Root · 64 in the Quran · 76 in 15 texts of the library
حملone root, denoting iqlāl al-shayʾ — the bearing or lifting of a thing. (root hml)
الحاء والميم واللام أصل واحد يدل على إقلال الشيء
Ibn Fāris, Maqāyīs al-lugha · English rendering AI
The family of the root
Patterns computed · our dataThe words of ح م ل that our sources attest: the root's letters in green, the added letters in gold.
45 words9 verbs5 verbal nouns8 participles3 places and instruments4 intensives and elatives12 other nouns3 plurals1 relative or abstract
- حَمَلَcarry; bear
- حَمْلurging; compelling
- اِحْتَمَلَhe raised a thing upon his back
- حَمَّلَhe made him, or constrained him, to bear or carry the thing, and the message
- حِمْل—
The whole family8 groups, by pattern; tap a pattern to see what it does
Verbs9حَمَلَ · اِحْتَمَلَ · حَمَّلَ
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: فَعَلَ يَفْعِلُ (a – i; the imperfect from Lane's “aor.”)
- حَمَلَcarry; bearautoForm IQurʾān ×41library ×35LaneIbn Fāris
- اِحْتَمَلَhe raised a thing upon his backLaneForm VIIIQurʾān ×3library ×7LaneIbn Fāris
- حَمَّلَhe made him, or constrained him, to bear or carry the thing, and the messageLaneForm IIQurʾān ×5LaneIbn Fāris
- تَحَمَّلَhe took upon himself the bearing, or carrying, of loads, or burdensLaneForm Vlibrary ×1LaneIbn Fāris
Verbal nouns5حَمْل · اِحْتِمال · حَمَالَة
The action itself, named as a noun (maṣdar).grammar →
- حَمْلurging; compellingautoForm I · Lane: inf. n.Qurʾān ×7library ×3LaneIbn Fāris
- اِحْتِمالpossibility; probabilityautoForm VIIIlibrary ×1Ibn Fāris
- حَمَالَةbloodwit, or a debt, an obligation, or a responsibility, that must be paid, …LaneForm I · Lane: inf. n.LaneIbn Fāris
- حَمْلَةcharge, or an assault or attack, in war, or battleLaneForm I · Lane: inf. n.library ×1Lane
- تَحْمِيلForm II · Lane: inf. n.Lane
Participles8حَامِل · حَمَّالَة · مَحْمُول
The one who does it, and the one it is done to.grammar →
- حَامِلbearing, carrying, taking up and carrying, conveying, or carrying off or awayLaneactive, Form Ilibrary ×4LaneIbn Fāris
- حَمَّالَةactive, Form IQurʾān ×1Ibn Fāris
- مَحْمُولpassive, Form ILaneIbn Fāris
- مُحْمِلwoman, and a she-camel, who yields her milk without being pregnantLaneactive, Form IVLaneIbn Fāris
Place, time and instrument3مَحْمَل · مَحْمِل · مِحْمَل
Where or when it happens, and what it is done with: the m- nouns.grammar →
Intensives, qualities and the elative4حَمُول · حَمِيل · حَمَّال
The quality carried far, held as a trait, or compared.grammar →
Other nouns12حِمْل · حَمُولَة · أَحْمَال
Nouns on other patterns; their meaning is learned word by word.grammar →
Plurals3حَامِلَات · حَامِلِين · حُمْلَان
Broken plurals rebuild the word on a new pattern; sound plurals add an ending.grammar →
Reference
Why this shape?What each of the 25 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-ḥamal (الحمل, fatḥa): the lamb;
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 · 393Ḥamaltu al-shay' 'alā ẓahrī (حملت الشيء على ظهري), aḥmiluhu, ḥamlan (حملا) — 'I carried the thing on my back.' From this is the saying of the Exalted: {'then verily he shall carry on the Day of Resurrection a burden.
al-Jawharī (d. c. 393/1003), al-Ṣiḥāḥ. Admits only usage he judged sound.
AI AI translation of the Arabic belowIbn Fāris · 395Ḥā', mīm, and lām (الحاء والميم واللام) is one root indicating the carrying/lifting of a thing (iqlāl).
Ibn Fāris (d. 395/1004), Maqāyīs al-Lugha. Seeks each root's original sense (aṣl).
AI AI translation of the Arabic belowal-Rāghib · 502Al-ḥaml ('carrying/bearing') is one meaning considered in many things, so its verb-form is unified while its verbal-noun forms differ in many cases.
