The Qur’anic Root AYN M L (ʿ M L)

1. ʿ M L in early Arabic

Ibn Fāris says of this root:

العَيْنُ وَالْمِيمُ وَاللَّامُ أَصْلٌ وَاحِدٌ صَحِيحٌ، وَهُوَ عَامٌّ فِي كُلِّ فِعْلٍ يُفْعَلُ

Al-ʿaynu wa-l-mīmu wa-l-lāmu aṣlun wāḥidun ṣaḥīḥun, wa-huwa ʿāmmun fī kulli fiʿlin yufʿalu.

“ʿAyn, mīm, and lām constitute one sound basic root, general in its application to every action that is performed.”

In other words, this root is a general word family for work that is done.

Other lexical sources also explain ʿamal through work, occupation, and action, recording uses for working, making, farming, digging, service, and administration. This family was even used of animals employed for work.

These findings show that moral character, responsibility, a particular intention, or a human agent is not an essential part of the root’s definition.

Al-Rāghib al-Iṣfahānī proposes a finer distinction: he describes ʿamal as an action proceeding intentionally from a living being, making it narrower than fiʿl. This analysis may explain an important tendency in usage, but, given other lexicographers’ broader definitions and the language’s wide range of uses, it should not become an absolute rule.

Does this root have a physical image?

There is no demonstrable original physical image for ʿ M L.

To illustrate work, one might picture someone using their hands or strength to make something or carry a task forward. Such an illustration, however, is not etymological evidence. ʿ M L is unlike a root such as أ س ر (ʾ S R), for which “binding” can be identified as a clear physical image.

The early evidence here is simpler: working and engaging in a task.

2. Work is neither righteous nor bad in itself

One of the clearest witnesses to the root’s neutrality is this verse:

يَوْمَ تَجِدُ كُلُّ نَفْسٍ مَا عَمِلَتْ مِنْ خَيْرٍ مُحْضَرًا وَمَا عَمِلَتْ مِنْ سُوءٍ

Yawma tajidu kullu nafsin mā ʿamilat min khayrin muḥḍaran wa-mā ʿamilat min sūʾin.

“The day when every soul finds present whatever good it has done, and whatever evil it has done…”

Āl ʿImrān 3:30

The same verb, عَمِلَتْ (ʿamilat), occurs with both good and evil. Goodness or evil therefore does not come from ʿ M L itself.

The Qur’an also says:

مَنْ عَمِلَ صَالِحًا فَلِنَفْسِهِ وَمَنْ أَسَاءَ فَعَلَيْهَا

Man ʿamila ṣāliḥan fa-li-nafsihi wa-man asāʾa fa-ʿalayhā.

“Whoever does righteous work, it is for their own benefit; and whoever does evil, it is against them.”

Fuṣṣilat 41:46

And:

مَنْ يَعْمَلْ سُوءًا يُجْزَ بِهِ

Man yaʿmal sūʾan yujza bihi.

“Whoever does evil will be recompensed for it.”

Al-Nisāʾ 4:123

Thus ʿamal can be directed toward good or evil; its description and context determine its value.

Righteous work

The expression:

آمَنُوا وَعَمِلُوا الصَّالِحَاتِ

Āmanū wa-ʿamilū al-ṣāliḥāti.

“They believed and did righteous works.”

is one of the Qur’an’s most frequently recurring combinations.

Linguistically, the expression’s two components must remain distinct:

ʿAmal is the work that is done;
ṣāliḥ describes that work.

The precise meaning of ṣalāḥ comes from ص ل ح (Ṣ L Ḥ), not ʿ M L. “Righteous work” should therefore not be turned into definitions of ʿamal itself such as “reforming work,” “work aligned with truth,” or “faith in the form of work,” unless an independent examination of Ṣ L Ḥ supports such a meaning in that context.

The frequent pairing of faith and righteous work in the Qur’an establishes an important relationship between them. Their coordination, however, does not establish that one is lexically the outward form of the other.

