Discover the meaning of the term Al-ʿṣb (عصب) in Islamic vocabulary.
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Updated on 11 April 2026 at 1:05 AM
📖 3 min readMaking silent the fifth moving letter, as silencing the lam of mufa'alatun so that it remains mufa'al tun, which turns into mufa'ilun; the form is then called ma'suba.
And, in Persian, the softening of the joints (bi). With sukun of the second, in 'arud: silencing the fifth moving letter; the form is then called ma'suba.
A thing: to bind it with the band. So-and-so: to starve him; to ruin him. One says: the years 'asabat-hu: they consumed his wealth. At-ta'assub: partisanship and defense. Al-'asib: agent noun of asaba. In terminology: he who has an allotted share by aggregation of the heirs to inherit from them; he inherits all the wealth if alone, and inherits the residue after the fixed shares by representation (al-Dawudi). Al-'isab: that with which one ties, a kerchief or rag. Al-'isaba: the 'isab (plural 'asa'ib). The turban. The crown. The group of men, horses or birds. Al-'asb: a kind of Yemeni cloth, whose thread is gathered, then dyed, then woven. Al-'asaba: the 'asaba. The man: his sons and his paternal kin; or his people who band together for him and aid him (singular and plural). Al-Qurtubi said: as for the jurists' naming the sister with the daughter 'asaba, it is by way of accommodation; for, being in this case, she takes what remains of the daughter's share, making her resemble the 'asib. In inheritance, technically: everyone who inherits the whole wealth or part of it by himself, without a fixed portion stated in the Book or the Sunna (al-Husayn al-San'ani). Outside inheritance, according to al-Shawkani: those who inherit a man by the residual kindred, without father or son; and of this the noble hadith: the Messenger of God judged that a woman's 'asaba, those who were, inherit from her.
Bodies sprouting from the brain or the marrow, soft in bending and hard in separation.
With haraka: the softening of the joints. Al-'asaba, with damma: a solidarity group, that is, mutually supporting. The 'asaba by himself, in inheritance: every male whose kinship to the deceased involves no female. The 'asaba by another: the women allotted the half or the two-thirds, who become 'asaba through their brothers.