خ ي رgood

خير · khayr · good; better

• Met in: V1 p7 ¶2a: «العلم خير من المال», "knowledge is better than wealth". Already on V1 p5 ¶11: «أن الآخرة خير من الدنيا», "that the Hereafter is better than this world".
• Dictionary form: خَيْر. Lane: "Good, moral or physical; anything that is good … a thing that all desire"; the opposite of شَرّ, evil. And: "xayorN is also used to denote superiority: one says, هذا خير من هذا This is better than this".
• Pattern: فَعْل (faʿl). With مِن after it, it means "better than", with no change of form: most Arabs say خَيْر, not أَخْيَر, Lane notes (see the sentence breakdown on V1 p7).
• Meaning here: "Better": ʿAlī compares knowledge and wealth, and the whole page asks which of two things is better.

Ibn Faris, Maqāyīs al-Lugha, root خير, vol 2, p 232

الخاء والياء والراء أصله العطف والميل، ثم يحمل عليه. فالخير: خلاف الشر

Its origin is inclining and turning towards; the rest is built on that. So khayr is the opposite of evil (because everyone inclines towards it, he goes on).

Urdu bridge

خیر (good, well-being), خیریت (are you well?), خیرات (charity: good things given) and خیر خواہ (well-wisher) are all Urdu. (to be confirmed)

Quran

196 words from this root (Quranic Arabic Corpus). Most common: خَيْر (good, better) ×178, خَيْرَٰت (good things) ×10.

وَٱلْـَٔاخِرَةُ خَيْرٌ وَأَبْقَىٰٓ

While the Hereafter is better and more enduring.

Surah Al-A'laa (87), ayah 17 · Saheeh International

Why this ayah: «خَيْرٌ وَأَبْقَىٰٓ», "better and more enduring": خير as "better", about the Hereafter, the same comparison Ghazali draws on V1 p5 ¶9.

In the Ihya

خير: 773 times in the Ihya.