وجهa single root denoting the facing/confrontation of a thing — Ibn Fāris (root wjh)

Al-wajh (الوجه): that which faces everything. Al-jiha (الجهة): direction. One says: 'akhadhtu jihata kadhā' (أخذت جهة كذا) — i.e., its direction. A man is 'red in his aspect' (min jihatihi l-ḥumra), and 'black in his aspect' (min jihatihi l-sawād). Al-wajha (الوجهة): the qibla and the like of it — in anything that you face and turn to. 'Tawajjahū ilayka' (توجهوا إليك) means: they turned their faces toward you. Al-tawajjuh (التوجه) is the intransitive [reflexive] form. Al-wijāh (الوجاه) and al-tijāh (التجاه): the facing of one thing toward another. You say: 'the house of so-and-so is tijāh (تجاه) the house of so-and-so' [facing it]. Al-muwājaha (المواجهة): your facing a man with speech. Or wajh [entry continues/incomplete].

Al-wajh (الوجه) [face] is well-known, plural wujūh (الوجوه). Al-Farrāʾ related: 'ḥayya l-wujūh' (حي الوجوه) and 'ḥayya l-ajūh' (حي الأجوه). Ibn al-Sikkīt said: they do this often with wāw when it takes ḍamma. Al-wajh and al-jiha (الجهة) have the same meaning, the hāʾ being a substitute for the wāw. One says: 'hādhā wajhu l-raʾy' (هذا وجه الرأي) — i.e., it is the opinion itself. The noun is al-wijha (الوجهة) or al-wujha (الوجهة), with kasra or ḍamma on the wāw. The wāw is retained in nouns, as they said waladah (ولدة); it simply does not combine with the hāʾ in verbal nouns (maṣādir). Al-muwājaha (المواجهة): direct facing. One says: 'qaʿadtu wijāhaka' (قعدت وجاهك) or 'wujāhaka' (وجاهك), meaning 'opposite you.' 'Ittajaha lahu raʾy' (اتجه له رأي): an opinion presented itself to him — this is of the pattern ifta'ala; the wāw became yāʾ owing to the kasra before it, and the tāʾ was substituted for it and assimilated. Upon this is built your saying 'qaʿadtu tijāhaka' (قعدت تجاهك) or 'tujāhaka' (تجاهك), meaning 'facing you.' 'Tajahtu ilayka atajihu' (تجهت إليك أتجه) means 'tawajjahtu' (توجهت), because the origin of the tāʾ in both is wāw. 'Wajjahtuhu fī ḥāja' (وجهته في حاجة) [I directed him on some errand], 'wajjahtu wajhī lillāhi subḥānahu' (وجهت وجهي لله سبحانه) [I turned my face to God], 'tawajjahtu naḥwaka wa-ilayka' (توجهت نحوك وإليك) [I turned toward you]. 'Tawajjaha l-shaykh' (توجه الشيخ): when the old man turns away and grows old. In the proverb: 'aḥmaqu mā yatawajjahu' (أحمق ما يتوجه) — meaning he does not know how to go [to relieve himself]. A thing described as muwajjah (موجه) is one made uniform on a single side, not varying. One says 'wajuha' (وجه) the man, with ḍamma, meaning he became wajīh (وجيه), i.e. one of standing and worth. 'Awjahahu Allāh' (أوجهه الله): God made him a man of standing. 'Awjahtuhu' (أوجهته): I found him to be a man of standing. Al-Musāwir ibn Hind ibn Qays ibn Zuhayr said: "Indeed the fair women, after they had regarded me as a man of standing, turned away, and then said: an old one-eyed man!" Wujūh al-balad (وجوه البلد): the notables of the town. Al-wajīha (الوجيهة): a kind of bead [amulet]. It is said of the newborn, when its forelegs emerge from the womb first: wajīh (وجيه); and when its hind legs emerge first: yatan (يتن). Al-Wajīh (الوجيه) is the name of a [famous] horse, according to al-Aṣmaʿī. Abū ʿUbayd [said]: al-tawjīh (التوجيه) is the letter that falls between the alif al-taʾsīs and the rhyme-letter (qāfiya), according to al-Khalīl. He said: you may vary it with whatever letter you wish, as in the verse of Imruʾ al-Qays: '...annī afirru' (أني أفر) together with his '...ṣabr' (صبر) and his '...wa-l-yawma qarr' (واليوم قر). For this reason it is called tawjīh. Others say: al-tawjīh is the name for its vowel-motions when the rawī [rhyme-consonant] is muqayyad [fixed/unvoweled], while the letter itself is called al-dakhīl (الدخيل).

