Root · 104 in the Quran · 127 in 21 texts of the library
فضلan excess or surplus in a thing (root fdl)
الفاء والضاد واللام أصل صحيح يدل على زيادة في شيء
Ibn Fāris, Maqāyīs al-lugha · English rendering AI
The family of the root
Patterns computed · our dataThe words of ف ض ل that our sources attest: the root's letters in green, the added letters in gold.
35 words7 verbs4 verbal nouns4 participles3 places and instruments4 intensives and elatives8 other nouns4 plurals1 relative or abstract
- فَضْلexceeding, a redundant, or a superfluous, quantum of anything, good or evil
- فَضَّلَhe attributed to him an excellence distinguishing him from or above another, …
- فَاضِلthe wealth, or property, of such a one is superfluous
- فَضِيلَةexcellence, or excellent quality
- فَضَائِل—
The whole family8 groups, by pattern; tap a pattern to see what it does
Verbs7فَضَلَ · فَضَّلَ · تَفَضَّلَ
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.”)
- فَضَلَForm Ilibrary ×1LaneIbn Fāris
- فَضَّلَhe attributed to him an excellence distinguishing him from or above another, …LaneForm IIQurʾān ×17library ×1LaneIbn Fāris
- تَفَضَّلَhe desireth that he may have superiority over you in rank and stationLaneForm VQurʾān ×1library ×1LaneIbn Fāris
- أَفْضَلَhe gainedLaneForm IVlibrary ×1Lane
Verbal nouns4فَضْل · تَفْضِيل · إِفْضَال
The action itself, named as a noun (maṣdar).grammar →
- فَضْلexceeding, a redundant, or a superfluous, quantum of anything, good or evilLaneForm I · Lane: inf. n.Qurʾān ×84library ×19LaneIbn Fāris
- تَفْضِيلpreference; esteemautoForm II · Lane: inf. n.Qurʾān ×2library ×1Lane
- إِفْضَالForm V · Lane: inf. n.LaneIbn Fāris
- تَفَضُّلcourtesyautoForm Vlibrary ×1Ibn Fāris
Participles4فَاضِل · مُتَفَضِّل · مُفَضَّل
The one who does it, and the one it is done to.grammar →
- فَاضِلthe wealth, or property, of such a one is superfluousLaneactive, Form Ilibrary ×9Lane
- مُتَفَضِّلone who lays claim to superiority of excellence over his equals, or fellowsLaneactive, Form VLaneIbn Fāris
- مُفَضَّلpassive, Form IILaneIbn Fāris
- مَفْضُولsometimes, or often, what is not found in the overcomer is found in the overcomeLanepassive, Form ILane
Place, time and instrument3مِفْضَل · مِفْضَال · مِفْضَلَة
Where or when it happens, and what it is done with: the m- nouns.grammar →
Intensives, qualities and the elative4أَفْضَل · فَضَّال · فَضُول
The quality carried far, held as a trait, or compared.grammar →
- أَفْضَلmore, and most excellentLaneelative or colour adjective (afʿal)library ×3Lane
- فَضَّالintensive (faʿʿāl)Lane
- فَضُولintensive (faʿūl)Lane
- فَضِيلquality (faʿīl)Lane
Other nouns8فَضِيلَة · فَضْلَة · فُضُل
Nouns on other patterns; their meaning is learned word by word.grammar →
- فَضِيلَةexcellence, or excellent qualityLanenounlibrary ×7Lane
- فَضْلَةresidue; wasteautonounlibrary ×1Lane
- فُضُلnounLaneIbn Fāris
- فُضَالَةnounLane
Plurals4فَضَائِل · فَوَاضِل · فُضَلَاء
Broken plurals rebuild the word on a new pattern; sound plurals add an ending.grammar →
- فَضَائِلbroken plural of فَضِيلَةlibrary ×6Lane
- فَوَاضِلbroken plural of فاضِلَةlibrary ×3Lane
- فُضَلَاءbroken plural of فاضِلlibrary ×1Lane
- فاضِلاتsound plural of فاضِلlibrary ×1
Reference
Why this shape?What each of the 22 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-faḍl (الفضل) is well known [i.e.
