Root · 148 in the Quran · 172 in 18 texts of the library
رودmajīʾ wa-dhahāb min inṭilāq fī jihatin wāḥida — coming and going, motion set off in one … (root rwd)
الراء والواو والدال معظم بابه يدل على مجيء وذهاب من انطلاق في جهة واحدة تقول راودته على أن يفعل كذا إذا أردته على فعله …
Ibn Fāris, Maqāyīs al-lugha · English rendering AI
The family of the root
Patterns computed · our dataThe words of ر و د that our sources attest: the root's letters in green, the added letters in gold.
36 words6 verbs9 verbal nouns5 participles3 places and instruments4 intensives and elatives8 other nouns1 plural
- أَرَادَhe acted, or proceeded, gently, softly, or in a leisurely manner, in going, …
- رَاوَدُhe endeavoured to turn him to, or from, a thing
- مُرَادwhat is willed, or wished
- رُوَيْد—
- اِرْتادَexplore; visit frequently
The whole family7 groups, by pattern; tap a pattern to see what it does
Verbs6رَادَ · أَرَادَ · رَاوَدُ
The root as an action: the bare Form I, and the Forms made by adding letters before, inside or after the root.grammar →
- رَادَhe, or it, came and wentLaneForm ILaneIbn Fāris
- أَرَادَhe acted, or proceeded, gently, softly, or in a leisurely manner, in going, …LaneForm IVQurʾān ×139library ×80Lane
- رَاوَدُhe endeavoured to turn him to, or from, a thingLaneForm IIIQurʾān ×8Lane
- اِرْتادَexplore; visit frequentlyauto · Lane: see Form IForm VIIIlibrary ×1Lane
Verbal nouns9إِرْوَاد · ريَاد · رَوْد
The action itself, named as a noun (maṣdar).grammar →
Participles5مُرَاد · رَائِد · مُرِيد
The one who does it, and the one it is done to.grammar →
Place, time and instrument3مَرَاد · مَرْوَد · مِرْوَد
Where or when it happens, and what it is done with: the m- nouns.grammar →
Intensives, qualities and the elative4رُوَيْد · أَرْوَد · أَرْيَد
The quality carried far, held as a trait, or compared.grammar →
Other nouns8رُود · رَوَاد · رُودَة
Nouns on other patterns; their meaning is learned word by word.grammar →
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-rayd (الريد) is al-ḥayd (الحيد, 'ridge/protrusion') among the ridges of a mountain;
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-rayd (الريد) is al-ḥayd (الحيد), which is the protruding edge of a mountain;
al-Jawharī (d. c. 393/1003), al-Ṣiḥāḥ. Admits only usage he judged sound.
AI AI translation of the Arabic belowIbn Fāris · 395Rāʾ, wāw, and dāl - most of its chapter indicates coming and going, setting out in one direction.
Ibn Fāris (d. 395/1004), Maqāyīs al-Lugha. Seeks each root's original sense (aṣl).
AI AI translation of the Arabic belowal-Rāghib · 502Al-rawd (الرود) is repeated seeking of something gently.
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-rayd (الريد): one of the edges/ridges of a mountain.
Ibn Manẓūr (d. 711/1311), Lisān al-ʿArab. The great compendium of the earlier dictionaries (entry shortened).
AI AI translation of the Arabic below
The same letters, turned
The same three letters in all six orders. Choose one.
