Root · 0 in the Quran · 28 in 13 texts of the library
نقلa sound root denoting the transfer of a thing from one place to another, from which … (root nql)
النون والقاف واللام أصل صحيح يدل على تحويل شيء من مكان إلى مكان ثم يفرع ذلك
Ibn Fāris, Maqāyīs al-lugha · English rendering AI
The family of the root
Patterns computed · our dataThe words of ن ق ل that our sources attest: the root's letters in green, the added letters in gold.
7 words2 verbs2 verbal nouns1 participle1 other noun1 plural
- اِنْتَقَلَmove; transfer
- نَقَلَtransfer; transport
- اِنْتِقالtransfer; communication
- نَقْلtransportation; transfer
- تَنَقُّلtransportation; transfer
The whole family5 groups, by pattern; tap a pattern to see what it does
Verbs2نَقَلَ · اِنْتَقَلَ
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 (a; the imperfect from the Quranic Arabic Corpus)
- نَقَلَtransfer; transportautoForm Ilibrary ×5Ibn Fāris
- اِنْتَقَلَmove; transferautoForm VIIIlibrary ×8
Verbal nouns2اِنْتِقال · تَنَقُّل
The action itself, named as a noun (maṣdar).grammar →
- اِنْتِقالtransfer; communicationautoForm VIIIlibrary ×2
- تَنَقُّلtransportation; transferautoForm Vlibrary ×1Ibn Fāris
Participles1مَنْقُول
The one who does it, and the one it is done to.grammar →
- مَنْقُولconveyed; transferredautopassive, Form Ilibrary ×1
Other nouns1نَقْل
Nouns on other patterns; their meaning is learned word by word.grammar →
- نَقْلtransportation; transferautonounlibrary ×2Ibn Fāris
Plurals1اِنْتِقالات
Broken plurals rebuild the word on a new pattern; sound plurals add an ending.grammar →
- اِنْتِقالاتsound plural of اِنْتِقالlibrary ×1
Reference
Why this shape?What each of the 6 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-naql (النقل): what remains of stones when a mountain or the like is quarried, and what is discarded of small stones.
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 · 393Naql al-shayʾ (نقل الشيء): transferring the thing from one place to another.
al-Jawharī (d. c. 393/1003), al-Ṣiḥāḥ. Admits only usage he judged sound.
AI AI translation of the Arabic belowIbn Fāris · 395Nūn, qāf, and lām are a sound root indicating the transfer of something from one place to another;
Ibn Fāris (d. 395/1004), Maqāyīs al-Lugha. Seeks each root's original sense (aṣl).
AI AI translation of the Arabic belowLisān · 711Al-naql: transferring something from one place to another;
Ibn Manẓūr (d. 711/1311), Lisān al-ʿArab. The great compendium of the earlier dictionaries (entry shortened).
AI AI translation of the Arabic below
Technical definitions2 · Ibn ʿArabī’s Iṣṭilāḥ, al-Jurjānī’s Taʿrīfāt
الحال المنتقلة
بخلاف ذلك.
Al-ḥāl al-muntaqila (the transferred/changing state): contrary to that. AI
المنقول
هو ما كان مشتركا بين المعاني، وترك استعماله في المعنى الأول، ويسمى به لنقله من المعنى الأول. والناقل إما الشرع، فيكون منقولا شرعيا، كالصلاة والصوم، فإنهما في اللغة للدعاء ومطلق الإمساك، ثم نقلهما الشرع إلى الأركان المخصوصة والإمساك المخصوص مع النية، وإما غير الشرع، وهو إما العرف العام، فهو المنقول العرفي، ويسمى: حقيقة عرفية، كالدابة؛ فإنها في أصل اللغة لكل ما يدب على الأرض، ثم نقله العرف العام إلى ذات القوائم الأربع من الخيل والبغال والحمير، أو العرف الخاص، ويسمى: منقولا اصطلاحيا، كاصطلاح النحاة والنظار، أما اصطلاح النحاة، فكالفعل، فإنه كان موضوعا لما صدر عن الفاعل، كالأكل والشرب والضرب، ثم نقله النحويون إلى كلمة دلت على معنى في نفسها مقترنة بأحد الأزمنة الثلاثة. وأما اصطلاح النظار، فكالدوران، فإنه في الأصل للحركة في السكك، ثم نقله النظار إلى ترتب الأثر على ما له صلوح العلية، كالدخان؛ فإنه أثر يترتب على النار، وهي تصلح أن تكون علة للدخان، وإن لم يترك معناه الأول بل يستعمل فيه أيضا، يسمى: حقيقة، إن استعمل في الأول، وهو المنقول عنه، ومجازا إن استعمل في الثاني، وهو المنقول إليه، كالأسد، فإنه وضع أولا للحيوان المفترس، ثم نقل إلى الرجل الشجاع؛ لعلاقة بينهما، وهي الشجاعة.
