Root · 180 in the Quran · 48 in 15 texts of the library
صلحThe opposite of fasād: soundness, rightness, being in good order — per Ibn Fāris, a … (root slh)
الصاد واللام والحاء أصل واحد يدل على خلاف الفساد
Ibn Fāris, Maqāyīs al-lugha · English rendering AI
The family of the root
Patterns computed · our dataThe words of ص ل ح that our sources attest: the root's letters in green, the added letters in gold.
29 words7 verbs5 verbal nouns4 participles1 place or instrument2 intensives and elatives3 other nouns6 plurals1 relative or abstract
- صَالِحpious; upright
- صَالِحَات—
- أَصْلَحَhe laboured in rectifying, or improving, the bad, or the good, state of …
- صَالِحِين—
- إِصْلَاحreform; restoration
The whole family8 groups, by pattern; tap a pattern to see what it does
Verbs7صَلَحَ · أَصْلَحَ · صَالَحَ
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.”)
- صَلَحَthe state, or condition, of such a one became good, right, or properLaneForm IQurʾān ×2library ×6LaneIbn Fāris
- أَصْلَحَhe laboured in rectifying, or improving, the bad, or the good, state of …LaneForm IVQurʾān ×28Lane
- صَالَحَhe made peace, or reconciliation, or a compromise, with him on the condition …LaneForm IIILane
- تَصَالَحَForm VILane
Verbal nouns5إِصْلَاح · صُلُوح · صَلَاح
The action itself, named as a noun (maṣdar).grammar →
Participles4صَالِح · مُصْلِح · مُتَصَلَّح
The one who does it, and the one it is done to.grammar →
- صَالِحpious; uprightautoactive, Form IQurʾān ×74library ×9Lane
- مُصْلِحman who does well, rightly, justly, or properly, in his affairs and his …Laneactive, Form IVQurʾān ×5Lane
- مُتَصَلَّحplace, of a garment , that is to be repaired, or mendedLanepassive, Form VLane
- مُصالِحpeacemaker; conciliatorautoactive, Form IIIlibrary ×1
Place, time and instrument1مَصْلَحَة
Where or when it happens, and what it is done with: the m- nouns.grammar →
- مَصْلَحَةcause, a means, or an occasion, of goodLanenoun of place (with -a)library ×1Lane
Intensives, qualities and the elative2أَصْلَح · صَلِيح
The quality carried far, held as a trait, or compared.grammar →
- أَصْلَحmore; most convenientautoelative or colour adjective (afʿal)library ×2
- صَلِيحquality (faʿīl)Lane
Other nouns3اِصْطِلَاح · صُلْح · صَلْح
Nouns on other patterns; their meaning is learned word by word.grammar →
Plurals6صَالِحَات · صَالِحِين · مُصْلِحُون
Broken plurals rebuild the word on a new pattern; sound plurals add an ending.grammar →
- صَالِحَاتsound plural of صَالِحَةQurʾān ×62library ×1
- صَالِحِينsound plural of صَالِحQurʾān ×26
- مُصْلِحُونsound plural of مُصْلِحQurʾān ×2
- صُلَحَاءbroken plural of صَالِحlibrary ×1Lane
Reference
Why this shape?What each of the 19 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.
- Attested: مَصْلَحَة, noun of place (with -a), “cause, a means, or an occasion, of good” (library, Lane)
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-ṣalāḥ (الصلاح) is the opposite of al-ṭalāḥ (الطلاح).
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-ṣalāḥ (الصلاح) is the opposite of corruption (fasād).
al-Jawharī (d. c. 393/1003), al-Ṣiḥāḥ. Admits only usage he judged sound.
AI AI translation of the Arabic belowIbn Fāris · 395The letters ṣād, lām, and ḥā' form a single root indicating the opposite of corruption (fasād).
Ibn Fāris (d. 395/1004), Maqāyīs al-Lugha. Seeks each root's original sense (aṣl).
AI AI translation of the Arabic belowal-Rāghib · 502Al-ṣalāḥ (الصلاح) is the opposite of fasād (corruption);
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-ṣalāḥ (الصلاح) is the opposite of fasād (corruption);
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
الاصطلاح
عبارة عن اتفاق قوم على تسمية الشيء باسم ما ينقل عن موضعه الأول.
Al-iṣtilāḥ (الاصطلاح): an expression for the agreement of a people upon naming a thing by a name transferred from its original designation. AI
الاصطلاح
إخراج اللفظ من معنى لغوي إلى آخر، لمناسبة بينهما.
Al-iṣtilāḥ (الاصطلاح): the removal of a word from one lexical meaning to another, on account of some correspondence between the two. AI
الصالح
هو الخالص من كل فساد.
Al-ṣāliḥ (الصالح): that which is free/pure of all corruption. AI
الصلح
في اللغة اسم من المصالحة، وهي المسالمة بعد المنازعة، وفي الشريعة: عقد يرفع النزاع.
