Root · 5 in the Quran · 54 in 17 texts of the library
فردa sound root denoting waḥda, oneness — the state of being alone or single. (root frd)
الفاء والراء والدال أصل صحيح يدل علي وحده
Ibn Fāris, Maqāyīs al-lugha · English rendering AI
The family of the root
Patterns computed · our dataThe words of ف ر د that our sources attest: the root's letters in green, the added letters in gold.
42 words6 verbs4 verbal nouns6 participles1 place or instrument4 intensives and elatives15 other nouns4 plurals2 relatives and abstracts
- فَرْدsingle
- فَرْدانِيَّةindividualism; autocracy
- فُرَادَى—
- اِنْفَرَدَhe, or it, was, or became, apart, or separate, from him, or it, and alone
- أَفْرَادplural of single
The whole family8 groups, by pattern; tap a pattern to see what it does
Verbs6فَرَدَ · اِنْفَرَدَ · أَفْرَدَ
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 (a; the imperfect from the Quranic Arabic Corpus)
- فَرَدَhe, or it, was, or became, singleLaneForm ILaneIbn Fāris
- اِنْفَرَدَhe, or it, was, or became, apart, or separate, from him, or it, and aloneLaneForm VIIlibrary ×3Lane
- أَفْرَدَsingle out; set asideautoForm IVlibrary ×2Lane
- تَفَرَّدَbe alone; be singled outautoForm Vlibrary ×1Lane
Verbal nouns4إِفْراد · تَفَرُّد · تَفْرِيد
The action itself, named as a noun (maṣdar).grammar →
- إِفْرادsingular usage; individuationautoForm IVlibrary ×1Ibn Fāris
- تَفَرُّدindividualization; particularizationautoForm Vlibrary ×2
- تَفْرِيدForm II · Lane: inf. n.Lane
- فُرُودForm I · Lane: inf. n.Lane
Participles6فَارِد · مُفَرِّد · مُنْفَرِد
The one who does it, and the one it is done to.grammar →
- فَارِدactive, Form ILaneIbn Fāris
- مُفَرِّدrider having no other with himLaneactive, Form IVlibrary ×1Lane
- مُنْفَرِدdetached; isolatedautoactive, Form VIIlibrary ×1Ibn Fāris
- مُفَرَّدpassive, Form IILane
Place, time and instrument1مِفْرَاد
Where or when it happens, and what it is done with: the m- nouns.grammar →
- مِفْرَادnoun of instrumentLane
Intensives, qualities and the elative4فَرِيد · فَرَّاد · فَرُود
The quality carried far, held as a trait, or compared.grammar →
Other nouns15فَرْد · فُرَادَى · فَرَد
Nouns on other patterns; their meaning is learned word by word.grammar →
Plurals4أَفْرَاد · فَرَائِد · فُرَادَى
Broken plurals rebuild the word on a new pattern; sound plurals add an ending.grammar →
Relative and abstract2فَرْدانِيَّة · فَرْدِيّ
-iyy relates a thing to its source; -iyya makes an abstract noun.grammar →
- فَرْدانِيَّةindividualism; autocracyautoabstract noun (-iyya)library ×5
- فَرْدِيّindividual; singleautorelative adjective (-iyy)library ×1
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-fard (الفرد) is that which is alone.
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-fard (الفرد) is al-witr (the odd [number]);
al-Jawharī (d. c. 393/1003), al-Ṣiḥāḥ. Admits only usage he judged sound.
AI AI translation of the Arabic belowIbn Fāris · 395The letters fāʾ, rāʾ, and dāl [f-r-d] form a sound root indicating oneness/singleness (waḥda).
Ibn Fāris (d. 395/1004), Maqāyīs al-Lugha. Seeks each root's original sense (aṣl).
AI AI translation of the Arabic belowal-Rāghib · 502Al-fard (الفرد) is that with which nothing else is mixed;
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 · 711Allāh, exalted and sanctified, is al-Fard (الفرد);
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
التفريد
وقوفك بالحق معك.
التفريد
وقوفك بالحق معك، هذا إذا كان الحق عين قوى العبد، بقضية قوله صلى الله عليه وسلم: "كنت له سمعا وبصرا" ... الحديث.