3. “أَحْسَنُ عَمَلًا (aḥsanu ʿamalan)” and the assessment of work

The Qur’an uses the construction أَحْسَنُ عَمَلًا (aḥsanu ʿamalan) in several places. Al-Mulk 67:2 states:

الَّذِي خَلَقَ الْمَوْتَ وَالْحَيَاةَ لِيَبْلُوَكُمْ أَيُّكُمْ أَحْسَنُ عَمَلًا

Alladhī khalaqa al-mawta wa-l-ḥayāta li-yabluwakum ayyukum aḥsanu ʿamalan.

“The One who created death and life to test you as to which of you is better in work.”

This verse shows that work can be assessed and compared. أحسن عملا (aḥsanu ʿamalan) is not the same as أكثر عملا (aktharu ʿamalan): the statement concerns better work, not merely more of it.

Criteria such as sincerity, quantity, endurance, truthfulness, or firmness cannot, however, be extracted from the word ʿamal itself. If any of these criteria inform the verse’s interpretation, they must be established from its context or other verses.

4. Work and responsibility in the Qur’an

Although responsibility is not part of ʿ M L’s lexical definition, the Qur’an repeatedly connects human work with consequences, judgment, and recompense.

Al-Naḥl 16:111 states:

وَتُوَفَّىٰ كُلُّ نَفْسٍ مَا عَمِلَتْ

Wa-tuwaffā kullu nafsin mā ʿamilat.

“And every soul will be repaid in full for what it has done.”

In Al-Tawbah 9:105:

وَقُلِ اعْمَلُوا فَسَيَرَى اللَّهُ عَمَلَكُمْ وَرَسُولُهُ وَالْمُؤْمِنُونَ

Wa-quli iʿmalū fa-sa-yarā Allāhu ʿamalakum wa-rasūluhu wa-l-muʾminūna.

“And say: Work; then The God will see your work, as will His Messenger and the believers.”

And in many verses the construction:

بِمَا كُنْتُمْ تَعْمَلُونَ

Bi-mā kuntum taʿmalūna.

“For what you used to do.”

recurs.

Taken together, these passages show that within the Qur’an’s semantic network, human work is subject to observation, reckoning, and consequences. This point must nevertheless remain distinct from the root’s lexical definition.

Lexically, ʿamal does not mean “work that is necessarily recorded and returns to its agent.” The Qur’an establishes this relationship between human beings and their works within its framework of judgment.

5. The smallest work

Al-Zalzalah states:

فَمَنْ يَعْمَلْ مِثْقَالَ ذَرَّةٍ خَيْرًا يَرَهُ
وَمَنْ يَعْمَلْ مِثْقَالَ ذَرَّةٍ شَرًّا يَرَهُ

Fa-man yaʿmal mithqāla dharratin khayran yarahu. Wa-man yaʿmal mithqāla dharratin sharran yarahu.

“So whoever does a particle’s weight of good will see it, and whoever does a particle’s weight of evil will see it.”

Al-Zalzalah 99:7–8

Once again, يعمل (yaʿmal) is morally neutral in itself. خير (khayr) and شر (sharr) specify the work’s direction.

These verses also show that, in Qur’anic judgment, the small quantity of a work does not cause it to be disregarded. This feature comes from the verses’ overall construction, not from ʿ M L’s lexical meaning.

6. “أَعْمَال (aʿmāl)”: people’s collected works

The plural أَعْمَال (aʿmāl) is used in the Qur’an for the collected works of individuals and groups.

Sometimes works have positive results and value; at other times they become ineffective or are nullified. The Qur’an speaks of works coming to nothing, and says in Al-Furqān 25:23:

وَقَدِمْنَا إِلَىٰ مَا عَمِلُوا مِنْ عَمَلٍ فَجَعَلْنَاهُ هَبَاءً مَنْثُورًا

Wa-qadimnā ilā mā ʿamilū min ʿamalin fa-jaʿalnāhu habāʾan manthūran.

“And We turn to whatever work they have done and make it scattered dust.”

The existence of work does not in itself guarantee its ultimate value. Something can truly be ʿamal yet lack a desirable outcome in Qur’anic judgment.

