Root · 4 in the Quran · 172 in 21 texts of the library
طلبto seek/pursue a thing, per Ibn Fāris (root tlb)
الطاء واللام والباء أصل واحد يدل على ابتغاء الشيء
Ibn Fāris, Maqāyīs al-lugha · English rendering AI
The family of the root
Patterns computed · our dataThe words of ط ل ب that our sources attest: the root's letters in green, the added letters in gold.
33 words7 verbs5 verbal nouns5 participles1 place or instrument3 intensives and elatives4 other nouns8 plurals
- طَلَبَhe sought it, desired it, demanded it, or asked for it
- طَالِبseeking, desiring, or demanding
- طَلَبrequest; demand
- مَطْلُوبsought, desired, or demanded
- مَطْلَبplace, or time, of seeking
The whole family7 groups, by pattern; tap a pattern to see what it does
Verbs7طَلَبَ · طَالَبَ · تَطَلَّبَ
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.”)
- طَلَبَhe sought it, desired it, demanded it, or asked for itLaneForm IQurʾān ×1library ×30LaneIbn Fāris
- طَالَبَhe sought or demanded of him a thing as being due to himLaneForm IIIlibrary ×3Lane
- تَطَلَّبَhe sought it, or demanded it, repeatedly, or time after timeLaneForm Vlibrary ×1Lane
- طَلَّبَLane: see Form VForm IILaneIbn Fāris
Verbal nouns5طَلَب · تَطَلُّب · تَطْلِيب
The action itself, named as a noun (maṣdar).grammar →
- طَلَبrequest; demandautoForm I · Lane: inf. n.Qurʾān ×1library ×15LaneIbn Fāris
- تَطَلُّبnecessity; exigencyautoForm Vlibrary ×2
- تَطْلِيبForm V · Lane: inf. n.Lane
- طِلَابForm III · Lane: inf. n.Lane
- مُطَالَبَةForm III · Lane: inf. n.Lane
Participles5طَالِب · مَطْلُوب · مُطَّلَب
The one who does it, and the one it is done to.grammar →
- طَالِبseeking, desiring, or demandingLaneactive, Form IQurʾān ×1library ×16Lane
- مَطْلُوبsought, desired, or demandedLanepassive, Form IQurʾān ×1library ×14Lane
- مُطَّلَبpassive, Form IILaneIbn Fāris
- مُطْلِبactive, Form IVLaneIbn Fāris
- مُطالَبaccountableautopassive, Form IIIlibrary ×1
Place, time and instrument1مَطْلَب
Where or when it happens, and what it is done with: the m- nouns.grammar →
- مَطْلَبplace, or time, of seekingLanenoun of place or timelibrary ×6LaneIbn Fāris
Intensives, qualities and the elative3طَلَّاب · طَلُوب · طَلِيب
The quality carried far, held as a trait, or compared.grammar →
Other nouns4طِلْب · طَلِبَة · طُلْبَة
Nouns on other patterns; their meaning is learned word by word.grammar →
Plurals8مَطْلُوبِي · طالِبِين · طَلَبَة
Broken plurals rebuild the word on a new pattern; sound plurals add an ending.grammar →
- مَطْلُوبِيsound plural of مَطْلُوبlibrary ×6
- طالِبِينsound plural of طَالِبlibrary ×2
- طَلَبَةbroken plural of طَالِبlibrary ×1Lane
- مَطَالِبbroken plural of مَطْلَبlibrary ×1Lane
Reference
Why this shape?What each of the 20 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-ṭalab (الطلب) is attempting to find a thing.
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 · 393Ṭalabtu al-shayʾ (طلبت الشيء), ṭalaban (طلبا) — I sought the thing;
al-Jawharī (d. c. 393/1003), al-Ṣiḥāḥ. Admits only usage he judged sound.
AI AI translation of the Arabic belowIbn Fāris · 395Ṭāʾ, lām, and bāʾ (ط ل ب) is a single root indicating the seeking (ibtighāʾ) of a thing.
Ibn Fāris (d. 395/1004), Maqāyīs al-Lugha. Seeks each root's original sense (aṣl).