الفرد
ما يتناول شيئا واحدا دون غيره.
المفرد
ما لا يدل جزء لفظه على جزء معناه.
المفرد
ما لا يدل جزء لفظه الموضوع على جزئه، والفرق بين المفرد والواحد، أن المفرد قد يكون حقيقيا، وقد يكون اعتباريا، وأنه قد يقع على جميع الأجناس، والواحد لا يقع إلا على الواحد الحقيقي.
The same letters, turned
The same three letters in all six orders. Choose one.
ف ر د
الفاء والراء والدال أصل صحيح يدل علي وحده
F-r-d is one sound root that indicates being alone. 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
- فfāʾlower lip and upper teeth · voiceless, continuantSīb. · I. Jinnī
- رrāʾtip of the tongue, near the nūn · voiced, in betweenSīb. · I. Jinnī
- دdāltongue-tip, roots of the teeth · voiced, stopSīb. · I. Jinnī
How each letter is made, in brief, from Sībawayh's and Ibn Jinnī's own sentences (linked); their words are under Reference.
Sharing two of its three letters (computed; kinship of form, not of meaning)
Reference
How it is madeSībawayh and Ibn Jinnī · phonetics
English throughout: AI translation of the Arabic AI
ف
ومن باطن الشفة السفلى وأطراف الثنايا العلى مخرج الفاء
From the inside of the lower lip and the edges of the upper front teeth is the place of the fāʾ. Sībawayh, line 26562 ↗
ومن باطن الشفة السفلى وأطراف الثنايا العلى، مخرج الفاء
From the inside of the lower lip and the edges of the upper front teeth is the place of the fāʾ. Ibn Jinnī, line 985 ↗
ر
ومن مخرج النون غير أنه أدخل في ظهر اللسان قليلا لانحرافه إلى اللام مخرج الراء
From the place of the nūn, except that it goes a little further onto the back of the tongue, because it leans towards the lām, is the place of the rāʾ. Sībawayh, lines 26557–26558 ↗
ومن مخرج النون غير أنه أدخل في ظهر اللسان قليلا، لانحرافه إلى اللام، مخرج الراء
From the place of the nūn, except that it goes a little further onto the back of the tongue, because it leans towards the lām, is the place of the rāʾ. Ibn Jinnī, lines 980–981 ↗
د
ومما بين طرف اللسان وأصول الثنايا مخرج الطاء، والدال، والتاء
From between the tip of the tongue and the roots of the front teeth is the place of the ṭāʾ, the dāl and the tāʾ. Sībawayh, line 26559 ↗
ومما بين طرف اللسان وأصول الثنايا، مخرج الطاء والدال والتاء
From between the tip of the tongue and the roots of the front teeth is the place of the ṭāʾ, the dāl and the tāʾ. Ibn Jinnī, line 982 ↗
Sībawayh, al-Kitāb (ed. Hārūn) and Ibn Jinnī, Sirr ṣināʿat al-iʿrāb; OpenITI digital texts (CC BY-NC-SA 4.0). Full credits on each letter's page.
In the Breath of the All-MercifulIbn ʿArabī · metaphysics
English throughout: AI translation of the Arabic AI
ف
Level of existence: الملائكة · the angels
Divine Name: القوى · the Strong (al-Qawī)
Lunar mansion: سعد الأخبية · Saʿd al-Akhbiya
Futūḥāt ch. 198, line 65823Spheres 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 2582ر
Level of existence: السماء الخامسة · the fifth heaven
Divine Name: المصور · the Form-Giver (al-Muṣawwir)
Lunar mansion: الغفر · al-Ghafr
Futūḥāt ch. 198, line 64675Spheres of its simples (ch. 2): 10 line 2573 ↗
Nature (ch. 2)
المرتبة العشرية فحروفها حارة يابسة
The tenfold rank: its letters are hot and dry.
Ibn ʿArabī, al-Futūḥāt al-Makkiyya, line 2582د
Level of existence: السماء الدنيا · the lowest heaven (al-samāʾ al-dunyā)
Divine Name: المبين · the Clarifier (al-Mubīn)
Lunar mansion: الأكليل · al-Iklīl
Futūḥāt ch. 198, line 64682Spheres of its simples (ch. 2): 10 line 2573 ↗
Nature (ch. 2)
المرتبة العشرية فحروفها حارة يابسة
The tenfold rank: its letters are hot and dry.
