Discover the meaning of the term Basit (بسيط) in Islamic vocabulary.
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Updated on 11 April 2026 at 1:05 AM
📖 2 min readThree kinds: the real simple, having no part at all: the Creator, transcended; the customary simple: what composes not of bodies of differing natures; and the relative simple: whose parts are lesser toward the other. The simple is also spiritual and corporeal: the spiritual as intellects and detached souls; the corporeal as elements.
What has no part at all, as the Creator transcended: the real simple. Basit also applied to other senses. One: what composes not of bodies of differing natures by the senses, though differing by the matter itself, embracing elements, spheres and like organs as flesh and bone: every water drop, flesh or bone piece is water, flesh, bone. The second: what every quantitative part of it is, really, equal to all in name and definition: elements enter, not spheres and like organs, the water drop a quantitative part of water equal to all in name and definition, unlike the sphere-piece called constellation not sphere, unlike like organs whose quantitative parts are the elements, sharing not their names nor bounds. The third: what every quantitative part is, by the senses, equal to all in name and definition: elements and like organs enter, not spheres: the water drop or flesh piece equal to all in name and definition by the senses, unlike the sphere-piece called constellation not sphere…
A body not composed of bodies of differing natures, having length and width only, its edges lines.
Three: the real simple having no part, as the Creator sanctified; the customary simple, not composed of differing-natured parts; and the relative simple, whose parts are lesser toward the other. The simple also spiritual, as intellects and detached souls, and corporeal, as elements.