Discover the meaning of the term Raqm (رقم) in Islamic vocabulary.
Contents :
Updated on 11 April 2026 at 1:05 AM
📖 2 min readWith ’ayn sukun: writing; with its fatha: what the sages of India established for numbers, abbreviating in numeric operations; plural arqam; its roots nine famous: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9.
Lexically: raqm at root verbal noun; of raqamtu the thing: signalling it by a mark distinguishing it from another, as writing and like; said: I raqm’d the garment a raqm: embroidering it, it marquoum; raqamtu the book: writing it, it marquoum. Raqm: the line, writing, seal. Raqm: embroidered khazz, every embroidered cloth: raqm, as said bardo’si; raqm: a brocade kind; Abou Khirrach said: « but for thee, I had married a lady… bearing him a raqm gown ». Raqm: an embroidery kind; said: of khazz; in the hadith: « he came to Fatima and found at her door an embroidered curtain; he said: what have we with the world and raqm? » (Boukhari), meaning engraving and embroidery, root writing. In ’Ali’s hadith of the sky’s description: « a traveling ceiling and an inclined inscription », meaning the sky embroidered with stars. The cloth’s raqm: marked with raqm and its seal: its keeping. Hamid said: « rejoice, we rounded every craft… and touched the embroidered stuff ». The merchant marks his cloth his seal; the cloth’s raqm: its writing. In the hadith: « like adding to raqm », meaning what is written on cloths of their prices that profit-resale fall on it or buyer trust it, then…
The thick writing; said: writing’s adorning. And so-and-so raqama in water: example given of skill in matters.
At root writing and engraving; then said of the engraving the merchant sets on cloths, sign their price such.