. ḥaqīq; the tā' in it serves to transfer it from being a [mere] adjective to being a substantive, as in al-'allāma, not for feminization. In technical usage: it is a word used in the sense for which it was coined according to the convention by which mutual address takes place — this excludes al-majāz (metaphor), which is a word used in a sense for which it was coined in a different convention than that of the current mutual address; for example, al-ṣalāh, if used by the speaker according to the convention of the [Islamic] Law to mean supplication, is majāz [in that context], since supplication is not what it was coined for in the Law's convention — for in the Law's convention it was coined for the specific pillars and litanies [of ritual prayer], even though it is coined for supplication in the linguistic convention. AI
الحقيقة
كل لفظ يبقى على موضوعه، وقيل: ما اصطلح الناس على التخاطب به.
Al-ḥaqīqa: every expression that remains [used] according to what it was coined for; and it is [also] said to be: that which people have agreed by convention to use in mutual address. AI
الحقيقة
هو الشيء الثابت قطعا ويقينا، يقال: حق الشيء، إذا ثبت، وهو اسم للشيء المستقر في محله، فإذا أطلق يراد به ذات الشيء الذي وضعه واضع اللغة في الأصل، كاسم الأسد، للبهيمة، وهو ما كان قارا في محله، والمجاز ما كان قارا في غير محله.
Al-ḥaqīqa: it is the thing established definitively and with certainty; it is said 'ḥaqqa al-shay'' meaning it became established. It is a noun for a thing settled in its [proper] place; so when used absolutely, what is meant by it is the essence of the thing which the coiner of the language originally assigned to it, such as the name 'al-asad' (the lion) for the beast — it being what is settled in its [proper] place; whereas al-majāz is what is settled in other than its [proper] place. AI
حقيقة الشيء
ما به الشيء هو هو، كالحيوان الناطق للإنسان بخلاف مثل: الضاحك، والكاتب، مما يمكن تصور الإنسان بدونه، وقد يقال: إن ما به الشيء هو هو باعتبار تحققه: حقيقة، وبامتياز تشخصه: هوية، ومع قطع النظر عن ذلك: ماهية.
الحقيقة العقلية
جملة أسند فيها الفعل إلى ما هو فاعل عند المتكلم، كقول المؤمن: أنبت الله البقل بخلاف: نهاره صائم، فإن الصوم ليس للنهار.
The same letters, turned
The same three letters in all their orders. Choose one.
ح ق ق
الحاء والقاف أصل واحد وهو يدل على إحكام الشيء وصحته فالحق نقيض الباطل ثم يرجع كل فرع إليه بجودة الاستخراج وحسن التلفيق ويقال حق الشيء وجب
ḥ-q: one root, which indicates the soundness and correctness of a thing; so al-ḥaqq is the opposite of al-bāṭil, and every branch returns to it with good derivation and fine connection; and it is said ḥaqqa al-shay' meaning it became necessary. AI
Ibn Fāris ↗Lisān ↗Quran ×287
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
- حḥāʾmiddle of the throat · voiceless, continuantSīb. · I. Jinnī
- قqāffar back of the tongue · voiced, stopSīb. · I. Jinnī
- قqāffar back of the tongue · 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
ح
ومن أوسط الحلق مخرج العين والحاء
From the middle of the throat is the place of the ʿayn and the ḥāʾ. Sībawayh, lines 26548–26549 ↗
ومن وسط الحلق مخرج العين والحاء
From the middle of the throat is the place of the ʿayn and the ḥāʾ. Ibn Jinnī, line 970 ↗
ق
ومن أقصى اللسان وما فوقه من الحنك الأعلى مخرج القاف
From the furthest part of the tongue and the upper palate above it is the place of the qāf. Sībawayh, line 26550 ↗
ومما فوق ذلك من أقصى اللسان، مخرج القاف
From above that, at the furthest part of the tongue, is the place of the qāf. Ibn Jinnī, line 972 ↗
ق
ومن أقصى اللسان وما فوقه من الحنك الأعلى مخرج القاف
From the furthest part of the tongue and the upper palate above it is the place of the qāf. Sībawayh, line 26550 ↗
ومما فوق ذلك من أقصى اللسان، مخرج القاف
From above that, at the furthest part of the tongue, is the place of the qāf. Ibn Jinnī, line 972 ↗
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
ح
Level of existence: الجوهر الهبابي · the dust-like substance (spelled الهبابي in the text)
Divine Name: الآخر · al-Ākhir, the Last
Lunar mansion: الدبران · al-Dabarān
Futūḥāt ch. 198, line 62076Spheres of its simples (ch. 2): 10 line 2573 ↗
ق
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 2582ق
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
ح
With fatḥa ـَ
فهي تدل على الإحاطة والشمول للجميع.
