Root · 23 in the Quran · 92 in 17 texts of the library
طلقa single, consistent root meaning release and setting loose. (root tlq)
الطاء واللام والقاف أصل صحيح مطرد واحد وهو يدل على التخلية والإرسال
Ibn Fāris, Maqāyīs al-lugha · English rendering AI
The family of the root
Patterns computed · our dataThe words of ط ل ق that our sources attest: the root's letters in green, the added letters in gold.
45 words7 verbs9 verbal nouns5 participles1 place or instrument3 intensives and elatives14 other nouns6 plurals
- مُطْلَقabsolute; unlimited
- طَلَّقَhe left, left alone, or let go, his she-camel
- اِنْطَلَقَhe was, or became, loosed from his bond
- أَطْلَقَhe loosed the she-camel from the bond, or cord, by which her fore shank and …
- إِطْلاقfiring
The whole family7 groups, by pattern; tap a pattern to see what it does
Verbs7طَلَقَتِ · طَلَّقَ · اِنْطَلَقَ
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.”)
- طَلَقَتِthe she-camel was, or became, loosed from her bond, or cord, by which her …LaneForm ILaneIbn Fāris
- طَلَّقَhe left, left alone, or let go, his she-camelLaneForm IIQurʾān ×10LaneIbn Fāris
- اِنْطَلَقَhe was, or became, loosed from his bondLaneForm VIIQurʾān ×9library ×2LaneIbn Fāris
- أَطْلَقَhe loosed the she-camel from the bond, or cord, by which her fore shank and …LaneForm IVlibrary ×13LaneIbn Fāris
Verbal nouns9إِطْلاق · طَلَاق · طَلْق
The action itself, named as a noun (maṣdar).grammar →
Participles5مُطْلَق · طَالِق · مُطَلِّق
The one who does it, and the one it is done to.grammar →
- مُطْلَقabsolute; unlimitedautopassive, Form IVlibrary ×21LaneIbn Fāris
- طَالِقshe-camel not having having her fore shank and her arm bound togetherLaneactive, Form ILaneIbn Fāris
- مُطَلِّقone desiring to outstrip with his horse in a raceLaneactive, Form IILaneIbn Fāris
- مُنْطَلِقactive, Form VIILaneIbn Fāris
- مُتَطَلَِّقactive, Form VLane
Place, time and instrument1مِطْلَاق
Where or when it happens, and what it is done with: the m- nouns.grammar →
- مِطْلَاقnoun of instrumentLane
Intensives, qualities and the elative3طَلَّاق · طَلِيق · طِلِّيق
The quality carried far, held as a trait, or compared.grammar →
Other nouns14طَلَق · طَلِق · طُلَق
Nouns on other patterns; their meaning is learned word by word.grammar →
Plurals6مُطَلَّقَات · أَطْلَاق · إِطْلاقات
Broken plurals rebuild the word on a new pattern; sound plurals add an ending.grammar →
- مُطَلَّقَاتsound plural of مُطَلَّقَةQurʾān ×2
- أَطْلَاقbroken plural of طُلُقLane
- إِطْلاقاتplural of firingfrom the singularsound plural of إِطْلاقlibrary ×1
- طَلَقَةbroken plural of طَالِقLane
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
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 · 170Ṭalaqat al-mar'a (طلقت المرأة) — a woman is said to be 'in labor,' so she is maṭlūqa (مطلوقة) when the birth-pang (al-ṭalq) strikes her at childbirth.
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 · 393A man is ṭalq al-wajh (طلق الوجه) and ṭalīq al-wajh (طليق الوجه) [cheerful of face];
al-Jawharī (d. c. 393/1003), al-Ṣiḥāḥ. Admits only usage he judged sound.
AI AI translation of the Arabic belowIbn Fāris · 395Ṭā', lām, qāf is a sound, single, consistently-applied root indicating release and sending forth (al-takhliya wa-l-irsāl).
Ibn Fāris (d. 395/1004), Maqāyīs al-Lugha. Seeks each root's original sense (aṣl).
AI AI translation of the Arabic belowal-Rāghib · 502The basic meaning of al-ṭalāq (الطلاق) is release from a tether (al-takhliya min al-wathāq).
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-ṭalq (الطلق) is the labor pain (ṭalq al-makhāḍ) at childbirth.
