Root · 132 in the Quran · 207 in 21 texts of the library
قدرTo measure or determine the extent of a thing, and, by extension, the capacity or power … (root qdr)
English rendering AI
The family of the root
Patterns computed · our dataThe words of ق د ر that our sources attest: the root's letters in green, the added letters in gold.
44 words8 verbs7 verbal nouns6 participles3 places and instruments3 intensives and elatives10 other nouns5 plurals2 relatives and abstracts
- قَدِيرcapable; efficient
- قَدَرَ—
- قَدَّرَestimate; appreciate
- قَادِرdecreeing, appointing, ordaining, deciding
- قَدْرthe quantity, quantum, measure, magnitude, size, bulk, proportion, extent, …
The whole family8 groups, by pattern; tap a pattern to see what it does
Verbs8قَدَرَ · قَدَّرَ · قَادَرَ
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 يَفْعِلُ (a – i; the imperfect from Lane's “aor.”)
- قَدَرَForm IQurʾān ×25library ×15Lane
- قَدَّرَestimate; appreciateautoForm IIQurʾān ×16library ×10Lane
- قَادَرَForm IIILane
- أَقْدَرَLane: see Form IIForm IVLane
Verbal nouns7قَدْر · قَدَر · قُدْرَة
The action itself, named as a noun (maṣdar).grammar →
- قَدْرthe quantity, quantum, measure, magnitude, size, bulk, proportion, extent, …LaneForm I · Lane: inf. n.Qurʾān ×7library ×23Lane
- قَدَرfate; destinyautoForm I · Lane: inf. n.Qurʾān ×11library ×13Lane
- قُدْرَةpowerLaneForm I · Lane: inf. n.library ×14Lane
- تَقْدِيرappreciation; gratitudeautoForm II · Lane: inf. n.Qurʾān ×5library ×3Lane
Participles6قَادِر · مُقْتَدِر · مَقْدُور
The one who does it, and the one it is done to.grammar →
- قَادِرdecreeing, appointing, ordaining, decidingLaneactive, Form IQurʾān ×14library ×11Lane
- مُقْتَدِرactive, Form VIIIQurʾān ×4Lane
- مَقْدُورcapacity; capabilityautopassive, Form IQurʾān ×1library ×4Lane
- مُقَدَّرestimated; calculatedautopassive, Form IVlibrary ×2
Place, time and instrument3مِقْدَار · مَقْدَر · مَقْدَرَة
Where or when it happens, and what it is done with: the m- nouns.grammar →
- مِقْدَارmeasureLanenoun of instrumentQurʾān ×3library ×18Lane
- مَقْدَرnoun of place or timeLane
- مَقْدَرَةnoun of place (with -a)Lane
Intensives, qualities and the elative3قَدِير · أَقْدَر · قِدْرَان
The quality carried far, held as a trait, or compared.grammar →
- قَدِيرcapable; efficientautoquality (faʿīl)Qurʾān ×45library ×1Lane
- أَقْدَرmore; most capableautoelative or colour adjective (afʿal)library ×2
- قِدْرَانintensive (faʿlān)Lane
Other nouns10قُدُور · قَدَار · قَدَارَة
Nouns on other patterns; their meaning is learned word by word.grammar →
Plurals5قَادِرُون · مَقادِير · مَقْدُورات
Broken plurals rebuild the word on a new pattern; sound plurals add an ending.grammar →
- قَادِرُونsound plural of قَادِرQurʾān ×5
- مَقادِيرplural of measurefrom the singularbroken plural of مِقْدَارlibrary ×4
- مَقْدُوراتsound plural of مَقْدُورlibrary ×3
- مُقْتَدِرُونsound plural of مُقْتَدِرQurʾān ×1
- أَقْدارbroken plural of قَدْرlibrary ×1
Relative and abstract2قَدَرِيَّة · قَدَرِيّ
-iyy relates a thing to its source; -iyya makes an abstract noun.grammar →
- قَدَرِيَّةabstract noun (-iyya)Lane
- قَدَرِيّfatalistic; Qadariteautorelative adjective (-iyy)library ×1
Reference
Why this shape?What each of the 25 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.
- Attested: مَقْدَرَة, noun of place (with -a) (Lane)
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-qadar (القدر): the fortunate decree (fate that turns out favorably).
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 · 393Qadr al-shayʾ (قدر الشيء): its extent.
al-Jawharī (d. c. 393/1003), al-Ṣiḥāḥ. Admits only usage he judged sound.
