Discover the meaning of the term Al-rjl (رجل) in Islamic vocabulary.
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Updated on 11 April 2026 at 1:05 AM
📖 2 min readThe male of the sons of Adam who has passed the limit of childhood by puberty.
Esteemed (ma'ruf): he is so only when he has had a nocturnal emission and matured; or he is a 'man of an hour': one newly born.
With fatha of the first and damma of the second: the male of the sons of Adam who has passed the limit of childhood by puberty, whether the passing be literal, as with the sons of Adam (peace be upon him), or legal, as with Adam himself. The attaining of this aim, with more detail, is in our book Jami' al-Ghumuz fi Sharh al-Kalima and in our epistle Sayf al-Mubtadi'in fi Qatl al-Maghurin.
Al-rajul, in the language: the opposite of the woman: the male of the human kind; it is said: he is rajul only when he has had a nocturnal emission and matured; it is said: he is a 'man of an hour': from the time his mother bears him and after. Its diminutive is rajayl by the measure, and rujayl outside the measure; its plural is rijal, and the plural of the plural: rijalat. Rajul is also used for the walker, whence the word of the Most High: 'if you fear, then afoot or mounted, salute yourselves.'
The male of the sons of Adam who has passed the limit of childhood by puberty.