Root · 168 in the Quran · 238 in 22 texts of the library
قلبtwo associated senses — the pure, choicest essence of a thing, and the turning of a thing … (root qlb)
القاف واللام والباء أصلان صحيحان أحدهما يدل على خالص شيء وشريفه والآخر على رد شيء من جهة إلى جهة
Ibn Fāris, Maqāyīs al-lugha · English rendering AI
The family of the root
Patterns computed · our dataThe words of ق ل ب that our sources attest: the root's letters in green, the added letters in gold.
37 words5 verbs4 verbal nouns5 participles1 place or instrument5 intensives and elatives12 other nouns4 plurals1 relative or abstract
- قَلْبthe heart
- قُلُوبplural of the heart
- اِنْقَلَبَturn around; be reversed
- قَلَّبَturn upside down
- قَالِبred unripe dates
The whole family8 groups, by pattern; tap a pattern to see what it does
Verbs5قَلَبَ · اِنْقَلَبَ · قَلَّبَ
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.”)
- قَلَبَhe altered, or changed, its, or his, mode, or manner, of beingLaneForm IQurʾān ×1LaneIbn Fāris
- اِنْقَلَبَturn around; be reversedautoForm VIIQurʾān ×17library ×7Lane
- قَلَّبَturn upside downauto · Lane: see Form IForm IIQurʾān ×6library ×2LaneIbn Fāris
- تَقَلَّبَhe acted in whatsoever way he pleased, according to his own judgment or …LaneForm VQurʾān ×1library ×1LaneIbn Fāris
- أَقْلَبَLane: see Form IForm IVLaneIbn Fāris
Verbal nouns4قَلْب · تَقَلُّب · تَقْلِيب
The action itself, named as a noun (maṣdar).grammar →
- قَلْبthe heartLaneForm I · Lane: inf. n.Qurʾān ×132library ×162LaneIbn Fāris
- تَقَلُّبalteration; fluctuationautoForm VQurʾān ×5library ×1Ibn Fāris
- تَقْلِيبtransformation; inspectionautoForm II · Lane: inf. n.library ×1Lane
- قُلَابcertain disease of the heartLaneForm I · Lane: inf. n.LaneIbn Fāris
Participles5قَالِب · مُنقَلَب · مُتَقَلَّب
The one who does it, and the one it is done to.grammar →
- قَالِبred unripe datesLaneactive, Form Ilibrary ×12Lane
- مُنقَلَبinfLanepassive, Form VIIQurʾān ×2library ×1Lane
- مُتَقَلَّبpassive, Form VQurʾān ×1Lane
- مَقْلُوبcouch-frame of which the legs are turned upwardsLanepassive, Form ILane
- مُقَلِّبthe Turner of heartsLaneactive, Form IILane
Place, time and instrument1مِقْلَب
Where or when it happens, and what it is done with: the m- nouns.grammar →
- مِقْلَبthe iron implement with which the earth is turned over for sowingLanenoun of instrumentLane
Intensives, qualities and the elative5أَقْلَب · قَلُوب · قَلِيب
The quality carried far, held as a trait, or compared.grammar →
Other nouns12قَلَاب · قَلَبَة · قُلَّب
Nouns on other patterns; their meaning is learned word by word.grammar →
Plurals4قُلُوب · مُنقَلِبُون · قَوالِب
Broken plurals rebuild the word on a new pattern; sound plurals add an ending.grammar →
- قُلُوبplural of the heartfrom the singularbroken plural of قَلْبQurʾān ×112library ×36Ibn Fāris
- مُنقَلِبُونsound plural of مُنقَلِبQurʾān ×3
- قَوالِبbroken plural of قالِبlibrary ×4
- قُلُبplural of earth turned overfrom the singularbroken plural of قَلِيبLaneIbn Fāris
Relative and abstract1قَلْبِيّ
-iyy relates a thing to its source; -iyya makes an abstract noun.grammar →
- قَلْبِيّcardiac; heartyautorelative adjective (-iyy)library ×4
Reference
Why this shape?What each of the 19 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-qalb (القلب) is a morsel of flesh from the fuʾād (heart), suspended by the niyāṭ (heart-string/aorta).
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-qalb (القلب) is the fuʾād (heart), and it may be used figuratively for al-ʿaql (the intellect).
al-Jawharī (d. c. 393/1003), al-Ṣiḥāḥ. Admits only usage he judged sound.
AI AI translation of the Arabic belowIbn Fāris · 395The letters qāf, lām, and bāʾ have two sound roots: one indicates the pure essence of a thing and its noble part, and the other indicates the returning of something from one direction to another.
