Discover the meaning of the term Al-mqdar (مقدار) in Islamic vocabulary.
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Updated on 11 April 2026 at 1:05 AM
📖 2 min readIt is continuous magnitude; it differs from bodily and qualitative form: the miqdar is either one extension, which is the line, or two, which is the surface, or three, which is the didactic body. The miqdar, in language, is quantity; in technical usage: the continuous quantity that embraces, in common, body, line, surface and thickness. Miqdar, position (hay'a), figure and didactic body are all accidents in one sense in the terminology of the sages.
In language: that by which the measure of a thing is known, such as the cubit, capacity measure, weight, gauge and number. Among the sages: the continuous quantity whose parts settle, such as the line, the surface and the didactic body; or whose parts do not settle, such as time. The meaning of the miqdar being the mean in the ratio, among the geometers, is that it stands between two magnitudes, the ratio of that mean magnitude to one of those two magnitudes being like the ratio of the other of those two magnitudes to that mean magnitude; as four between two and eight: it is half of eight as two is half of it; or one says that eight is double four as four is double two. The meaning of the mean magnitude being the side of what the two extremes enclose is that the product of the magnitude multiplied by itself equals the product of one extreme by the other: the product of four by itself is sixteen, as the product of two by eight, and conversely, is sixteen.
In language: quantity.
That by which the thing is known, whether numbered, measured or weighed.