Discover the meaning of the term Al-tṭbyq (تطبيق) in Islamic vocabulary.
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Updated on 11 April 2026 at 1:05 AM
📖 3 min readIt is also called mutabaqa, tibaq, takafu' and tidad; it is the joining of two contraries while preserving correspondence, not pairing a noun with a verb nor a verb with a noun, as in God's saying: 'let them laugh a little and weep much.'
Matching verb with verb and noun with noun.
Applying (tibq) a thing to a thing: making it conform to it, so that it holds true of it.
Mutabaqa, tidad and tibaq have, in rhetoric (badi'), one and the same sense.
In language: masdar of tabbaqa. Ibn Faris said: the ta', ba' and qaf form one sound root signifying the laying of a thing extended upon its like until it covers it: 'you applied (atbaqta) upon the thing'; the first applied the second, and the two applied to one another; hence 'the people conformed (atbaqu) to such a thing', as though their sayings were equalized so that one might serve as covering for the other. Tibq in prayer: al-Jawhari said: placing the hands between the thighs in bowing; one says 'he applied his hand, tabqan': when it is not spread. It is defined: that the worshiper place the hollow of one palm upon the hollow of the other and set them between his knees and thighs. Or: the adhesion of the palms' hollows in bowing, placing them between the thighs (Mu'jam al-Maqayis, art. t-b-q, p. 631; al-Misbah al-Munir, art. tibaq, p. 140; al-Tawqif, p. 182; al-Maghrib, pp. 287-288; al-Nazm al-Musta'dhab, 1/80; al-Kulliyyat, p. 313; Nayl al-Awtar, 2/244; al-Mawsu'a al-Fiqhiyya, 12/141).
Mutabaqa (conformity). In prayer: the adhesion of the palms' hollows in bowing and in the tashahhud, and placing them between the thighs: this is disapproved. Al-tabaq: the thing measured to another, laid over it on all sides, as its cover; plural atbaq and tibaq. In the Quran: 'Do you not see how God created seven heavens in layers (tibaqan) and made the moon therein a light and the sun a lamp?' (Nuh, 15-16): one above another. The state: 'you shall surely ride from state to state (tabaqan 'an tabaq)' (al-Inshiqaq, 19). Household furnishings. Al-mutabaqa: conformity. Al-mutbaq: one says of a man he is mutbaq 'alayhi: unconscious. Al-mutbiq: the underground prison; of madness: that which covers its bearer and envelops him; one says an ignorance or madness mutbaq: total; a fever mutbaqa: that leaves not its bearer.
Hitting the exact point (mahazz) in stating the argument.