Root · 129 in the Quran · 45 in 14 texts of the library
طوعal-iṣḥāb wa-l-inqiyād, companionship with and compliance toward another. (root tw)
الطاء والواو والعين أصل صحيح واحد يدل على الإصحاب والانقياد
Ibn Fāris, Maqāyīs al-lugha · English rendering AI
The family of the root
Patterns computed · our dataThe words of ط و ع that our sources attest: the root's letters in green, the added letters in gold.
26 words8 verbs4 verbal nouns5 participles1 place or instrument1 intensive or elative4 other nouns3 plurals
- أَطَاعَobey
- اسْتَطَاعَhe was able
- طَوْع—
- طَاعَhe was, or became, submissive to him
- تَطَوَّعَhe desired the thing
The whole family7 groups, by pattern; tap a pattern to see what it does
Verbs8طَاعَ · أَطَاعَ · اسْتَطَاعَ
The root as an action: the bare Form I, and the Forms made by adding letters before, inside or after the root.grammar →
- طَاعَhe was, or became, submissive to himLaneForm IQurʾān ×2LaneIbn Fāris
- أَطَاعَobeyautoForm IVQurʾān ×72library ×3Lane
- اسْتَطَاعَhe was ableLaneForm XQurʾān ×42library ×5Lane
- تَطَوَّعَhe desired the thingLaneForm VQurʾān ×2LaneIbn Fāris
Verbal nouns4طَوْع · طَوَاعِيَة · طَيْع
The action itself, named as a noun (maṣdar).grammar →
Participles5مُطَاع · مُطّاع · طَائِع
The one who does it, and the one it is done to.grammar →
Place, time and instrument1مِطْوَاع
Where or when it happens, and what it is done with: the m- nouns.grammar →
- مِطْوَاعnoun of instrumentLane
Intensives, qualities and the elative1أَطْوَع
The quality carried far, held as a trait, or compared.grammar →
- أَطْوَعmore submissive, or obedient, that a horse, and than a dog, are provsLaneelative or colour adjective (afʿal)Lane
Other nouns4مُطَّوِّعَة · طَوَاعَة · طَيِّع
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 · 170Ṭāʿa yaṭūʿu ṭawʿan (طاع يطوع طوعا), so he is ṭāʾiʿ (طائع - compliant, obedient).
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 · 393Fulānun ṭawʿu yadayka (فلان طوع يديك) means 'so-and-so is submissive/compliant to you [lit.
al-Jawharī (d. c. 393/1003), al-Ṣiḥāḥ. Admits only usage he judged sound.
AI AI translation of the Arabic belowIbn Fāris · 395Ṭāʾ, wāw, and ʿayn form one sound root indicating accompaniment and compliance/submission.
Ibn Fāris (d. 395/1004), Maqāyīs al-Lugha. Seeks each root's original sense (aṣl).
AI AI translation of the Arabic belowal-Rāghib · 502Al-ṭawʿ (الطوع) is submission/compliance (al-inqiyād), and its opposite is al-karh (الكره - aversion, compulsion).
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-ṭayyiʿ (الطيع) is a dialectal variant of al-ṭawʿ (الطوع), by phonetic alternation (muʿāqabah).
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 و ع
الطاء والواو والعين أصل صحيح واحد يدل على الإصحاب والانقياد
ṭ-w-ʿ is one sound root indicating compliance and submission. 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
- وwāwbetween the lips · voiced, in betweenSīb. · I. Jinnī
- عʿaynmiddle of the throat · voiced, in betweenSīb. · 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 ↗
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 ↗
ع
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
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 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 2582ع
Level of existence: الطبيعة · Nature
Divine Name: الباطن · The Inward (al-Bāṭin)
Lunar mansion: الثريا · al-Thurayyā (the Pleiades)
Futūḥāt ch. 198, line 63825Spheres of its simples (ch. 2): 9 line 2572 ↗
Meaning 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.
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.
ع
With fatḥa ـَ
فهي اسم لقدوم أو رحيل.
It is a name for arrival or departure.
With ḍamma ـُ
فهي اسم للساكن في الذات التي تقوم به.
It is a name for that which dwells in the self and by which the self subsists.
With kasra ـِ
فهي اسم لخبث الذات.
It is a name for the foulness of the self.
