Root · 25 in the Quran · 13 in 4 texts of the library
قسطNo Maqāyīs excerpt is supplied for this root; the other lexicographers present it as … (root qst)
English rendering AI
The family of the root
Patterns computed · our dataThe words of ق س ط that our sources attest: the root's letters in green, the added letters in gold.
17 words5 verbs4 verbal nouns2 participles1 intensive or elative2 other nouns3 plurals
- قِسْطequity
- مُقْسِطacting equitably, or justly
- أَقْسَطَ—
- مُقْسِطِين—
- أَقْسَطmore and most equitable, just, or right
The whole family6 groups, by pattern; tap a pattern to see what it does
Verbs5قَسَطَ · أَقْسَطَ · قَسَّطَ
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.”)
Verbal nouns4إِقْسَاط · تَقْسِيط · قَسْط
The action itself, named as a noun (maṣdar).grammar →
Participles2مُقْسِط · قَاسِط
The one who does it, and the one it is done to.grammar →
- مُقْسِطacting equitably, or justlyLaneactive, Form IVlibrary ×9Lane
- قَاسِطdeclining, or deviating, from the right courseLaneactive, Form ILane
Intensives, qualities and the elative1أَقْسَط
The quality carried far, held as a trait, or compared.grammar →
Other nouns2قِسْط · قُسْط
Nouns on other patterns; their meaning is learned word by word.grammar →
- قِسْطequityLanenounQurʾān ×15library ×1Lane
- قُسْطcostusLanenounLane
Reference
Why this shape?What each of the 13 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-qusṭ (القسط): an Indian wood/root used in incense and medicine.
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-qusūṭ (القسوط): injustice and deviation from the truth.
al-Jawharī (d. c. 393/1003), al-Ṣiḥāḥ. Admits only usage he judged sound.
AI AI translation of the Arabic belowal-Rāghib · 502Al-qisṭ (القسط) is the portion allotted with justice, like al-niṣf (النصف) and al-niṣfah (النصفة).
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 · 711Among the Beautiful Names of God Almighty is al-Muqsiṭ (المقسط): the Just One.
Ibn Manẓūr (d. 711/1311), Lisān al-ʿArab. The great compendium of the earlier dictionaries (entry shortened).
AI AI translation of the Arabic below
The same letters, turned
The same three letters in all six orders. Choose one.
ق س ط
القاف والسين والطاء أصل صحيح يدل على معنيين متضادين والبناء واحد فالقسط العدل ويقال منه أقسط يقسط
q-s-ṭ: A sound root that indicates two opposite meanings, though the form is one, for al-qisṭ is justice, and from it one says "aqsaṭa yuqsiṭu". 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
- سsīntongue-tip, by the front teeth · voiceless, continuantSīb. · I. Jinnī
- طṭāʾtongue-tip, roots of the teeth · voiced, stop, velarisedSīb. · 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 ↗
س
ومما بين طرف اللسان وفويق الثنايا مخرج الزاي، والسين، والصاد
From between the tip of the tongue and just above the front teeth is the place of the zāy, the sīn and the ṣād. Sībawayh, line 26560 ↗
ومما بين الثنايا وطرف اللسان، مخرج الصاد والزاي والسين
From between the front teeth and the tip of the tongue is the place of the ṣād, the zāy and the sīn. Ibn Jinnī, line 983 ↗
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 ↗
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 2582س
Level of existence: ما ظهر في الماء · what appears in water
Divine Name: المحيي · al-Muḥyī, the Life-Giver
Lunar mansion: النعائم · al-Naʿāʾim
Futūḥāt ch. 198, line 62110Spheres of its simples (ch. 2): 9 line 2572 ↗
Nature (ch. 2)
السين والشين فطبعهما الحرارة واليبوسة
Sīn and shīn: their nature is heat and dryness.
Ibn ʿArabī, al-Futūḥāt al-Makkiyya, line 2581ط
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 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.
س
With fatḥa ـَ
فهي إشارة إلى الشيء المليح الذي من طبعه الرقة.
It is an indication of the comely thing whose nature is delicacy.
With ḍamma ـُ
فهي إشارة إلى الشيء القبيح الخشن، أو إشارة إلى سواد حسا ومعنى.
It is an indication of the ugly, rough thing, or of blackness, sensible and figurative.
With kasra ـِ
وبالكسر إشارة إلى الشيء الطابع وتكون الإشارة منه.
With kasra it is an indication of the impressing/stamping thing, and the indication proceeds from it.
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.