Wāw, jīm, hāʾ: one root indicating the facing/confronting of something. The wajh (وجه) is that which faces (confronts) everything; one speaks of the wajh of a man or of anything else, and sometimes the Essence (dhāt) is expressed by wajh. You say: 'my face is toward you' (wajhī ilayka - وجهي إليك). He said: "I ask God's forgiveness for a sin I do not reckon... to the Lord of servants belong the face [true direction] and the deed." And 'I faced so-and-so' (wājahtu fulānan - واجهت فلانا): I made my face directly opposite his face. From this chapter is their saying: he is wajīh (وجيه) [a man of standing], from al-jāh (الجاه) — al-jāh being a metathesis [of wajh]. Al-wajha (الوجهة): every place you face; God Almighty said: '...and to each is a direction (wajha)' [Q2:148]. And 'wajjahtu' (وجهت) a thing: I set it upon a direction (jiha); the root of jihatuhu is wajhatuhu. Al-tawjīh (التوجيه): that you dig beneath a cucumber-plant or melon-plant and then lay it on its side [to train its growth]. 'Tawajjaha' (توجه) the old man: he turned away and retreated, as though he had turned his face toward the other [side]. And the foal, when its forelegs emerge first from the womb, is called wajīh (وجيه).

The origin of wajh (الوجه) is the [bodily] organ [the face]. God Almighty said: 'so wash your faces and your hands' [Q5:6, al-Māʾida], and 'the Fire covers their faces' [Q14:50, Ibrāhīm]. Since the face is the first thing that meets you and the noblest part of the body's exterior, it came to be used for the facing/front part of anything, and for its noblest and earliest part; hence one says 'wajh kadhā' (وجه كذا) and 'wajh al-nahār' (وجه النهار) [the early part of the day]. Sometimes the Essence (dhāt) is expressed by wajh, as in God's saying: 'and there will remain the Face of your Lord, Possessor of Majesty and Honor' [Q55:27, al-Raḥmān] — it is said [this means] His Essence; and it is said that wajh here means turning to God Almighty through righteous deeds. And He said: 'wherever you turn, there is the Face of God' [Q2:115, al-Baqara]; 'everything is perishing except His Face' [Q28:88, al-Qaṣaṣ]; 'desiring the Face of God' [Q30:38, al-Rūm]; 'we feed you only for the Face of God' [Q76:9, al-Insān]. It is said that wajh in all these is redundant [added for emphasis], meaning simply: everything is perishing except Him — and likewise for its counterparts. It is related that this was said to Abū ʿAbd Allāh ibn al-Riḍā, and he said: 'Glory be to God! They have said a grave thing — what is meant is only the aspect through which [an act] is approached'; meaning: every deed of the servants is perishing and void except what is intended for God [alone]. Upon this [understanding] are the other verses, and upon it is His saying: 'desiring His Face' [Q18:28, al-Kahf], 'desiring the Face of God' [Q30:39, al-Rūm]. And His saying: 'and set your faces [upright] at every place of worship' [Q7:29, al-Aʿrāf] — it is said this refers to the [bodily] organ, used metaphorically as one says 'I did such-and-such with my hand'; and it is said that by 'setting upright' is meant seeking rectitude, and by 'face' is meant turning wholly [to God], meaning: make your worship in prayer sincere for God. In this vein is His saying: 'But if they dispute with you, say: I have submitted my face to God' [Q3:20, Āl ʿImrān]; and His saying: 'and whoever submits his face to God while doing good has grasped the firm handhold' [Q31:22, Luqmān]; 'and who is better in religion than one who submits his face to God' [Q4:125, al-Nisāʾ]; and His saying: 'so direct your face to the [true] religion, inclining truly' [Q30:30, al-Rūm] — wajh in all of these is as explained above, or used metaphorically for [religious] doctrine and path. And 'so-and-so is wajh al-qawm' (وجه القوم) [the face of the people], like their saying 'their eye' or 'their head' and the like. And He said: 'and none has any favor with him to be repaid, except seeking the Face of his Most High Lord' [Q, al-Aʿlā/19-20 as given]. And His saying: 'believe in what was revealed to those who believed at wajh al-nahār' [Q3:72, Āl ʿImrān], meaning: the early part of the day. It is said: 'wājahtu fulānan' (واجهت فلانا) — I placed my face directly opposite his face. Al-qaṣd (intention/aim) is called wajh; the objective is called jiha (جهة) and wajha (وجهة), which is wherever one turns for something. He said: 'to every [nation/people] is a direction to which it turns' [Q2:148, al-Baqara] — an allusion to the [religious] Law, like His saying 'a way' (sharʿa) [Q5:48, al-Māʾida]. And some have said: [entry continues]

