Root · 25 in the Quran · 29 in 12 texts of the library
وهبIbn Fāris does not posit a single coherent aṣl for w-h-b; the dominant sense is … (root whb)
الواو والهاء والباء : كلمات لا ينقاس بعضها على بعض تقول : وهبت الشيء أهبه هبة وموهبا وانهبت الهبة : قبلتها والموهبة : …
Ibn Fāris, Maqāyīs al-lugha · English rendering AI
The family of the root
Patterns computed · our dataThe words of و ه ب that our sources attest: the root's letters in green, the added letters in gold.
18 words6 verbs2 verbal nouns4 participles3 places and instruments2 intensives and elatives1 plural
- وَهَبَdonate; grant
- وَهَّاب—
- وَاهِبgranting; donor
- مَوْهِبَةtalents; gifts
- مَوَاهِب—
The whole family6 groups, by pattern; tap a pattern to see what it does
Verbs6وَهَبَ · وَاهَبَ · أَوْهَبَ
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 Lane's “aor.”)
- وَهَبَdonate; grantautoForm IQurʾān ×22library ×8Lane
- وَاهَبَhe strove to surpass him in giving, freely, or disinterestedly, and he …LaneForm IIILane
- أَوْهَبَhe prepared, or made ready, the thing for himLaneForm IVLaneIbn Fāris
- تَوَاهَبَthey gave gifts, one to anotherLaneForm VILane
Verbal nouns2وَهَب · وَهْب
The action itself, named as a noun (maṣdar).grammar →
Participles4وَاهِب · مَوْهُوب · مُوهَب
The one who does it, and the one it is done to.grammar →
- وَاهِبgranting; donorautoactive, Form Ilibrary ×4Lane
- مَوْهُوبthing givenLanepassive, Form Ilibrary ×1Lane
- مُوهَبthing, such as food, prepared, ready, at one's handLanepassive, Form IVLane
- مُوهِبvalley abounding with fire-woodLaneactive, Form IVLane
Place, time and instrument3مَوْهِبَة · مَوْهَبَة · مَوْهِب
Where or when it happens, and what it is done with: the m- nouns.grammar →
Intensives, qualities and the elative2وَهَّاب · وَهُوب
The quality carried far, held as a trait, or compared.grammar →
Plurals1مَوَاهِب
Broken plurals rebuild the word on a new pattern; sound plurals add an ending.grammar →
- مَوَاهِبbroken plural of مَوْهِبَةlibrary ×2LaneIbn Fāris
Reference
Why this shape?What each of the 16 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.
- Attested: مَوْهِبَة, noun of place (with -a), “talents; gifts” (library, Lane, Ibn Fāris)
- Attested: مَوْهَبَة, noun of place (with -a), “cloud falling in rain in any place” (Lane, Ibn Fāris)
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
This root has a weak or doubled letter, so real words change shape (qāla → qāʾil, not qāwil); the machine pours the letters in as they are, and matches attested words by their regular pattern.
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 · 170Wahaba (وهب) Allāh for you the thing — yahibu (يهب), hibah (هبة).
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 · 393Wahabtu (وهبت) for him something — wahban (وهبا), and wahaban (وهبا) with vowel-movement [on the hā'], and hibah (هبة);
al-Jawharī (d. c. 393/1003), al-Ṣiḥāḥ. Admits only usage he judged sound.
AI AI translation of the Arabic belowIbn Fāris · 395The letters wāw, hā', and bā': words that are not all analogous to one another.
Ibn Fāris (d. 395/1004), Maqāyīs al-Lugha. Seeks each root's original sense (aṣl).
AI AI translation of the Arabic belowal-Rāghib · 502Al-hibah (الهبة): that you make your possession [pass] to another without compensation.
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 names of God Almighty: al-Wahhāb (الوهاب).
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.
