Discover the meaning of the term Al-khlaʾ (خلاء) in Islamic vocabulary.
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Updated on 11 April 2026 at 1:05 AM
📖 4 min readIt is the extension Plato holds void, and the imagined space with the theologians, that is, the space imagination establishes and perceives of the body surrounding another body, as the space occupied by water or air within the jug; this imagined void is of those where the body may occur and which may serve it as container in their view; under this aspect they make it the body's place (hayyiz), and under the aspect of its being empty of the body's occupancy they make it the void (khala'); the khala' with them is thus this void, with the condition that no occupant of bodies occupy it; it is then a pure negation, for the imagined void does not exist externally, but is with them an imagined thing: were it to exist it would be an extension they hold void, and they do not say so; the sages hold the void impossible, and the theologians possible; what is beyond the world is not an extension, not that extensions end at the world, nor is it susceptible of increase or decrease; for it is pure negation, and cannot be void in either of the two senses; rather the void follows only from the container's existence with the contained's absence, and that is not possible.
It is the imagined void, with the condition that the body not occur in it; and it is the imagined extension without considering the body's occurrence in it. The imagined extension with consideration of the body's occurrence in it is the place (makan) with the theologians, as will come under makan, God willing.
The maddud: the latrine; and the maqsur, without hamza: the plant. Al-khala', maddud: the place where natural need is performed, according to al-Jawhari; its origin is khalwa, for he who would relieve himself does so alone to be apart, and that place was specified by that name. Abu Ubayd said: the place of stool is called al-khala', al-madhhab, al-marfiq and al-mirhad; it is also called al-kanif, for covering in it; and everything covered, building or other, is a kanif. Al-khala': the extension Plato holds void. Al-khala': the imagined space with the theologians, that is, the space imagination establishes and perceives of the body surrounding another body, as the space occupied by water and air within the jug; this imagined void is the thing apt to receive the body and serve it as container in their view; under this aspect they make it the body's place, and under the aspect of its being empty of the body's occupancy they make it the khala'. The khala' is impossible with the sages, unlike the theologians. (Al-Matla', pp. 11, 230; al-Kafiyya of al-Khwarizmi, 1/366, 367; al-Mughni of Ibn Batish, p. 47).
The place without cover, building or other. The khala' (al-Ta'rifat, p. 105): the extension Plato holds void, and the imagined space with the theologians, that is, the space imagination establishes and perceives of the body surrounding another body, as the space occupied by water and air within the jug; this imagined void is the thing apt to receive the body and serve it as container in their view; under this aspect they make it the body's place, and under the aspect of its being empty of the body's occupancy they make it the khala'. And the khala' is impossible with the sages, unlike the theologians.
With fatha of the kha, maddud, from khala: the place without building (empty space).