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 · 711Ḥamala al-shay' (حمل الشيء), yaḥmiluhu, ḥamlan wa-ḥumlānan (حملا وحملانا) — so it is maḥmūl (محمول) and ḥamīl (حميل);
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 definitions5 · Ibn ʿArabī’s Iṣṭilāḥ, al-Jurjānī’s Taʿrīfāt
الاحتمال
إتعاب النفس للحسنات.
Al-iḥtimāl (الاحتمال): the wearying of the soul for the sake of good deeds. AI
الاحتمال
ما لا يكون تصور طرفيه كافيا، بل يتردد الذهن في النسبة بينهما، ويراد به الإمكان الذهني.
Al-iḥtimāl (الاحتمال): that whose conception of its two terms is not sufficient [for judgment], but rather the mind hesitates regarding the relation between them; by it is meant mental possibility. AI
حمل المواطأة
عبارة عن أن يكون الشيء محمولا على الموضوع بالحقيقة بلا واسطة، كقولنا: الإنسان حيوان ناطق، بخلاف حمل الاشتقاق؛ إذ لا يتحقق في أن يكون المحمول كليا للموضوع، كما يقال: الإنسان ذو بياض، والبيت ذو سقف.
Ḥaml al-muwāṭa'ah (حمل المواطأة, 'predication of coincidence'): an expression for a thing being predicated of the subject in reality without an intermediary, as in our saying 'man is a rational animal' — as opposed to ḥaml al-ishtiqāq (حمل الاشتقاق, 'predication of derivation'), since it is not established that the predicate is [identically] universal to the subject, as when one says 'man possesses whiteness' or 'the house possesses a roof.' AI
الحملة
خروج النفس الإنسانية إلى كمالها الممكن بحسب قوتها النطقية والعملية.
Al-ḥamlah (الحملة): the emergence of the human soul toward its possible perfection according to its rational and practical faculty. AI
المحمول
هو الأمر في الذهن.
Al-maḥmūl (المحمول): it is the matter [predicate] as it exists in the mind. AI
The same letters, turned
The same three letters in all six orders. Choose one.
ح م ل
الحاء والميم واللام أصل واحد يدل على إقلال الشيء
ḥ-m-l: one root indicating the lifting of a thing. AI
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
- مmīmbetween the lips · voiced, in betweenSīb. · I. 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
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 ↗
م
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 ↗
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
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 ↗
م
Level of existence: الإنسان · the human being
Divine Name: الجامع · al-Jāmiʿ, the Gatherer
Lunar mansion: المؤخر · al-Muʾakhkhar
Futūḥāt ch. 198, line 62119Spheres 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 2577Meaning 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.
م
With fatḥa ـَ
فهي جميع المكونات.
It is all created beings.
With ḍamma ـُ
فهي العزيز القليل كماء العين، ومنه قيل مومو.
It is the precious, scarce thing, like the water of the eye; from it comes the expression 'mūmū'.
With kasra ـِ
فهي نور الذات ظاهرا كما في العين، وباطنا كما في القلب.
It is the light of the self, outwardly as in the eye and inwardly as in the heart.
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 nucleus10 roots in Ibn Fāris’s chapterح م
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 7562 ↗
- حمدالحاء والميم والدال كلمة واحدة وأصل واحد يدل على خلاف الذمQ 63 · L7563
- حمرالحاء والميم والراء أصل واحد عندي وهو من الذي يعرف بالحمرة وقد يجوز أن يجعل أصلين أحدهما هذا والآخر جنس من الدوابQ 6 · L7575
- حمزالحاء والميم والزاء أصل واحد وهو حدة في الشيء كالحرافة وما أشبهها فالحمزة حرافة في الشيءL7611
- حمسالحاء والميم والسين أصل واحد يدل على الشدة فالأحمس الشجاع والحمس والحماسة الشجاعة والشدة ورجل حمسL7618
- حمشالحاء والميم والشين أصلان أحدهما التهاب الشيء وهيجه والثاني الدقةL7627
- حمصالحاء والميم والصاد ليس أصلا يقاس عليه وما فيه قياس ويجوز أن يكون من جفاف في الشيء ويقولون انحمص الورم إذا سكن هذا أصح ما فيه والحمصيص بقلةL7632
- حمضالحاء والميم والضاد أصل واحد صحيح وهو شيء من الطعومL7634
- حمطالحاء والميم والطاء ليس أصلا ولا فرعا ولا فيه لغة صحيحة إلا شيء من النبت أو الشجرL7638
- حمقالحاء والميم والقاف أصل واحد يدل على كساد الشيء والضعف والنقصان فالحمق نقصان العقل والعرب تقول انحمق الثوب إذا بلي وانحمقت السوق كسدتL7644
- حملالحاء والميم واللام أصل واحد يدل على إقلال الشيءQ 64 · L7646
In the sister scriptsHebrew ח מ לSyriac ܚ ܡ ܠ
| Arabic | ح م ل |
| Hebrew | ח מ ל |
| Syriac | ܚ ܡ ܠ |
| Ancient South Arabian (musnad) | 𐩢 𐩣 𐩡 |
| Phoenician | 𐤇 𐤌 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 lexiconAl-Khalīl begins with concrete referents — ḥaml as the young lamb (plural ḥumlān), as the zodiacal sign Aries, and ḥumlān as either wage paid for carrying or beasts lent specifically for carrying.well attested
The lexicographers in chronological order, from al-Khalīl to Lane.
