Root · 17 in the Quran · 82 in 21 texts of the library
منعa single meaning, khilāf al-iʿṭāʾ - the opposite of giving. (root mn)
الميم والنون والعين أصل واحد هو خلاف الإعطاء ومنعته الشيء منعا وهو مانع ومناع ومكان منيع وهو في عز ومنعة
Ibn Fāris, Maqāyīs al-lugha · English rendering AI
The family of the root
Patterns computed · our dataThe words of م ن ع that our sources attest: the root's letters in green, the added letters in gold.
15 words2 verbs2 verbal nouns4 participles4 intensives and elatives2 other nouns1 plural
- مَنَعَprevent; forbid
- مُمْتَنِعabstaining; refraining
- مانِعobstacle; impediment
- مَنَّاع—
- اِمْتَنَعَabstain; refrain
The whole family6 groups, by pattern; tap a pattern to see what it does
Verbs2مَنَعَ · اِمْتَنَعَ
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 يَفْعَلُ (a – a; the imperfect from the Quranic Arabic Corpus)
- مَنَعَprevent; forbidautoForm IQurʾān ×12library ×11
- اِمْتَنَعَabstain; refrainautoForm VIIIlibrary ×3
Verbal nouns2اِمْتِناع · تَمَنُّع
The action itself, named as a noun (maṣdar).grammar →
- اِمْتِناعabstaining; refrainingautoForm VIIIlibrary ×2
- تَمَنُّعrejection; refusalautoForm Vlibrary ×1
Participles4مُمْتَنِع · مانِع · مَانِعَت
The one who does it, and the one it is done to.grammar →
- مُمْتَنِعabstaining; refrainingautoactive, Form VIIIlibrary ×6
- مانِعobstacle; impedimentautoactive, Form Ilibrary ×4Ibn Fāris
- مَانِعَتactive, Form IQurʾān ×1
- مَمْنُوعَةpassive, Form IQurʾān ×1
Intensives, qualities and the elative4مَنَّاع · مَنُوع · مَنِيع
The quality carried far, held as a trait, or compared.grammar →
- مَنَّاعintensive (faʿʿāl)Qurʾān ×2Ibn Fāris
- مَنُوعintensive (faʿūl)Qurʾān ×1
- مَنِيعimpenetrable; well-fortifiedautoquality (faʿīl)library ×1Ibn Fāris
- أَمْنَعinsurmountableautoelative or colour adjective (afʿal)library ×1
Other nouns2مَنْع · مَنْعَة
Nouns on other patterns; their meaning is learned word by word.grammar →
- مَنْعprevention; interdictionautonounlibrary ×2
- مَنْعَةresistance; staminaautonounlibrary ×1Ibn Fāris
Plurals1مَوانِع
Broken plurals rebuild the word on a new pattern; sound plurals add an ending.grammar →
- مَوانِعbroken plural of مانِعlibrary ×1
Reference
Why this shape?What each of the 12 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 · 170Manaʿtuhu (منعته), amnaʿuhu, manʿan (منعا), so he becomes mumtaniʿ (امتنع) — that is, I came between him and his desire.
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-manʿ (المنع): the opposite of giving.
al-Jawharī (d. c. 393/1003), al-Ṣiḥāḥ. Admits only usage he judged sound.
AI AI translation of the Arabic belowIbn Fāris · 395Mīm, nūn, and ʿayn form one root meaning the opposite of giving.
Ibn Fāris (d. 395/1004), Maqāyīs al-Lugha. Seeks each root's original sense (aṣl).
AI AI translation of the Arabic belowal-Rāghib · 502Al-manʿ (المنع) is said of the opposite of giving;
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-manʿ (المنع) is to come between a man and the thing he wants;
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 definitions4 · Ibn ʿArabī’s Iṣṭilāḥ, al-Jurjānī’s Taʿrīfāt
الامتناع
ضرورة اقتضاء الذات عدم الوجود الخارجي.
Al-imtināʿ (الامتناع) [impossibility]: the necessity of the essence entailing the absence of external existence. AI
المانع من الإرث
عبارة عن انعدام الحكم عند وجود السبب.
Al-māniʿ min al-irth (المانع من الإرث) [impediment to inheritance]: an expression for the nonexistence of the [legal] ruling despite the existence of its cause. AI
الممتنع بالذات
ما يقتضي لذاته عدمه.
Al-mumtaniʿ bi-dh-dhāt (الممتنع بالذات) [that which is intrinsically impossible]: that whose essence necessitates its own non-existence. AI
الممانعة
امتناع السائل عن قبول ما أوجبه المعلل من غير دليل.
