Discover the meaning of the term Al-myl (ميل) in Islamic vocabulary.
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Updated on 11 April 2026 at 1:05 AM
📖 3 min readA state that befalls the body, distinct from motion, which nature brings about by means of it.
It is the manner (kayfiyya) by which the body complies with what hinders it.
With fatha: see khatir (thought), khayal (imagination), raghba (desire), and 'ishq (passionate love). As for the philosophers (hukama), what they state in the examination of inclination is that the resistance of the hinderer rests upon inclination, which the theologians (mutakallimun) called isti'mad (recourse). The Shaykh al-Ra'is (Avicenna) defined it in the Risalat al-hudud as the manner by which the body resists what would keep it from motion toward some direction. The term mayl is also applied to resistance itself.
With kasra: the name of a known distance. Al-Azhari said: the mil among the Arabs is the expanse of land which a man's sight can scarcely reach to its farthest end. The mil taken into account here is six thousand cubits; the cubit is twenty-four transverse fingers, and the finger six average grains of barley laid crosswise. This distance amounts, in marching stages, to two stages: 1. the walking pace of laden beasts; 2. the shuffling pace of pedestrians. In the Ifsah: ninety-six thousand fingers; it equals three thousand cubits reckoning the cubit at thirty-two fingers according to the ancient astronomers, and four thousand cubits reckoning it at twenty-four fingers according to the moderns; that is thirty ghulwa if the ghulwa is four hundred cubits, or sixty ghulwa if it is two hundred. It has also been said: the mil is ten ghulwat. (Tahrir al-Tanbih, p. 92; al-Ifsah fi fiqh al-lugha, 2/1252).
The sun's or the star's departure from midday (the meridian).
The departure from the middle toward one of the two sides. Wealth (mal) was so named because it is ever inclining and fleeting; hence it was called 'ard (an accident, a passing thing).
﴿وَٱللَّهُ يُرِيدُ أَن يَتُوبَ عَلَيْكُمْ وَيُرِيدُ ٱلَّذِينَ يَتَّبِعُونَ ٱلشَّهَوَٰتِ أَن تَمِيلُوا۟ مَيْلًا عَظِيمًۭا﴾
« Allah wants to accept your repentance, but those who follow [their] passions want you to digress [into] a great deviation. »
Surah النساء : 27
﴿وَلَن تَسْتَطِيعُوٓا۟ أَن تَعْدِلُوا۟ بَيْنَ ٱلنِّسَآءِ وَلَوْ حَرَصْتُمْ ۖ فَلَا تَمِيلُوا۟ كُلَّ ٱلْمَيْلِ فَتَذَرُوهَا كَٱلْمُعَلَّقَةِ ۚ وَإِن تُصْلِحُوا۟ وَتَتَّقُوا۟ فَإِنَّ ٱللَّهَ كَانَ غَفُورًۭا رَّحِيمًۭا﴾
« And you will never be able to be equal [in feeling] between wives, even if you should strive [to do so]. So do not incline completely [toward one] and leave another hanging. And if you amend [your affairs] and fear Allah - then indeed, Allah is ever Forgiving and Merciful. »
Surah النساء : 129