Al-Khalīl begins with concrete referents — ḥaml as the young lamb (plural ḥumlān), as the zodiacal sign Aries, and ḥumlān as either wage paid for carrying or beasts lent specifically for carrying. Al-Jawharī, citing Ibn al-Sikkīt, fixes the classical morphological distinction: ḥaml (fatḥa) is what is borne internally — in a womb or on a treetop — while ḥiml (kasra) is what is borne externally — on a back or head; he anchors this to Quranic usage (7:189's ḥamalat ḥamlan khafīfan; wizr called ḥaml on the Day of Judgment). Ibn Fāris reduces all this to a single aṣl, iqlāl al-shayʾ, and extends it to ḥamāla — assuming a blood-debt or fine on another's behalf, i.e. suretyship (ḍamān). Al-Rāghib treats the ḥaml/ḥiml split as one meaning distributed across differing verbal forms for internal versus external loads, citing 35:18 and 29:12–13 on the non-transferability of sin-burdens. Ibn Manẓūr and Lane preserve al-Nābigha's verse distinguishing ḥaml (a light, minor burden, of virtue) from iḥtimāl (bearing something heavier, of transgression), and extend ḥamala to 'taking up arms against.'
Draws on: al-Khalīl · al-Jawharī · Ibn Fāris · al-Rāghib · Ibn Manẓūr · Lane
- Lisān al-ʿArab, ḥ-m-l
- Lane, s.v. حمل
Letters & soundAl-Dabbāgh reads ḥāʾ as denoting encompassing and inclusion of everything, mīm as denoting all created beings, and lām as the speaker's attainment of something great — a sequence that could be read as tracking 'bearing' from totality (ḥāʾ) through creatures (mīm) to an achieved weight or elevation (lām), but this is impressionistic reading-back, not derivation.speculative
What the theorists of sound symbolism would say of these letters. Speculative by nature.
Al-Dabbāgh reads ḥāʾ as denoting encompassing and inclusion of everything, mīm as denoting all created beings, and lām as the speaker's attainment of something great — a sequence that could be read as tracking 'bearing' from totality (ḥāʾ) through creatures (mīm) to an achieved weight or elevation (lām), but this is impressionistic reading-back, not derivation. The akbarī table assigns ḥāʾ to a 'dust-like substance' (al-jawhar al-hababī) and mīm to the human being. As with all such letter-symbolism, mainstream linguistics regards this as suggestive at most, without independent evidentiary status.
Draws on: al-Dabbāgh fatḥa values · akbari198 letter correspondences
Root structureIn Ibn Fāris's ḥ-m chapter, ḥaml stands beside ḥamd (praise), ḥamr (redness), ḥams (severity/courage), and ḥamq (stagnation, deficiency) without an evident shared kernel binding them;plausible
The two-letter nucleus (Ibn Fāris's own chapters) and the permutations of the letters (Ibn Jinnī).
In Ibn Fāris's ḥ-m chapter, ḥaml stands beside ḥamd (praise), ḥamr (redness), ḥams (severity/courage), and ḥamq (stagnation, deficiency) without an evident shared kernel binding them; ḥmṭ and ḥmṣ he explicitly flags as having no real aṣl. Among the metathetic permutations, ḥlm (21 occurrences) is closest and richest, itself split by Ibn Fāris into three unrelated senses — forbearance, piercing, and dream-vision — a genuine coincidence of consonants rather than shared meaning. Ibn Jinnī's greater derivation might juxtapose ḥaml (bearing a physical load) and ḥilm (bearing an insult or provocation patiently) as parallel metaphors of 'carrying,' one bodily and one moral — a resonance worth noting, not an established etymology, since Ibn Fāris himself treats ḥilm's three senses as distinct.