Al-mumānaʿah (الممانعة) [objection]: the questioner's refusal to accept what the one giving the causal reason (al-muʿallil) has asserted, without [presenting] evidence [for the refusal]. AI
The same letters, turned
The same three letters in all six orders. Choose one.
م ن ع
الميم والنون والعين أصل واحد هو خلاف الإعطاء ومنعته الشيء منعا وهو مانع ومناع ومكان منيع وهو في عز ومنعة 1 ( باب الميم والهاء وما يثلثهما ) 2
m-n-ʿ is one root, the opposite of giving. manaʿtuhu al-shay' manʿan, meaning I withheld the thing from him, and he is māniʿ and mannāʿ, and a place is manīʿ (impregnable), and he is in ʿizz and manaʿa (might and inviolability). (Chapter of mīm and hā' and what comes third with them) 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
- مmīmbetween the lips · voiced, in betweenSīb. · I. Jinnī
- نnūntip of the tongue · voiced, in betweenSīb. · I. Jinnī
- عʿaynmiddle of the throat · 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
م
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 ↗
ن
ومن حافة اللسان من أدناها إلى منتهى طرف اللسان ما بينها وبين ما يليها من الحنك الأعلى وما فويق الثنايا مخرج النون
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 and what is just above the front teeth, is the place of the nūn. Sībawayh, lines 26555–26556 ↗
ومن طرف اللسان بينه وبين ما فويق الثنايا، مخرج النون
From the tip of the tongue, between it and what is just above the front teeth, is the place of the nūn. Ibn Jinnī, line 979 ↗
ع
ومن أوسط الحلق مخرج العين والحاء
From the middle of the throat is the place of the ʿayn and the ḥāʾ. Sībawayh, lines 26548–26549 ↗
ومن وسط الحلق مخرج العين والحاء
From the middle of the throat is the place of the ʿayn and the ḥāʾ. Ibn Jinnī, line 970 ↗
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
م
Level of existence: الإنسان · the human being
Divine Name: الجامع · al-Jāmiʿ, the Gatherer
Lunar mansion: المؤخر · al-Muʾakhkhar
Futūḥāt ch. 198, line 62119Spheres 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 2582ن
Level of existence: السماء الرابعة · the fourth heaven
Divine Name: النور · the Light (al-Nūr)
Lunar mansion: السماك · al-Simāk
Futūḥāt ch. 198, line 64663Spheres 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 2580ع
Level of existence: الطبيعة · Nature
Divine Name: الباطن · The Inward (al-Bāṭin)
Lunar mansion: الثريا · al-Thurayyā (the Pleiades)
Futūḥāt ch. 198, line 63825Spheres of its simples (ch. 2): 9 line 2572 ↗
Meaning by vowelal-Dabbāgh · a visionary claim about a primordial “Syriac”, not historical Syriac
English throughout: AI translation of the Arabic AI
م
With fatḥa ـَ
فهي جميع المكونات.
It is all created beings.
With ḍamma ـُ
فهي العزيز القليل كماء العين، ومنه قيل مومو.
It is the precious, scarce thing, like the water of the eye; from it comes the expression 'mūmū'.
With kasra ـِ
فهي نور الذات ظاهرا كما في العين، وباطنا كما في القلب.
It is the light of the self, outwardly as in the eye and inwardly as in the heart.
ن
With fatḥa ـَ
فهي الخير الساكن في الذات الشاعل فيها.
It is the good that dwells in the self, kindling [al-shāʿil, as written] within it.
With ḍamma ـُ
فهي إشارة إلى الخير الكامل أو النور الساطع.
It is an indication of perfect good or radiant light.
With kasra ـِ
فهي إشارة إلى شيء يدركه المتكلم أو هو له.
It is an indication of something that the speaker perceives or that belongs to him.
ع
With fatḥa ـَ
فهي اسم لقدوم أو رحيل.
It is a name for arrival or departure.
With ḍamma ـُ
فهي اسم للساكن في الذات التي تقوم به.
It is a name for that which dwells in the self and by which the self subsists.
With kasra ـِ
فهي اسم لخبث الذات.
It is a name for the foulness of the self.