It denotes encompassing and inclusion of everything.
With ḍamma ـُ
فهي العدد الكثير الخارج عن بني آدم كالنجوم.
It is a great number external to the children of Adam, such as the stars.
With kasra ـِ
فهي العدد الداخل في الذات أو للذات عليه ولاية كملكية العبيد والدنانير والدراهم وغير ذلك.
It is a number contained within the self, or over which the self has authority, such as ownership of slaves, dinars, dirhams and the like.
ق
With fatḥa ـَ
فهي إشارة إلى حيازة الخيرات أو إلى جميع الأنوار.
It is an indication of the acquisition of goods, or of all lights.
With ḍamma ـُ
فهي إشارة إلى النشأة الأصلية أو العلم القديم وما أشبه ذلك.
It is an indication of the original creation, or eternal knowledge, and the like.
With kasra ـِ
فهي إشارة إلى الذل.
It is an indication of abasement.
ق
With fatḥa ـَ
فهي إشارة إلى حيازة الخيرات أو إلى جميع الأنوار.
It is an indication of the acquisition of goods, or of all lights.
With ḍamma ـُ
فهي إشارة إلى النشأة الأصلية أو العلم القديم وما أشبه ذلك.
It is an indication of the original creation, or eternal knowledge, and the like.
With kasra ـِ
فهي إشارة إلى الذل.
It is an indication of abasement.
Two-letter nucleus7 roots in Ibn Fāris’s chapterح ق
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 7401 ↗
- حقلالحاء والقاف واللام أصل واحد وهو الأرض وما قاربه فالحقل القراح الطيب ويقال لا ينبت البقلة إلا الحقلة ) وحقيل موضعL7402
- حقنالحاء والقاف والنون أصل واحد وهو جمع الشيءL7410
- حقوالحاء والقاف والحرف المعتل أصل واحد وهو بعض أعضاء البدن فالحقو الخصر ومشد الإزار ولذلك سمي ما استدق من السهم مما يلي الريش حقوا فأما الحديث ( أن رسول L7413
- حقبالحاء والقاف والباء أصل واحد وهو يدل على الحبسQ 2 · L7420
- حقرالحاء والقاف والراء أصل واحد استصغار الشيءL7434
- حقطالحاء والقاف والطاء ليس أصلا ولا أحسب الحيقطان وهو ذكر الدراج صحيحاL7436
- حقفالحاء والقاف والفاء أصل واحد وهو يدل على ميل الشيء وعوجهQ 1 · L7437
In the sister scriptsHebrew ח ק קSyriac ܚ ܩ ܩ
| Arabic | ح ق ق |
| Hebrew | ח ק ק |
| Syriac | ܚ ܩ ܩ |
| Ancient South Arabian (musnad) | 𐩢 𐩤 𐩤 |
| Phoenician | 𐤇 𐤒 𐤒 |
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 defines ḥaqq as the opposite of bāṭil and ḥaqqa yaḥiqqu as 'to be binding' (wajaba).well attested
The lexicographers in chronological order, from al-Khalīl to Lane.
Al-Khalīl defines ḥaqq as the opposite of bāṭil and ḥaqqa yaḥiqqu as 'to be binding' (wajaba). He reads ḥaqīq in Q 7:105 as having the force of maḥqūq, 'bound, obliged', and defines ḥaqīqa as what the rightness and bindingness of a matter come to. Al-Jawharī adds ḥaqq as the singular of ḥuqūq (dues), ḥiqqa as the reality of a matter, the oath la-ḥaqqu lā ātīka, and ḥiqq, a camel entering its fourth year, 'named for its being fit (istiḥqāq) to be loaded'. Ibn Fāris reduces the root to firmness and soundness and derives from it the opposition to bāṭil, being binding, and ḥiqāq, rival claims to be more entitled. Al-Rāghib instead puts the origin in muṭābaqa, correspondence and fit, like a door pivot turning true in its socket. He applies ḥaqq first to God as the one who brings things into being according to wisdom, and then to what is brought into being in that way. Ibn Manẓūr adds the talbiya formula labbayka ḥaqqan ḥaqqan, 'not falsely', and Sībawayh's la-ḥaqqu annahu dhāhib. Lane, following al-Rāghib, glosses ḥaqqa as becoming suited to the requirements of wisdom, justice, truth or reality.