Ibn ʿArabī, al-Futūḥāt al-Makkiyya, line 2582Meaning by vowelal-Dabbāgh · a visionary claim about a primordial “Syriac”, not historical Syriac
English throughout: AI translation of the Arabic AI
ف
With fatḥa ـَ
فهي لنفي الخبث بعد ما كان جنسه معلوما بالخبث، فهي إشارة إلى أنه طاهر وجنسه خبيث، والخبث مثل المعاصي وما أشبهها.
It is for negating foulness in something whose genus is known for foulness. It thus indicates that the thing is pure while its genus is foul; foulness being like sins and the like.
With ḍamma ـُ
فهي لتزويل الخبث.
It is for removing foulness.
With kasra ـِ
فهي إشارة إلى الذات وما احتوت عليه، وفي بعض الأحيان قد يكون معها التقليل.
It is an indication of the self and what it contains; at times it may carry a sense of diminution.
ر
With fatḥa ـَ
فهي إشارة إلى جميع الخيرات الظاهرة والباطنة.
It is an indication of all goods, outward and inward.
With ḍamma ـُ
فهي إشارة إلى الواحد في نفسه وهو ظاهر.
It is an indication of the one in itself, and it is manifest.
With kasra ـِ
فهي إشارة إلى الشيء الذي فيه الروح وليس من بني آدم، أو إشارة إلى الروح نفسها.
It is an indication of a thing that has spirit in it but is not of the children of Adam, or an indication of the spirit itself.
د
With fatḥa ـَ
فهي إشارة إلى خارج عن الذات.
It is an indication of something external to the self.
With ḍamma ـُ
فهي إشارة إلى ما هو قليل أو قبيح ومعه غضب فيهما.
It is an indication of what is small or ugly, accompanied by anger in both cases.
With kasra ـِ
فهي إشارة إلى ما في الذات أو إلى ما هو داخل عليها أو إلى ما هو قريب منها.
It is an indication of what is in the self, or what is entering upon it, or what is near to it.
Two-letter nucleus14 roots in Ibn Fāris’s chapterف ر
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 24852 ↗
- فرزالفاء والراء والزاء أصيل يدل على عزل الشيء عن غيرهL24853
- فرسالفاء والراء والسين أصيل يدل على وطء الشيء ودقة يقولون فرس عنقه إذا دقها ويكون ذلك من دق العنق من الذبيحة ثم صير كل قتل فرساL24854
- فرصالفاء والراء والصاد أصل صحيح يدل على اقتطاع شيء عن شيءL24884
- فرضالفاء والراء والضاد أصل صحيح يدل على تأثير في شيء من حز أو غيره فالفرض الحز في الشيءQ 18 · L24894
- فرطالفاء والراء والطاء أصل صحيح يدل على إزالة شيء عن مكانه وتنحيته عنهQ 8 · L24910
- فرعالفاء والراء والعين أصل صحيح يدل على علو وارتفاع وسمو وسبوغQ 1 · L24933
- فرغالفاء والراء والغين أصل صحيح يدل على خلو وسعة ذرعQ 6 · L24950
- فرقالفاء والراء والقاف أصيل صحيح يدل على تمييز وتزييل بين شيئينQ 72 · L24960
- فركالفاء والراء والكاف أصل يدل على استرخاء في الشيء وتفتيل لهL24985
- فرمالفاء والراء والميم كلمة واحدة أظنها ليست عربية وهو الاستفرام يقولون هو أن تحتشي المرأة شيئا تضيق به ما تحت إزارهاL24991
- فرهالفاء والراء والهاء كلمة تدل على أشر وحذقQ 1 · L24996
- فرثالفاء والراء والثاء أصيل يدل على شيء متفتتQ 1 · L25018
- فرجالفاء والراء والجيم أصل صحيح يدل على تفتح في الشيءQ 9 · L25021
- فرحالفاء والراء والحاء أصلان يدل أحدهما على خلاف الحزن والآخر الإثقالQ 22 · L25035
In the sister scriptsHebrew פ ר דSyriac ܦ ܪ ܕ
| Arabic | ف ر د |
| Hebrew | פ ר ד |
| Syriac | ܦ ܪ ܕ |
| Ancient South Arabian (musnad) | 𐩰 𐩧 𐩵 |
| Phoenician | 𐤐 𐤓 𐤃 |
Letter for letter, by the regular sound correspondences of the Semitic languages (Arabic keeps several sounds the others merged). This shows how the root would be spelled; whether a related word exists is a separate question, answered in the Semitic lens. Where an Arabic sibilant (s, sh) continues two older sounds, both spellings are shown.