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 definitions8 · Ibn ʿArabī’s Iṣṭilāḥ, al-Jurjānī’s Taʿrīfāt
الدائمة المطلقة
هي التي حكم فيها بدوام ثبوت المحمول للموضوع، أو بدوام سلبه عنه، ما دام ذات الموضوع موجودا، مثال الإيجاب كقولنا: دائما كل إنسان حيوان، فقد حكمنا فيها بدوام ثبوت الحيوانية للإنسان ما دام ذاته موجودا، ومثال السلب: دائما لا شيء من الإنسان بحجر؛ فإن الحكم فيها بدوام سلب الحجرية عن الإنسان ما دام ذاته موجودا.
Al-dā'ima al-muṭlaqa (الدائمة المطلقة) [the absolute perpetual proposition]: this is [a proposition] in which it is judged that the predicate perpetually holds true of the subject, or that it is perpetually negated of it, for as long as the essence of the subject exists. An example of affirmation is our saying: 'Always, every human is an animal' — here we have judged that animality perpetually holds true of the human as long as his essence exists. An example of negation: 'Always, no human is a stone' — for the judgment here is that stoneness is perpetually negated of the human as long as his essence exists. AI
الطلاق
هو في اللغة إزالة القيد والتخلية، وفي الشرع: إزالة ملك النكاح.
Al-ṭalāq (الطلاق) [divorce]: linguistically it is the removal of a restraint and the setting free; in [Islamic] law it is the removal of the tie of marriage. AI
طلاق البدعة
هو أن يطلقها ثلاثا بكلمة واحدة في طهر واحد.
Ṭalāq al-bid'a (طلاق البدعة) [innovated/reprehensible divorce]: this is when a man divorces his wife three times with a single utterance during a single period of ritual purity. AI
طلاق السنة
هو أن يطلقها الرجل ثلاثا في ثلاثة أطهار.
Ṭalāq al-sunna (طلاق السنة) [sunna-conforming divorce]: this is when a man divorces his wife three times over three [separate] periods of ritual purity. AI
طلاق الأحسن
هو أن يطلقها الرجل واحدة في طهر لم يجامعها ويتركها من غير إيقاع طلقة أخرى حتى تنقضي عدتها.
Ṭalāq al-aḥsan (طلاق الأحسن) [the most excellent divorce]: this is when a man divorces his wife with a single pronouncement during a period of purity in which he has not had intercourse with her, and leaves her without pronouncing another divorce until her waiting period ('idda) has expired. AI
الماء المطلق
هو الذي بقي على أصل خلقته ولم تخالطه نجاسة، ولم يغلب عليه شيء طاهر.
Al-mā' al-muṭlaq (الماء المطلق) [absolute/unrestricted water]: this is water that has remained in its original created state, has not been mixed with impurity, and has not been predominated over by any pure substance [that alters its nature]. AI
المطلق
ما يدل على واحد غير معين.
المطلقة العامة
هي التي حكم فيها بثبوت المحمول للموضوع، أو سلبه عنه بالفعل، أما الإيجاب فكقولنا: كل إنسان متنفس الإطلاق العام. وأما السلب فكقولنا: لا شيء من الإنسان بمتنفس بالإطلاق العام.
The same letters, turned
The same three letters in all six orders. Choose one.
ط ل ق
الطاء واللام والقاف أصل صحيح مطرد واحد وهو يدل على التخلية والإرسال
ṭ-l-q: one sound, consistent root, indicating release and letting go. 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
- قqāffar back of the tongue · 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 ↗
ق
ومن أقصى اللسان وما فوقه من الحنك الأعلى مخرج القاف
From the furthest part of the tongue and the upper palate above it is the place of the qāf. Sībawayh, line 26550 ↗
ومما فوق ذلك من أقصى اللسان، مخرج القاف
From above that, at the furthest part of the tongue, is the place of the qāf. Ibn Jinnī, line 972 ↗
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 2577ق
Spheres 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.
ق
With fatḥa ـَ
فهي إشارة إلى حيازة الخيرات أو إلى جميع الأنوار.
It is an indication of the acquisition of goods, or of all lights.
With ḍamma ـُ
فهي إشارة إلى النشأة الأصلية أو العلم القديم وما أشبه ذلك.
It is an indication of the original creation, or eternal knowledge, and the like.
With kasra ـِ
فهي إشارة إلى الذل.
It is an indication of abasement.