Draws on: Ibn Fāris nucleus · permutations
Semitic kin & loanwordsHebrew has a formally similar root ḥml (חמל), but its meaning is 'to spare, to have pity/compassion' — a different semantic field from Arabic ḥamala 'to carry, bear a load.' This looks like a formal look-alike rather than a true cognate carrying the same sense;plausible
Cognates in the sister languages, and whether the word was borrowed.
Hebrew has a formally similar root ḥml (חמל), but its meaning is 'to spare, to have pity/compassion' — a different semantic field from Arabic ḥamala 'to carry, bear a load.' This looks like a formal look-alike rather than a true cognate carrying the same sense; no confident Semitic cognate for the 'carry/bear' meaning of ḥ-m-l is attested across Hebrew, Aramaic, or Akkadian, which instead use other roots (e.g. Akkadian wabālum) for physical bearing. The root is not a loanword; it is native Arabic vocabulary without a securely matching Semitic cognate in this sense.
Draws on: Hebrew ḥml (BDB) · comparative note
- BDB, s.v. חמל
Quranic exegesisOn 2:286, 'rabbanā wa-lā taḥmil ʿalaynā iṣran kamā ḥamaltahu ʿalā alladhīna min qablinā,' the exegetes read ḥaml as the imposition of burdensome religious obligations, specifically those understood to have fallen on the Banū Isrāʾīl, which this community asks to be spared.well attested
How the classical exegetes read the word in the Quran.
On 2:286, 'rabbanā wa-lā taḥmil ʿalaynā iṣran kamā ḥamaltahu ʿalā alladhīna min qablinā,' the exegetes read ḥaml as the imposition of burdensome religious obligations, specifically those understood to have fallen on the Banū Isrāʾīl, which this community asks to be spared. On 22:2, 'wa-taḍaʿu kullu dhāti ḥamlin ḥamlahā,' the Day of Judgment terror is expressed through the ḥaml-as-pregnancy sense fixed by the lexicographers, every pregnant creature prematurely discharging her fetus from sheer dread. On 7:189, 'fa-lammā taghashshāhā ḥamalat ḥamlan khafīfan,' commentators including al-Rāzī connect the 'light' burden to an early, unburdensome stage of pregnancy, contrasted with the 'heavy' (thaqīl) stage in the following verse. On 20:87, 'ḥummilnā awzāran min zīnati al-qawm,' al-Ṭabarī records the Israelites' excuse that they had been made to carry (or were laden with) the ornaments of Pharaoh's people, which they then cast into the fire to produce the calf.
Draws on: al-Ṭabarī · al-Zamakhsharī · al-Rāzī
Philosophy & kalāmḤaml is not a primary falsafa term, but taḥmīl (causing someone to bear) surfaces in the kalām dispute over taklīf mā lā yuṭāq — whether God may lawfully burden a creature with an obligation beyond its capacity — pitting Ashʿarī affirmations of divine prerogative against Muʿtazilī insistence on divine justice.uncertain
The word as a technical term in falsafa and theology.
Ḥaml is not a primary falsafa term, but taḥmīl (causing someone to bear) surfaces in the kalām dispute over taklīf mā lā yuṭāq — whether God may lawfully burden a creature with an obligation beyond its capacity — pitting Ashʿarī affirmations of divine prerogative against Muʿtazilī insistence on divine justice. This usage extends the everyday sense of carrying a load to the juridical/theological question of what burdens (taklīf, iṣr) may licitly be placed upon a moral agent.
Draws on: kalām debate on taklīf
Akbarian readingThe given Faṣṣ Ādam passage speaks of 'the configuration bearing (al-nashʾa al-ḥāmila) these attributes,' referring to the human constitution that carries the totality of divine and cosmic properties gathered from the Divine Presence and the Reality of Realities down through the universal Nature.plausible
The word in Ibn ʿArabī's text and terminology.
The given Faṣṣ Ādam passage speaks of 'the configuration bearing (al-nashʾa al-ḥāmila) these attributes,' referring to the human constitution that carries the totality of divine and cosmic properties gathered from the Divine Presence and the Reality of Realities down through the universal Nature. This directly recalls Q33:72, where humanity alone agrees to 'carry' (ḥamalahā) the Trust that the heavens, earth, and mountains declined — the textual basis for Ibn ʿArabī's doctrine of the Perfect Human (al-insān al-kāmil) as the sole existent capable of bearing (ḥaml) the comprehensive synthesis (jamʿiyya) of all divine names. Ḥaml here names not physical carrying but ontological capacity: the human as vessel adequate to what nothing else in creation could sustain.
Draws on: Faṣṣ Ādam excerpt (given) · Q33:72 amāna
- Faṣṣ Ādam excerpt (given)
- Quran 33:72 ↗
Reference