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-faḍl (الفضل) and al-faḍīla (الفضيلة) are the opposite of deficiency and defect.
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, ḍād, and lām form a sound root indicating an excess/surplus in something.
Ibn Fāris (d. 395/1004), Maqāyīs al-Lugha. Seeks each root's original sense (aṣl).
AI AI translation of the Arabic belowal-Rāghib · 502Al-faḍl (الفضل) is excess beyond moderation/sufficiency, and this is of two kinds: praiseworthy, such as excess of knowledge and forbearance, and blameworthy, such as excess of anger beyond what it ought to be.
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-faḍl (الفضل) and al-faḍīla (الفضيلة) are well known: the opposite of deficiency and defect;
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 definitions2 · Ibn ʿArabī’s Iṣṭilāḥ, al-Jurjānī’s Taʿrīfāt
الفضولي
هو من لم يكن وليا ولا أصيلا ولا وكيلا في العقد.
Al-Fuḍūlī (الفضولي) is one who is neither a guardian (walī), nor a principal (aṣīl), nor an agent (wakīl) in the contract. AI
الفضل
ابتداء إحسان بلا علة.
Al-faḍl (الفضل) is the initiation of beneficence without [prior] cause. AI
The same letters, turned
The same three letters in all six orders. Choose one.
ف ض ل
الفاء والضاد واللام أصل صحيح يدل على زيادة في شيء
F-ḍ-l is one sound root that indicates an increase in a thing. AI
Ibn Fāris ↗Lisān ↗Lane ↗Quran ×104
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
- ضḍādside of the tongue, by the molars · voiced, continuant, velarisedSīb. · I. Jinnī
- لlāmedge of the tongue · voiced, in betweenI. 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 ↗
ض
ومن بين أول حافة اللسان وما يليها من الأضراس مخرج الضاد
From between the first part of the tongue's edge and the molars next to it is the place of the ḍād. Sībawayh, line 26554 ↗
ومن أول حافة اللسان وما يليها من الأضراس مخرج الضاد
From the first part of the tongue's edge and the molars next to it is the place of the ḍād. Ibn Jinnī, line 975 ↗
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 ↗
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 2582ض
Level of existence: السماء الثانية · the second heaven
Divine Name: العليم · the All-Knowing (al-ʿAlīm)
Lunar mansion: الصرفة · al-Ṣarfa
Futūḥāt ch. 198, line 64627Spheres of its simples (ch. 2): 8 line 2571 ↗
Nature (ch. 2)
الثمانية فحروفها حارة يابسة
The eightfold [rank]: its letters are hot and dry.
Ibn ʿArabī, al-Futūḥāt al-Makkiyya, line 2580ل
Level of existence: السماء الثالثة · the third heaven
Divine Name: القاهر · the Subduer (al-Qāhir)
Lunar mansion: العوا · al-ʿAwwā
Futūḥāt ch. 198, line 64654Spheres of its simples (ch. 2): 7 line 2576 ↗
Nature (ch. 2)
منها دون الألف فطبعها الحرارة واليبوسة
[Zāy and lām] of it, excluding alif: their nature is heat and dryness.
Ibn ʿArabī, al-Futūḥāt al-Makkiyya, line 2577Meaning 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.
ض
With fatḥa ـَ
عبارة عن الصحة وعدم البلاء.
It expresses health and the absence of affliction.
With ḍamma ـُ
فهي إشارة إلى الشيء الذي لا نور فيه أو لا ظلام فيه.
It is an indication of the thing in which there is no light, or no darkness.
With kasra ـِ
فهي عبارة عن الخضوع.
It expresses submissiveness/humility.
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.
Two-letter nucleus2 roots in Ibn Fāris’s chapterف ض
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 25136 ↗
- فضلالفاء والضاد واللام أصل صحيح يدل على زيادة في شيءQ 104 · L25137
- فضخالفاء والضاد والخاء فيه كلمة تدل على الشدخL25158
In the sister scriptsHebrew פ צ לSyriac ܦ ܥ ܠ
| Arabic | ف ض ل |
| Hebrew | פ צ ל |
| Syriac | ܦ ܥ ܠ |
| Ancient South Arabian (musnad) | 𐩰 𐩳 𐩡 |
| Phoenician | 𐤐 𐤑 𐤋 |
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 already gives the full spread: faḍl as the well-known surplus, faḍla/faḍāla as what remains of a thing, faḍīla as elevated rank, and a second, distinct sense of tafaḍḍul as wearing a garment loosely draped (tawashshuḥ).well attested
The lexicographers in chronological order, from al-Khalīl to Lane.