Al-wajh (الوجه): well-known [the face], plural wujūh (الوجوه). Al-Farrāʾ related: 'ḥayya l-wujūh' (حي الوجوه) and 'ḥayya l-ajūh' (حي الأجوه). Ibn al-Sikkīt said: they do this often with wāw when it takes ḍamma. In the ḥadīth: he mentioned tribulations (fitan) 'like the faces of cattle' (ka-wujūhi l-baqar - كوجوه البقر), meaning they resemble one another, because the faces of cattle greatly resemble each other; he meant that these are confusing tribulations which one does not know how to approach. Al-Zamakhsharī said: in my view the meaning is that they come 'butting' at people; hence they call the calamities of time 'nawāṭiḥ al-dahr' (نواطح الدهر) [the butting-blows of fate]. The wajh of anything is its facing/front part. In the Glorious Revelation: 'wherever you turn, there is the Face of God' [Q2:115]. In the ḥadīth of Umm Salama: when she admonished ʿĀʾisha as she set out for Basra, she said to her: 'If the Messenger of God, peace and blessings upon him, met you in some desert waste, driving a young she-camel from one watering-place to another, having wajjahat (وجهت) [torn open] its curtain-veil (sidāfa), and left behind its safeguards (ʿuhaydāhā)...' — in a long ḥadīth. Her saying 'wajjahat sidāfatahu' means: she took an approach by which your veil was torn away; and it is said its meaning is: she removed its sidāfa — the covering/screen — from the place you were commanded to keep to, and set it before you. Al-Qutaybī [said]: the meaning of 'wajjahathā' may be that she removed it from the place she was commanded to keep to and put it ahead of her. Al-wajh [also means] the countenance (al-muḥayyā). His saying, Exalted is He: 'so direct your face to the [true] religion, inclining truly' [Q30:30] means: follow the upright religion; and He meant, [in effect,] 'direct your faces (pl.)' — this is indicated by His saying afterward: 'turning in repentance to Him, and fear Him' [in the plural]; the one directly addressed is the Prophet, peace and blessings upon him, but what is meant is he together with the [whole] community. Its plurals are awjuh (أوجه) and wujūh (وجوه). Al-Liḥyānī said: al-awjuh may be used for the greater number; and he claimed that in a certain codex (muṣḥaf) it read 'awjuhakum' (أوجهكم) in place of 'wujūhakum' (وجوهكم) — I take him to mean [in reference to] His saying: 'so wipe your faces...' [Q5:6, partial]. And His saying, Mighty and Exalted: 'everything is perishing except His Face' [Q28:88] — al-Zajjāj said: He meant 'except Him.' In the ḥadīth: 'the fronts (wujūh) of the houses of his Companions opened onto the mosque' — wajh al-bayt (وجه البيت) is the side in which the door of the house is located, meaning the doors of their houses opened onto the mosque; and for this reason the side of the Kaʿba in which the door is located is called wajh al-Kaʿba (وجه الكعبة). In the ḥadīth: 'You will surely straighten your rows, or God will surely cause discord among your wujūh (faces)' — he meant the 'faces' of hearts, as in his other ḥadīth: 'do not differ, lest your hearts differ,' meaning their inclinations and desires. In the ḥadīth of Abū al-Dardāʾ: 'you will not [truly] understand until you see multiple wujūh (aspects) for the Qurʾān,' meaning: you see for it various meanings it can bear, so that you become wary of rushing to interpret it. Wujūh al-balad (وجوه البلد): the notables of the town. It is said: 'hādhā wajhu l-raʾy' (هذا وجه الرأي) — i.e., it is the opinion itself. Al-wajh and al-jiha (الجهة) have the same meaning, the hāʾ being a substitute for the wāw; the noun is al-wijha (الوجهة) or al-wujha (الوجهة), with kasra or ḍamma on the wāw; the wāw is retained in nouns, as they said waladah (ولدة); it simply does not combine with the hāʾ in [entry continues]