Root · 87 in the Quran · 8 in 4 texts of the library
خلدa single root meaning fixity and constant attachment, i.e. to remain, to abide. (root khld)
الخاء واللام والدال أصل واحد يدل على الثبات والملازمة فيقال خلد أقام وأخلد أيضا ومنه جنة الخلد قال ابن أحمر : — خلد …
Ibn Fāris, Maqāyīs al-lugha · English rendering AI
The family of the root
Patterns computed · our dataThe words of خ ل د that our sources attest: the root's letters in green, the added letters in gold.
22 words3 verbs4 verbal nouns4 participles6 other nouns5 plurals
- خَالِدremaining, staying
- خَالِدُونplural of remaining, staying
- خُلْد—
- أَخْلَدَhe caused him to remain, stay, dwell, or abide
- خَلَدَ—
The whole family5 groups, by pattern; tap a pattern to see what it does
Verbs3خَلَدَ · أَخْلَدَ · خَلَّدَ
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 يَفْعُلُ (a – u; the imperfect from Lane's “aor.”)
Verbal nouns4خُلُود · خَلْد · إِخْلَاد
The action itself, named as a noun (maṣdar).grammar →
Participles4خَالِد · مُخَلَّد · مُخْلَد
The one who does it, and the one it is done to.grammar →
- خَالِدremaining, stayingLaneactive, Form IQurʾān ×74library ×1Lane
- مُخَلَّدpassive, Form IILaneIbn Fāris
- مُخْلَدpassive, Form IVLaneIbn Fāris
- مُخْلِدslow in becoming hoaryLaneactive, Form IVLaneIbn Fāris
Other nouns6خُلْد · خَلَد · خَلَدَة
Nouns on other patterns; their meaning is learned word by word.grammar →
Plurals5خَالِدُون · مُخَلَّدُون · خِلَدَة
Broken plurals rebuild the word on a new pattern; sound plurals add an ending.grammar →
Reference
Why this shape?What each of the 11 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-khuld (الخلد) is one of the names of the Gardens [of Paradise];
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-khuld (الخلد) is lasting permanence.
al-Jawharī (d. c. 393/1003), al-Ṣiḥāḥ. Admits only usage he judged sound.
AI AI translation of the Arabic belowIbn Fāris · 395The letters khāʾ, lām, and dāl (خ ل د) form one root indicating firmness/permanence and persistence.
Ibn Fāris (d. 395/1004), Maqāyīs al-Lugha. Seeks each root's original sense (aṣl).
AI AI translation of the Arabic belowal-Rāghib · 502Al-khulūd (الخلود) is a thing's freedom from the onset of corruption, and its remaining in the state it is in;
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-khuld (الخلد) is lasting permanence in an abode from which one does not leave.
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.
خ ل د
الخاء واللام والدال أصل واحد يدل على الثبات والملازمة فيقال خلد أقام وأخلد أيضا ومنه جنة الخلد
kh-l-d is one root indicating permanence and persistence. It is said khalada, meaning he stayed, and akhlada also, and from it is jannat al-khuld. 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
- خkhāʾtop of the throat · voiceless, continuantSīb. · I. Jinnī
- لlāmedge of the tongue · voiced, in betweenI. Jinnī
- دdāltongue-tip, roots of the teeth · 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
خ
وأدناها مخرجا من الفم: الغين والخاء
The nearest of them to the mouth in place: the ghayn and the khāʾ. Sībawayh, line 26549 ↗
ومما فوق ذلك مع أول الفم، مخرج الغين والخاء
From above that, at the start of the mouth, is the place of the ghayn and the khāʾ. Ibn Jinnī, line 971 ↗
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 ↗
د
ومما بين طرف اللسان وأصول الثنايا مخرج الطاء، والدال، والتاء
From between the tip of the tongue and the roots of the front teeth is the place of the ṭāʾ, the dāl and the tāʾ. Sībawayh, line 26559 ↗
ومما بين طرف اللسان وأصول الثنايا، مخرج الطاء والدال والتاء
From between the tip of the tongue and the roots of the front teeth is the place of the ṭāʾ, the dāl and the tāʾ. Ibn Jinnī, line 982 ↗
Sībawayh, al-Kitāb (ed. Hārūn) and Ibn Jinnī, Sirr ṣināʿat al-iʿrāb; OpenITI digital texts (CC BY-NC-SA 4.0). Full credits on each letter's page.