AI AI translation of the Arabic belowal-Rāghib · 502Al-qudrah (القدرة) [power/capability], when a human being is described by it, is a name for a faculty by which he is enabled to do something.
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-Qadīr (القدير) and al-Qādir (القادر) are among the attributes of God, Mighty and Exalted;
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
الاستطاعة والقدرة والقوة والوسع والطاقة
متقاربة في المعنى في اللغة، وأما في عرف المتكلمين فهي عبارة عن صفة بها يتمكن الحيوان من الفعل والترك.
Al-istiṭāʿah (الاستطاعة) [ability], al-qudrah (القدرة) [power], al-quwwah (القوة) [strength], al-wusʿ (الوسع) [capacity], and al-ṭāqah (الطاقة) [capacity] are close in meaning in ordinary language; but in the terminology of the theologians (mutakallimūn), it [power] is an expression for an attribute by which a living being is enabled to act or to refrain from acting. AI
التقدير
هو تحديد كل مخلوق بحده الذي يوجد من حسن وقبح، ونفع وضر، وغيرهما.
Al-taqdīr (التقدير) [determination]: it is the delimiting of every created thing by the boundary — of good and bad, benefit and harm, and other than these — by which it comes into existence. AI
القادر
هو الذي يفعل بالقصد والاختيار.
Al-qādir (القادر) [the capable one]: he is the one who acts by intention and free choice. AI
القدرة
هي الصفة التي تمكن الحي من الفعل وتركه بالإرادة.
Al-qudrah (القدرة) [power]: it is the attribute by which the living being is enabled to act or refrain from acting, by will. AI
القدرة
صفة تؤثر على قوة الإرادة.
Al-qudrah (القدرة) [power]: an attribute whose effect corresponds to the strength of the will. AI
القدرة الممكنة
عبارة عن أدنى قوة يتمكن بها المأمور من أداء ما لزمه، بدنيا كان أو ماليا، وهذا النوع من القدرة شرط في حكم كل أمر؛ احترازا عن تكليف ما ليس في الوسع.
Al-qudrah al-mumkinah (القدرة الممكنة) [enabling power]: an expression for the minimal degree of capacity by which the one commanded is enabled to perform what has been obligated upon him, whether bodily or financial. This type of power is a condition for the applicability of every legal ruling, as a safeguard against obligating what is beyond one's capacity. AI
القدرة الميسرة
ما يوجب اليسر على الأداء، وهي زائدة على القدرة الممكنة بدرجة واحدة في القوة؛ إذ بها يثبت الإمكان ثم اليسر، بخلاف الأولى إذ لا يثبت بها الإمكان، وشرطت هذه القدرة في الواجبات المالية دون البدنية؛ لأن أداءها أشق على النفس من البدنيات؛ لأن المال شقيق الروح، والفرق بين القدرتين في الحكم: أن الممكنة شرط محض، حيث يتوقف أصل التكليف عليها، فلا يشترط دوامها لبقاء أصل الواجب.
القدر
تعلق الإرادة الذاتية بالأشياء في أوقاتها الخاصة، فتعليق كل حال من أحوال الأعيان بزمان وعين وسبب معين عبارة عن القدر.
The same letters, turned
The same three letters in all six orders. Choose one.
ق د ر
القاف والدال والراء أصل صحيح يدل على مبلغ الشيء وكنهه ونهايته فالقدر مبلغ كل شيء
q-d-r is a sound root that indicates the extent of something, its essence, and its limit; al-qadr is the extent of everything. 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
- قqāffar back of the tongue · voiced, stopSīb. · I. Jinnī
- دdāltongue-tip, roots of the teeth · voiced, stopSīb. · I. Jinnī
- رrāʾtip of the tongue, near the nūn · 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
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 ↗
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 ↗
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 ↗
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
ق
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 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 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 2582Meaning by vowelal-Dabbāgh · a visionary claim about a primordial “Syriac”, not historical Syriac
English throughout: AI translation of the Arabic AI
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.
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.
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.