Ibn Fāris (d. 395/1004), Maqāyīs al-Lugha. Seeks each root's original sense (aṣl).
AI AI translation of the Arabic belowal-Rāghib · 502Qalb al-shayʾ (قلب الشيء) is the turning and diverting of something from one aspect to another, like the turning of a garment, or "turning a person," i.e., diverting him from his course.
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-qalb (القلب) is the turning of something from its [normal] direction: "qalabahu yaqlibuhu qalban (قلبه يقلبه قلبا)";
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
القلب
لطيفة ربانية لها بهذا القلب الجسماني الصنوبري الشكل المودع في الجانب الأيسر من الصدر تعلق، وتلك اللطيفة هي حقيقة الإنسان، ويسميها الحكيم: النفس الناطقة، والروح باطنه، والنفس الحيوانية مركبة، وهي المدرك، والعالم من الإنسان، والمخاطب، والمطالب، والمعاتب.
القلب
هو جعل المعلول علة، والعلة معلولا، وفي الشريعة: عبارة عن عدم الحكم لعدم الدليل، ويراد به ثبوت الحكم بدون العلة.
The same letters, turned
The same three letters in all six orders. Choose one.
ق ل ب
القاف واللام والباء أصلان صحيحان أحدهما يدل على خالص شيء وشريفه والآخر على رد شيء من جهة إلى جهة
q-l-b: Two sound roots: one indicates the pure and noble part of something, and the other, the turning of something from one direction to another. AI
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
- لlāmedge of the tongue · voiced, in betweenI. Jinnī
- بbāʾbetween the lips · 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
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 ↗
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 ↗
ب
ومما بين الشفتين مخرج الباء، والميم، والواو
From between the two lips is the place of the bāʾ, the mīm and the wāw. Sībawayh, line 26563 ↗
ومما بين الشفتين مخرج الباء والميم والواو
From between the two lips is the place of the bāʾ, the mīm and the wāw. Ibn Jinnī, line 986 ↗
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 2582ل
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 2577ب
Level of existence: الجن · the jinn
Divine Name: اللطيف · al-Laṭīf, the Subtle
Lunar mansion: الفرع المقدم · al-Farʿ al-Muqaddam
Futūḥāt ch. 198, line 62118Spheres 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.
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.
ب
With fatḥa ـَ
فهي إشارة إلى الشيء الذي هو في غاية العز أو في غاية الذل.
It is an indication of the thing that is at the utmost of might or at the utmost of abasement.
With ḍamma ـُ
فهي إشارة معها قبض.
It is an indication accompanied by contraction (qabḍ).
With kasra ـِ
فهي إشارة إلى ما دخل أو هو داخل على الذات.
It is an indication of what has entered, or is entering, upon the self.
Two-letter nucleus14 roots in Ibn Fāris’s chapterق ل
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 25400 ↗
- قلهالقاف واللام والهاء لا أحفظ فيه شيئا غير أن غدير قلهى موضعL25412
- قلوالقاف واللام والحرف المعتل أصل صحيح يدل على خفة وسرعةL25414
- قلبالقاف واللام والباء أصلان صحيحان أحدهما يدل على خالص شيء وشريفه والآخر على رد شيء من جهة إلى جهةQ 168 · L25426
- قلتالقاف واللام والتاء أصلان صحيحان أحدهما يدل على هزمة في شيء والآخر على ذهاب شيء وهلا كهL25447
- قلحالقاف واللام والحاء كلمة واحدة وهي القلح صفرة في الأسنان رجل أقلحL25458
- قلخالقاف واللام والخاء كلمة واحدة يقولون إن القلخ هدير الجملL25463
- قلدالقاف واللام والدال أصلان صحيحان يدل أحدهما على تعليق شيء على شيء وليه به والآخر على حظ ونصيبQ 4 · L25465
- قلزالقاف واللام والزاء يقولون إن التقلز النشاطL25483
- قلسالقاف واللام والسين كلمتان أحدهما رمى السحابة الندى من غير مطر ومنة قلس الإنسان إذا قاء فهوL25485
- قلصالقاف واللام والصاد أصل صحيح يدل على انضمام شيء بعضه إلى بعضL25490
- قلطالقاف واللام والطاء ليس فيه شيء يصح غير أن ابن دريدL25499
- قلعالقاف واللام والعين أصل صحيح يدل على انتزاع شيء من شيء تم يفرع منه ما يقاربه تقول قلعت الشيء قلعا فأناQ 1 · L25502
- قلفالقاف واللام والفاء أصل صحيح يدل على كشط شيء عن شيءL25521
- قلقالقاف واللام والقاف كلمة تدل على الانزعاجL25525
In the sister scriptsHebrew ק ל בSyriac ܩ ܠ ܒ
| Arabic | ق ل ب |
| Hebrew | ק ל ב |
| Syriac | ܩ ܠ ܒ |
| Ancient South Arabian (musnad) | 𐩤 𐩡 𐩨 |
| Phoenician | 𐤒 𐤋 𐤁 |
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 anchors qalb in the concrete: the organ suspended by the niyāṭ, said to be named for its taqallub (ceaseless turning), and also the pure unmixed core of anything — pure Arab stock, the soft white pith of a palm-tree, the single unlaced ring of a bracelet.well attested
The lexicographers in chronological order, from al-Khalīl to Lane.