Al-ṣulḥ (الصلح): in language, a noun derived from al-muṣālaḥah, which is making peace after conflict; and in the Sharīʿah: a contract that removes a dispute. AI
اصطلاح الفقهاء
اتصال شرعي بين الإنسان وبين شيء يكون مطلقا لتصرفه فيه، وحاجزا عن تصرف غيره فيه، فالشيء يكون مملوكا ولا يكون مرقوقا، ولكن لا يكون مرقوقا إلا ويكون مملوكا.
The technical usage of the jurists: a legitimate (sharʿī) connection between a person and a thing, such that it grants him unrestricted disposal over it and bars another's disposal over it; thus the thing is owned (mamlūk) but is not [necessarily] enslaved (marqūq) — however, nothing is enslaved (marqūq) except that it is [also] owned (mamlūk). AI
The same letters, turned
The same three letters in all six orders. Choose one.
ص ل ح
الصاد واللام والحاء أصل واحد يدل على خلاف الفساد
ṣ-l-ḥ is one root indicating the opposite of corruption. 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
- صṣādtongue-tip, by the front teeth · voiceless, continuant, velarisedSīb. · I. Jinnī
- لlāmedge of the tongue · voiced, in betweenI. Jinnī
- حḥāʾmiddle of the throat · voiceless, continuantSīb. · 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
ص
ومما بين طرف اللسان وفويق الثنايا مخرج الزاي، والسين، والصاد
From between the tip of the tongue and just above the front teeth is the place of the zāy, the sīn and the ṣād. Sībawayh, line 26560 ↗
ومما بين الثنايا وطرف اللسان، مخرج الصاد والزاي والسين
From between the front teeth and the tip of the tongue is the place of the ṣād, the zāy and the sīn. Ibn Jinnī, line 983 ↗
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 ↗
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 ↗
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
ص
Level of existence: التراب · earth
Divine Name: المميت · al-Mumīt, the Death-Giver
Lunar mansion: البلدة · al-Balda
Futūḥāt ch. 198, line 62111Spheres of its simples (ch. 2): 8 line 2571 ↗
Nature (ch. 2)
الثمانية فحروفها حارة يابسة
The eightfold [rank]: its letters are hot and dry.
Ibn ʿArabī, al-Futūḥāt al-Makkiyya, line 2580ل
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 2577ح
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 ↗
Meaning by vowelal-Dabbāgh · a visionary claim about a primordial “Syriac”, not historical Syriac
English throughout: AI translation of the Arabic AI
ص
With fatḥa ـَ
فهي جميع غبار الأرض في الموقف بين يدي الله عز وجل.
It is all the dust of the earth at the Standing (on the Day of Judgement) before God, Mighty and Majestic.
With ḍamma ـُ
فهي جميع نباتاتها.
It is all its (the earth's) plants.
With kasra ـِ
فهي الأرضون السبع.
It is the seven earths.
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.
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.
Two-letter nucleus8 roots in Ibn Fāris’s chapterص 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 16589 ↗
- صلمالصاد واللام والميم أصل واحد يدل على قطع واستئصالL16590
- صلبالصاد واللام والباء أصلان أحدهما يدل على الشدة والقوة والآخر جنس من الودكQ 8 · L16613
- صلتالصاد واللام والتاء أصل واحد يدل على بروز الشيء ووضوحهL16632
- صلجالصاد واللام والجيم ليس بشيء لقلة ائتلاف الصاد مع الجيم وحكيت فيه كلمات لا أصل لها في قديم كلام العرب ومن ذلك الصولج وهي فيما زعموا الفضة الجيدةL16640
- صلحالصاد واللام والحاء أصل واحد يدل على خلاف الفسادQ 180 · L16644
- صلخالصاد واللام والخاء فيه كلمة واحدةL16648
- صلعالصاد واللام والعين أصل صحيح يدل على ملاسةL16657
- صلفالصاد واللام والفاء أصل صحيح يدل على شدة وكزازةL16670
In the sister scriptsHebrew צ ל חSyriac ܨ ܠ ܚ
| Arabic | ص ل ح |
| Hebrew | צ ל ח |
| Syriac | ܨ ܠ ܚ |
| Ancient South Arabian (musnad) | 𐩮 𐩡 𐩢 |
| Phoenician | 𐤑 𐤋 𐤇 |
Letter for letter, by the regular sound correspondences of the Semitic languages (Arabic keeps several sounds the others merged). This shows how the root would be spelled; whether a related word exists is a separate question, answered in the Semitic lens. Where an Arabic sibilant (s, sh) continues two older sounds, both spellings are shown.