Al-manqūl (the [figuratively] transferred [term]): it is that which was shared among [several] meanings, whose use in the original meaning was then abandoned; it is so named because it has been 'transferred' from the first meaning. The transferrer (al-nāqil) is either the Sacred Law, in which case the term is 'legally transferred' (manqūl sharʿī), like ṣalāh (prayer) and ṣawm (fasting): for these, in the [original] language, denote supplication and mere abstention respectively; the Sacred Law then transferred them to the specific ritual acts and the specific abstention accompanied by intention. Or [the transferrer] is other than the Sacred Law: either general custom (al-ʿurf al-ʿāmm) — in which case the term is 'customarily transferred' (al-manqūl al-ʿurfī), also called a 'customary reality' (ḥaqīqa ʿurfiyya), like dābba (beast/mount): for in the root of the language it applies to everything that crawls/moves upon the earth, but general custom then transferred it to the four-legged creatures among horses, mules, and donkeys — or [the transferrer is] special/technical custom, in which case the term is called 'technically transferred' (manqūl iṣṭilāḥī), like the terminology of the grammarians and logicians/theoreticians. As for the grammarians' terminology, an example is al-fiʿl (the verb): it was originally coined for that which proceeds from the agent, such as eating, drinking, and striking; then it was [transferred]... [entry continues] AI
The same letters, turned
The same three letters in all six orders. Choose one.
ن ق ل
النون والقاف واللام أصل صحيح يدل على تحويل شيء من مكان إلى مكان ثم يفرع ذلك
N-q-l is one sound root indicating the transfer of something from one place to another; from this other meanings are derived. 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
- نnūntip of the tongue · voiced, in betweenSīb. · I. Jinnī
- قqāffar back of the tongue · voiced, stopSīb. · I. Jinnī
- لlāmedge of the tongue · voiced, in betweenI. Jinnī
How each letter is made, in brief, from Sībawayh's and Ibn Jinnī's own sentences (linked); their words are under Reference.
Sharing two of its three letters (computed; kinship of form, not of meaning)
Reference
How it is madeSībawayh and Ibn Jinnī · phonetics
English throughout: AI translation of the Arabic AI
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 ↗
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 ↗
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
ن
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 2580ق
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 2577Meaning by vowelal-Dabbāgh · a visionary claim about a primordial “Syriac”, not historical Syriac
English throughout: AI translation of the Arabic AI
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.
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.
