Discover the meaning of the term Azl (أَزْلُ) in Islamic vocabulary.
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Updated on 11 April 2026 at 1:05 AM
📖 2 min readHardness and straitness; one says: the man knew azl, that is, fell into straits and dearth, as if intending their hardness of despair and despondency.
The absence of beginning, or the continuance of existence in measured times infinite on the side of the past. The first is wider than the second, the first applying also to inexistence, unlike the second, realized only in eternal existents, as is manifest. The verifier at-Taftazani said, in his commentary of the Nassafian Creeds, explaining the advent of existents and accidents: the third point is that azl does not express a specific state till the end, and what came to my worn spirit and ailing mind… or that its repetition among the purified friends and cream of companions rests upon the sanakmizi, may Allah give him the best he hopes, in clarifying that inquiry: the third point from the side of the sages is that his saying « azl till the end »… its upshot is barring the consequence if by the advented is meant the determined advented, that is, the determined motion; and barring the consequent’s possibility if meant is the advented absolutely, that is, motion absolutely.
The continuance of existence in measured times infinite on the side of the past, as al-abad is the continuance of existence likewise on the side of the future.
The ancientness having no beginning; employed metaphorically of long life. Azl is the continuance of existence in measured times infinite on the past’s side, as al-abad on the future’s. And the azli: what inexistence does not precede.
The continuance of existence in measured times infinite on the side of the past.
﴿فَأَزَلَّهُمَا ٱلشَّيْطَـٰنُ عَنْهَا فَأَخْرَجَهُمَا مِمَّا كَانَا فِيهِ ۖ وَقُلْنَا ٱهْبِطُوا۟ بَعْضُكُمْ لِبَعْضٍ عَدُوٌّۭ ۖ وَلَكُمْ فِى ٱلْأَرْضِ مُسْتَقَرٌّۭ وَمَتَـٰعٌ إِلَىٰ حِينٍۢ﴾
« But Satan caused them to slip out of it and removed them from that [condition] in which they had been. And We said, "Go down, [all of you], as enemies to one another, and you will have upon the earth a place of settlement and provision for a time." »
Surah البقرة : 36