Two-letter nucleus4 roots in Ibn Fāris’s chapterق س
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 26489 ↗
- قسمالقاف والسين والميم أصلان صحيحان يدل أحدهما على جمال وحسن والآخر على تجزئة شيءQ 33 · L26499
- قسنالقاف والسين والنون كلمة تدل على شدةL26511
- قسىالقاف والسين والحرف المعتل يدل على شدة وصلابةL26515
- قسبالقاف والسين والباء يدل على مثل ما دل عليه الذي قبله يقولون القسب التمر اليابسL26521
In the sister scriptsHebrew ק ס/ש טSyriac ܩ ܣ/ܫ ܛ
| Arabic | ق س ط |
| Hebrew | ק ס/ש ט |
| Syriac | ܩ ܣ/ܫ ܛ |
| Ancient South Arabian (musnad) | 𐩤 𐩯/𐩦 𐩷 |
| Phoenician | 𐤒 𐤎/𐤔 𐤈 |
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 records qisṭ first as an Indian aromatic wood used in incense and medicine, then separately as qusūṭ, 'deviation from the truth' (qasaṭa yaqsuṭu, fāʿil qāsiṭ), and as iqsāṭ, 'justice in division and judgment,' alongside a concrete sense of qisṭ as one's allotted share and the qisṭāṭ/qisṭās as the most exact balance.well attested
The lexicographers in chronological order, from al-Khalīl to Lane.
Al-Khalīl records qisṭ first as an Indian aromatic wood used in incense and medicine, then separately as qusūṭ, 'deviation from the truth' (qasaṭa yaqsuṭu, fāʿil qāsiṭ), and as iqsāṭ, 'justice in division and judgment,' alongside a concrete sense of qisṭ as one's allotted share and the qisṭāṭ/qisṭās as the most exact balance. Al-Jawharī sharpens the grammatical split: qusūṭ is injustice (citing 72:15, 'wa-ammā l-qāsiṭūna fa-kānū li-jahannama ḥaṭaban'), while iqsāṭ, from aqsaṭa, is the corresponding justice (citing 'inna Llāha yuḥibbu l-muqsiṭīn'); he also preserves the measure (half a ṣāʿ), the medicinal qusṭ, and the physical defect of straight (unbowed) legs in an animal. Al-Rāghib explains the logic behind the apparent contranym: qisṭ is 'a share obtained with justice'; to 'qasaṭa' is to seize another's share (injustice), while to 'aqsaṭa' is to give another their share (justice) — the hamza here functioning privatively, as in ashkā, 'to remove the cause of complaint.' Ibn Manẓūr consolidates this under the divine name al-Muqsiṭ, 'the Just,' and cites the ḥadīth image of God 'lowering and raising the qisṭ,' i.e., the balance of deeds and provisions, tying the abstract justice-sense back to the physical scale.
Draws on: khalil-cayn · jawhari-sihah · raghib-mufradat · ibnmanzur-lisan
- al-Khalīl, Kitāb al-ʿAyn, s.v. قسط
- al-Jawharī, al-Ṣiḥāḥ, s.v. قسط
- al-Rāghib, al-Mufradāt, s.v. قسط
- Ibn Manẓūr, Lisān al-ʿArab, s.v. قسط
Letters & soundAl-Dabbāgh reads fatḥa-qāf as indicating the acquisition of goods (or, in another gloss, of all lights), fatḥa-sīn as indicating a comely thing whose nature is delicacy, and fatḥa-ṭāʾ as indicating a thing utterly pure and clear both in its genus and in itself (no akbarian cosmic correspondence is given for qāf in this table, and sīn corresponds to 'what appears in water,' ṭāʾ to the sixth heaven).speculative
What the theorists of sound symbolism would say of these letters. Speculative by nature.
Al-Dabbāgh reads fatḥa-qāf as indicating the acquisition of goods (or, in another gloss, of all lights), fatḥa-sīn as indicating a comely thing whose nature is delicacy, and fatḥa-ṭāʾ as indicating a thing utterly pure and clear both in its genus and in itself (no akbarian cosmic correspondence is given for qāf in this table, and sīn corresponds to 'what appears in water,' ṭāʾ to the sixth heaven). Assembled loosely, one might read qisṭ as 'a good rightly acquired' (qāf), possessed of a delicate comeliness (sīn), that is utterly pure and clear (ṭāʾ) — an image not far from justice as the clean, rightful portion. This is offered as a speculative resonance only; it carries no weight in historical linguistics.
Draws on: akbari-198 · dabbagh-fatha
- Ibn ʿArabī, letter-cosmos table (akbari198)
- al-Dabbāgh, letter-meanings under fatḥa
Root structureIbn Fāris's neighboring ق-س- chapters cluster around hardness and firmness — قسا (hardness, rigidity, as in a hardened heart), قسن (intensity), قسب (dried, hard dates) — with قسم standing apart as a root he explicitly treats as having two unrelated origins, one of beauty and one of division into shares.uncertain
The two-letter nucleus (Ibn Fāris's own chapters) and the permutations of the letters (Ibn Jinnī).