AI AI translation of the Arabic belowal-Rāghib · 502Al-ṭalab (الطلب) is searching for the existence of a thing, whether it be a concrete entity (ʿayn) or an abstract meaning (maʿnā).
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-ṭalab (الطلب) is attempting to find a thing and take it.
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.
ط ل ب
الطاء واللام والباء أصل واحد يدل على ابتغاء الشيء
ṭ-l-b: one root indicating the seeking of a thing. 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
- طṭāʾtongue-tip, roots of the teeth · voiced, stop, velarisedSīb. · I. Jinnī
- لlāmedge of the tongue · voiced, in betweenI. Jinnī
- بbāʾbetween the lips · 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
ط
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 ↗
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 ↗
ب
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 ↗
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
ط
Level of existence: السماء السادسة · the sixth heaven
Divine Name: المحصي · the Enumerator (al-Muḥṣī)
Lunar mansion: الزبانا · al-Zubānā
Futūḥāt ch. 198, line 64680Spheres 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 2577ب
Level of existence: الجن · the jinn
Divine Name: اللطيف · al-Laṭīf, the Subtle
Lunar mansion: الفرع المقدم · al-Farʿ al-Muqaddam
Futūḥāt ch. 198, line 62118Spheres 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
ط
With fatḥa ـَ
فهي إشارة إلى الشيء الذي جنسه طاهر وصاف إلى النهاية، وهو في ذاته أيضا طاهر صاف إلى النهاية.
It is an indication of the thing whose genus is pure and clear to the utmost, and which is also, in itself, pure and clear to the utmost.
With ḍamma ـُ
فهي إشارة إلى الخبيث إلى النهاية عكس الأول.
It is an indication of what is foul to the utmost, the reverse of the first.
With kasra ـِ
فهي إشارة إلى الشيء الذي من طبعه السكون أو أمر بالسكون.
It is an indication of the thing whose nature is stillness, or which has been commanded to be still.
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.
ب
With fatḥa ـَ
فهي إشارة إلى الشيء الذي هو في غاية العز أو في غاية الذل.
It is an indication of the thing that is at the utmost of might or at the utmost of abasement.
With ḍamma ـُ
فهي إشارة معها قبض.
It is an indication accompanied by contraction (qabḍ).
With kasra ـِ
فهي إشارة إلى ما دخل أو هو داخل على الذات.
It is an indication of what has entered, or is entering, upon the self.
Two-letter nucleus7 roots in Ibn Fāris’s chapterط 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 18054 ↗
- طلمالطاء واللام والميم أصل صحيح وهو ضرب الشيء ببسط الشيء المبسوط مثال ذلك الطلم وهو ضربك خبزة الملة بيدك تنفض ما عليها من الرماد وما أقرب ما بين الطلم واL18055
- طلهالطاء واللام والهاء ليس عندي بأصل يفرع منه ولا قياسه بذلك الصحيح لكنهم يقولون طله في البلاد إذا ذهب يطله طلها ويقولون الطلهة القليل من الكلام ويقال الL18061
- طلىالطاء واللام والحرف المعتل أصلان صحيحان أحدهما يدل على لطخ شيء بشيء والآخر على شيء صغير كالولد للشيءL18064
- طلخالطاء واللام والخاء ليس بشيء وذكروا فيه كلمة كأنها مقلوبةL18094
- طلسالطاء واللام والسين أصل صحيح كأنه يدل على ملاسةL18096
- طلفالطاء واللام والفاء أصل صحيح يدل على إهانة الشيء وطرحه ثم يحمل عليه فالطلف الهدر من الدماء وكل شيء لم يطلب فهو هدرL18117
- طلقالطاء واللام والقاف أصل صحيح مطرد واحد وهو يدل على التخلية والإرسالQ 23 · L18124
In the sister scriptsHebrew ט ל בSyriac ܛ ܠ ܒ
| Arabic | ط ل ب |
| Hebrew | ט ל ב |
| Syriac | ܛ ܠ ܒ |
| Ancient South Arabian (musnad) | 𐩷 𐩡 𐩨 |
| Phoenician | 𐤈 𐤋 𐤁 |
Letter for letter, by the regular sound correspondences of the Semitic languages (Arabic keeps several sounds the others merged). This shows how the root would be spelled; whether a related word exists is a separate question, answered in the Semitic lens. Where an Arabic sibilant (s, sh) continues two older sounds, both spellings are shown.