Lenses
AIClassical lexiconAl-Khalīl (al-ʿAyn) opposes al-ṣalāḥ to al-ṭalāḥ, distinguishes rajul ṣāliḥ fī nafsihi ('sound in himself') from muṣliḥ fī aʿmālihi ('sound-acting in his affairs'), and gives al-ṣulḥ as taṣāluḥ al-qawm, mutual reconciliation between people.well attested
The lexicographers in chronological order, from al-Khalīl to Lane.
Al-Khalīl (al-ʿAyn) opposes al-ṣalāḥ to al-ṭalāḥ, distinguishes rajul ṣāliḥ fī nafsihi ('sound in himself') from muṣliḥ fī aʿmālihi ('sound-acting in his affairs'), and gives al-ṣulḥ as taṣāluḥ al-qawm, mutual reconciliation between people. Al-Jawharī (al-Ṣiḥāḥ) confirms al-ṣalāḥ as ḍidd al-fasād, verb forms ṣalaḥa/ṣaluḥa (the latter per al-Farrāʾ), the idiom hādhā yaṣluḥu laka ('this suits you'), and al-ṣulḥ/al-ṣilāḥ for reconciliation, with iṣṭalaḥā and taṣālaḥā as reflexives. Ibn Fāris (Maqāyīs) states plainly a single sense, khilāf al-fasād, illustrated by a verse on the shame of cursing one's parents leaving no ṣulūḥ ('soundness') behind. Al-Rāghib (al-Mufradāt) notes ṣalāḥ and fasād are mostly predicated of actions and contrasted in the Qurʾān sometimes with fasād and sometimes with sayyiʾa, while al-ṣulḥ specifically concerns removing estrangement (nifār) between people, as in 4:128–129 and 49:9–10. Ibn Manẓūr (Lisān) and Lane confirm the same verbal paradigm (ṣalaḥa/ṣaluḥa, ṣalāḥ/ṣulūḥ/maṣlaḥa) and note ṣāliḥ used loosely for 'a fair/considerable amount' (maṭra ṣāliḥa).
Draws on: cayn · sihah · Ibn Fāris · mufradat · lisan · Lane
Letters & soundIn the letter-correspondence tables, ṣād is tied to earth/dust, lām to the third heaven, and ḥāʾ to the dust-like substance (al-jawhar al-habābī);speculative
What the theorists of sound symbolism would say of these letters. Speculative by nature.
In the letter-correspondence tables, ṣād is tied to earth/dust, lām to the third heaven, and ḥāʾ to the dust-like substance (al-jawhar al-habābī); al-Dabbāgh's fatḥa-readings give ṣād as all the dust of the earth at the Standing before God, lām as the attaining of something great, and ḥāʾ as encompassing and inclusion of everything. A speculative reading might link ṣalāḥ, 'restoring a thing to wholeness,' with ḥāʾ's sense of encompassing everything, but this is sound-symbolism offered as juxtaposition only, with no standing in mainstream historical linguistics.
Draws on: akbari198 · dabbagh_fatha
Root structureIbn Fāris situates ṣlḥ among Ṣād-Lām chapters mostly concerned with cutting, hardness, or surface qualities — ṣlm (cutting off entirely), ṣlb (hardness/strength, or a kind of fat), ṣlt (prominence and clarity), and ṣlʿ (smoothness, as in baldness) — so ṣlḥ stands apart as the one chapter given wholly to the abstract opposite of fasād, without a concrete physical anchor among its immediate neighbors.plausible
The two-letter nucleus (Ibn Fāris's own chapters) and the permutations of the letters (Ibn Jinnī).
Ibn Fāris situates ṣlḥ among Ṣād-Lām chapters mostly concerned with cutting, hardness, or surface qualities — ṣlm (cutting off entirely), ṣlb (hardness/strength, or a kind of fat), ṣlt (prominence and clarity), and ṣlʿ (smoothness, as in baldness) — so ṣlḥ stands apart as the one chapter given wholly to the abstract opposite of fasād, without a concrete physical anchor among its immediate neighbors. Among permutations, ḥ-ṣ-l ('to gather, to obtain the upshot,' as in ḥawṣalat al-ṭāʾir, the bird's crop) is attested with real currency, and by Ibn Jinnī's greater derivation invites the loose association that ṣalāḥ ('soundness') and ḥaṣl ('the gathered, settled upshot of a thing') both name a state a thing has arrived at — a juxtaposition, not an etymology. Ṣ-ḥ-l ('hoarseness of voice') and l-ḥ-ṣ ('narrowness in a thing') are attested but semantically remote; l-ṣ-ḥ and ḥ-l-ṣ are not validated Arabic roots at all.