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 קSyriac ܛ ܠ ܩ
| Arabic | ط ل ق |
| Hebrew | ט ל ק |
| Syriac | ܛ ܠ ܩ |
| Ancient South Arabian (musnad) | 𐩷 𐩡 𐩤 |
| Phoenician | 𐤈 𐤋 𐤒 |
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 centers the root on release: al-ṭalāq is takhliyat sabīlihā, 'freeing her path' (of a wife), the ṭāliq she-camel is one let loose to graze unhobbled, the ṭalīq is a captive freed from his bond, and ṭalq also names the pangs of childbirth.well attested
The lexicographers in chronological order, from al-Khalīl to Lane.
Al-Khalīl centers the root on release: al-ṭalāq is takhliyat sabīlihā, 'freeing her path' (of a wife), the ṭāliq she-camel is one let loose to graze unhobbled, the ṭalīq is a captive freed from his bond, and ṭalq also names the pangs of childbirth. Al-Jawharī broadens the physical sense of 'unimpeded' into character and speech — ṭalq al-wajh (open-faced), ṭalq al-lisān (fluent-tongued), yawm ṭalq (a day free of harshness) — while keeping ṭalq as both birth-pang and a leather fetter-cord, and citing 'the horse ran a ṭalaq' for an unbroken stretch of a race. Ibn Fāris crystallizes the single meaning as al-takhliya wa'l-irsāl, release and setting free, deriving inṭalaqa (to set off), aṭlaqa/ṭallaqa (to release a hobbled animal or a wife), ṭalq as 'the lawful thing' (as if released from restriction), and ṭalq al-wajh as 'released,' opposite of bāsir, 'constricted, frowning.' Al-Rāghib specifies the marital sense as metaphor from the literal takhliya min al-wathāq, release from a fetter — a wife who is ṭāliq is 'released from the bond of marriage' — and works through Q2:228–230 and Q65:1 to distinguish revocable from irrevocable divorce. Ibn Manẓūr and Lane converge on the physical root sense: ṭalaqat al-nāqa, the she-camel was loosed from the cord binding her fore-shank and arm, alongside ṭalq as labor-pain, confirming the semantic unity of 'loosing a bond' across both the birth and marriage usages.
Draws on: cayn · sihah · Ibn Fāris · mufradat · lisan · Lane
- al-Rāghib, al-Mufradāt, s.v. طلق
- Lane, Arabic-English Lexicon, s.v. طلق
Letters & soundAl-Dabbāgh assigns ṭāʾ (fatḥa) the sense of the utterly pure and clear, both in genus and in itself;speculative
What the theorists of sound symbolism would say of these letters. Speculative by nature.
Al-Dabbāgh assigns ṭāʾ (fatḥa) the sense of the utterly pure and clear, both in genus and in itself; lām, as before, the attaining of something great; and qāf the acquisition of goods, or of lights generally. Ibn ʿArabī's table (akbari198) places ṭāʾ at the sixth heaven and lām at the third. One could read ṭalāq/iṭlāq suggestively as 'the clear and unmixed' (ṭ) 'attainment' (l) 'of what is acquired or released as a good' (q) — a release rendered pure and clarified — but this is offered only as a resonance among these theorists' own frameworks, not as an explanation mainstream linguistics would accept.
Draws on: dabbagh_fatha · akbari198
- al-Dabbāgh, letter-meanings (fatḥa table)
- Ibn ʿArabī, letters and the heavens (akbari198)
Root structureIbn Fāris places ṭalaqa among the ṭā-lām chapter beside ṭalam ('striking a flat thing with a flat thing'), ṭalā/ṭalaw ('smearing' or 'a young animal'), ṭalas ('smoothness'), and ṭalaf ('discarding, disowning a thing as worthless, hence unclaimed blood');plausible
The two-letter nucleus (Ibn Fāris's own chapters) and the permutations of the letters (Ibn Jinnī).
Ibn Fāris places ṭalaqa among the ṭā-lām chapter beside ṭalam ('striking a flat thing with a flat thing'), ṭalā/ṭalaw ('smearing' or 'a young animal'), ṭalas ('smoothness'), and ṭalaf ('discarding, disowning a thing as worthless, hence unclaimed blood'); he explicitly rejects ṭalah and ṭalakh as sound roots. Ṭalaf's sense of releasing a claim as valueless sits close to ṭalaq's release of a bond, and ṭalas's 'smoothness' echoes the 'unimpeded' extension seen in ṭalq al-wajh — a resonance across the ṭ-l chapter, offered as juxtaposition only. Among the letter-permutations, ṭalaq (attested, 23 occurrences, 'release') stands beside laqaṭ (attested, 2 occurrences, 'to pick up what one comes upon on the ground without having sought it') and qaṭal ('to cut off'); Ibn Jinnī's greater derivation might notice that release, picking-up, and cutting-off all share a substrate of separation — a thing coming loose from its prior attachment — though this remains speculative association rather than demonstrated etymology.