Lenses
AIClassical lexiconAl-Khalīl defines al-ṭalab as muḥāwalat wijdān al-shayʾ, 'the effort to find a thing,' and extends it to the legal sense ṭalība — a claim or due one presses another for (muṭālaba).well attested
The lexicographers in chronological order, from al-Khalīl to Lane.
Al-Khalīl defines al-ṭalab as muḥāwalat wijdān al-shayʾ, 'the effort to find a thing,' and extends it to the legal sense ṭalība — a claim or due one presses another for (muṭālaba). Al-Jawharī adds the derived name ʿAbd al-Muṭṭalib (< mutaṭallib), the notion of kalaʾ muṭlib, pasturage so remote it must be sought out, and the striking aḍdād-note that aṭlaba can mean both 'to satisfy someone's request' and 'to put someone in need of seeking' — opposite senses from one causative form. Ibn Fāris confirms a single aṣl, ibtighāʾ al-shayʾ ('seeking a thing out'), citing the same aḍdād of aṭlaba and the idiom māʾ muṭlib for water so distant it demands searching. Al-Rāghib sharpens this to al-faḥṣ ʿan wujūd al-shayʾ, 'investigation into a thing's existence,' whether that thing be sensible or intelligible, citing Q18:41 and Q22:73. Ibn Manẓūr assembles all these, and Lane renders the verb as 'sought, desired, demanded, pursued, endeavoured to find and take' — an active, effortful reaching after something not yet possessed.
Draws on: cayn · sihah · Ibn Fāris · mufradat · lisan · Lane
- Ibn Fāris, Maqāyīs al-Lugha, root ṭ-l-b
- al-Rāghib, al-Mufradāt, ṭ-l-b
- Lane, Arabic-English Lexicon, ṭalaba
Letters & soundIn the Futūḥāt letter-correspondences ṭāʾ is linked to the sixth heaven and lām to the third;speculative
What the theorists of sound symbolism would say of these letters. Speculative by nature.
In the Futūḥāt letter-correspondences ṭāʾ is linked to the sixth heaven and lām to the third; al-Dabbāgh's fatḥa-glosses add that ṭāʾ indicates a thing pure and clear to the utmost of its genus, and lām indicates the speaker's attainment of something great. A speculative composite would read ṭalab as the reaching (lām, attainment of the great) toward something intrinsically pure or perfect of its kind (ṭāʾ), with the final bāʾ (jinn; utmost might or utmost abasement, per al-Dabbāgh) marking the extremity — either powerful success or abject failure — that seeking can end in. This is offered as suggestive juxtaposition only; it has no standing in historical or comparative linguistics.
Draws on: dabbagh · akbari198
Root structureAmong Ibn Fāris's ṭ-l-x neighbors, ṭalaf ('discarded, unclaimed blood-debt') is explained by the very phrase 'kullu shayʾ lam yuṭlab fa-huwa hadr' — whatever is not sought after is forfeit — an explicit lexical bridge in which ṭalab's absence defines ṭalaf's meaning.uncertain
The two-letter nucleus (Ibn Fāris's own chapters) and the permutations of the letters (Ibn Jinnī).
Among Ibn Fāris's ṭ-l-x neighbors, ṭalaf ('discarded, unclaimed blood-debt') is explained by the very phrase 'kullu shayʾ lam yuṭlab fa-huwa hadr' — whatever is not sought after is forfeit — an explicit lexical bridge in which ṭalab's absence defines ṭalaf's meaning. ṭalq (release, setting free) and ṭalā/ṭalī (smearing; also a young offspring) sit further off but share the ط-ل onset. Among the transposed permutations, بطل (buṭlān, 'vanishing quickly, futility,' 36 Quranic occurrences) and بلط share ب-ط-ل; juxtaposed against ط-ل-ب this offers a suggestive but unproven pairing — what is pursued (ṭalab) against what perishes or is void (buṭl) — noted here only as a structural juxtaposition, not an established derivation. طبل and لطب are dismissed by Ibn Fāris himself as not genuine Arabic bases.
