Discover the meaning of the term Al-lb (لب) in Islamic vocabulary.
Contents :
Updated on 11 April 2026 at 1:05 AM
📖 2 min readIt is the intellect illumined by the light of holiness, cleansed of the husks of fancies and imaginations.
The intellect purified of impurities; it is said: what is refined of intellect; every lubb is intellect, but not conversely; hence God tied the judgments that only refined intellects grasp to the possessors of hearts (ulu al-albab).
The intellect illumined by the light of holiness, cleansed of the languor of fancies and imaginations.
Laba in a place: settled there and stayed. He struck the man on the lubba: struck his vital part.
That by which one is freed from the accidents of specious appearances, and grounded in regaining realities without recourse to the senses.
The inwardness of the intellect, whose function is to perceive realities among the perceived; mentioned by al-Harali. Ibn Kamal said (al-Ta'rifat, p. 200; al-Qashani, Istilahat al-Sufiyya, p.
72): the intellect illumined by the light of holiness, cleansed of the husks of fancies and imaginations. Al-Raghib said (al-Mufradat, p. 446): the lubb is the intellect pure of impurities, so named because it is the purest of man's powers, as the marrow (lubbab) is the thing's essence.
It is said: what is refined of intellect; every lubb is intellect, but not conversely; hence God tied the judgments that only refined intellects grasp to the possessors of hearts, as 'whoever is given wisdom' and 'none remember but the possessors of hearts' (al-Baqara, 269).