Two-letter nucleus18 roots in Ibn Fāris’s chapterن ق
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 32321 ↗
- نقلالنون والقاف واللام أصل صحيح يدل على تحويل شيء من مكان إلى مكان ثم يفرع ذلكL32323
- نقمالنون والقاف والميم أصيل يدل على إنكار شيء وعيبه ونقمت عليه أنقم أنكرت عليه فعله والنقمة من العذاب والانتقام كأنه أنكر عليه فعاقبه وقولهم للنفس نقيمة Q 17 · L32338
- نقهالنون والقاف والهاء كلمة تدل على البرء من المرض ثم يستعار ونقه من المرض نقوها أفاق فهو ناقة ويقولون نقه الحديث مثل فهم بكسر القاف فرقا بينه وبين الأولL32342
- نقيالنون والقاف والحرف المعتل أصل يدل على نظافة وخلوص منه نقيت الشيء خلصته مما يشوبه تنقية وكذلكL32348
- نقبالنون والقاف والباء أصل صحيح يدل على فتح في شيء ونقب الحائط ينقبه نقبا والبيطار ينقب سرة الدابة ليخرج منها ماء وتلك الحديدة منقب وكلب نقيب نقبت غلصمتهQ 3 · L32358
- نقثالنون والقاف والثاء كلمة صحيحة تدل على خلط شيء بشيء ونقله ونقث ما في منزلي أجمع نقله كله ونقثوا حديثهم خلطوه كما ينقث الطعام وخرج ينقث يسرع في نقل قواL32375
- نقحالنون والقاف والحاء أصل صحيح يدل على تنحيتك شيئا عن شيء ونقحت العصا شذبت عنها أبنها ومنه شعر منقح أي مفتش ملقى عنه ما لا يصلح فيه ونقحت العظم استخرجت L32380
- نقخالنون والقاف والخاء كلمة تدل على قرع شىء وماء نقاخ بارد عذب كأنه ينقخ العطش ببرده أي يقرعه والنقخ نقب الرأس عن الدماغL32384
- نقدالنون والقاف والدال أصل صحيح يدل على إبراز شيء وبروزهL32387
- نقذالنون والقاف والذال أصل صحيح يدل على استخلاص شيء وأنقذته منه خلصته وفرس نقيذ أخذ من قوم آخرين وأفراس نقائذ وكل ما أنقذته فهو نقذQ 5 · L32397
- نقرالنون والقاف والراء أصل صحيح يدل على قرع شيء حتى تهزم فيه هزمة ثم يتوسع فيه منه منقار الطائر لأنه ينقر به الشيء حتى يؤثر فيه ونقرت الرحى بالمنقار وهي Q 4 · L32400
- نقزالنون والقاف والزاء أصيل يدل على دقة وخفة وصغر منه النقز الوثب ونواقز الظبي قوائمه ونقز الناس أرذالهم والنقز الرجل الردي والنقاز داء يأخذ الغنم فيقلق L32419
- نقسالنون والقاف والسين أصيل يدل على لطخ شيء بشيء غير حسن ونقسته عبته كأنك لطخته بشيء قبيح واصله نقس المداد والجمع انقاسL32424
- نقشالنون والقاف والشين أصل صحيح يدل على استخراج شيء واستيعابه حتى لا يترك منه شيء ثم يقاس ما يقاربه منه نقش الشعر بالمنقاش وهو نتفه ومنه المناقشة الاستقصL32427
- نقصالنون والقاف والصاد كلمة واحدة هي النقص خلاف الزيادة ونقص الشيء ونقصته أنا وهو منقوص والنقيصة العيبQ 10 · L32437
- نقضالنون والقاف والضاد أصل صحيح يدل على نكث شيء وربما دل على معنى من المعاني على جنس من الصوت ونقضت الحبل والبناء والنقيض المنقوض ولذلكQ 9 · L32441
- نقطالنون والقاف والطاء أصيل يدل على نكتة لطيفة في الشيءL32452
- نقعالنون والقاف والعين أصلان صحيحان أحدهما يدل على استقرار شيء كالمائع في قراره والآخر على صوت من الأصواتQ 1 · L32455
In the sister scriptsHebrew נ ק לSyriac ܢ ܩ ܠ
| Arabic | ن ق ل |
| Hebrew | נ ק ל |
| Syriac | ܢ ܩ ܠ |
| Ancient South Arabian (musnad) | 𐩬 𐩤 𐩡 |
| Phoenician | 𐤍 𐤒 𐤋 |
Letter for letter, by the regular sound correspondences of the Semitic languages (Arabic keeps several sounds the others merged). This shows how the root would be spelled; whether a related word exists is a separate question, answered in the Semitic lens. Where an Arabic sibilant (s, sh) continues two older sounds, both spellings are shown.