ر و د
الراء والواو والدال معظم بابه يدل على مجيء وذهاب من انطلاق في جهة واحدة تقول راودته على أن يفعل كذا إذا أردته على فعله والرود فعل الرائد
r-w-d: the greater part of its chapter indicates coming and going, a movement in one direction; you say 'rāwadtuhu 'alā an yaf'ala kadhā' when you sought from him to do such a thing; and al-rawd is the action of al-rā'id. 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
- رrāʾtip of the tongue, near the nūn · voiced, in betweenSīb. · I. Jinnī
- وwāwbetween the lips · voiced, in betweenSīb. · I. 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
ر
ومن مخرج النون غير أنه أدخل في ظهر اللسان قليلا لانحرافه إلى اللام مخرج الراء
From the place of the nūn, except that it goes a little further onto the back of the tongue, because it leans towards the lām, is the place of the rāʾ. Sībawayh, lines 26557–26558 ↗
ومن مخرج النون غير أنه أدخل في ظهر اللسان قليلا، لانحرافه إلى اللام، مخرج الراء
From the place of the nūn, except that it goes a little further onto the back of the tongue, because it leans towards the lām, is the place of the rāʾ. Ibn Jinnī, lines 980–981 ↗
و
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 ↗
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
ر
Level of existence: السماء الخامسة · the fifth heaven
Divine Name: المصور · the Form-Giver (al-Muṣawwir)
Lunar mansion: الغفر · al-Ghafr
Futūḥāt ch. 198, line 64675Spheres 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 2582و
Level of existence: تعيين الرتب والمقامات والمنازل · the determination of ranks, stations and waystations
Divine Name: رفيع الدرجات · Rafīʿ al-Darajāt, Exalted in Degrees
Lunar mansion: الرشا · al-Rashāʾ
Futūḥāt ch. 198, line 62121Spheres 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 2582د
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
ر
With fatḥa ـَ
فهي إشارة إلى جميع الخيرات الظاهرة والباطنة.
It is an indication of all goods, outward and inward.
With ḍamma ـُ
فهي إشارة إلى الواحد في نفسه وهو ظاهر.
It is an indication of the one in itself, and it is manifest.
With kasra ـِ
فهي إشارة إلى الشيء الذي فيه الروح وليس من بني آدم، أو إشارة إلى الروح نفسها.
It is an indication of a thing that has spirit in it but is not of the children of Adam, or an indication of the spirit itself.
و
With fatḥa ـَ
فهي الأشياء المشتبكة في الإنسان مثل العروق والأصابع وما أشبه ذلك.
It is the intertwined things in the human being, such as veins, fingers and the like.
With ḍamma ـُ
فهي الأشياء المباينة لبني آدم مثل الأفلاك والجبال وما أشبه ذلك
It is things distinct from the children of Adam, such as the celestial spheres, mountains and the like.
With kasra ـِ
فهي الأشياء المشتبكة المستقذرة أو المبغوضة كالأمعاء ونحوها.
It is intertwined things that are filthy or detested, such as the intestines and the like.
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 nucleus13 roots in Ibn Fāris’s chapterر و
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 12134 ↗
- رويالراء والواو والياء أصل واحد ثم يشتق منه فالأصل ما كان خلاف العطش ثم يصرف في الكلام لحامل ما يروى منه فالأصل رويت من الماء ريا وقال الأصمعي رويت على أL12135
- روثالراء والواو والثاء كلمتان متباينتان جدا فالروثة طرف الأرنبة والواحدة من روث الدوابL12143
- روجالراء والواو والجيم ليس أصلا على أن الخليل ذكر روجت الدراهم وفلان مروج وراج الشيء يروج إذا عجل به وكل قد قيل والله أعلم بصحته إلا أني أراه كله دخيلاL12145
- روحالراء والواو والحاء أصل كبير مطرد يدل على سعة وفسحة واطراد وأصل ذلك كله الريح وأصل الياء في الريح الواو وإنما قلبت ياء لكسرة ما قبلها فالروح روح الإنسQ 57 · L12147
- رودالراء والواو والدال معظم بابه يدل على مجيء وذهاب من انطلاق في جهة واحدة تقول راودته على أن يفعل كذا إذا أردته على فعله والرود فعل الرائدQ 148 · L12190
- روزالراء والواو والزاء كلمة واحدة وهي تدل على اختبار وتجريبL12204
- روضالراء والواو والضاد أصلان متقاربان في القياس أحدهما يدل على اتساع والآخر على تليين وتسهيلQ 2 · L12206
- روغالراء والواو والغين أصل واحد يدل على ميل وقلة استقرارQ 3 · L12221
- روقالراء والواو والقاف أصلان يدل أحدهما على تقدم شيء والآخر على حسن وجمالL12228
- رولالراء والواو واللام أصل يدل على لطخ شيء بشيءL12250
- رومالراء والواو والميم أصل يدل على طلب الشيء ويقال رمت الشيء أرومه روما والمرام المطلبL12252
- روهالراء والواو والهاء ليس بشيء على أن بعضهم يقول الروه مصدر راه يروه روهاL12255
- رونالراء والواو والنون يدل على شدة حر أو صوت يقولون يوم أرونان وليلة أرونانة أي شديدة الحر والغمL12257
In the sister scriptsHebrew ר ו דSyriac ܪ ܘ ܕ
| Arabic | ر و د |
| Hebrew | ר ו ד |
| Syriac | ܪ ܘ ܕ |
| Ancient South Arabian (musnad) | 𐩧 𐩥 𐩵 |
| Phoenician | 𐤓 𐤅 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 gives two threads that later lexicographers keep separate: al-rayd as the protruding ridge (ḥayd) of a mountain, and al-rayd as 'the matter you want and pursue' (turīduhu wa-tuzāwiluhu), plus ruwayd as a diminutive of an unused *rawd, meaning gently or slowly, usable as a threat-particle or as a marker of deliberate pace.well attested
The lexicographers in chronological order, from al-Khalīl to Lane.
