Discover the meaning of the term Mithl (مثل) in Islamic vocabulary.
Contents :
Updated on 11 April 2026 at 1:05 AM
📖 2 min readAnd mithal Persian: mand; the difference: mithl shares all descriptions, mithal one description, sharing all or not; hence Allah said: « nothing like Him »: said not « nothing His mithl ». Permitted saying Him mithal, as said reason the sun’s mithal: as sensibles unveil by sun, intelligibles by reason: reason shares sun unveiling, said not reason the sun’s mithl.
Man before so-and-so, mithlan: having stood; noble hadith: « who loves people standing him, seat in Fire », meaning standing him sitting. So-and-so: leaving his place. So-and-so so-and-so: becoming his like, filling his place. Statues: sculpting them. Of so-and-so, mithl and mithla: mutilated cutting nose, ear, other limb. Of so-and-so, mithl, mithla: mutilated cutting nose, ear, other limb; tamthil: likening, strengthening exaggeration. Of the thing by the thing: equaling, likening. Him the thing: drawing its image by writing or other.
What is mentioned, occurring, its use likewise.
Of the genus: what filled another’s place in the genus; other genus: what holds a sense nearing other as its genus-nearness. Ar-Raghib said: mithl a word on a thing, word on another, resemblance between, each showing other, forming it.
With kasra: an equivalencing word; mim and tha fatha, tongue for mithl in likeness and counterpart’s sense, then transferred to common speech illustrated by its example and occurrence.