Lenses
AIClassical lexiconAl-Khalīl's ʿAyn already spreads the root across concrete senses: al-naql as the chippings left when a mountain is quarried, naql as moving a thing to a place, nuqla as a people's migration from one locale to another, and naql/minʿal for a worn-out sandal, plus naqāl for a horse quick in moving its legs.well attested
The lexicographers in chronological order, from al-Khalīl to Lane.
Al-Khalīl's ʿAyn already spreads the root across concrete senses: al-naql as the chippings left when a mountain is quarried, naql as moving a thing to a place, nuqla as a people's migration from one locale to another, and naql/minʿal for a worn-out sandal, plus naqāl for a horse quick in moving its legs. Al-Jawharī (al-Ṣiḥāḥ) foregrounds 'transferring a thing from one place to another' and separately preserves naql/niql for the worn shoe, citing al-Kumayt's verse and a hadith of Ibn Masʿūd about a woman 'in her two worn sandals.' Ibn Fāris (Maqāyīs) states the unifying idea explicitly — a sound root indicating the transfer of a thing from one place to another — then branches it into a horse's rapid legwork, a head-wound whose bone-splinters are 'transferred' out (al-munaqqila), the snack eaten with drink, the chippings of quarried stone, and the worn sandal. Ibn Manẓūr (Lisān) confirms and extends this to intransitive tanaqqala 'to move oneself,' naqla as slander one 'carries' between people, and nawāqil for irregular land-taxes that get shifted category — the sources move in step from concrete physical carrying toward abstract transfer of talk and legal categories.
Draws on: al-Khalīl, al-ʿAyn · al-Jawharī, al-Ṣiḥāḥ · Ibn Fāris, Maqāyīs al-Lugha · Ibn Manẓūr, Lisān al-ʿArab
Letters & soundIn the letter-heaven correspondences given, nūn is assigned to the fourth heaven and lām to the third, so the root's outer letters span two adjacent celestial stations, while qāf between them has no heaven listed.speculative
What the theorists of sound symbolism would say of these letters. Speculative by nature.
In the letter-heaven correspondences given, nūn is assigned to the fourth heaven and lām to the third, so the root's outer letters span two adjacent celestial stations, while qāf between them has no heaven listed. Al-Dabbāgh reads the fatḥa of nūn as the good that dwells within the self, kindling there; the fatḥa of qāf as an indication of the acquisition of goods, or of all lights; and the fatḥa of lām as the attainment and sign of something great. Strung together this would trace a movement from an inward good (nūn) through acquisition (qāf) to attainment of something great (lām) — a sound-symbolic echo of carrying something valuable from one place to another. This is speculative letter-symbolism; mainstream linguistics gives it no evidentiary weight for the word's actual semantic history.
Draws on: Ibn ʿArabī, letters and the heavens · al-Dabbāgh, letter meanings
Root structureWithin Ibn Fāris's n-q chapter, the roots built on this biliteral nucleus read as a loose family of things done to or removed from a substrate: naqala (transfer), naqama (fault-finding and requital), naqiha (convalescence), naqiya (purity, a clearing-away of what taints), naqaba (boring/opening through), naqatha (mixing by moving together), naqqaḥa (pruning away, refining), naqakha (striking through to the skull), naqada (bringing out, making salient), naqadha (rescuing, drawing out safely).plausible
The two-letter nucleus (Ibn Fāris's own chapters) and the permutations of the letters (Ibn Jinnī).
Within Ibn Fāris's n-q chapter, the roots built on this biliteral nucleus read as a loose family of things done to or removed from a substrate: naqala (transfer), naqama (fault-finding and requital), naqiha (convalescence), naqiya (purity, a clearing-away of what taints), naqaba (boring/opening through), naqatha (mixing by moving together), naqqaḥa (pruning away, refining), naqakha (striking through to the skull), naqada (bringing out, making salient), naqadha (rescuing, drawing out safely). Ibn Fāris does not himself assert a single shared meaning; the juxtaposition only suggests a recurring theme of removal-and-relocation across the chapter. Of the six permutations of n-q-l, the root itself and lām-qāf-nūn (laqana) are both attested with recorded senses, qāf-lām-nūn is marked attested but glossless in the data, and the remaining three orders show no attestation. The pairing of naqala ('to convey, transfer, transmit a report') with laqana ('to receive and grasp instruction quickly,' talqīn) is a strong candidate for Ibn Jinnī's greater derivation: one root moves something outward from a source, its transposition moves something inward into a mind.