Al-Khalīl gives two threads that later lexicographers keep separate: al-rayd as the protruding ridge (ḥayd) of a mountain, and al-rayd as 'the matter you want and pursue' (turīduhu wa-tuzāwiluhu), plus ruwayd as a diminutive of an unused *rawd, meaning gently or slowly, usable as a threat-particle or as a marker of deliberate pace. Al-Jawharī confirms the mountain-ridge sense (plural ruyūd) and adds rīḥ rayda/rāda, a soft, gently-blowing wind. Ibn Fāris supplies the unifying core — directed back-and-forth motion — from which he derives murāwada (gently trying to induce someone to an act), al-rāʾid (the scout sent ahead to survey pasturage), riyād (camels' back-and-forth grazing motion), and notes that some grammarians take irāda itself to be w-based on the evidence of rāwadtuhu. Al-Rāghib turns this gentleness-of-seeking into a psychological definition: irāda is 'a faculty compounded of desire, need, and hope,' named for the soul's inclination toward a thing joined to the judgment that it ought or ought not be done — used sometimes for the inclination itself, sometimes for the resulting judgment. Ibn Manẓūr mainly consolidates the mountain-ridge and gentle-wind senses, keeping al-riʾd/al-rīd (peer, and 'the matter one wants') as a secondary thread.
Draws on: cayn · sihah · Ibn Fāris · mufradat · lisan
- Ibn Fāris, Maqāyīs al-Lugha, r-w-d
- al-Rāghib, Mufradāt, r-w-d
- Ibn Manẓūr, Lisān al-ʿArab, r-w-d
Letters & soundRāʾ is again assigned to the fifth heaven and to 'all goods, outward and inward';speculative
What the theorists of sound symbolism would say of these letters. Speculative by nature.
Rāʾ is again assigned to the fifth heaven and to 'all goods, outward and inward'; wāw is tied to 'the determination of ranks, stations and waystations' and, per al-Dabbāgh, to the intertwined things in the human being such as veins and fingers; dāl is tied to the lowest heaven and to 'something external to the self.' A speculative reading might connect wāw's 'stations/waystations' to the root's core sense of directed, station-to-station motion (the rāʾid moving toward pasture, the soul's irāda moving toward an object), but this is offered only as resonance, not evidence; mainstream linguistics assigns no such causal weight to individual letters.
Draws on: akbari198 · dabbagh_fatha
Root structureIbn Fāris places رود among ر-و neighbors bound to motion and states: روح (breadth, wind, spirit), روغ (swerving), روق (precedence/beauty) — a family oriented around movement and its qualities.plausible
The two-letter nucleus (Ibn Fāris's own chapters) and the permutations of the letters (Ibn Jinnī).