Two-letter nucleus2 roots in Ibn Fāris’s chapterم ن
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 29394 ↗
- منحالميم والنون والحاء أصل صحيح يدل على عطيةL29415
- منعالميم والنون والعين أصل واحد هو خلاف الإعطاء ومنعته الشيء منعا وهو مانع ومناع ومكان منيع وهو في عز ومنعةQ 17 · L29423
In the sister scriptsHebrew מ נ עSyriac ܡ ܢ ܥ
| Arabic | م ن ع |
| Hebrew | מ נ ע |
| Syriac | ܡ ܢ ܥ |
| Ancient South Arabian (musnad) | 𐩣 𐩬 𐩲 |
| Phoenician | 𐤌 𐤍 𐤏 |
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's ʿAyn gives the core relational image: manaʿtuhu - I stood between him and what he wanted (ḥaltu baynahu wa-bayna irādatih);well attested
The lexicographers in chronological order, from al-Khalīl to Lane.
Al-Khalīl's ʿAyn gives the core relational image: manaʿtuhu - I stood between him and what he wanted (ḥaltu baynahu wa-bayna irādatih); from it he derives manīʿ (unreachable), the noun ʿizz wa-manʿa/manaʿa, imraʾa manīʿa (a woman resisting indecency), and manaʿa of a horse that plants itself and will not run. Al-Jawharī's Ṣiḥāḥ confirms al-manʿ as simply 'the opposite of giving,' adds the reciprocal mānaʿahu, makān manīʿ, and glosses al-manaʿa collectively as 'those of one's kin who protect him.' Ibn Fāris's Maqāyīs states the root as a single meaning, khilāf al-iʿṭāʾ, from which both manʿ (withholding) and manīʿ (impregnable) descend. Al-Rāghib's Mufradāt is the first to separate the two registers explicitly - niggardliness (Q107:7, Q50:25 'mannāʿ lil-khayr') versus protection/inviolability (makān manīʿ, dhū manʿa, Q4:141, Q2:114) - and reads Q7:12's 'mā manaʿaka' idiomatically as 'what drove/compelled you.' Ibn Manẓūr's Lisān synthesizes both strands, preserves Ibn al-Aʿrābī's distinction between manūʿ (withholds from others) and manaʿ (withholds himself), and registers al-Māniʿ as a divine attribute carrying both senses.
Draws on: cayn · sihah · Ibn Fāris · mufradat · lisan
- al-Khalīl, Kitāb al-ʿAyn
- al-Jawharī, al-Ṣiḥāḥ
- Ibn Fāris, Maqāyīs al-Lugha
- al-Rāghib, al-Mufradāt
- Ibn Manẓūr, Lisān al-ʿArab
Letters & soundAkbari198 assigns م to 'the human being' and ن to 'the fourth heaven,' with al-Dabbāgh reading fatḥa-ن as 'the good residing and kindling within the self';speculative
What the theorists of sound symbolism would say of these letters. Speculative by nature.
Akbari198 assigns م to 'the human being' and ن to 'the fourth heaven,' with al-Dabbāgh reading fatḥa-ن as 'the good residing and kindling within the self'; ع is glossed as 'Nature' (akbari198) and as 'a name for arrival or departure' (al-Dabbāgh). This last association fits the root's central image well: manʿ in its concrete Qurʾānic uses (barring entry to mosques, Q2:114; blocking access to the believers, Q4:141) is precisely the obstruction of an arrival or departure. The fit should be read as evocative rather than explanatory - this is material from a specific mystical letter-tradition, and mainstream linguistics has no basis for treating individual letters as carrying stable meanings across roots.
Draws on: akbari198 · dabbagh_fatha
- Ibn Jinnī, al-Khaṣāʾiṣ (al-imsās chapter) (link not verified)
Root structureIbn Fāris pairs م-ن-ع, khilāf al-iʿṭāʾ, directly beside م-ن-ح, ʿaṭiyya (a gift) - a minimal ḥ/ʿ contrast marking give against withhold on the same م-ن- base.plausible
The two-letter nucleus (Ibn Fāris's own chapters) and the permutations of the letters (Ibn Jinnī).
Ibn Fāris pairs م-ن-ع, khilāf al-iʿṭāʾ, directly beside م-ن-ح, ʿaṭiyya (a gift) - a minimal ḥ/ʿ contrast marking give against withhold on the same م-ن- base. Among the greater-derivation permutations of the same letters: معن (maʿana), a single root for ease of flowing - māʾ maʿīn, freely-running spring water; and نعم (naʿama), by far the commonest (140 occurrences), whose sense Ibn Fāris gives as ease, good living, and well-being (niʿma). عمن is explicitly not a true root for Ibn Fāris (tied only to the toponym ʿUmān), and نمع is unattested. The triad منع (withholding) / معن (free flow) / نعم (blessing) reads, by juxtaposition under al-ishtiqāq al-akbar, as one field oscillating between the dammed-up and the flowing or bestowed - suggestive, not an established derivation.
