Derivation of the word Taqwa

Discussion in 'العربية (Arabic)' started by UrduMedium, Nov 28, 2012.

  1. UrduMedium Senior Member

    United States
    Urdu (Karachi)
    I'm curious to know the 3-letter root for the word taqwa (تقوی) and what transformations to the root lead to this final form. Any analogues from other roots will be very helpful.
    Last edited: Nov 28, 2012
  2. suma Senior Member

    English, USA
    Comes from وقى

    I used to be a whiz at Arabic grammar, but its been over a decade since I've been around the field in any significant way.
    Because of the weak letters ى and و irregular "adjustments" had to be made.
  3. dkarjala Senior Member

    English - America
    تقوى is built on the wazn فَعلَى from a supposed root تقى. This root is among several which are derived from the افتعل form of the verb (form VIII in Western grammars). Because of the assimilation of the و to ت in the verbal forms (اتّقى، يتّقي، اتّقاء) the root is reanalyzed as ت-ق-ي and a whole series of other verbs are derived from this root. There are various ways to look at this but at the end of the day, the simplest view, to me, is that it is a by-form of theoretical تقيا/تقيى from the root ت-ق-ي which itself is 'derived' from form VIII of و-ق-ي. There also exist other forms تُقاة/تقيّة in the Classical corpus with the same meaning.
  4. UrduMedium Senior Member

    United States
    Urdu (Karachi)
    ^ Thank you dkarjala, for a most helpful and educational response.

    Couple of follow-up questions:

    - Is the introduction of و while going from تقيا/تقيى to تقوی a frequent phenomenon too? Could you share some other examples?
    - You mentioned the same pattern follows in other derived roots. Could you share a couple that follow the same pattern as تقوی? I suppose the original roots would need to start with a و there as well?

    Also, thanks suma for your helpful reply.

  5. إسكندراني

    إسكندراني Senior Member

    أرض الأنجل
    عربي (مصر)ـ | en (gb)
    نجوى، مروى، مولى
    the 'root of roots' is largely speculative as far as I'm aware.

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