Draws on: Ibn Fāris · permutations
- Ibn Fāris, Maqāyīs al-Lugha, ط-ل-ف and ب-ط-ل
Semitic kin & loanwordsSyriac/Aramaic ṭlb (ܛܠܒ) means 'to ask, request, seek, demand' — a close and confident semantic and phonological match to Arabic ṭalaba, best explained as a shared Common Semitic root rather than a loan in either direction.plausible
Cognates in the sister languages, and whether the word was borrowed.
Syriac/Aramaic ṭlb (ܛܠܒ) means 'to ask, request, seek, demand' — a close and confident semantic and phonological match to Arabic ṭalaba, best explained as a shared Common Semitic root rather than a loan in either direction. No clear Akkadian or Ethiopic Geʿez cognate is attested with this meaning. Given the exact correspondence of root and sense across Arabic and Aramaic, there is no reason to treat the Arabic word as borrowed.
Draws on: comparative
- Payne Smith, Thesaurus Syriacus, s.v. ṭlb (CAL entry, root ṭlb)
Quranic exegesisAt Q18:41, the boastful garden-owner is told his water may sink into the earth so that 'you will never be able to seek it out' (fa-lan tastaṭīʿa lahu ṭalaban);well attested
How the classical exegetes read the word in the Quran.
At Q18:41, the boastful garden-owner is told his water may sink into the earth so that 'you will never be able to seek it out' (fa-lan tastaṭīʿa lahu ṭalaban); al-Ṭabarī and al-Rāzī read this as total, irrecoverable loss — beyond the reach of any search, not merely difficult to find. At Q22:73, the parable of the idols and the fly declares 'weak is the seeker and the sought' (ḍaʿufa al-ṭālib wa-l-maṭlūb); al-Zamakhsharī and al-Rāzī identify the ṭālib as the idol trying (and failing) to reclaim what the fly has snatched, and the maṭlūb as that very fly — a deliberately deflating image in which both worshipped idol and worshipper are shown powerless. At Q7:54, night is described as pursuing day swiftly (yaṭlubuhu ḥathīthan) 'seeking' it in ceaseless succession — read by the exegetes as a cosmological statement of God's ordering of time, not a literal search.
Akbarian readingIn Faṣṣ Ādam, Ibn ʿArabī uses ṭalab not primarily for conscious desire but for the intrinsic ontological requirement of a fixed reality (ʿayn thābita): the universal, all-comprehensive matter (al-amr al-kullī) is said to return to each existent 'according to what the realities of those existent things themselves demand (taṭlubuhu)' — an exigency built into each thing's own quiddity, prior to and independent of any subject's willing.plausible
The word in Ibn ʿArabī's text and terminology.
In Faṣṣ Ādam, Ibn ʿArabī uses ṭalab not primarily for conscious desire but for the intrinsic ontological requirement of a fixed reality (ʿayn thābita): the universal, all-comprehensive matter (al-amr al-kullī) is said to return to each existent 'according to what the realities of those existent things themselves demand (taṭlubuhu)' — an exigency built into each thing's own quiddity, prior to and independent of any subject's willing. He applies the same usage to the khalīfa (vicegerent): the subjects governed do not necessarily receive 'the totality of what their realities require (mā taṭlubuhu)' from any single khalīfa, since no one locus of manifestation can exhaust what all receptivities together demand. Ṭalab thus functions technically for Ibn ʿArabī as the fixed entity's own metaphysical demand upon the divine names, correlative to istiʿdād (preparedness) under the root ʿ-d-d.
Draws on: fassAdam
- Ibn ʿArabī, Fuṣūṣ al-Ḥikam, Faṣṣ Ādam
Reference