عَقْلِ reason in Arabic
عَقْلِ is how you say “reason” in Arabic.
Root ع ق ل ʿ-q-l. noun (verbal noun / maṣdar of Form I عَقَلَ). ʿaql.
Arabic
English
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Meaning of reason in Arabic
- reason, intellect, understanding the mental faculty; one who possesses it is called ʿāqil
- restraint, the act of binding or withholding the primary literal sense, e.g. hobbling a camel's foreleg with a rope (ʿiqāl)
- bloodwit, payment of compensation for a slain person extended legal usage — giving or exacting the diya owed to the victim's kin
Example sentence
وَبَاعِثُ الْعَقْلِ وَالدِّينِ يَمْنَعُ مِنْهُ
And the prompting of reason and religion prevents him from it.
العقل the reason
A definite noun ('reason') owned by the 'prompting' before it, closing that 'of' pairing as 'the prompting of reason'. As the owner term it takes the genitive ending. The al- supplies 'the' without a separate word.
The English is machine-translated.
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How it is used
ʿAql is the standard Arabic word for reason or intellect, the quality that makes a person ʿāqil ('rational, sane'). Classical lexicographers connect this abstract sense to the word's literal, primary meaning of binding or restraining — as when a camel's leg is hobbled with a ʿiqāl — reason being what 'restrains' a person from improper conduct. The same root also carries legal-tribal usage: ʿaql for paying or exacting the bloodwit (diya), and al-ʿāqilah for the kin-group collectively responsible for it.
Words from the same root
- عَقَلَ to bind/hobble (a camel); to restrain; to pay bloodwit; to be intelligent
- عَاقِلٌ intelligent, rational, sane (person)
- عِقَالٌ the rope used to hobble a camel; also a unit of collected poor-rate
- عَاقِلَةٌ the group of kinsmen liable to pay bloodwit for one of their own
- عَقَّلَ to hobble a number of camels (intensive of ʿaqala)
More example sentences
وَلِهَذَا أَجَابَ مُعَاوِنُ الشَّرْعِ بِالْتَغْرِيبِ وَالْتَرْهِيبِ يَقْوَى جُنْدُ الْعَقْلِ
For this reason an assistant of the Shari'a replied: By alienation and intimidation the forces of reason become stronger.
الْعَقْلِ of reason
The owning half of 'the forces OF reason', made definite by al- and in the genitive as the possessor. Placed directly after the head-noun with no word for 'of', it both completes the phrase and makes the whole subject definite.
أَمْزَحُ فِيهِ مَزْحَ أَهْلِ الْفَضْلِ وَالْمُزْحُ أَحْيَانًا جَلَاءُ الْعَقْلِ
I joke in it as people of merit do, and jesting sometimes clears the mind.
الْعَقْلِ the mind
The al- makes this definite, 'the' mind, and it closes the 'clearing of...' pairing as its owner. Sitting in the owned-by slot, it carries the genitive 'of' ending, locking the two words into 'the clearing of the mind'.
Common questions
- How do you say "reason" in Arabic?
- Reason is ʿaql (عَقْل), from the root ع-ق-ل, the same root that gives ʿāqil ('rational, sane person').
- What does the root ع-ق-ل literally mean?
- Literally 'to bind, withhold, or restrain' — as in hobbling a camel's leg with a rope (ʿiqāl); the sense of 'reason' developed from this idea of restraint.
Related words
Definitions summarised from Lane's Arabic-English Lexicon (E. W. Lane, 1863–1893).