Draws on: Ibn Fāris, Maqāyīs, n-q chapter siblings · permutation table · Ibn Jinnī, al-Khaṣāʾiṣ, al-ishtiqāq al-akbar
- Ibn Jinnī, al-Khaṣāʾiṣ, ch. al-ishtiqāq al-akbar (link not verified)
Semitic kin & loanwordsNo confident Semitic cognate for naqala in the sense 'to transfer, convey' has been identified across Hebrew, Aramaic/Syriac, Akkadian, or Geʿez.plausible
Cognates in the sister languages, and whether the word was borrowed.
No confident Semitic cognate for naqala in the sense 'to transfer, convey' has been identified across Hebrew, Aramaic/Syriac, Akkadian, or Geʿez. Hebrew does have a root n-q-l (niqlâ, 'to be light, despised'), but this is generally analyzed as a nun-formation over q-l-l ('to be light in weight'), semantically unrelated to Arabic naqala's transfer sense, and there is no reason to treat the two as cognate rather than coincidentally homographic. Aramaic/Syriac instead uses roots such as n-ṭ-l for carrying and š-n-y for transferring or changing, not n-q-l, which weakens any case for a shared inherited item across the family in this meaning. On present evidence naqala looks like an Arabic-internal formation rather than either an inherited Common Semitic root or a loanword.
Draws on: Hebrew qll/niqlâ compared · Aramaic/Syriac verbs for carrying and changing
Philosophy & kalāmIn kalām and uṣūl al-fiqh, naql (as opposed to ʿaql) denotes transmitted knowledge — scripture, hadith, and reports carried down through a chain of transmission — as against knowledge established by independent reason.plausible
The word as a technical term in falsafa and theology.
In kalām and uṣūl al-fiqh, naql (as opposed to ʿaql) denotes transmitted knowledge — scripture, hadith, and reports carried down through a chain of transmission — as against knowledge established by independent reason. Evidences and rulings are regularly classified as naqlī (transmission-based) or ʿaqlī (reason-based), and much of the methodological dispute between traditionalist and rationalist theologians turns on the relative authority of naql versus ʿaql. Al-Ghazālī and others discuss cases where an apparently transmitted (naqlī) text must be reinterpreted (taʾwīl) if it conflicts with a sound rational (ʿaqlī) demonstration. This technical pairing, rather than the concrete sense of moving an object, is naqala's main afterlife as a term of art in Islamic theology and legal theory.
Draws on: kalām/uṣūl al-fiqh: naqlī vs ʿaqlī
Akbarian readingThe Faṣṣ Ādam passage given uses intiqāl for the passage of what the Real had stored up in this world into the next: what remained is transferred so that some of it joins with the rest, and 'the matter is transferred to the hereafter,' an act described as sealing the treasury of the hereafter with an eternal seal.plausible
The word in Ibn ʿArabī's text and terminology.
The Faṣṣ Ādam passage given uses intiqāl for the passage of what the Real had stored up in this world into the next: what remained is transferred so that some of it joins with the rest, and 'the matter is transferred to the hereafter,' an act described as sealing the treasury of the hereafter with an eternal seal. Here naqala carries Ibn ʿArabī's characteristic eschatological sense: not annihilation but relocation, the storing-up (ikhtizān) of this-worldly deposits into a permanent otherworldly repository. The root's ordinary meaning of physical transfer is applied to the passage of created realities across cosmological registers, from the temporal treasury to the everlasting one. No independent Iṣṭilāḥ definition of naql is given beyond this contextual use.
Draws on: Faṣṣ Ādam excerpt on intiqāl al-amr ilā l-ākhira
Reference