In the Breath of the All-MercifulIbn ʿArabī · metaphysics
English throughout: AI translation of the Arabic AI
خ
Spheres of its simples (ch. 2): 10 line 2573 ↗
ل
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 2577د
Level of existence: السماء الدنيا · the lowest heaven (al-samāʾ al-dunyā)
Divine Name: المبين · the Clarifier (al-Mubīn)
Lunar mansion: الأكليل · al-Iklīl
Futūḥāt ch. 198, line 64682Spheres 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
خ
With fatḥa ـَ
فهي طول إلى النهاية مع رقة.
It is length to the utmost, together with fineness/thinness.
With ḍamma ـُ
فهي اسم لكمال في الحيوانات.
It is a name for a perfection in animals.
With kasra ـِ
فهي اسم لكمال في الجمادات.
It is a name for a perfection in inanimate things.
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.
د
With fatḥa ـَ
فهي إشارة إلى خارج عن الذات.
It is an indication of something external to the self.
With ḍamma ـُ
فهي إشارة إلى ما هو قليل أو قبيح ومعه غضب فيهما.
It is an indication of what is small or ugly, accompanied by anger in both cases.
With kasra ـِ
فهي إشارة إلى ما في الذات أو إلى ما هو داخل عليها أو إلى ما هو قريب منها.
It is an indication of what is in the self, or what is entering upon it, or what is near to it.
Two-letter nucleus9 roots in Ibn Fāris’s chapterخ 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 8939 ↗
- خلمالخاء واللام والميم أصل واحد يدل على الإلف والملازمة فالخلم كناس الظبي ثم اشتق منه الخلم وهو الخدن والأصل واحدL8940
- خلوالخاء واللام والحرف المعتل أصل واحد يدل على تعري الشيء من الشيءQ 28 · L8941
- خلبالخاء واللام والباء أصول ثلاثة أحدها إمالة الشيء إلى نفسك والآخر شيء يشمل شيئا والثالث فساد في الشيءL8955
- خلجالخاء واللام والجيم أصل واحد يدل على لي وفتل وقلة استقامة فمن ذلك الخليج وهو ماء يميل ميلة عن معظم الماء فيستقر وخليجا النهر أو البحر جناحاه وفلان يتخL8965
- خلدالخاء واللام والدال أصل واحد يدل على الثبات والملازمة فيقال خلد أقام وأخلد أيضا ومنه جنة الخلدQ 87 · L8982
- خلسالخاء واللام والسين أصل واحد وهو الاختطاف والالتماعL8994
- خلصالخاء واللام والصاد أصل واحد مطرد وهو تنقية الشيء وتهذيبه يقولون خلصته من كذا وخلص هو وخلاصة السمن ما ألقي فيه من تمر أو سويق ليخلص بهQ 31 · L8997
- خلطالخاء واللام والطاء أصل واحد مخالف للباب الذي قبله بل هو مضاد له تقول خلطت الشيء بغيره فاختلط ورجل مخلط أي حسن المداخلة للأمور وخلافه المزيلQ 6 · L8999
- خلقالخاء واللام والقاف أصلان أحدهما تقدير الشيء والآخر ملاسة الشيء فأما الأول فقولهم خلقت الأديم للسقاء إذا قدرتهQ 261 · L9063
In the sister scriptsHebrew ח ל דSyriac ܚ ܠ ܕ
| Arabic | خ ل د |
| Hebrew | ח ל ד |
| Syriac | ܚ ܠ ܕ |
| Ancient South Arabian (musnad) | 𐩭 𐩡 𐩵 |
| Phoenician | 𐤇 𐤋 𐤃 |
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 already gives al-khuld as a name of Paradise and glosses akhlada ilā as 'to incline toward, rest content with' something, alongside the unrelated blind mole-rat and the sense of khuld as bāl (the mind, as in 'it occurred to my khuld').well attested
The lexicographers in chronological order, from al-Khalīl to Lane.