Draws on: nucleusSiblings · permutations · ibnJinni
- Ibn Fāris, Maqāyīs al-Lugha, s.v. منح / معن / نعم
- Wiktionary Arabic root appendix, م ن ع (link not verified)
Semitic kin & loanwordsHebrew מָנַע (mānaʿ) - 'to withhold, refuse, hold back' (e.g.well attested
Cognates in the sister languages, and whether the word was borrowed.
Hebrew מָנַע (mānaʿ) - 'to withhold, refuse, hold back' (e.g. Ruth 2:16, standard in Biblical and later Hebrew) - is a confident cognate, matching the Arabic root letter-for-letter in both form and core sense. No confident Aramaic/Syriac, Akkadian, or Gəʿez cognate is available here and none should be asserted without checking. There is no reason to treat Arabic منع as a loanword; the shared Hebrew-Arabic root points to inherited Common Semitic vocabulary.
Draws on: hebrew
- Brown–Driver–Briggs, Hebrew Lexicon, s.v. מנע
Quranic exegesisQ2:114 ('man manaʿa masājid Allāh') is read by al-Ṭabarī as referring to specific historical obstruction of worship, while al-Rāzī generalizes it into a standing principle against obstructing worship anywhere.well attested
How the classical exegetes read the word in the Quran.
Q2:114 ('man manaʿa masājid Allāh') is read by al-Ṭabarī as referring to specific historical obstruction of worship, while al-Rāzī generalizes it into a standing principle against obstructing worship anywhere. Q4:141's hypocrites' boast 'a-lam nastaḥwidh ʿalaykum wa-namnaʿkum min al-muʾminīn' is glossed by al-Zamakhsharī as their claim to have defended their disbelieving allies against the believers. Q7:12 and 38:75, 'mā manaʿaka allā tasjud' - God's rebuke of Iblīs - is pivotal for the Adam narrative; al-Rāghib's reading of manaʿa as 'what drove/compelled you' frames Iblīs's disobedience as willed refusal rather than mere incapacity. Q50:25/68:12's mannāʿ lil-khayr describes the miser who obstructs good, and Q56:33's 'lā maqṭūʿatin wa-lā mamnūʿatin' describes Paradise's fruit as unbroken and unwithheld.
Philosophy & kalāmManʿ is not a primary falsafa term, but al-Māniʿ figures in theological treatments of the divine names (e.g.plausible
The word as a technical term in falsafa and theology.
Manʿ is not a primary falsafa term, but al-Māniʿ figures in theological treatments of the divine names (e.g. al-Ghazālī's al-Maqṣad al-Asnā) as the attribute paired against al-Muʿṭī (the Bestower), raising the question of how withholding is compatible with a God whose essential attribute is generosity (jūd). It also brushes the kalām debate over human capacity (istiṭāʿa) and the role of an obstacle (māniʿ) removed by God as a condition for action.
Draws on: kalam · divine names
- al-Ghazālī, al-Maqṣad al-Asnā
Akbarian readingThe first excerpt cites Q7:12 within Ibn ʿArabī's reading of Adam's creation 'with both [divine] hands': God gathered the two hands for Adam only as an honoring, and it is against this gathering that Iblīs is rebuked - 'mā manaʿaka an tasjuda li-mā khalaqtu bi-yadayya' - Iblīs's failure being his blindness to the synthesis of the two forms that Adam's creation performs.well attested
The word in Ibn ʿArabī's text and terminology.
The first excerpt cites Q7:12 within Ibn ʿArabī's reading of Adam's creation 'with both [divine] hands': God gathered the two hands for Adam only as an honoring, and it is against this gathering that Iblīs is rebuked - 'mā manaʿaka an tasjuda li-mā khalaqtu bi-yadayya' - Iblīs's failure being his blindness to the synthesis of the two forms that Adam's creation performs. The second passage uses manaʿa more generally: 'I did what was mandated for me and stopped at what was delimited for me; had I sought more I could not have attained it, for the [divine] Presence prevents that' - here manʿ names not an arbitrary refusal but the built-in limit of each locus's receptivity (istiʿdād). Together the two passages move manʿ from a specific Qurʾānic rebuke into a general metaphysical principle: withholding as the shape of created finitude, the boundary each fixed entity cannot exceed.
Draws on: fassAdam
- Ibn ʿArabī, Fuṣūṣ al-Ḥikam, Faṣṣ Ādamī
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