و ه ب
الواو والهاء والباء : كلمات لا ينقاس بعضها على بعض تقول : وهبت الشيء أهبه هبة وموهبا وانهبت الهبة : قبلتها والموهبة : قلت يستنقع فيه الماء ؛ والجمع مواهب ويقال أوهب إلى من المال كذا ، أي ارتفع وأصبح فلان موهبا لكذا ، أي …
w-h-b: words that are not measured one against another according to one pattern. You say: wahabtu al-shayʾ ahabuhu hibatan and mawhaban; and intahaba al-hiba: he accepted it; and al-mawhiba: [a place] where water collects, plural mawāhib; and it is said awhaba ilayya min al-māl kadhā, i.e., it became abundant; and fulān aṣbaḥa mawhaban li-kadhā, i.e… AI
Ibn Fāris ↗Lisān ↗Lane ↗Quran ×25
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
- وwāwbetween the lips · voiced, in betweenSīb. · I. Jinnī
- هhāʾdeep in the throat · voiceless, continuantSīb. · I. 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
و
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 ↗
ه
فأقصاها مخرجا: الهمزة والهاء والألف
The furthest of them [the three in the throat] in place: the hamza, the hāʾ and the alif. Sībawayh, line 26548 ↗
فأولها من أسفله وأقصاه، مخرج الهمزة والألف والهاء، هكذا يقول سيبويه
The first of them [in the throat], from its lowest and furthest part, is the place of the hamza, the alif and the hāʾ: so Sībawayh says. Ibn Jinnī, line 965 ↗
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
و
Level of existence: تعيين الرتب والمقامات والمنازل · the determination of ranks, stations and waystations
Divine Name: رفيع الدرجات · Rafīʿ al-Darajāt, Exalted in Degrees
Lunar mansion: الرشا · al-Rashāʾ
Futūḥāt ch. 198, line 62121Spheres 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 2582ه
Level of existence: أبتداء العالم · the beginning of the world
Divine Name: البديع · the Originator (who creates without prior model)
Lunar mansion: الشرطين · al-Sharaṭān (the Two Signs), first of daily time, when the sun is in Aries
Futūḥāt ch. 198, line 66017Spheres of its simples (ch. 2): 10 line 2573 ↗
Nature (ch. 2)
وإلا الهاء والهمزة فإنهما باردتان رطبتان
And except hāʾ and hamza, for these two are cold and moist.
Ibn ʿArabī, al-Futūḥāt al-Makkiyya, line 2583ب
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
و
With fatḥa ـَ
فهي الأشياء المشتبكة في الإنسان مثل العروق والأصابع وما أشبه ذلك.
It is the intertwined things in the human being, such as veins, fingers and the like.
With ḍamma ـُ
فهي الأشياء المباينة لبني آدم مثل الأفلاك والجبال وما أشبه ذلك
It is things distinct from the children of Adam, such as the celestial spheres, mountains and the like.
With kasra ـِ
فهي الأشياء المشتبكة المستقذرة أو المبغوضة كالأمعاء ونحوها.
It is intertwined things that are filthy or detested, such as the intestines and the like.
ه
With fatḥa ـَ
فهي الرحمة الطاهرة التي لا نهاية لها.
It is pure mercy that has no end.
With ḍamma ـُ
فهي اسم من أسمائه تعالى.
It is one of the names of God, Exalted is He.
With kasra ـِ
فهي إشارة إلى الخير الذي يخرج من ذوات المخلوقات.
It is an indication of the good that issues from the selves of created beings.