Two-letter nucleus10 roots in Ibn Fāris’s chapterط 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 18233 ↗
- طوىالطاء والواو والياء أصل صحيح يدل على إدراج شيء حتى يدرج بعضه في بعض ثم يحمل عليه تشبيهاQ 5 · L18234
- طوبالطاء والواو والباء ليس بأصل لأن الطوب فيما أحسب هذا الذي يسمى الآجر وما أظن العرب تعرفه وأما طوبى فليس من هذا وأصله الياء كأنها فعلى من الطيب فقلبت اL18248
- طوحالطاء والواو والحاء ليس بأصل وكأنه من باب الإبدالL18251
- طودالطاء والواو والدال أصل صحيح وفيه كلمة واحدة فالطود الجبل العظيمQ 1 · L18252
- طورالطاء والواو والراء أصل صحيح يدل على معنى واحد وهو الامتداد في شيء من مكان أو زمانQ 11 · L18255
- طوسالطاء والواو والسين ليس بأصل إنما فيه الذيL18262
- طوعالطاء والواو والعين أصل صحيح واحد يدل على الإصحاب والانقيادQ 129 · L18266
- طوفالطاء والواو والفاء أصل واحد صحيح يدل على دوران الشيء على الشيء وأن يحف به ثم يحمل عليهQ 41 · L18276
- طوقالطاء والواو والقاف أصل صحيح يدل على مثل ما دل عليه الباب الذي قبله فكل ما استدار بشيء فهو طوق وسمي البناء طاقا لاستدارته إذا عقد والطيلسان طاق لأنه يQ 4 · L18294
- طوطالطاء والواو والطاء كلمتان إن صحتا يقولون إن الطوط القطن والطوط الرجل الطويلL18314
In the sister scriptsHebrew ט ו עSyriac ܛ ܘ ܥ
| Arabic | ط و ع |
| Hebrew | ט ו ע |
| Syriac | ܛ ܘ ܥ |
| Ancient South Arabian (musnad) | 𐩷 𐩥 𐩲 |
| Phoenician | 𐤈 𐤅 𐤏 |
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 sets ṭāʿa yaṭūʿu ṭawʿan against karh, compulsion, and distinguishes ṭāʿaka, he went along with your command, from ṭāwaʿaka, he matched or concurred with you, a nuance of mutuality within compliance.well attested
The lexicographers in chronological order, from al-Khalīl to Lane.
Al-Khalīl sets ṭāʿa yaṭūʿu ṭawʿan against karh, compulsion, and distinguishes ṭāʿaka, he went along with your command, from ṭāwaʿaka, he matched or concurred with you, a nuance of mutuality within compliance. Al-Jawharī records the idiom fulān ṭawʿu yadayka, he is entirely at your disposal, and discusses istiṭāʿa as iṭāqa, ability, noting the dialectal contraction yasṭīʿu for yastaṭīʿu and Ḥamza's reading with assimilation. Ibn Fāris fixes the single root-sense as companionship and compliance, derives istiṭāʿa from an original istiṭwāʿ with the wāw elided and hāʾ substituted, on the pattern of istiʿāna, and notes that tataṭawwaʿa narrows from general self-exertion toward capacity to specifically voluntary good works, whence al-muṭṭawwiʿa for volunteer fighters. Al-Rāghib separates ṭawʿ, plain compliance opposed to karh, citing Q3:83 and Q41:11, from ṭāʿa proper, compliance specifically with a command, imtithāl al-amr, citing Q4:81 and Q47:21. Ibn Manẓūr adds only that ṭayʿ is a dialectal variant of ṭawʿ by muʿāqaba, and Lane's entry, 'he was, or became, submissive to him,' with its three coordinate conjugations, confirms this settled sense across the tradition.
Draws on: khalil_cayn · jawhari_sihah · ibnfaris_maqayis · raghib_mufradat · ibnmanzur_lisan · Lane
- al-ʿAyn
- al-Ṣiḥāḥ
- Ibn Fāris, Maqāyīs al-Lugha
- al-Rāghib, al-Mufradāt
- Lisān al-ʿArab
- Lane, Arabic-English Lexicon
Letters & soundIn the tables supplied, ṭāʾ marks the sixth heaven and, for al-Dabbāgh, whatever is pure and clear in its genus and in itself;speculative
What the theorists of sound symbolism would say of these letters. Speculative by nature.
In the tables supplied, ṭāʾ marks the sixth heaven and, for al-Dabbāgh, whatever is pure and clear in its genus and in itself; wāw marks the determination of ranks and waystations and, for al-Dabbāgh, the intertwined things in the human being such as veins and fingers; ʿayn marks Nature (al-Ṭabīʿa) and, for al-Dabbāgh, arrival or departure. Read through this scheme, ṭawʿ as compliance could be taken to signify a pure disposition (ṭāʾ) ranked and stationed (wāw) in relation to nature's turning toward or away (ʿayn), the soul aligning itself with a movement not its own. This reading follows the given letter-correspondences as an exercise in resonance; mainstream linguistics treats such symbolism as at most suggestive and does not accept it as evidence for the historical formation of the root.
Draws on: ibnArabi_akbari198 · dabbagh_fatha
- Ibn ʿArabī, letter correspondences (akbari198)
- al-Dabbāgh, letter meanings (fatḥa series)
Root structureIbn Fāris marks several ṭ-w- entries as not genuine roots (ṭawb, ṭawḥ, ṭaws), leaving a cluster of physically encompassing senses around ṭawʿ: ṭawā, folding one thing into another;plausible
The two-letter nucleus (Ibn Fāris's own chapters) and the permutations of the letters (Ibn Jinnī).