Two-letter nucleus6 roots in Ibn Fāris’s chapterق د
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 26133 ↗
- قدسالقاف والدال والسين أصل صحيح وأظنه من الكلام الشرعي الإسلامي وهو يدل على الطهر ومن ذلك الأرض المقدسة هي المطهرة وتسمى الجنة حظيرة القدس أي الطهر وجبرئQ 10 · L26155
- قدعالقاف والدال والعين أصلان صحيحان متباينان أحدهما يدل على الكف عن الشيء ويدل الآخر على التهافت في الشيءL26164
- قدفالقاف والدال والفاء يقولون القدف غرف الماء من الحوض وقيل القداف جرة من فخارL26175
- قدمالقاف والدال والميم أصل صحيح يدل على سبق ورعف ثم يفرع منه ما يقاربه يقولون القدم خلاف الحدوث ويقال شيء قديم إذا كان زمانه سالفا وأصله قولهم مضى فلان قQ 48 · L26178
- قدوالقاف والدال والحرف المعتل أصل صحيح يدل على اقتباس بالشيء واهتداء ومقادرة في الشيء حتى يأتي به مساويا لغيرهQ 2 · L26198
- قدحالقاف والدال والحاء أصلان صحيحان يدل أحدهما على شيء كالهزم في الشيء والآخر يدل على غرف شىءQ 1 · L26208
In the sister scriptsHebrew ק ד רSyriac ܩ ܕ ܪ
| Arabic | ق د ر |
| Hebrew | ק ד ר |
| Syriac | ܩ ܕ ܪ |
| Ancient South Arabian (musnad) | 𐩤 𐩵 𐩧 |
| Phoenician | 𐤒 𐤃 𐤓 |
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 (al-ʿAyn) glosses al-qadr as al-qaḍāʾ al-muwāfaq, 'the fitting decree' (qaddarahu Llāhu taqdīran), gives al-miqdār as a person's fixed lifespan, and treats qadara ʿalā l-shayʾ as milk/capacity, whence qādir.well attested
The lexicographers in chronological order, from al-Khalīl to Lane.
Al-Khalīl (al-ʿAyn) glosses al-qadr as al-qaḍāʾ al-muwāfaq, 'the fitting decree' (qaddarahu Llāhu taqdīran), gives al-miqdār as a person's fixed lifespan, and treats qadara ʿalā l-shayʾ as milk/capacity, whence qādir. Al-Jawharī (al-Ṣiḥāḥ) confirms qadr as mablagh al-shayʾ, 'the extent of a thing,' notes qadr/qadar as originally a maṣdar, and reads mā qadarū Llāha ḥaqqa qadrihi as 'they did not magnify Him as He deserves.' Ibn Fāris's own entry for this root is not among the excerpts here, though his neighboring Qāf-Dāl chapters (see structural lens) situate it. Al-Rāghib (al-Mufradāt) sharpens the theological point: qudra in man names a hayʾa enabling an act, but in God it is strictly the negation of ʿajz, and al-qadīr acts exactly according to what wisdom requires, a name reserved for God alone. Ibn Manẓūr (Lisān), citing al-Layth and Ibn Sīda, keeps both branches — qadr/qadar as qaḍāʾ wa-ḥukm and as qudra — alive together, while Ibn al-Athīr distinguishes qādir (plain active participle), qadīr (mubālagha), and muqtadir (still more emphatic); Lane confirms the base sense of taqdīr as measuring or computing a thing's extent.
Draws on: cayn · sihah · mufradat · lisan · Lane
Letters & soundIn the letter-correspondence tables attributed to Ibn ʿArabī, dāl is paired with the lowest heaven and rāʾ with the fifth heaven;speculative
What the theorists of sound symbolism would say of these letters. Speculative by nature.
In the letter-correspondence tables attributed to Ibn ʿArabī, dāl is paired with the lowest heaven and rāʾ with the fifth heaven; al-Dabbāgh's fatḥa-readings give qāf as an indication of acquiring goods (or lights), dāl as something external to the self, and rāʾ as all goods, outward and inward. One could read qadr's movement from 'external measure' (dāl) toward 'goods realized, inward and outward' (rāʾ) as echoing this letter-symbolism, but mainstream linguistics treats such correspondences as suggestive numerology/mysticism, not as evidence about the word's actual history or meaning.
Draws on: akbari198 · dabbagh_fatha
Root structureIbn Fāris situates qdr among Qāf-Dāl chapters for qds (purity, al-arḍ al-muqaddasa), qdc (restraining oneself), qdf (drawing water), qdm (precedence, oldness), qdw (taking a model, working a thing until it is level/musāwiya with another), and qdh (a hollow defect, or drawing lots).plausible
The two-letter nucleus (Ibn Fāris's own chapters) and the permutations of the letters (Ibn Jinnī).