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 nucleus37 roots in Ibn Fāris’s chapterو ه
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 34958 ↗
- وهىالواو والهاء والحرف المعتل يدل على استرخاء في شيءQ 1 · L34959
- وهبالواو والهاء والباء : كلمات لا ينقاس بعضها على بعض تقول : وهبت الشيء أهبه هبة وموهبا وانهبت الهبة : قبلتها والموهبة : قلت يستنقع فيه الماء ؛ والجمع موQ 25 · L34963
- وهتالواو والهاء والتاءL34968
- وهثالواو والهاء والثاء يقولون : الوهث : الانهماك في الشيء .L34970
- وهجالواو والهاء والجيم : كلمة واحدة ، وهي الوهج : حر الناء وتوقدها ويستعار ذلك فيقال : توهج الجوهر : تلألأ وتوهجت رائحة الطيب ووهج الطيب : أرجه ورائحته وQ 1 · L34972
- وهدالواو والهاء والدال : كلمة واحدة ، وهي الوهدة : المكان المطمئن ، والجمع وهاد .L34976
- وهزالواو والهاء والزاء يقولون : الوهز : الملزز الخلق ووهزت : دفعت والتوهز : التوثب .L34979
- وهسالواو والهاء والسين : كلمتان : إحداهما الشدة في الأمور ، والثانية من السرار .L34982
- وهصالواو والهاء والصاد : كلمات متقاربة ، وهي الوهص : شدة الوطء للشيء بالقدمL34990
- وهطالواو والهاء والطاءL34994
- وهفالواو والهاء والفاء : كلمتانL34999
- وهقالواو والهاء والقاف : كلمتان إحداهما الوهق ، وأظنه فارسيا معربا . والأخرى عربية صحيحة ، وهي المواهقة : مد الأعناق في السير ويقال تواهقت الركاب أما قولL35002
- وهلالواو والهاء واللام كلمات لا تنقاس ، وهي الوهل : الفزعL35009
- وهمالواو والهاء والميم : كلمات لا تنقاس ، بل أفراد منها الوهم ، وهو البعير العظيم والوهم : الطريق والوهم : وهم القلبL35013
- وهنالواو والهاء والنون : كلمتان تدل إحداهما على ضعف ، والأخرى على زمان .Q 9 · L35018
- يأسالياء والهمزة والسين كلمتان : إحداهما اليأس : قطع الرجاء ويقال إنه ليست ياء في صدر كلمة بعدها همزة إلا هذهQ 13 · L35071
- يبسالياء والباء والسين : أصل صحيح يدل على جفافQ 4 · L35078
- يتمالياء والتاء والميمQ 23 · L35087
- يتنالياء والتاء والنون : كلمة واحدة ، وهي اليتن ، وهو الفصيل يخرج رجلاه عند الولادة قبل رأسهL35093
- يدعالياء والدال والعين : كلمتان متباينتان ، إحداهما الأبدع : صبغ أحمر ويقال منه يدعت الشيء أيدعه تيديعا . والآخرون يقولون : أيدع الحج على نفسه : أوجبهL35096
- يزنالياء والزاء والنون ليس فيه إلا ذو يزن ، من ملوك حمير ، ينسب إليه الرماح ، فيقال يزنيه وأزنية .L35101
- يسرالياء والسين والراء : أصلان يدل أحدهما على انفتاح شيء وخفته ، والآخر على عضو من الأعضاء .Q 44 · L35104
- يعرالياء والعين والراءL35120
- يعطالياء والعين والطاء يقولون للذئب إذا زجروه : يعاطL35125
- يفنالياء والفاء والنون يقولون : اليفن : الشيخ الكبير .L35129
- يفعالياء والفاء والعين : كلمة تد على الارتفاع فاليفاع : ما علا من الأرض ومنهL35131
- يقنالياء والقاف والنون : اليقن واليقين : زوال الشكQ 28 · L35134
- يقهالياء والقاف والهاء سمعت علي بن إبراهيم القطان يقول : سمعت ثعلبا يقول : أيقه يوقه إيقاها ، إذا فهمL35137
- يلبالياء واللام والباء : كلمة واحدة قد اختلف في معناها وهي اليلب ،L35142
- يلقالياء واللام والقاف يقولون : اليلق : الأبيض من كل شيء وأنشدوا : — وأترك القرن في الغبار وفي … حضنيه زرقاء متنها يلق … ويقال اليلقة : العنز البيضاء .L35149
- يمنالياء والميم والنون : كلمات من قياس واحد فاليمين : يمين اليد ويقال : اليمين : القوة وقال الأصمعي في قول الشماخ : — إذا ما راية رفعت لمجد — تلقاها عرابQ 71 · L35153
- ينفالياء والنون والفاء ينوف في شعر امرئ القيس : هضبة في جبلى طي .L35161
- ينمالياء والنون والميم الينمة : نبت .L35163
- يهرالياء والهاء والراء يقولون : اليهر : اللجاج واستيهر الرجل : لجL35165
- يهمالياء والهاء والميم اليهماء : المفازة لا علم بها ويقال الأيهمان : السيل والحريق ويقال الأيهم من الرجال : الأصم ويقال للشجاع أيهم ، وهو من الباب ، كأنهL35167
