قَلْبٌ heart in Arabic
قَلْبٌ is how you say “heart” in Arabic.
Root ق ل ب q-l-b. noun ('heart'); also verbal noun (maṣdar) of the Form I verb قَلَبَ. qalb.
Arabic
English
The audio uses AI voices.
Meaning of heart in Arabic
- heart (the organ; also the seat of mind, feeling, and understanding)
- the act of turning something over, inverting it, or altering its state or arrangement as the verbal noun (maṣdar) of قَلَبَ — e.g. turning a garment inside out, transposing the letters of a word, or turning over earth or bread
Example sentence
قلّة التَّوْفِيق وَفَسَاد الرَّأْي وخفاء الْحق وَفَسَاد الْقلب
Lack of success, distortion of opinion, obscurity of truth, and corruption of the heart.
الْقَلْبِ of the heart
al- = 'the'; completes the 'of…' phrase: 'of the heart'.
The English is machine-translated.
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How it is used
Qalb is the ordinary word for the heart, but it shares its form with the verbal noun of qalaba, 'to turn, invert, or change,' the root's core meaning. That same sense of turning something over runs through related words — turning a garment inside-out, turning over earth or bread, or examining a commodity by turning it over before buying it.
Words from the same root
- قَلَبَهُ Form I verb: to turn it over, invert it, or change its mode/state (e.g. turn a garment upside-down, turn over earth or bread)
- قَلَّبَ to turn something over repeatedly or examine it closely on every side (an intensive counterpart of qalaba)
- أَقْلَبَ to turn something over/invert it — a weakly-attested variant of qalaba
- قَلِيبٌ a (dug) well — from the sense of earth being turned over in digging
- قُلَيْبٌ little heart (diminutive of qalb)
More example sentences
وَمنع إِجَابَة الدُّعَاء وقسوة الْقلب
And the blocking of answered prayers and hardness of the heart.
الْقَلْبِ of the heart
al- = 'the'; completes the 'of…' phrase: 'of the heart'.
والابتلاء بقرناء السوء الَّذين يفسدون الْقلب ويضيعون الْوَقْت
And the trial of bad companions who corrupt the heart and waste time.
الْقَلْبَ the heart
al- = 'the'; the object of 'corrupt': 'the heart' (object form).
اجعل لكل يوم وقفة محاسبة قصيرة ما الذي زادني قربًا من ربي اليوم، وما الذي زاد الغفلة سمكًا حول قلبي
Make a brief accounting each day: What brought me closer to my Lord today, and what increased the thickness of heedlessness around my heart.
قَلْبِي my heart
'qalb' = 'heart'; '-i' = 'my', so 'my heart'.
غذِّ قلبك بذكرٍ يسير موزّع على اليوم، لا دفعةً تُتعب ثم تنقطع
Nourish your heart with a gentle remembrance spread throughout the day, not a burst that tires and then ceases.
قَلْبَكَ your heart
'qalb' = 'heart'; '-ka' = 'your', so 'your heart'.
احفظ لسانك من الفضول، وعينك من التشتت، ويدك من العبث، فإن الجوارح أبواب القلب، وما يدخلها يستوطن سريرته
Guard your tongue from curiosity, your eyes from distraction, and your hands from trifling, for the senses are gateways to the heart, and what enters them takes root in its core.
القَلْبِ to the heart
'al-' = 'the'; 'qalb' = 'heart'; the 'of' word, so 'of the heart'.
ضع نيةً محددة كإبرة بوصلتك، ثم اجعل أعمالك الصغيرة تدور حولها وضوء حاضر، نظرة مصروفة عن فضول، كلمة مكفوفة عن إيذاء، ابتسامة تُثبِّت قلبًا واهيًا
Set a specific intention as your compass needle, then let your small deeds revolve around it: a mindful ablution, a glance turned away from curiosity, a restrained word from harm, a smile that steadies a weak heart.
قَلْبًا a heart
'qalb' = 'heart'. The '-an' ending marks it as the object, 'a heart'.
عند الفتور، بدّل الوسيلة لا الغاية إن عجز لسانك فليذكر قلبك، وإن ثقل قلبك فلتخدم يدك، فالطرق إلى الله بعدد أنفاس الخلائق
When feeling lethargic, change the means, not the goal: if your tongue is too weak, let your heart remember; if your heart is heavy, let your hands serve, for the paths to God are as numerous as the breaths of creation.
قَلْبُكَ your heart
'qalb' = 'heart'; '-ka' = 'your', so 'your heart'. Subject of 'let remember'.
عند الفتور، بدّل الوسيلة لا الغاية إن عجز لسانك فليذكر قلبك، وإن ثقل قلبك فلتخدم يدك، فالطرق إلى الله بعدد أنفاس الخلائق
When feeling lethargic, change the means, not the goal: if your tongue is too weak, let your heart remember; if your heart is heavy, let your hands serve, for the paths to God are as numerous as the breaths of creation.
قَلْبُكَ your heart
'qalb' = 'heart'; '-ka' = 'your', so 'your heart'. Subject of the verb.
إذا أبطأتك هموم الرزق، فاعمل بالأسباب واترك في قلبك فراغًا للثقة، فالقلق لا يزيد في الكيل حبةً واحدة
If worries about sustenance slow you down, act upon the means and leave space in your heart for trust, for anxiety does not add a single grain to the measure.