Ibn Fāris marks several ṭ-w- entries as not genuine roots (ṭawb, ṭawḥ, ṭaws), leaving a cluster of physically encompassing senses around ṭawʿ: ṭawā, folding one thing into another; ṭawr, extension through space or time, a stage; ṭāf, circling around a thing; ṭawq, encircling, a collar. Set among these, ṭawʿ, going along with another's will, shares its consonantal shape with ṭāf and ṭawq, both verbs of circling or encompassing, suggesting compliance as a kind of following the arc of another's command. Among the permutations, ʿaṭw (ʿ-ṭ-w) is separately attested with the sense of reaching out or taking by hand, and the two roots share the letters ṭ and ʿ/w in different order; any link between the extended hand of ʿaṭw and the compliant following of ṭawʿ is a juxtaposition suggested by Ibn Jinnī's method of greater derivation, not an established derivation.
Draws on: ibnfaris_nucleus · permutations
- Wiktionary Arabic root ط-و-ع ↗
- Ibn Jinnī, al-Khaṣāʾiṣ (link not verified)
Semitic kin & loanwordsNo confident Semitic cognate for ṭ-w-ʿ in the sense 'to obey, comply' is identifiable from the standard comparative lexica.uncertain
Cognates in the sister languages, and whether the word was borrowed.
No confident Semitic cognate for ṭ-w-ʿ in the sense 'to obey, comply' is identifiable from the standard comparative lexica. Syriac preserves a root ṭ-ʿ-y with the sense of erring or wandering, which is not a semantic match and may in fact stand closer to an antonym than a cognate. The common Semitic terms for obedience run through other roots (e.g., š-m-ʿ, ʿ-b-d), so the Arabic development of ṭāʿa/ṭawʿ appears to be an inner-Arabic semantic specialization rather than a shared inherited sense, and the root is not a loanword.
Draws on: no_cognate
Quranic exegesisAt Q3:83 and Q41:11, wa-lahu aslama man fī l-samāwāti wa-l-arḍi ṭawʿan wa-karhan, al-Ṭabarī reads ṭawʿ as the willing submission of believers and karh as the constrained submission of unbelievers, both falling under a single ontological submission of every created thing to God's power, distinct from the voluntary religious obedience commanded of moral agents.well attested
How the classical exegetes read the word in the Quran.
At Q3:83 and Q41:11, wa-lahu aslama man fī l-samāwāti wa-l-arḍi ṭawʿan wa-karhan, al-Ṭabarī reads ṭawʿ as the willing submission of believers and karh as the constrained submission of unbelievers, both falling under a single ontological submission of every created thing to God's power, distinct from the voluntary religious obedience commanded of moral agents. Al-Zamakhsharī highlights the rhetorical antithesis of ṭawʿan wa-karhan as covering the entire range of creation, animate and inanimate, willing and unwilling. Al-Rāzī takes the verse as proof that even the bodies and atoms of disbelievers submit to God's determination despite their hearts' rebellion, distinguishing this takwīnī submission from taklīfī obedience. On the frequently repeated aṭīʿū Llāha wa-aṭīʿū l-rasūl (e.g., Q4:59), the exegetes read a hierarchy in which obedience to the Messenger is obedience to God (Q4:80), and obedience to those in authority is conditioned on their own obedience to God; al-Rāghib's Mufradāt underlines that ṭāʿa proper means compliance with a command, imtithāl al-amr, sharper than the general ṭawʿ opposed to karh.
Philosophy & kalāmIstiṭāʿa, capacity for action, is a central term in kalām debates over qadar, free will and determination.well attested
The word as a technical term in falsafa and theology.
Istiṭāʿa, capacity for action, is a central term in kalām debates over qadar, free will and determination. The Baṣran Muʿtazila held that istiṭāʿa precedes the act and resides in the agent before acting, so that the agent genuinely originates the act and bears responsibility for it. The Ashʿarīs, following al-Ashʿarī, held that istiṭāʿa is created together with the act itself and does not precede it, so that the human agent does not independently originate the act but only 'acquires' it, the doctrine of kasb. This dispute over ṭ-w-ʿ vocabulary is worked out at length by al-Bāqillānī, al-Juwaynī, al-Ghazālī, and al-Rāzī as the locus classicus for the theological treatment of human agency.
Draws on: kalam_qadar
Akbarian readingIn the same passage of Faṣṣ Ādam where Ibn ʿArabī speaks of complying with mā rusima lī, he adds that had he wished to exceed this, mā istaṭaʿtu, he would not have been able to, because the Presence (al-ḥaḍra) prevents it.plausible
The word in Ibn ʿArabī's text and terminology.
In the same passage of Faṣṣ Ādam where Ibn ʿArabī speaks of complying with mā rusima lī, he adds that had he wished to exceed this, mā istaṭaʿtu, he would not have been able to, because the Presence (al-ḥaḍra) prevents it. Here istiṭāʿa marks the boundary of a given receptivity before the Real, an ontological rather than a merely moral inability, the capacity itself being bounded by what the ḥaḍra allows rather than by the author's own choice. No separate Iṣṭilāḥ entry for ṭawʿ or istiṭāʿa appears in the corpus supplied, so this reading is drawn from usage in this single passage rather than from a formal definition.
Draws on: fassAdam
- Ibn ʿArabī, Faṣṣ Ḥikma Ādamiyya
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