- يوحالياء والواو والحاء : كلمة واحدة ، وهي يوح : اسم من أسماء الشمس .L35171
- يومالياء والواو والميم : كلمة واحدة ، هي اليوم : الواحد من الأيام ، ثم يستعيرونه في الأمر العظيم ويقولون نعم فلان في اليوم إذا نزل وأنشد : — نعم أخو الهيQ 405 · L35173
In the sister scriptsHebrew ו ה בSyriac ܘ ܗ ܒ
| Arabic | و ه ب |
| Hebrew | ו ה ב |
| Syriac | ܘ ܗ ܒ |
| Ancient South Arabian (musnad) | 𐩥 𐩠 𐩨 |
| Phoenician | 𐤅 𐤄 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 records the base verb 'wahaba lahu shayʾan yahabu hibatan' (gave without recompense), the reciprocal tawāhaba (mutual gift-giving), and al-mawhūb glossed as the child, or generally what is given.well attested
The lexicographers in chronological order, from al-Khalīl to Lane.
Al-Khalīl records the base verb 'wahaba lahu shayʾan yahabu hibatan' (gave without recompense), the reciprocal tawāhaba (mutual gift-giving), and al-mawhūb glossed as the child, or generally what is given. Al-Jawharī adds the nominal patterns mawhab/mawhiba for the given thing, plus, curiously, a homonymous mawhaba as a rock-hollow retaining rainwater, and the tenseless idiom 'hab zaydan munṭaliqan' (suppose Zayd departing). Ibn Fāris is unusually candid that wahaba resists reduction to one measured aṣl, yet still centers the entry on hiba as gratuitous giving, with the rock-pool and 'awhaba' (a matter becoming abundant/ready) as loosely associated offshoots rather than derivations of one core sense. Al-Rāghib supplies the enduring formula — al-hiba is making your possession over to another without compensation — and notes the Qurʾānic pattern in which God is repeatedly the grammatical subject of wahaba even where a prophet is the proximate cause, since the true giver is God alone. Ibn Manẓūr treats al-Wahhāb as the intensive (fa''āl) divine name for one whose giving is unconditioned and abundant, distinct from the simple agent-noun al-Wāhib.
Draws on: cayn · sihah · Ibn Fāris · mufradat · lisan
Letters & soundIn the given schema, wāw marks 'the fixing of ranks and stations,' hāʾ marks 'the beginning of the world' (for al-Dabbāgh, 'pure mercy without end'), and bāʾ marks 'the jinn' (for al-Dabbāgh, 'a thing at the utmost of might or of abasement').speculative
What the theorists of sound symbolism would say of these letters. Speculative by nature.
In the given schema, wāw marks 'the fixing of ranks and stations,' hāʾ marks 'the beginning of the world' (for al-Dabbāgh, 'pure mercy without end'), and bāʾ marks 'the jinn' (for al-Dabbāgh, 'a thing at the utmost of might or of abasement'). Read symbolically, wahb's letters trace a movement from the world's very beginning, through boundless mercy, to an extremity of power bestowed downward — an apt picture for unconditioned giving, but this is Akbarian/Dabbāghian symbolism, not philology, and carries no explanatory weight in mainstream linguistics.
Draws on: akbari198 · dabbagh_fatha
Root structureThe wā-hāʾ nucleus siblings each carry one clear image — wahā (slackening), wahaj (glow, blaze), wahd (a hollow in the ground), wahz (thickset body), wahṣ (forceful treading) — which throws into relief Ibn Fāris's own admission that wahb alone among its neighbors will not reduce to a single pattern;uncertain
The two-letter nucleus (Ibn Fāris's own chapters) and the permutations of the letters (Ibn Jinnī).
