ف ق هunderstanding

الفقه · al-fiqh · understanding

• Met in: V1 p5 ¶7a: «من يرد الله به خيرا يفقهه في الدين», "whoever Allah wants good for, He gives him understanding in the religion"; and the word itself on V1 p5 ¶10b: «فإنه ما أراد به الفقه الذي ظننته», "for he did not mean by it the fiqh you supposed". Ghazali first used it on V1 p4 ¶4, for the subject the jurists study.
• Dictionary form: فِقْه. Lane: "Understanding of a thing; and knowledge thereof; and intelligence"; and, as the lawyers use it, "the science of the law; jurisprudence". The verb فَقِهَ: "he understood".
• Pattern: فِعْل (fiʿl). Lane says فَقِهَ and فِقْه are like عَلِمَ and عِلْم "in measure and in meaning". The person is فَقِيه, plural فُقَهَاء: "any one possessing knowledge of a thing", and then, above all, "one possessing knowledge of the law".
• Meaning here: Understanding in the religion. Ghazali warns that it is not the fiqh of the jurists of his day (V1 p5 ¶10b). Its lowest degree is knowing that the next life is better than this world, so truly that it drives out hypocrisy (V1 p5 ¶11).

Ibn Faris, Maqāyīs al-Lugha, root فقه, vol 4, p 441

الفاء والقاف والهاء أصل واحد صحيح، يدل على إدراك الشيء والعلم به

One sound origin: grasping a thing and knowing it.

Urdu bridge

In Urdu فقہ is Islamic law (فقہ حنفی), and فقیہ a jurist: the narrow sense Ghazali warns about. The hadith mean the wider one, سمجھ: understanding the religion. (to be confirmed)

Quran

20 words from this root (Quranic Arabic Corpus), all verbs: يَفْقَهُ (understand) ×19, يَتَفَقَّهُ (gain understanding) ×1.

وَمَا كَانَ ٱلْمُؤْمِنُونَ لِيَنفِرُوا۟ كَآفَّةً فَلَوْلَا نَفَرَ مِن كُلِّ فِرْقَةٍ مِّنْهُمْ طَآئِفَةٌ لِّيَتَفَقَّهُوا۟ فِى ٱلدِّينِ وَلِيُنذِرُوا۟ قَوْمَهُمْ إِذَا رَجَعُوٓا۟ إِلَيْهِمْ لَعَلَّهُمْ يَحْذَرُونَ

And it is not for the believers to go forth [to battle] all at once. For there should separate from every division of them a group [remaining] to obtain understanding in the religion and warn their people when they return to them that they might be cautious.

Surah At-Tawba (9), ayah 122 · Saheeh International

Why this ayah: «لِّيَتَفَقَّهُوا۟ فِى ٱلدِّينِ», "to obtain understanding in the religion": the same pairing as the hadith on V1 p5 ¶7a and V1 p6 ¶2f, understanding in the religion.

In the Ihya

الفقه: 161 times in the Ihya.