Lenses
AIClassical lexiconAl-Khalīl gives al-fard as that which is alone (fard, yafrud;well attested
The lexicographers in chronological order, from al-Khalīl to Lane.
Al-Khalīl gives al-fard as that which is alone (fard, yafrud; infarada), and afradtuhū as making a thing single; he notes al-farīd as a type of strung ornament and the phrase jāʾa l-qawm furādā, people coming one by one, and calls God al-fard as uniquely holding lordship and command apart from His creation. Al-Jawharī adds al-fard as al-witr (an odd, unpaired number), with the irregular plurals afrād and furādā as if from a form fardān, and extends the sense to a solitary bull, a gazelle cut off from its herd, a lone lote-tree, and the bright scattered stars (afrād al-nujūm). Ibn Fāris's Maqāyīs confirms a single sound aṣl for waḥda underlying all these: the solitary bull, the separated gazelle, the isolated tree, the scattered stars, and pearls strung apart from others. Al-Rāghib narrows fard as more particular than wāḥid (one) and more general than witr — that with which nothing else is mixed — and reads the divine name al-Fard as marking God's difference from all paired existents (Q51:49) or His self-sufficiency from all else (Q3:97). Ibn Manẓūr transmits al-Layth's gloss of al-fard as God's attribute meaning al-wāḥid al-aḥad with no peer, but records al-Azharī's caution that this is not attested in the Sunna and that God may only be described as He described Himself; he also preserves Ibn Sīda's note that al-fard is 'half of a pair' (niṣf al-zawj).
Draws on: al-ʿAyn · al-Ṣiḥāḥ · Maqāyīs · Mufradāt · Lisān · Lane
Letters & soundIn the scheme given, fāʾ is associated with the angels and, per al-Dabbāgh, negates foulness in a thing whose genus is otherwise known for foulness, marking purity within a base kind.speculative
What the theorists of sound symbolism would say of these letters. Speculative by nature.
In the scheme given, fāʾ is associated with the angels and, per al-Dabbāgh, negates foulness in a thing whose genus is otherwise known for foulness, marking purity within a base kind. Rāʾ is tied to the fifth heaven and, for al-Dabbāgh, indicates all goods, outward and inward. Dāl is tied to the lowest heaven and indicates something external to the self. Read together for f-r-d, one might speculate a movement from purification (f) through comprehensive good (r) to an externality or separateness (d) — a shape that echoes the root's sense of a unit set apart and unmixed — but mainstream linguistics treats such letter-symbolism as suggestive at most, not as evidence of etymology.
Draws on: Ibn ʿArabī, letters in the Breath · al-Dabbāgh letter meanings
Root structureAmong Ibn Fāris's neighboring f-r- roots, f-r-z (separating a thing from another), f-r-q (distinguishing two things), and f-r-ṭ (removing a thing from its place) share a semantic field of separation and isolation with f-r-d, though each chapter is treated as its own aṣl.plausible
The two-letter nucleus (Ibn Fāris's own chapters) and the permutations of the letters (Ibn Jinnī).
Among Ibn Fāris's neighboring f-r- roots, f-r-z (separating a thing from another), f-r-q (distinguishing two things), and f-r-ṭ (removing a thing from its place) share a semantic field of separation and isolation with f-r-d, though each chapter is treated as its own aṣl. The permutations of f-r-d are attested with real senses: f-d-r (cutting off, severance), r-f-d (aiding, giving support), and r-d-f (following, succession — whence al-ridf, one who rides behind), while d-f-r is flagged by Ibn Fāris himself as anomalous (a stench-word deviating from the expected pattern of the letters) and d-r-f is unattested. The juxtaposition of f-r-d (oneness) with r-d-f (following/attaching) is suggestive of a shared residue around single units and their relation to sequence, but this is offered as juxtaposition only, not as an asserted etymology.
