Ayn-Qaf-Lam
3 words from this root family
Ayn-Qaf-Lam (ع-ق-ل) has 3 words in the Fahm dictionary: ʿaql (reason / intellect / understanding), ʿāqil (rational person / one who reasons), ʿaql (mind / reason / intellect).
In the Quran, words built on this root occur 49 times in 49 verses, across 30 of the 114 suras. The first is in 2:44.
Themes: Quranic, Abstract Concepts
| Word | Meaning | Type | Taught in |
|---|---|---|---|
عَقْلٌ ʿaql | reason / intellect / understanding | noun, A2 | Character, Community, and Worship |
عَاقِلٌ ʿāqil | rational person / one who reasons | noun, B1 | Character, Community, and Worship |
عَقْل ʿaql | mind / reason / intellect | noun, B1 | Emotions & Feelings |
۞ أَتَأْمُرُونَ ٱلنَّاسَ بِٱلْبِرِّ وَتَنسَوْنَ أَنفُسَكُمْ وَأَنتُمْ تَتْلُونَ ٱلْكِتَـٰبَ ۚ أَفَلَا تَعْقِلُونَEnjoin ye righteousness upon mankind while ye yourselves forget (to practise it)? And ye are readers of the Scripture! Have ye then no sense?
فَقُلْنَا ٱضْرِبُوهُ بِبَعْضِهَا ۚ كَذَٰلِكَ يُحْىِ ٱللَّهُ ٱلْمَوْتَىٰ وَيُرِيكُمْ ءَايَـٰتِهِۦ لَعَلَّكُمْ تَعْقِلُونَAnd We said: Smite him with some of it. Thus Allah bringeth the dead to life and showeth you His portents so that ye may understand.
۞ أَفَتَطْمَعُونَ أَن يُؤْمِنُوا۟ لَكُمْ وَقَدْ كَانَ فَرِيقٌ مِّنْهُمْ يَسْمَعُونَ كَلَـٰمَ ٱللَّهِ ثُمَّ يُحَرِّفُونَهُۥ مِنۢ بَعْدِ مَا عَقَلُوهُ وَهُمْ يَعْلَمُونَHave ye any hope that they will be true to you when a party of them used to listen to the word of Allah, then used to change it, after they had understood it, knowingly?
Arabic text: Tanzil Quran Text (Uthmani 1.1), CC BY 3.0, tanzil.net. English: Marmaduke Pickthall, The Meaning of the Glorious Koran (1930), public domain, via Project Gutenberg. Counts and verse choice: Quranic Arabic Corpus morphology data (corpus.quran.com).
Masculine noun (maṣdar). Verb: عَقَلَ (to reason/understand). The Quran never uses ʿaql as a noun directly - always as a verb (تَعْقِلُونَ, يَعْقِلُونَ), emphasizing active reasoning.
The Quran addresses the ʿaql over 49 times, always in verb form - reason is an activity, not a passive possession. Anti-intellectualism contradicts the Quran.
Active participle of عَقَلَ (to reason). Plural: عُقَلَاءُ. The Quran repeatedly addresses 'people who reason' (قَوْم يَعْقِلُون) as an intellectual call to faith.
The Quran appeals to reason as a path to faith - unlike blind following, it demands evidence-based belief and intellectual engagement.