Al-Khalīl anchors qalb in the concrete: the organ suspended by the niyāṭ, said to be named for its taqallub (ceaseless turning), and also the pure unmixed core of anything — pure Arab stock, the soft white pith of a palm-tree, the single unlaced ring of a bracelet. Al-Jawharī keeps both threads, glossing qalb as fuʾād and, per al-Farrāʾ on 'li-man kāna lahu qalbun', as ʿaql, while treating qalaba/inqalaba as physical inversion (turning something over, a snake writhing on hot sand). Ibn Fāris then formalizes the two aṣl explicitly: khāliṣ al-shayʾ wa-sharīfuhu (pure/noblest essence) versus radd al-shayʾ min jihatin ilā jiha (turning a thing from one direction to another), deriving both the organ-name and inversion-verbs from these roots. Al-Rāghib generalizes further: qalb al-shayʾ is taṣrīfuhu wa-ṣarfuhu min wajhin ilā wajh, and the human qalb, named for the frequency of its turning, comes to stand metonymically for rūḥ, ʿilm, shajāʿa and other inner faculties. Ibn Manẓūr and Lane consolidate this abstraction, extending qalaba to deliberative 'turning over' of affairs (qallabū laka al-umūr) and to change of mode of being generally.
Draws on: al-Khalīl · al-Jawharī · Ibn Fāris · al-Rāghib · Ibn Manẓūr · Lane
- Lisān al-ʿArab, q-l-b
- Lane, s.v. قلب
Letters & soundAl-Dabbāgh's fatḥa-values read qāf as indicating the acquisition of goods or of all lights, lām as the speaker's attainment of something great, and bāʾ as the extremity of might or of abasement — a sequence that, read impressionistically, tracks the movement from acquisition through elevation to an extreme, echoing qalb's own semantic arc from pure essence to violent overturning.speculative
What the theorists of sound symbolism would say of these letters. Speculative by nature.
Al-Dabbāgh's fatḥa-values read qāf as indicating the acquisition of goods or of all lights, lām as the speaker's attainment of something great, and bāʾ as the extremity of might or of abasement — a sequence that, read impressionistically, tracks the movement from acquisition through elevation to an extreme, echoing qalb's own semantic arc from pure essence to violent overturning. The akbarī correspondence table assigns lām to the third heaven and bāʾ to the jinn, with no entry recorded for qāf. None of this is linguistically demonstrable; mainstream historical linguistics treats letter-symbolism as at most suggestive, not evidentiary, for a root's meaning.
Draws on: al-Dabbāgh fatḥa values · akbari198 letter-heaven correspondences
Root structureAmong Ibn Fāris's q-l chapter, most siblings (qlh, qlkh) are thin or unrecorded, while qlw (lightness, speed) and qlt (breach, loss) sit near qlb without an obvious shared kernel;plausible
The two-letter nucleus (Ibn Fāris's own chapters) and the permutations of the letters (Ibn Jinnī).
Among Ibn Fāris's q-l chapter, most siblings (qlh, qlkh) are thin or unrecorded, while qlw (lightness, speed) and qlt (breach, loss) sit near qlb without an obvious shared kernel; qlb itself is unusual in carrying two distinct aṣl rather than one. Among the metathetic permutations, qbl (294 occurrences, facing/confronting) is by far the dominant partner, and lqb (nickname, a name that 'faces' or replaces the given name) sits suggestively close in sense to both. Ibn Jinnī's greater derivation would juxtapose qlb/qbl/lqb as variant lexicalizations of a shared field of facing, fronting, and reversal — a pattern worth noting, not a proven etymology.
Draws on: Ibn Fāris nucleus · permutations · Ibn Jinnī khaṣāʾiṣ
Semitic kin & loanwordsAramaic and Syriac have a cognate verbal root qlb meaning 'to turn, overturn, invert', matching Arabic qalaba/inqalaba closely and pointing to a shared Semitic root for the turning-sense.plausible
Cognates in the sister languages, and whether the word was borrowed.