Draws on: al-Khalīl · al-Jawharī · Ibn Fāris · al-Rāghib · Ibn Manẓūr · Lane
- al-Khalīl, Kitāb al-ʿAyn, s.v. ḥ-q-q
- al-Jawharī, al-Ṣiḥāḥ, s.v. ḥ-q-q
- Ibn Fāris, Maqāyīs al-lugha, s.v. ḥ-q
- al-Rāghib, al-Mufradāt, s.v. ḥ-q-q
- Ibn Manẓūr, Lisān al-ʿArab, s.v. ḥ-q-q
- Lane, Arabic-English Lexicon, s.v. ḥ-q-q
- Wiktionary: Arabic root ح ق ق ↗
Letters & soundFor al-Dabbāgh, ḥāʾ signifies encompassing and inclusion of everything, and qāf signifies acquisition of goods or of all lights.speculative
What the theorists of sound symbolism would say of these letters. Speculative by nature.
For al-Dabbāgh, ḥāʾ signifies encompassing and inclusion of everything, and qāf signifies acquisition of goods or of all lights. A symbolic reader could hear in ḥaqq 'what encompasses and is secured', but that is the reader's construction. The data give no entry for these letters from Ibn ʿArabī's treatment of the Breath. Ibn Jinnī links repetition of a consonant with repetition or intensity of meaning, which a reader might extend to the doubled qāf. He does not make this argument for ḥaqq specifically. Mainstream linguistics treats such correspondences as suggestive at most.
Draws on: al-Dabbāgh (al-Ibrīz) · Ibn Jinnī on doubling (general)
- Aḥmad b. al-Mubārak, al-Ibrīz min kalām ʿAbd al-ʿAzīz al-Dabbāgh, section on letters
- Ibn Jinnī, al-Khaṣāʾiṣ, bāb imsās al-alfāẓ ashbāh al-maʿānī
Root structureIbn Fāris enters the geminate as the biliteral ḥ-q itself and lists these triliteral siblings: - ḥ-q-l: arable land - ḥ-q-n: gathering or retaining - ḥ-q-w: the waist or loins - ḥ-q-b: confinement (ḥabs) - ḥ-q-r: belittling - ḥ-q-f: bending or crookedness - ḥ-q-ṭ: which he doubts is genuine Ḥ-q-n (holding in) and ḥ-q-b (confining) can be set beside the sense of firmness and fixity, and ḥ-q-f stands as a contrast.speculative
The two-letter nucleus (Ibn Fāris's own chapters) and the permutations of the letters (Ibn Jinnī).
Ibn Fāris enters the geminate as the biliteral ḥ-q itself and lists these triliteral siblings: - ḥ-q-l: arable land - ḥ-q-n: gathering or retaining - ḥ-q-w: the waist or loins - ḥ-q-b: confinement (ḥabs) - ḥ-q-r: belittling - ḥ-q-f: bending or crookedness - ḥ-q-ṭ: which he doubts is genuine Ḥ-q-n (holding in) and ḥ-q-b (confining) can be set beside the sense of firmness and fixity, and ḥ-q-f stands as a contrast. This is a juxtaposition only; it does not show that the roots share a meaning. Because the root is geminate, the only permutations are q-ḥ-q and q-q-ḥ, and both are unattested, so Ibn Jinnī's greater derivation has nothing to work on here.
Draws on: Ibn Fāris nucleus siblings · geminate root
- Ibn Fāris, Maqāyīs al-lugha, ḥ-q chapter
Semitic kin & loanwordsHebrew ḥāqaq ('to cut in, inscribe, decree') and ḥōq / ḥuqqā ('statute, prescribed portion or due') are usually compared with Arabic ḥaqq.plausible
Cognates in the sister languages, and whether the word was borrowed.
