Discover the meaning of the term Al-fʿl (فعل) in Islamic vocabulary.
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Updated on 11 April 2026 at 1:05 AM
📖 2 min readIt is the mode (hay'a) befalling the agent in another through his affecting it, as the mode occurring to the cutter from his being one who cuts. In the grammarians' usage: what indicates a meaning in itself joined to one of the three tenses. It has been said: fi'l is a thing's being an influence upon another, like the cutter as long as he cuts.
With kasra of the 'ayn: it comes of ills and griefs, such as sickness, frailty, joy, and sorrow. With damma: it comes of temperaments and qualities, such as aptness, sweetness, beauty, and generosity.
With fatha: masdar of fa'ala yaf'alu. With kasra, according to the grammarians: a word indicating a meaning in itself, joined by the origin of its assignment to one of the three tenses. According to the philosophers: one of the nine accidents, namely the mode occurring to the cutter from his being one who cuts as long as he cuts.
Fi'l and infi'al being two unjoined matters, they were exemplified by the cutter's cutting as long as he cuts, and the growing warm as long as it grows warm. Fi'l as opposed to potentiality (quwwa) is realization in one of the tenses.
It is affecting (acting upon another).
What indicates a meaning in itself joined to one of the three tenses; what by itself can serve for information, and whose mode of assignment indicates one of the three tenses.
The mode befalling the agent in another through his affecting it; first, the mode occurring to the cutter from his being one who cuts. According to the grammarians: what indicates a meaning in itself joined to one of the three tenses; so ruled Ibn al-Kammal (At-Ta'rifat, p. 175).