Draws on: maqayis nucleusSiblings · permutations
- Ibn Fāris, Maqāyīs al-Lugha, bāb al-ṭāʾ wa'l-lām
- Wiktionary Arabic root appendix ↗
Semitic kin & loanwordsSyriac ṭlaq is attested in the sense 'to perish, be lost, be annihilated' — a semantic distance from Arabic 'to release, set loose' that makes the cognate relationship uncertain rather than confident;uncertain
Cognates in the sister languages, and whether the word was borrowed.
Syriac ṭlaq is attested in the sense 'to perish, be lost, be annihilated' — a semantic distance from Arabic 'to release, set loose' that makes the cognate relationship uncertain rather than confident; both could descend from a shared notion of 'to be gone, to depart from a prior state,' with Arabic specializing toward deliberate release and Aramaic toward irrecoverable loss. No confident Hebrew, Akkadian, or Geʿez cognate is evident for this root. There is no indication that Arabic ṭalaqa is a loanword; it behaves as inherited Semitic vocabulary.
Draws on: CAL
- Comprehensive Aramaic Lexicon, s.v. ṭlq
Quranic exegesisIn the legal verses (Q2:227–230, Q65:1) al-Ṭabarī reads al-ṭalāq marratān as two separate, each-time-revocable repudiations preceding a third that is final, and explains fa-ṭalliqūhunna li-ʿiddatihinna via the Prophet's instruction to Ibn ʿUmar to divorce at the start of a clean period (ṭuhr) rather than during menstruation.well attested
How the classical exegetes read the word in the Quran.
In the legal verses (Q2:227–230, Q65:1) al-Ṭabarī reads al-ṭalāq marratān as two separate, each-time-revocable repudiations preceding a third that is final, and explains fa-ṭalliqūhunna li-ʿiddatihinna via the Prophet's instruction to Ibn ʿUmar to divorce at the start of a clean period (ṭuhr) rather than during menstruation. Al-Zamakhsharī keeps the etymological sense of takhliya, 'release,' visible beneath the legal term, and distinguishes rajʿī (revocable) from bāʾin (irrevocable) divorce across Q2:228's wa'l-muṭallaqāt and the following verses; al-Rāghib similarly separates the general address to both kinds of divorcee in Q2:228 from the husband's specific priority of return in the revocable case. Al-Rāzī treats the graduated threefold structure of divorce, and the muḥallil condition of Q2:230 (ḥattā tankiḥa zawjan ghayrahu) after the third, as a deliberate check against hasty repudiation. Elsewhere, inṭalaqa (Q18:71, 74) is read by the exegetes simply as narrative motion — Moses and Khiḍr 'setting off' or 'going on' — carrying none of the legal freight of ṭalāq.
Draws on: Quran · mufradat
Akbarian readingIn the Fuṣūṣ excerpt supplied, Ibn ʿArabī writes that 'we do not claim what we are not verified in and do not truly possess, by restriction (taqyīd) — so how could we let a claim run unrestricted (nuṭliq fī al-daʿwā) and generalize it to what is not our actual state, nor something we know?' Here the form-IV verb nuṭliq functions technically as the antonym of taqyīd, 'restriction, qualification': to 'iṭlāq' a claim is to make it unrestricted or absolute, extending it beyond one's actual verified station.plausible
The word in Ibn ʿArabī's text and terminology.
In the Fuṣūṣ excerpt supplied, Ibn ʿArabī writes that 'we do not claim what we are not verified in and do not truly possess, by restriction (taqyīd) — so how could we let a claim run unrestricted (nuṭliq fī al-daʿwā) and generalize it to what is not our actual state, nor something we know?' Here the form-IV verb nuṭliq functions technically as the antonym of taqyīd, 'restriction, qualification': to 'iṭlāq' a claim is to make it unrestricted or absolute, extending it beyond one's actual verified station. This usage matches the well-known Akbarian polarity of muṭlaq (unrestricted, absolute) versus muqayyad (restricted, qualified) — most famously applied to al-wujūd al-muṭlaq, unrestricted Being — though no formal Iṣṭilāḥ definition of the term is present in the data given here, so the connection to that larger doctrine is drawn from usage rather than from an explicit definition.
Draws on: inFassAdam
- Ibn ʿArabī, Fuṣūṣ al-Ḥikam, prologue
Reference