Draws on: maqayis-siblings · permutations
Semitic kin & loanwordsHebrew צָלַח (ṣālaḥ) means 'to succeed, prosper, thrive' (and, of the spirit, 'to rush upon'), and Aramaic/Syriac ṣlḥ likewise means 'to succeed, be profitable, be fit.' Both closely parallel Arabic ṣalaḥa's sense of being in a good, sound, functioning state, with the branches diverging afterward — Hebrew/Aramaic toward 'success, prospering,' Arabic toward 'soundness, moral and functional rightness.' This is a genuine shared Semitic root, not a loanword in either direction.plausible
Cognates in the sister languages, and whether the word was borrowed.
Hebrew צָלַח (ṣālaḥ) means 'to succeed, prosper, thrive' (and, of the spirit, 'to rush upon'), and Aramaic/Syriac ṣlḥ likewise means 'to succeed, be profitable, be fit.' Both closely parallel Arabic ṣalaḥa's sense of being in a good, sound, functioning state, with the branches diverging afterward — Hebrew/Aramaic toward 'success, prospering,' Arabic toward 'soundness, moral and functional rightness.' This is a genuine shared Semitic root, not a loanword in either direction.
Draws on: bdb · cal
- BDB, s.v. צלח
- Comprehensive Aramaic Lexicon, s.v. ṣlḥ
Quranic exegesisOn 2:25 and 2:62, exegetes read al-ṣāliḥāt as deeds conforming to revealed law, paired inseparably with īmān as the condition for reward — al-Rāzī stresses that ʿamal ṣāliḥ must be sincerely for God and lawful in form, against those who would claim faith suffices alone.plausible
How the classical exegetes read the word in the Quran.
On 2:25 and 2:62, exegetes read al-ṣāliḥāt as deeds conforming to revealed law, paired inseparably with īmān as the condition for reward — al-Rāzī stresses that ʿamal ṣāliḥ must be sincerely for God and lawful in form, against those who would claim faith suffices alone. On 2:130, Abraham's inclusion min al-ṣāliḥīn in the hereafter is read as membership among the elect righteous, a rank the exegetes treat as broad enough to encompass prophets alongside others. On 2:160, wa-aṣlaḥū following tawba is read as the added requirement of demonstrated amendment of conduct, distinct from repentance alone, in the context of those who had concealed revealed truth. On 2:182, fa-aṣlaḥa baynahum is read in the narrower legal sense of ṣulḥ — reconciling the parties affected by an unjust or mistaken bequest — showing the root's specific mediatory sense alongside its broader moral-religious use elsewhere in the sūra.
Philosophy & kalāmIn Muʿtazilī kalām, al-aṣlaḥ (the elative of ṣalaḥa) became a technical term through the doctrine of wujūb riʿāyat al-aṣlaḥ: divine wisdom and justice were held to obligate God always to provide what is most beneficial (aṣlaḥ) for His servants, particularly in matters of religious guidance.plausible
The word as a technical term in falsafa and theology.
In Muʿtazilī kalām, al-aṣlaḥ (the elative of ṣalaḥa) became a technical term through the doctrine of wujūb riʿāyat al-aṣlaḥ: divine wisdom and justice were held to obligate God always to provide what is most beneficial (aṣlaḥ) for His servants, particularly in matters of religious guidance. Ashʿarite theologians, including al-Ghazālī, rejected this as illegitimately binding God's free action to a creaturely standard of good, holding instead that an act is good simply because God does it. The term thus marks one of the central fault lines between Muʿtazilī rationalist ethics and Ashʿarite voluntarism on divine action.
Draws on: kalam
Akbarian readingThe root surfaces first embedded in the technical term iṣṭilāḥ ('convention, technical terminology'), a form-VIII derivative of ṣ-l-ḥ, when Ibn ʿArabī describes the angels as some of the faculties of the cosmic form 'expressed, in the convention of the [Sufi] folk (fī iṣṭilāḥ al-qawm), as the Greater Man' — extending the root's core sense of removing estrangement (taṣāluḥ) to consensus about shared vocabulary.plausible
The word in Ibn ʿArabī's text and terminology.
The root surfaces first embedded in the technical term iṣṭilāḥ ('convention, technical terminology'), a form-VIII derivative of ṣ-l-ḥ, when Ibn ʿArabī describes the angels as some of the faculties of the cosmic form 'expressed, in the convention of the [Sufi] folk (fī iṣṭilāḥ al-qawm), as the Greater Man' — extending the root's core sense of removing estrangement (taṣāluḥ) to consensus about shared vocabulary. Second, in the summary list of the twenty-seven wisdoms of the Fuṣūṣ, al-ḥikma al-fātiḥiyya fī kalima Ṣāliḥiyya names the Faṣṣ devoted to the prophet Ṣāliḥ, so that ṣ-l-ḥ also functions as a proper name marking a whole station of prophetic wisdom, described as 'opening' (fātiḥiyya). No independent Iṣṭilāḥ-genre definition of ṣalāḥ/iṣlāḥ is given among the excerpts here.
Draws on: fass-adam
Reference