The wā-hāʾ nucleus siblings each carry one clear image — wahā (slackening), wahaj (glow, blaze), wahd (a hollow in the ground), wahz (thickset body), wahṣ (forceful treading) — which throws into relief Ibn Fāris's own admission that wahb alone among its neighbors will not reduce to a single pattern; his discomfort here is itself a datum about how far the aṣl-method can be pushed. Among the permutations, hubū (attested mainly for dust rising and dispersing) and bahw (a spacious forecourt, open antechamber) both evoke something going outward into open space without return, an image offered only suggestively alongside hiba's own sense of property passing out of one hand into another without recompense.
Draws on: nucleusSiblings · permutations
Semitic kin & loanwordsArabic w-h-b corresponds closely to Aramaic/Syriac yhb 'to give' (Syriac yhb;well attested
Cognates in the sister languages, and whether the word was borrowed.
Arabic w-h-b corresponds closely to Aramaic/Syriac yhb 'to give' (Syriac yhb; very frequent Aramaic yəhab), the two differing only by the regular w/y alternation typical of I-weak Semitic roots (compare Ar. wld/Heb. yld, Ar. wrt/Heb. yrt). Biblical Hebrew preserves the same root fossilized in the imperative hābāh (הבה) 'give!' (Genesis 11:7), confirming an old shared *yhb/*whb root rather than a borrowing in either direction. No confident cognate is attested in Akkadian or Geʿez for this specific root. This is an inherited Semitic correspondence, not a loanword.
Draws on: aramaic-yhb · hebrew-havah · weak-root-alternation
Quranic exegesisAl-Ṭabarī and al-Zamakhsharī read the Qurʾānic occurrences of wahaba for God's granting of children against ordinary expectation — Isḥāq to Ibrāhīm (14:39), Yaḥyā to Zakariyyā (3:38-39, 'fa-hab lī min ladunka'), Sulaymān to Dāwūd (38:30) — as marking hiba as a gift arising purely from divine capacity, with no prior claim on the recipient's side.well attested
How the classical exegetes read the word in the Quran.
Al-Ṭabarī and al-Zamakhsharī read the Qurʾānic occurrences of wahaba for God's granting of children against ordinary expectation — Isḥāq to Ibrāhīm (14:39), Yaḥyā to Zakariyyā (3:38-39, 'fa-hab lī min ladunka'), Sulaymān to Dāwūd (38:30) — as marking hiba as a gift arising purely from divine capacity, with no prior claim on the recipient's side. Al-Rāzī, on the prayers 'wa hab lanā min azwājinā... qurrata aʿyun' (25:74) and 'wa hab lanā min ladunka raḥmah' (3:8), notes that the imperative hab is directed to God alone in the Qurʾān, never to a human addressee, marking the asymmetry of the exchange. Al-Rāghib's Mufradat definition of hiba as making one's possession over to another without compensation is itself the standard formula later commentators cite to distinguish it from ʿaṭāʾ or ṣadaqa.
Draws on: quran · tabari · zamakhshari · razi · raghib
Philosophy & kalāmNot a core technical term of falsafa, but al-Ghazālī's Maqṣad al-Asnā, expounding the divine name al-Wahhāb, distinguishes it from al-Muʿṭī and al-Razzāq by insisting that the Wahhāb's giving structurally precludes any compensatory relation (ʿiwaḍ) — pure grace rather than transactional providence.plausible
The word as a technical term in falsafa and theology.
Not a core technical term of falsafa, but al-Ghazālī's Maqṣad al-Asnā, expounding the divine name al-Wahhāb, distinguishes it from al-Muʿṭī and al-Razzāq by insisting that the Wahhāb's giving structurally precludes any compensatory relation (ʿiwaḍ) — pure grace rather than transactional providence. The mutakallimūn generally fold this under discussions of divine generosity (jūd) rather than treat it as a separate ontological category on the order of wujūd or ḥaqq.
Draws on: ghazali-maqsad
Reference