Draws on: Maqāyīs nucleus siblings · permutations table
Semitic kin & loanwordsHebrew פָּרַד (pārad) means 'to divide, separate' (as of a river dividing, Genesis 2:10), and Aramaic/Syriac prd carries a similarly close sense of separating or dividing.plausible
Cognates in the sister languages, and whether the word was borrowed.
Hebrew פָּרַד (pārad) means 'to divide, separate' (as of a river dividing, Genesis 2:10), and Aramaic/Syriac prd carries a similarly close sense of separating or dividing. This is a plausible shared Semitic root rather than a loan in either direction: the Arabic root emphasizes the resultant state of being single or alone, while the Hebrew and Aramaic cognates emphasize the act of dividing or separating something from a whole. No confident Akkadian, Geʿez, or South Arabian cognate is available in the data at hand.
Draws on: Hebrew פרד · Aramaic prd
- BDB, פרד
Quranic exegesisIn Q19:80 and Q19:95, fardan describes the disbeliever, or every soul, coming to God on the Day of Resurrection alone — exegetes read this as stripped of the wealth, offspring, and allies boasted of in the world, returning as bare and unsupported as at creation, which underscores the futility of worldly possession before the reckoning.well attested
How the classical exegetes read the word in the Quran.
In Q19:80 and Q19:95, fardan describes the disbeliever, or every soul, coming to God on the Day of Resurrection alone — exegetes read this as stripped of the wealth, offspring, and allies boasted of in the world, returning as bare and unsupported as at creation, which underscores the futility of worldly possession before the reckoning. In Q6:94, furādā describes humankind returning to God 'singly, as We created you the first time,' read by al-Ṭabarī and al-Zamakhsharī as a rebuttal of reliance on intercessors or partners set up in life. In Q34:46, mathnā wa furādā ('in pairs and singly') is read as an invitation to reflect either together or individually, away from collective habit, so as to judge Muhammad's message with unclouded reason. Al-Rāghib connects the human fard of these verses to the divine name al-Fard, God's aloneness being the standard against which every creature's contingent, paired existence is measured.
Philosophy & kalāmIn Ashʿarī kalām, al-jawharu l-fard ('the single/indivisible substance') is the technical term for the atom, the smallest indivisible unit of created being out of which bodies are composed by accident-bearing accretion;plausible
The word as a technical term in falsafa and theology.
In Ashʿarī kalām, al-jawharu l-fard ('the single/indivisible substance') is the technical term for the atom, the smallest indivisible unit of created being out of which bodies are composed by accident-bearing accretion; this is the dominant philosophical use of fard rather than any Avicennan sense. The term trades on the root's core meaning of a unit that admits no further division or mixture, applied to physics rather than to the divine names, where wāḥid and aḥad instead carry the weight of unity discourse.
Draws on: Ashʿarī kalām atomism
Akbarian readingIbn ʿArabī defines al-tafrīd as 'your standing with the Real, with you' (wuqūfuka bi-l-Ḥaqq maʿak) — a state in which isolation from other than God is accompanied, not solitary in the ordinary sense, since the Real remains present with the one who is singled out.well attested
The word in Ibn ʿArabī's text and terminology.
Ibn ʿArabī defines al-tafrīd as 'your standing with the Real, with you' (wuqūfuka bi-l-Ḥaqq maʿak) — a state in which isolation from other than God is accompanied, not solitary in the ordinary sense, since the Real remains present with the one who is singled out. In Faṣṣ Ādam, the perfect human (al-insān al-kāmil) is described as gathering the realities of the world and its individual units (mufradātihi), so fard/mufrad here names the discrete particulars of existence that the Perfect Man comprehensively unifies. The Fuṣūṣ also speaks of a fardiyya wisdom (ḥikma fardiyya) proper to the Muhammadan word, marking the singular, non-repeatable configuration of wisdom disclosed through each prophet.
Draws on: Ibn ʿArabī, Iṣṭilāḥ · Faṣṣ Ādam
- Ibn ʿArabī, Iṣṭilāḥāt al-Ṣūfiyya
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