Al-Khalīl already gives the full spread: faḍl as the well-known surplus, faḍla/faḍāla as what remains of a thing, faḍīla as elevated rank, and a second, distinct sense of tafaḍḍul as wearing a garment loosely draped (tawashshuḥ). Al-Jawharī sharpens the ethical polarity, making faḍl/faḍīla the antonym of naqṣ, and distinguishing genuine ifḍāl (generosity, as in mifḍāl) from the mutafaḍḍil who merely claims superiority over his peers, citing the Quranic critique of such a claimant. Ibn Fāris fixes the single unifying idea as ziyāda — increase — from which both the ethical sense (iḥsān) and the garment sense derive. Al-Rāghib then divides faḍl morally: a praiseworthy excess (of knowledge, forbearance) versus a blameworthy one (of anger), for which he prefers the term fuḍūl, and further distinguishes excess by genus, by species (citing Q17:70 on humankind's tafḍīl), and by individual. Ibn Manẓūr and Lane settle the word as the standard opposite of nuqṣān/naqīṣa, with faḍala attested in three dialectal conjugations.
Draws on: al-ʿAyn · al-Ṣiḥāḥ · Maqāyīs · al-Mufradāt · Lisān al-ʿArab · Lane
- Wiktionary Arabic root appendix ↗
- Ibn Fāris, Maqāyīs al-Lugha, s.v. ف ض ل
- al-Rāghib, al-Mufradāt fī Gharīb al-Qurʾān, s.v. فضل
Letters & soundIn the Akbarian letter-correspondence table cited here, fāʾ is tied to the angels, ḍād to the second heaven, and lām to the third heaven — an ascending cosmological sequence that a reader inclined to sound-symbolism could map onto faḍl's own sense of rising surplus.speculative
What the theorists of sound symbolism would say of these letters. Speculative by nature.
In the Akbarian letter-correspondence table cited here, fāʾ is tied to the angels, ḍād to the second heaven, and lām to the third heaven — an ascending cosmological sequence that a reader inclined to sound-symbolism could map onto faḍl's own sense of rising surplus. Al-Dabbāgh's fatḥa-readings reinforce this: fāʾ negates foulness in something whose genus is known for foulness (purity standing out from a base genus), ḍād signals health and freedom from affliction, and lām marks the speaker's attainment of something great. Read together the letters would spell a movement from purification through soundness to greatness — which resonates suggestively with faḍl as elevation beyond the baseline. This is speculative letter-mysticism, not established philology, and mainstream linguistics gives it no evidentiary weight.
Draws on: Ibn ʿArabī letters correspondence table · al-Dabbāgh fatḥa meanings
- al-Dabbāgh, letter-meanings under fatḥa (as transmitted)
Root structureIbn Fāris places ف ض ل directly before ف ض خ (shadkh, violent crushing/breaking) in his dictionary's chapter order — a bare sequential neighborhood, not a shared meaning, though both roots concern something being acted on to the point of producing a visible remainder (the crushed matter;plausible
The two-letter nucleus (Ibn Fāris's own chapters) and the permutations of the letters (Ibn Jinnī).
Ibn Fāris places ف ض ل directly before ف ض خ (shadkh, violent crushing/breaking) in his dictionary's chapter order — a bare sequential neighborhood, not a shared meaning, though both roots concern something being acted on to the point of producing a visible remainder (the crushed matter; the surplus). None of the transposed permutations of ف ض ل (فلض, ضفل, ضلف, لفض, لضف) are attested at all, so the root stands without the support or complication of sibling forms that Ibn Jinnī's greater-derivation method usually invites. This absence is itself worth noting: faḍl's sense of 'excess' has no rival claim from a transposed root.