Hebrew ḥāqaq ('to cut in, inscribe, decree') and ḥōq / ḥuqqā ('statute, prescribed portion or due') are usually compared with Arabic ḥaqq. The shared ground is what is fixed and owed, which matches al-Khalīl's 'binding' and al-Jawharī's ḥaqq as a due. The Hebrew sense of engraving has no direct Arabic counterpart, so the semantic link goes through 'what is fixed', not 'truth'. No secure Akkadian or Geʿez cognate is claimed here. The Arabic word is native, not a loan.
Draws on: Hebrew ḥ-q-q · BDB
Quranic exegesisIn Q 10:32–33 God is 'your Lord, al-Ḥaqq', and 'thus the word of your Lord ḥaqqat'.plausible
How the classical exegetes read the word in the Quran.
In Q 10:32–33 God is 'your Lord, al-Ḥaqq', and 'thus the word of your Lord ḥaqqat'. The exegetes gloss the verb as 'became binding' or 'was confirmed' (wajabat, thabatat), and al-Rāghib cites the verse for ḥaqq as a name of God. In Q 2:26 the believers know the parable is 'the ḥaqq from their Lord', which is read as true and apt. Q 2:42 forbids clothing the ḥaqq with the bāṭil, the lexicographers' basic opposition. The elative aḥaqq is read as 'more entitled': husbands to take back their wives in Q 2:228, and the objectors who claim more right to kingship in Q 2:247. Al-Ḥāqqa (Q 69:1–3) is explained as the Hour whose occurrence is binding, or the day on which the realities of things are made evident.
Philosophy & kalāmAvicenna, in the Ilāhiyyāt of the Shifāʾ (I.8), gives three senses of ḥaqq: - existence in the concrete - permanent existence - the state of a statement or belief that corresponds to the thing (with ṣidq naming the same relation seen from the side of the statement) The Necessary Existent is the most ḥaqq of all.well attested
The word as a technical term in falsafa and theology.
Avicenna, in the Ilāhiyyāt of the Shifāʾ (I.8), gives three senses of ḥaqq: - existence in the concrete - permanent existence - the state of a statement or belief that corresponds to the thing (with ṣidq naming the same relation seen from the side of the statement) The Necessary Existent is the most ḥaqq of all. In kalām and uṣūl, ḥaqīqa means the literal sense of a word as opposed to majāz, and in logic and metaphysics it serves as a near-synonym of quiddity. Al-Rāghib's grounding of ḥaqq in correspondence (muṭābaqa) fits the Avicennan sense of truth as correspondence.
Draws on: Avicenna, Ilāhiyyāt · kalām
- SEP: Ibn Sina's Metaphysics ↗
- Avicenna, al-Shifāʾ: al-Ilāhiyyāt, I.8
Akbarian readingThe Faṣṣ Ādam opens with al-Ḥaqq, God as the Real, willing through His uncountable beautiful names to see their essences, and the same name is the subject of awjada al-ʿālam.well attested
The word in Ibn ʿArabī's text and terminology.
The Faṣṣ Ādam opens with al-Ḥaqq, God as the Real, willing through His uncountable beautiful names to see their essences, and the same name is the subject of awjada al-ʿālam. The chapter also names ḥaqīqat al-ḥaqāʾiq, 'the reality of realities', as one of the sides to which the human's divine comprehensiveness refers, together with the divine presence and nature. In his Iṣṭilāḥāt, Ibn ʿArabī defines al-ḥaqīqa as the stripping away of the effects of one's own attributes by His attributes, so that He is the agent through you, in you and from you, not you, citing Q 11:56 ('there is no creature but He holds it by its forelock'). He defines ḥaqq al-yaqīn as the knowledge attained, through what is witnessed, of that for which it was intended. In his wider vocabulary ḥaqq is paired with khalq, and the muḥaqqiq is the one who has verified realities.
Draws on: Fuṣūṣ, Faṣṣ Ādam · Ibn ʿArabī, Iṣṭilāḥāt
- Ibn ʿArabī, Fuṣūṣ al-ḥikam, Faṣṣ Ādam
- Ibn ʿArabī, Iṣṭilāḥāt al-ṣūfiyya, s.vv. al-ḥaqīqa, ḥaqq al-yaqīn
- Q 11:56 ↗
Reference