Ibn Fāris situates qdr among Qāf-Dāl chapters for qds (purity, al-arḍ al-muqaddasa), qdc (restraining oneself), qdf (drawing water), qdm (precedence, oldness), qdw (taking a model, working a thing until it is level/musāwiya with another), and qdh (a hollow defect, or drawing lots). Qdw's sense of bringing a thing level with a standard sits closest to qdr's core of measuring against a norm. Among permutations, raqada ('to sleep, settle into stillness') and qarada ('to gather with intermittent severance') share the same three radicals; by Ibn Jinnī's greater derivation one might juxtapose sleep as a 'settling' with qadr as a thing 'settled' into its due measure, but this is a suggestive pairing only. Ibn Fāris explicitly denies that d-r-q is a pattern to analogize upon, which limits how far this permutation set can be pressed.
Draws on: maqayis-siblings · permutations · ibn-jinni
Semitic kin & loanwordsSyriac ܩܕܪ (qdr) means 'to be able, to have power,' closely matching Arabic qadara/qudra as capacity;plausible
Cognates in the sister languages, and whether the word was borrowed.
Syriac ܩܕܪ (qdr) means 'to be able, to have power,' closely matching Arabic qadara/qudra as capacity; this looks like an inherited Common Semitic root rather than a loan in either direction. Hebrew קָדַר (qādar) is formally identical but semantically diverges completely, meaning 'to be dark, to mourn, to grieve,' and there is no confident basis for treating it as the same root in sense — it is better read as a separate, merely homophonous root. No Akkadian or Geʿez cognate is confidently attested from the material available here. There is no reason to treat qadara as a loanword into Arabic.
Draws on: cal · bdb
- Comprehensive Aramaic Lexicon, s.v. qdr
Quranic exegesisOn 10:5, exegetes read wa-qaddarahu manāzila as God's fixing the moon's stations so that mankind can reckon months and years, tying taqdīr to precise cosmic ordering;plausible
How the classical exegetes read the word in the Quran.
On 10:5, exegetes read wa-qaddarahu manāzila as God's fixing the moon's stations so that mankind can reckon months and years, tying taqdīr to precise cosmic ordering; al-Rāzī takes this exactness as evidence of a wise Determiner. On 15:60 (and parallel verses), qaddarnā for Lot's wife is read as an unalterable decree fixing her fate among those who remain behind — qadar as necessity. On 2:20 and 2:106, exegetes take qadīr/qādir as the divine name for total, unconditioned power, unlike human qudra which is always partial and paired with possible incapacity — a point feeding directly into kalām debates on omnipotence. On 2:264, lā yaqdirūna ʿalā shayʾin mimmā kasabū is read as the hypocrite's ostentatious charity yielding him no power/return over what he spent, his deed annulled like rain-washed dust off a rock.
Philosophy & kalāmIn kalām, al-qadar named the central dispute over divine decree versus human agency;plausible
The word as a technical term in falsafa and theology.
In kalām, al-qadar named the central dispute over divine decree versus human agency; the Qadariyya (already noted by al-Khalīl as those who deny qadar) affirmed real human power over acts against strict predestinarians, and later Ashʿarite theology made qudra the technical term for the God-created accident enabling a given act, within the doctrine of kasb. For the philosophers, notably Avicenna, qadar names the necessitating order of causes proceeding from the Necessary Existent, so that every event occurs according to its due measure fixed by that causal chain — determinism read as wisdom rather than arbitrary decree. Al-Ghazālī, opposing this necessitarianism, insists qadar must remain compatible with genuine divine choice (ikhtiyār).
Draws on: kalam · falsafa
Akbarian readingIn Faṣṣ Ādam, Ibn ʿArabī writes that every existent in the cosmos receives disclosure and properties bi-qadri mā taṭlubuhu ḥaqīqatu dhālika l-mawjūd — strictly according to the measure demanded by its own reality — and that no single existent holds the sum total granted to the khalīfa (Adam);plausible
The word in Ibn ʿArabī's text and terminology.
In Faṣṣ Ādam, Ibn ʿArabī writes that every existent in the cosmos receives disclosure and properties bi-qadri mā taṭlubuhu ḥaqīqatu dhālika l-mawjūd — strictly according to the measure demanded by its own reality — and that no single existent holds the sum total granted to the khalīfa (Adam); here qadr names the proportion fixed by each thing's own preparedness, not an external imposition. In the summary list of the Fuṣūṣ's wisdoms, al-ḥikma al-qadariyya names the wisdom-station of the Faṣṣ devoted to ʿUzayr (Ezra), making qadariyya a technical epithet for that whole chapter, tied to decree and its relation to time and resurrection. No independent Iṣṭilāḥ definition of qadr is given among the excerpts here.
Draws on: fass-adam
Reference