Draws on: Ibn Fāris nucleus siblings · permutation table
- Ibn Fāris, Maqāyīs al-Lugha, chapter order
Semitic kin & loanwordsNo confident cognate for ف ض ل in the sense 'excess, surplus' has been identified in Hebrew, Aramaic/Syriac, Akkadian, Geʿez, or South Arabian;uncertain
Cognates in the sister languages, and whether the word was borrowed.
No confident cognate for ف ض ل in the sense 'excess, surplus' has been identified in Hebrew, Aramaic/Syriac, Akkadian, Geʿez, or South Arabian; the standard Hebrew terms for surplus (e.g. yeter) and Aramaic terms for excess (e.g. yattir) belong to a different root entirely. There is no basis for treating faḍl as a loanword; it appears to be an inner-Arabic development from the root sense of ziyāda.
Draws on: comparative Semitic lexicography
Quranic exegesisThe great mass of Quranic occurrences concern faḍl Allāh, God's grace or bounty given beyond strict desert;well attested
How the classical exegetes read the word in the Quran.
The great mass of Quranic occurrences concern faḍl Allāh, God's grace or bounty given beyond strict desert; al-Ṭabarī and al-Zamakhsharī repeatedly gloss this as generosity exceeding what is owed, distinguishing it from ajr (earned recompense). At Q2:47/2:64/2:122, faḍḍaltukum ʿalā l-ʿālamīn ('I favored you above the worlds') is read by the exegetes as God's electing grace toward the Children of Israel, a historically conditioned preferment rather than an essential superiority. At Q17:70, wa-laqad karramnā banī Ādam ... wa-faḍḍalnāhum ʿalā kathīrin mimman khalaqnā tafḍīlan, al-Rāzī and al-Rāghib connect the tafḍīl of humankind to reason and speech, reading it as al-Rāghib's 'excess by species.' Q17:21's contrast of differing faḍl in this world with a greater differentiation (akbaru darajātin wa-akbaru tafḍīlan) in the hereafter is read as God's differentiated distribution of both worldly provision and eschatological rank.
Philosophy & kalāmFaḍl becomes a technical counter-term to ʿadl and istiḥqāq in Muʿtazilite and Ashʿarite debates over divine justice: is God's giving to His creatures owed (wājib, a matter of ʿadl) or purely gratuitous (faḍl, beyond any claim)?plausible
The word as a technical term in falsafa and theology.
Faḍl becomes a technical counter-term to ʿadl and istiḥqāq in Muʿtazilite and Ashʿarite debates over divine justice: is God's giving to His creatures owed (wājib, a matter of ʿadl) or purely gratuitous (faḍl, beyond any claim)? Muʿtazilite theologians tend to root much divine action in justice and desert, reserving faḍl for genuinely supererogatory grace, while Ashʿarites treat virtually all divine giving as faḍl, since nothing is owed to the creature by the Creator. The term also surfaces in prophetology, where the tafḍīl of certain prophets over others (debated in relation to verses on ranking messengers) becomes a live kalām question.
Draws on: kalām debates on grace and desert
Akbarian readingIn the Fuṣūṣ passage on the human constitution, Ibn ʿArabī describes each faculty (quwwa) within it as veiled by itself, seeing nothing more excellent (afḍal) than itself, and claiming for itself — as it supposes (fīmā tazʿumu) — the fitness (ahliyya) for every lofty rank.plausible
The word in Ibn ʿArabī's text and terminology.
In the Fuṣūṣ passage on the human constitution, Ibn ʿArabī describes each faculty (quwwa) within it as veiled by itself, seeing nothing more excellent (afḍal) than itself, and claiming for itself — as it supposes (fīmā tazʿumu) — the fitness (ahliyya) for every lofty rank. Here faḍl names an epistemic illusion: each faculty's self-enclosed vantage mistakes its own limited excellence for absolute superiority over the others. The passage continues (see ʿaṣm) to say that only genuine self-knowledge would have protected the faculties from this false claim of preeminence, making fadl/tafḍīl in this context the diagnosed error rather than a settled virtue.
Draws on: Fass Adam excerpt
- Ibn ʿArabī, Fuṣūṣ al-Ḥikam, Faṣṣ Ādam
Reference