Ibn Fāris's neighboring ق-س- chapters cluster around hardness and firmness — قسا (hardness, rigidity, as in a hardened heart), قسن (intensity), قسب (dried, hard dates) — with قسم standing apart as a root he explicitly treats as having two unrelated origins, one of beauty and one of division into shares. Qisṭ's sense of 'a rightful share' sits naturally beside qasm's division-sense, while its association with the fixed standard of the balance (qisṭās) echoes the firmness-cluster's insistence on something rigid and unyielding as a measure. Among true permutations, سقط (to fall, 8 occurrences) is an independently attested root, and طسق (a land-tax measure, 0 Quranic occurrences but lexically real) likewise stands on its own; قطس, سطق, and طقس are not attested as roots at all. These juxtapositions are offered without claiming derivational dependence.
Draws on: maqayis-nucleus · permutations
- Ibn Fāris, Maqāyīs al-Lugha, roots قسم/قسن/قسي/قسب
Semitic kin & loanwordsThe 'justice/share' sense of qisṭ (qasaṭa/aqsaṭa) has no confident Northwest Semitic or Akkadian cognate;uncertain
Cognates in the sister languages, and whether the word was borrowed.
The 'justice/share' sense of qisṭ (qasaṭa/aqsaṭa) has no confident Northwest Semitic or Akkadian cognate; it appears to be a native Arabic development paired with qasama, 'to divide.' The homographic qisṭ meaning an aromatic wood (al-Khalīl's costus, used in incense and medicine) is, however, a genuine loanword, traceable through Sanskrit kuṣṭha and Greek kostos, likely entering Arabic via Syriac or Middle Persian trade vocabulary rather than by direct borrowing. The related qisṭās, 'balance' (Q17:35, 26:182), has been proposed by some (Jeffery) as itself partly foreign, though the proposal is not settled and should be treated with caution.
Draws on: loanword-costus · no-confident-cognate
Quranic exegesisAt 3:18, 'shahida Llāhu...well attested
How the classical exegetes read the word in the Quran.
At 3:18, 'shahida Llāhu... qāʾiman bi-l-qisṭ,' al-Ṭabarī and al-Rāzī read qisṭ as God's own upholding of justice in creation and judgment, making it a divine attribute rather than merely a human virtue. At 49:9, 'fa-aṣliḥū baynahumā bi-l-ʿadli wa-aqsiṭū,' and 5:42, 'fa-ḥkum baynahum bi-l-qisṭ,' the exegetes treat aqsaṭa/qisṭ as the concrete, adjudicated fairness owed between disputing parties, distinct from the more general ʿadl. At 4:3, 'wa-in khiftum allā tuqsiṭū fī l-yatāmā,' al-Zamakhsharī and al-Rāzī read the fear of failing to deal justly with orphans as the Quranic ground offered for the permission of plural marriage in that verse. At 72:15, 'wa-ammā l-qāsiṭūna fa-kānū li-jahannama ḥaṭaban,' the commentators gloss al-qāsiṭūn as those who deviated from truth (here, associating jinn who ascribed partners to God), explicitly contrasting this form-I sense with the form-IV muqsiṭūn of justice elsewhere.
Draws on: tabari · zamakhshari · razi
Philosophy & kalāmAlthough the standard kalām term for the principle is ʿadl rather than qisṭ, the Muʿtazila's second uṣūl (al-ʿadl) — that God necessarily acts justly and cannot command or do wrong — draws directly on the Quranic vocabulary of qisṭ/aqsaṭa as descriptive of God's own conduct (3:18).plausible
The word as a technical term in falsafa and theology.
Although the standard kalām term for the principle is ʿadl rather than qisṭ, the Muʿtazila's second uṣūl (al-ʿadl) — that God necessarily acts justly and cannot command or do wrong — draws directly on the Quranic vocabulary of qisṭ/aqsaṭa as descriptive of God's own conduct (3:18). Ashʿarī theologians rejected the claim that justice binds God as an external norm, holding instead that whatever God does is just by definition (al-ʿadl huwa mā faʿalahu Llāh), which reframes qisṭ from a rational standard God meets to a name for God's own free act. The term thus sits at the center of the classical dispute over whether good and just are rationally knowable independent of revelation (taḥsīn wa-taqbīḥ ʿaqlī).
Draws on: muctazila-usul-al-khamsa
- al-Rāzī, discussion of al-ʿadl in kalām, on Q3:18
Reference