Ibn Fāris places رود among ر-و neighbors bound to motion and states: روح (breadth, wind, spirit), روغ (swerving), روق (precedence/beauty) — a family oriented around movement and its qualities. Among the permutations, ورد (11 occurrences, attested) carries both 'arrival at a place or water-source' (wurūd) and 'the colour/flower rose' (ward), while دور (55, attested) denotes circling around a thing; both sit close to رود's own sense of directed, repeated motion toward a goal. ودر is marked attested but glossed null in this dataset, so no claim can be built on it; ردو and درو are given as largely unrelated (casting; sharpness/intent). The convergence of رود, ورد and دور on motion-toward or motion-around a point is the kind of pattern Ibn Jinnī's greater derivation looks for, though it remains a juxtaposition rather than an asserted etymology.
Draws on: nucleusSiblings · permutations
- Ibn Jinnī, al-Khaṣāʾiṣ, bāb al-ishtiqāq al-akbar (link not verified)
- Wiktionary, Appendix:Arabic roots/ر و د (link not verified)
Semitic kin & loanwordsNo confident cognate for رود in its 'seek gently, will, intend' sense is established in Hebrew, Aramaic/Syriac, Akkadian or Geʿez;uncertain
Cognates in the sister languages, and whether the word was borrowed.
No confident cognate for رود in its 'seek gently, will, intend' sense is established in Hebrew, Aramaic/Syriac, Akkadian or Geʿez; the semantic field of directed seeking/wandering does not map cleanly onto any attested triliteral in those languages. There is no basis for treating رود as a loanword; its development from concrete pastoral movement (rāʾid, the scout who seeks grazing) to the abstract faculty of irāda appears to be an internal Arabic semantic extension, as al-Rāghib's own account suggests.
Draws on: comparative
Quranic exegesisThe narrative verb rāwadat in Q12:23 and Q12:26 (Zulaykhā's attempt on Yūsuf) is read by al-Ṭabarī, al-Zamakhsharī and al-Rāzī as gentle, persistent solicitation, matching the lexicographers' sense of murāwada as repeated soft pursuit of a goal rather than blunt compulsion.well attested
How the classical exegetes read the word in the Quran.
The narrative verb rāwadat in Q12:23 and Q12:26 (Zulaykhā's attempt on Yūsuf) is read by al-Ṭabarī, al-Zamakhsharī and al-Rāzī as gentle, persistent solicitation, matching the lexicographers' sense of murāwada as repeated soft pursuit of a goal rather than blunt compulsion. The dominant Qurʾānic form, arāda (139 occurrences), is treated by the exegetes primarily as divine willing/intending, and is regularly discussed alongside mashīʾa (wish) in debates over how God's irāda relates to human acts and to what is merely permitted versus decreed. Ruwaydan in Q86:17 ('fa-mahhili l-kāfirīna amhilhum ruwaydā') is glossed as 'grant them respite a little, gently,' directly continuing al-Khalīl's ruwayd as a marker of deliberate, unhurried pace.
Philosophy & kalāmIrāda is a major technical term: al-Rāghib's definition — a faculty compounded of desire, need and hope, naming the soul's inclination joined to a judgment that an act ought to be done — already supplies the psychological groundwork the theologians build on.well attested
The word as a technical term in falsafa and theology.
Irāda is a major technical term: al-Rāghib's definition — a faculty compounded of desire, need and hope, naming the soul's inclination joined to a judgment that an act ought to be done — already supplies the psychological groundwork the theologians build on. In kalām, irāda is debated as one of God's attributes of meaning (ṣifāt al-maʿānī): the Ashʿarīs treat it as a single eternal attribute that specifies one among equally possible outcomes (answering the problem of tarjīḥ bilā murajjiḥ, a preponderance without a preponderator), the Muʿtazilīs largely make it originated and event-specific rather than an eternal divine attribute. Avicenna situates irāda within his faculty psychology as what follows conception (taṣawwur) and judgment (ḥukm), and treats the First Principle's 'willing' as a name for what necessarily proceeds from Its self-knowledge rather than a deliberative choice in the human sense. Al-Ghazālī, notably in the Tahāfut, defends irāda as a real and distinct divine attribute, irreducible to knowledge or power, precisely because only will can select among equally possible particulars.
Draws on: kalam · falsafa · mufradat
- SEE: al-Ashʿarī, kalām attributes of God (link not verified)
- SEP: al-Ghazali ↗
- SEP: Arabic and Islamic Philosophy, Theology and Mysticism ↗
Reference