Al-Khalīl already gives al-khuld as a name of Paradise and glosses akhlada ilā as 'to incline toward, rest content with' something, alongside the unrelated blind mole-rat and the sense of khuld as bāl (the mind, as in 'it occurred to my khuld'). Al-Jawharī tightens this to dawām al-baqāʾ, 'permanence of remaining,' and cites akhlada ilā al-arḍ (Q7:176) as clinging to the earth. Ibn Fāris then fixes the single root-meaning as thubūt wa mulāzama, fixity and attachment, from which he derives jannat al-khuld, the man mukhallad who is slow to grey (youth clings to him), and offers two readings of wildān mukhalladūn (Q76:19): never dying, or perpetually wearing earrings (khalda), both consistent with the root's sense of clinging. Al-Rāghib refines this philosophically: khulūd is a thing's exemption from exposure to corruption while remaining as it is, so the Arabs loosely call even tripod-stones khawālid for long persistence, not true eternity, and khuld names the unchanging inner part of a human amid the body's flux. Ibn Manẓūr and Lane consolidate the theological sense: dawām al-baqāʾ fī dār lā yukhraju minhā, abiding in a dwelling one does not leave, with akhlada/khallada as causative variants.
Draws on: cayn · sihah · Ibn Fāris · mufradat · lisan · Lane
- al-Rāghib, al-Mufradāt, s.v. خلد
- Ibn Manẓūr, Lisān al-ʿArab, s.v. خلد
Letters & soundIn al-Dabbāgh's letter-meanings, khāʾ (with fatḥa) indicates length or extension to the utmost together with fineness, lām indicates the speaker's attaining of something great, and dāl indicates something external to the self.speculative
What the theorists of sound symbolism would say of these letters. Speculative by nature.
In al-Dabbāgh's letter-meanings, khāʾ (with fatḥa) indicates length or extension to the utmost together with fineness, lām indicates the speaker's attaining of something great, and dāl indicates something external to the self. Ibn ʿArabī's cosmic table (akbari198) assigns lām to the third heaven and dāl to the lowest heaven (al-samāʾ al-dunyā). Read together, one could suggestively construe khulūd as 'extension to the utmost' (kh) toward 'the attainment of something great' (l) that is nonetheless 'external, beyond the self' (d) — a permanence reaching outward from the lowest world. This is offered only as a resonance among these theorists' own categories; mainstream historical linguistics treats such letter-symbolism as suggestive at most, with no demonstrated causal link between phonetic value and word-meaning.
Draws on: dabbagh_fatha · akbari198
- al-Dabbāgh, letter-meanings (fatḥa table)
- Ibn ʿArabī, letters and the heavens (akbari198)
Root structureIbn Fāris groups khalada among the khā-lām chapter alongside khalam (ulfa wa mulāzama, 'intimacy and attachment'), khalaw ('emptying, freedom from'), khalaj ('twisting, pulling'), khalaṣ ('purifying'), khalaṭ ('mixing'), and khalaq ('measuring, smoothing').plausible
The two-letter nucleus (Ibn Fāris's own chapters) and the permutations of the letters (Ibn Jinnī).
Ibn Fāris groups khalada among the khā-lām chapter alongside khalam (ulfa wa mulāzama, 'intimacy and attachment'), khalaw ('emptying, freedom from'), khalaj ('twisting, pulling'), khalaṣ ('purifying'), khalaṭ ('mixing'), and khalaq ('measuring, smoothing'). Khalam's gloss, ulfa wa mulāzama, is nearly identical to khalad's own thubūt wa mulāzama, which juxtaposes 'constancy' and 'intimate attachment' as neighboring senses of the kh-l pairing, though Ibn Fāris does not claim they share a nucleus explicitly. Among the letter-permutations, khalad (attested, 87 occurrences, 'fixity and attachment') stands against its full metathesis dakhala (attested, 126 occurrences, glossed by Ibn Fāris as al-wulūj, 'entering'); Ibn Jinnī's greater derivation would invite the observation that the same three letters yield either 'to remain fixed' or 'to go in,' but this is a possible resonance, not an established etymology.
Draws on: maqayis nucleusSiblings · permutations
- Ibn Fāris, Maqāyīs al-Lugha, bāb al-khāʾ wa'l-lām
- Wiktionary Arabic root appendix ↗
Semitic kin & loanwordsHebrew ḥeled (חֶלֶד) is a plausible cognate, sharing the ḥ-l-d root, but denotes 'duration, lifetime, the fleeting course of the world' rather than permanence — a striking semantic inversion from Arabic khuld's 'eternity, abiding.' Aramaic/Syriac ḥeled carries a similar sense of 'world, span of life.' If the cognate is genuine, the root's common core may be simply 'duration, the running-on of time,' which Arabic specialized toward permanence and Hebrew toward transience.plausible
Cognates in the sister languages, and whether the word was borrowed.