قَلْبِكَ your heart
'qalb' = 'heart'; '-ka' = 'your', so 'your heart'.
وَأخرج من بَين الْبيُوت لعلني أحدث عَنْك الْقلب بالسر خَالِيا
I leave the houses, hoping to speak of you with a heart empty of everything else.
الْقَلْبَ the heart
The direct object of 'speak to', accusative ('-a'), definite — 'I tell the heart of you'. The heart is the one addressed, with the Beloved as the subject of the telling.
لَا كَانَ من لسواك مِنْهُ قلبه
May there never be one whose heart is for anyone other than You...
قَلْبُهُ his heart
'Heart' with '-hu' (his) attached, the subject of the inner clause, nominative — 'his heart'. Together: may there never be one whose heart belongs to other than You.
حين تسكتُ قليلًا، تسمعُ بوضوحٍ ما يقوله عقلك وما يخفيه قلبك
When you are silent for a while, you clearly hear what your mind says and what your heart hides.
قَلْبُكَ your heart
'your heart,' the subject of 'hides' (the -u), with 'your' attached, held back after its verb. Set against 'your mind' earlier: in silence you hear what reason voices AND what the heart keeps concealed.
آيةٌ بعد الفجر تفتحُ القلب،
A verse after dawn opens the heart,
القَلْبَ the heart
'the heart,' in the -a form as object of 'opens.' The inner result of the small dawn habit — the heart opened. Paragraph opens a book; verse opens the heart: matched images of small acts, big returns.
فإنه يورث أمراضا في القلوب،
for it causes diseases in the hearts,
القُلُوبِ the hearts
Genitive after 'in', this is a broken plural ('hearts'), reshaped from its singular. It names where the spiritual diseases take hold — the inner self. Its ending follows from the preposition.
القلب عارف، والقواطع كثيرة
The heart is knowledgeable, and the obstacles are many.
القَلْبُ the heart
This is the subject of a verbless sentence, 'the heart', made definite by 'the' and standing in the subject case. Arabic can state 'the heart is knowing' by simply setting subject and predicate together, with the linking 'is' understood.
القلب السليم يعرف الحق، ويميل إليه،
A sound heart recognizes the truth and inclines towards it.
القَلْبُ the heart
This is the subject of the sentence, 'the heart', made definite by 'the' and standing in the subject case. The adjective that follows describes it before the verb arrives.
فهذه قواطع تحول بين القلب وبين معرفته
These obstacles stand between the heart and its understanding.
القَلْبِ the heart
The object of 'between', so it stands in the possessive case, with 'the' marking the known heart. It is the first of the two things the obstacles come between.
فإذا أراد العبد أن يصلح قلبه، فليقطع هذه القواطع،
If the servant wants to repair his heart, let him cut these obstacles,
قَلْبَهُ his heart
A noun with the possessor stuck on its end as a suffix, so one Arabic word covers what English needs two for. The suffix here points back to the servant who is the subject, telling us whose heart is being repaired; it is also the thing being repaired, so it carries the object ending.
وليجتهد في تخليص قلبه من علائق الدنيا
and strive to free his heart from worldly attachments.
قَلْبِهِ his heart
A noun with the possessor attached as a suffix pointing back to the one who strives. It also sits as the second half of an 'of' pairing after 'freeing', which is why it carries the genitive ending, the shape a noun takes when it is owned by the noun before it.
فإن القلب كالمرآة، والشهوات كالصدأ، وذكر الله كالماء الذي يجلوه
For the heart is like a mirror, and desires are like rust; remembrance of God is like water that purifies it.
القَلْبَ the heart
Although it is the topic, 'the heart', it carries the object ending here, not because it receives any action but because the emphasis-particle before it demands that ending on its noun. This is a structural rule of that particle, not a sign of object role.
فكلما أكثر العبد من الذكر، صفا قلبه، واتضح له الحق
The more a servant remembers, the purer his heart becomes and the clearer the truth appears to him.
قَلْبُهُ his heart
The thing that becomes pure, 'his heart', with the owner attached as a suffix pointing back to the servant. As the doer of 'becomes pure' it takes the subject ending, and the one word covers both the noun and its owner.
وكلما اشتغل بالشهوات، كدر قلبه، واشتبه عليه الأمر
But the more he engages in desires, the murkier his heart becomes, and things become confused for him.
قَلْبُهُ his heart
The thing that grows murky, 'his heart', with the owner attached as a suffix reaching back to the one busied with desires. As the doer it takes the subject ending, and one word holds both noun and owner.
فالصلاة والصيام والزكاة والحج، وإن كانت مشقة على البدن، فإنها راحة للقلب، وطهارة للروح
Prayer, fasting, charity, and pilgrimage, though burdensome on the body, are comfort for the heart and purification for the soul.
لِلْقَلْبِ for the heart
A noun bundling the 'for' prefix with 'the', 'for the heart', naming the beneficiary of the comfort. The prefix governs it into the genitive, and one word carries preposition, article, and noun.
Common questions
- How do you say "heart" in Arabic?
- قَلْب (qalb).
- What is the root meaning behind qalb?
- The root ق-ل-ب means 'to turn, invert, or change'; qalb is both the everyday word for 'heart' and, in its older sense, the verbal noun for the act of turning something over.
Related words
Definitions summarised from Lane's Arabic-English Lexicon (E. W. Lane, 1863–1893).