Aramaic and Syriac have a cognate verbal root qlb meaning 'to turn, overturn, invert', matching Arabic qalaba/inqalaba closely and pointing to a shared Semitic root for the turning-sense. Notably, however, the widespread Semitic word for the physical heart is not this root but *lb(b) — Hebrew lēḇ/lēḇāḇ, Akkadian libbu, Aramaic/Syriac lebbā, Geʿez lebb — which Arabic instead preserves as lubb, 'pith, kernel, inmost part, intellect'. Arabic's use of qalb specifically for the heart-organ therefore looks like an Arabic-internal semantic innovation built on the 'pure essence' sense, not an inherited Semitic heart-word. No evidence suggests qalb is a loanword; it is native derivation from the Semitic root.
Draws on: Aramaic/Syriac qlb · comparative Semitic lexicon
- CAL, qlb V (link not verified)
Quranic exegesisOn 2:7, 'khatama Allāhu ʿalā qulūbihim', al-Ṭabarī reads the sealing as God's marking of the disbelievers' hearts so that guidance no longer penetrates, while al-Rāzī engages the verse as a flashpoint in the kalām dispute over whether God directly causes the sealing (determinism) or merely describes a state the disbelievers brought upon themselves through persistent kufr.well attested
How the classical exegetes read the word in the Quran.
On 2:7, 'khatama Allāhu ʿalā qulūbihim', al-Ṭabarī reads the sealing as God's marking of the disbelievers' hearts so that guidance no longer penetrates, while al-Rāzī engages the verse as a flashpoint in the kalām dispute over whether God directly causes the sealing (determinism) or merely describes a state the disbelievers brought upon themselves through persistent kufr. On 2:10, 'fī qulūbihim maraḍun', the exegetes read maraḍ al-qalb as the sickness of nifāq (hypocrisy) or doubt lodged in the seat of belief. Al-Rāghib's lexical point — that qalb covers rūḥ, ʿilm, and shajāʿa — underlies exegetical readings of verses like 3:144's 'inqalabtum ʿalā aʿqābikum' (reverting on one's heels), taken as apostasy or loss of resolve upon a rumor of the Prophet's death, the qalb here being both the organ of steadfastness and the thing that turns.
Draws on: al-Ṭabarī · al-Zamakhsharī · al-Rāzī · al-Rāghib
Philosophy & kalāmThough not a core falsafa term like wujūd or ʿayn, qalb becomes technical in al-Ghazālī's psychology, where it names the subtle governing faculty (al-laṭīfa al-rabbāniyya) distinct from the physical flesh-organ, the true locus of maʿrifa and moral agency, superior to and directing ʿaql, nafs, and rūḥ.plausible
The word as a technical term in falsafa and theology.
Though not a core falsafa term like wujūd or ʿayn, qalb becomes technical in al-Ghazālī's psychology, where it names the subtle governing faculty (al-laṭīfa al-rabbāniyya) distinct from the physical flesh-organ, the true locus of maʿrifa and moral agency, superior to and directing ʿaql, nafs, and rūḥ. This usage draws directly on the lexicographers' extension of qalb to rūḥ and ʿilm noted by al-Rāghib, but sharpens it into a distinct faculty-psychology used across later kalām and Sufi ethical literature.
Draws on: al-Ghazālī, Iḥyāʾ ʿulūm al-dīn
- al-Ghazālī, Iḥyāʾ ʿulūm al-dīn, Kitāb sharḥ ʿajāʾib al-qalb
Akbarian readingThe Fuṣūṣ's own chapter-list names one wisdom explicitly 'ḥikma qalbiyya' and locates it in the word of Shuʿayb rather than Ādam, so the term is not developed as a technical keyword within Faṣṣ Ādam itself in the material given.plausible
The word in Ibn ʿArabī's text and terminology.
The Fuṣūṣ's own chapter-list names one wisdom explicitly 'ḥikma qalbiyya' and locates it in the word of Shuʿayb rather than Ādam, so the term is not developed as a technical keyword within Faṣṣ Ādam itself in the material given. Elsewhere in Ibn ʿArabī's broader teaching, however, qalb is read etymologically through taqallub: the heart is named for its perpetual turning because it is the locus that receives a new divine self-disclosure (tajallī) at every instant, never fixed upon one form — the human heart mirrors the cosmos's continuous renewal of creation (khalq jadīd). This reading depends on the same lexical fact (qalb from taqallub) already established by al-Khalīl and al-Rāghib, redeployed as an ontological principle.
Draws on: Faṣṣ Ādam table of contents · general Akbarian doctrine of tajallī
- Faṣṣ Ādam, chapter-heading excerpt (given)
Figures with this root
Reference