Hebrew ḥeled (חֶלֶד) is a plausible cognate, sharing the ḥ-l-d root, but denotes 'duration, lifetime, the fleeting course of the world' rather than permanence — a striking semantic inversion from Arabic khuld's 'eternity, abiding.' Aramaic/Syriac ḥeled carries a similar sense of 'world, span of life.' If the cognate is genuine, the root's common core may be simply 'duration, the running-on of time,' which Arabic specialized toward permanence and Hebrew toward transience. No loanword relationship is indicated; this looks like inherited Semitic vocabulary that diverged in valence between the two branches.
Draws on: BDB
- Brown–Driver–Briggs, s.v. חֶלֶד
Quranic exegesisIn khālidīna fīhā abadā (e.g.well attested
How the classical exegetes read the word in the Quran.
In khālidīna fīhā abadā (e.g. Q2:25, Q10:52), the exegetes read khulūd as unending abiding in Paradise or Fire, with al-Zamakhsharī and al-Rāghib stressing that this is a created, granted permanence (dawām bi-jaʿl Allāh), not the uncreated eternity (azaliyya) proper to God alone — the distinction matters for kalām debates on divine attributes. Al-Rāzī discusses whether khulūd in the Fire (as in Q2:39, wa'lladhīna kafarū... hum fīhā khālidūn) applies without exception to all sinners or is restricted to unbelievers, connecting the verse to the wider Murjiʾī/Muʿtazilī controversy over threat (waʿīd) and intercession. At Q20:120, Satan tempts Adam with shajarat al-khuld, 'the tree of eternity,' which al-Ṭabarī and al-Zamakhsharī read as the false promise of immortality that precipitates the Fall — making khuld pivotal to the very narrative Ibn ʿArabī treats in Faṣṣ Ādam.
Draws on: Quran · mufradat
Philosophy & kalāmThe mutakallimūn distinguish qidam, past-eternity belonging to God alone (azaliyya), from khulūd/baqāʾ, future-everlastingness that God may grant to created things such as the inhabitants of Paradise, Hellfire, or the angels — khulūd is thus everlastingness by divine sustaining, not eternity by essence.plausible
The word as a technical term in falsafa and theology.
The mutakallimūn distinguish qidam, past-eternity belonging to God alone (azaliyya), from khulūd/baqāʾ, future-everlastingness that God may grant to created things such as the inhabitants of Paradise, Hellfire, or the angels — khulūd is thus everlastingness by divine sustaining, not eternity by essence. Avicenna's parallel distinction between the Necessary Existent (wājib al-wujūd), which is eternal in both directions by its own essence, and the possible existent, which continues in being only through the Necessary's ongoing causation, gives a philosophical grounding to the theological point: creaturely khulūd is dependent duration, never self-subsistent eternity.
Draws on: kalam
- al-Ghazālī / Ashʿarite kalām on qidam vs. khulūd
Akbarian readingThe only occurrence supplied from the Fuṣūṣ is not from Faṣṣ Ādam itself but from the prefatory table of chapter-titles, where 'ḥikma ṣamadiyya fī kalima khālidiyya' names the chapter devoted to the prophet Khālid (ibn Sinān), pairing the divine attribute al-Ṣamad with a wisdom called 'khālidiyya.' This does not by itself establish a developed Akbarian doctrine of khulūd within the given excerpts;uncertain
The word in Ibn ʿArabī's text and terminology.
The only occurrence supplied from the Fuṣūṣ is not from Faṣṣ Ādam itself but from the prefatory table of chapter-titles, where 'ḥikma ṣamadiyya fī kalima khālidiyya' names the chapter devoted to the prophet Khālid (ibn Sinān), pairing the divine attribute al-Ṣamad with a wisdom called 'khālidiyya.' This does not by itself establish a developed Akbarian doctrine of khulūd within the given excerpts; it only shows the root functioning as a proper-name epithet in the work's structure. No Iṣṭilāḥ definition of khuld/khulūd is present in the supplied data, so any further claim about Ibn ʿArabī's technical use of the term would be speculative.
Draws on: inFassAdam
- Ibn ʿArabī, Fuṣūṣ al-Ḥikam, prologue (chapter list)
Reference