Quranic root
فلح
f · l · ḥ
The root has two established semantic orientations: cleaving or splitting, and attaining success together with continuance in a good state.
The first orientation appears in splitting objects and furrowing land. The second develops from victory and attainment into prosperity, security, enduring well-being, and final felicity.
- Maqāyīs · row 3640
- 2
- Quran-attested forms
- 2
- Quran senses
- 40
- Quran occurrences
Forms in the Quran
The forms this root actually takes in the Quran. Select one to jump to its senses and examples.
أَفْلَحَ
ʾaflaḥa
- Part of speech
- Verb · Form IV
- Form
- IV
- Quran occurrences
- 27 occurrences
Selected examples are shown with the sense they illustrate — chosen to teach that sense, not the complete list of this form’s Quran occurrences.
To prosper or succeed: to attain what one seeks, or what is good, and thereby enter a felicitous state.
In Quranic usage, the attained felicity may concern worldly well-being or final prosperity. The result can be expressed as present, future, or completed according to the verb's grammatical form; final felicity is characterized by enduring life, sufficiency, honor, and knowledge rather than their opposites.
- Lane · entry 34857
- Mufradāt · row 1132
Selected Quran examples
مُفْلِح
mufliḥ
- Part of speech
- Active participle
- Quran occurrences
- 13 occurrences
Selected examples are shown with the sense they illustrate — chosen to teach that sense, not the complete list of this form’s Quran occurrences.
Those who prosper or attain success; the successful ones.
A substantivized active participle, attested in the Quran in masculine plural inflections. It characterizes people who attain good and felicity, whether the context concerns worldly success or final felicity.
- Mufradāt · row 1132
Selected Quran examples
Quran 2:5word 8
“(are) the successful ones”
Quran 23:102word 6
“(are) the successful”
Quran 7:157word 43
“the successful ones”
Occurrences in the Quran
Every place this root appears, in Quran order. The first few are shown here.
- 2:5ٱلْمُفْلِحُونَ(are) the successful ones
- 2:189تُفْلِحُونَ(be) successful
- 3:104ٱلْمُفْلِحُونَ(are) the successful ones
- 3:130تُفْلِحُونَ(be) successful
- 3:200تُفْلِحُونَ(be) successful
Broader Classical Arabic meanings
Recorded for this root in the Classical lexicons beyond its Quran usage. These are secondary to the Quran senses above.
Show 20 Classical meanings
فَلَحَ
To cleave, split, slit, crack, or cut; of land, to furrow or plough it for cultivation.
The bodily or material use concerns something being split or slit; the agricultural use concerns tilling the ground.
- Lane · entry 34855
فَلَحَ
To use artifice, fraud, or guile against someone; to deceive or mock through such conduct, including defrauding in a sale.
In a commercial construction, it may describe fraudulent overbidding or inducing another to buy at an inflated price.
- Lane · entry 34855
أَفْلَحَ
To be or become safe or secure, or to continue in a good and prosperous state with ease, comfort, or the blessings of life.
This is a broader Classical use of the Form IV verb beyond the Quran-attested success sense.
- Lane · entry 34857
أَفْلَحَ بِالشَّيْءِ
To live or subsist by means of a thing.
The preposition بِـ introduces the thing serving as one's means of living; the expression can also carry the related idea of prospering by it.
- Lane · entry 34857
اِسْتَفْلِحِي بِأَمْرِكِ
In an archaic divorce formula, “prosper in your affair” or “be independent in it.”
When addressed by a husband to his wife and accepted, the allusive formula effected separation; intention was required because the expression was indirect.
- Lane · entry 34858
فَلْحٌ
A fissure, cleft, slit, or crack.
The plural فُلُوحٌ is used for fissures or cracks, including those produced by cold.
- Lane · entry 34859
فَلَحٌ
A fissure or crack in the lower lip, or the place of such a fissure; a lip-slit smaller than an عَلَم.
The term can denote the condition itself or the corresponding place in the lip.
- Lane · entry 34860
فَلَحَةٌ
A field or piece of land furrowed or ploughed for cultivation.
This is a noun for cultivated, furrowed land, distinct from the verbal action of ploughing.
- Lane · entry 34861
فَلَاحٌ
Prosperity, success, attainment of what is sought, safety, or continuance in a good state; by extension, lastingness or duration.
In the call to prayer, حَيَّ عَلَى الْفَلَاحِ invites people to the means of safety, prosperity, salvation, or enduring good, including attainment of Paradise. The noun may also simply denote persistence or duration.
- Lane · entry 34862
فَلَاحٌ
The pre-dawn meal eaten before beginning a day's fast.
This specialized usage is explained by the meal's sustaining the strength or usefulness that continues through the fast.
- Lane · entry 34862
فِلَاحَةٌ
Agriculture, or the art, work, or occupation of ploughing, tilling, and cultivating land.
The vowel and form distinguish this noun from the success noun فَلَاحٌ.
- Lane · entry 34864
فَلِيحَةٌ
The pericarp of the marakh tree when it splits open.
The word is also reported with ج in place of ح, but the cited form belongs to this lexical entry.
- Lane · entry 34865
فَلَّاحٌ
A plougher, tiller, or cultivator of land; a peasant.
The designation is associated with cleaving and working the soil.
- Lane · entry 34866
فَلَّاحٌ
A seaman or sailor, a servant of ships or boats.
This is a figurative occupational extension of the term for a cultivator.
- Lane · entry 34866
فَلَّاحٌ
One who lets asses or other beasts out on hire.
The term is applied by analogy with the cultivator's occupation.
- Lane · entry 34866
فَلَّاحٌ
One who defrauds another in a sale by the conduct associated with فَلَحَ بِهِ.
This is the agent noun for the specialized fraudulent-sale usage.
- Lane · entry 34866
أَفْلَحُ
Having a fissure or crack in the lower lip.
The feminine form فَلْحَاءُ can be used when the described noun, such as الشَّفَةُ, is feminine.
- Lane · entry 34867
أَفْلَاحٌ
A prospering or successful people, attaining what they seek or what is good.
This plural is reported without a securely established singular form in the cited discussion.
- Lane · entry 34868
مَفْلَحَةٌ
A cause or means of prosperity, success, or attainment of what is sought or good.
The noun denotes something instrumental in producing a felicitous or prosperous state.
- Lane · entry 34869
مُتَفَلِّحُ الشَّفَةِ
Having the lip, hands, or feet much chapped or cracked.
The participial adjective describes extensive cracking, especially cracking caused by cold.
- Lane · entry 34870
Cautions
Points that affect how this root should be read.
The root contains distinct cleaving and prosperity branches; the agricultural and bodily meanings should not be conflated with success.
A reported alternate passive reading of the opening of al-Mu'minun is a grammatical or recitational variant; the QAC form represented here is the active Form IV verb.