What does Al-kyf mean?

Islam > Glossary > Al-kyf

Discover the meaning of the term Al-kyf (كيف) in Islamic vocabulary.

Definition Al-kyf

Al-kyf according to Kitab at-Ta'rifat (Al-Jurjani)

An enduring mode in the thing, requiring neither division nor relation in itself. The word 'mode' embraces all accidents; 'enduring in the thing' is a reservation against the non-enduring mode, such as motion, time, action, and passion; 'requiring no division' excludes quantity; 'nor relation' excludes the rest of the relational accidents; 'in itself' so as to include the modes requiring division or relation through their subject's requiring it. Kayf is of four kinds: the first, the sensible modes: either enduring, like the sweetness of honey and the saltiness of seawater, called affections (infi'aliyyat); or non-enduring, like the redness of shame and the yellowness of fright, called emotions (infi'alat), being causes of the soul's emotions; the change occurring in them is called istihala (alteration), as the grape sweetens and the water warms.

The second: the psychic modes: either enduring, like the craft of writing in the trained, called habits (malakat); or non-enduring, like writing in the untrained, called states (halat). The third: the modes specific to quantities: either the continuous quantities, such as threeness, fourness, straightness, and crookedness; or the discrete, such as evenness and oddness.

Al-kyf according to Dustur al-'Ulama (Al-Ahmadnagari)

An accident requiring neither division nor relation in itself. The first restriction is against quantity, which requires division in itself, the second against the remaining accidents, for relation, like fatherhood, requires relation to the father, likewise whenever an accident requires a relation of existing in time; and the rest of the accidents are on this pattern. We said 'in itself' only to include in kayf the modes requiring division or relation through their subject's requiring it.

Al-kyf according to Maqalid al-'Ulum (As-Suyuti)

The accident which, by comparison to another, is not a quiddity, and which does not require division in itself.

Al-kyf according to At-Tawqif (Al-Munawi)

An enduring mode in the thing requiring neither division nor relation in itself; said by Abu l-Baqa (this is also what al-Jurjani said in his Ta'rifat, p. 198).

Al-kyf according to At-Tawqif (Al-Munawi)

A word whose meaning is the interrogation about the totality of states whose lot is to be perceived by the senses.

Al-kyf according to At-Ta'rifat al-Fiqhiyya (Al-Barkati)

An enduring mode requiring neither division nor relation in itself.

Related terms: Al-kyf