This again shows that moral or otherworldly value is not part of the root itself.

7. Work, making, and production

The use of ʿ M L is not confined to ethics.

Of those who worked for Solomon, it is said:

يَعْمَلُونَ لَهُ مَا يَشَاءُ مِنْ مَحَارِيبَ وَتَمَاثِيلَ وَجِفَانٍ كَالْجَوَابِ وَقُدُورٍ رَاسِيَاتٍ

Yaʿmalūna lahu mā yashāʾu min maḥārība wa-tamāthīla wa-jifānin ka-l-jawābi wa-qudūrin rāsiyātin.

“They made for him whatever he wished: sanctuaries, statues, bowls like reservoirs, and firmly set cooking pots.”

Sabaʾ 34:13

Here, given the sentence’s objects, يعملون (yaʿmalūna) can be translated as “they made.” This rendering comes from the context; the verb’s general meaning remains working and doing.

The same verse continues:

اعْمَلُوا آلَ دَاوُودَ شُكْرًا

Iʿmalū āla Dāwūda shukran.

“O household of David, work in gratitude.”

Here too, شکرا (shukran) shapes the sentence’s construction. The verse connects work and gratitude, but this connection does not establish that “gratitude” always lexically means action or that ʿ M L inherently means gratitude.

8. “عَامِل (ʿāmil)”: the one who works

The active participle عامل (ʿāmil) has general uses in the Qur’an.

Al-Tawbah 9:60 states:

وَالْعَامِلِينَ عَلَيْهَا

Wa-l-ʿāmilīna ʿalayhā.

“And those who work over it.”

The context of charitable contributions shows that these people administer that matter. “Administrator of charitable contributions,” however, is not the meaning of ʿāmil itself: عليها (ʿalayhā) and the context specify their work.

The Qur’an also says in Al-Ṣāffāt 37:61:

لِمِثْلِ هَٰذَا فَلْيَعْمَلِ الْعَامِلُونَ

Li-mithli hādhā fa-l-yaʿmali al-ʿāmilūna.

“For the like of this, let those who work, work.”

And in Fuṣṣilat 41:5:

فَاعْمَلْ إِنَّنَا عَامِلُونَ

Fa-iʿmal innanā ʿāmilūna.

“So work; we too are working.”

In these cases, ʿāmil simply means someone who does something.

The feminine form also appears in Al-Ghāshiyah:

عَامِلَةٌ نَاصِبَةٌ

ʿĀmilatun nāṣibatun.

“Working, weary.”

Al-Ghāshiyah 88:3

Thus ʿāmil is a general designation for someone who works, acquiring an executive or administrative meaning only in certain contexts.

9. Two verses whose interpretation must remain open

“إِنَّهُ عَمَلٌ غَيْرُ صَالِحٍ (innahu ʿamalun ghayru ṣāliḥin)”

Hūd 11:46 states:

إِنَّهُ عَمَلٌ غَيْرُ صَالِحٍ

Innahu ʿamalun ghayru ṣāliḥin.

“Indeed, it/he is unrighteous work.”

In the commonly read form, عَمَلٌ (ʿamalun) is a noun. The referent of the pronoun in إنه (innahu), however, has been disputed since early times.

Some have understood it to refer to Noah’s request: this request is unrighteous work. Others have related it to his son, understanding the verbal noun descriptively. In addition, another reading transmits the form:

إِنَّهُ عَمِلَ غَيْرَ صَالِحٍ

Innahu ʿamila ghayra ṣāliḥin.

meaning: “He has done unrighteous work.”

Without resolving these issues, the verse cannot therefore become conclusive evidence for the claim that “a human being becomes their own work” or that “work is a person’s true identity.”

The secure point for studying ʿ M L is that work can be described as righteous or unrighteous.

“وَمَا تَعْمَلُونَ (wa-mā taʿmalūna)”

Al-Ṣāffāt 37:95–96 states:

قَالَ أَتَعْبُدُونَ مَا تَنْحِتُونَ
وَاللَّهُ خَلَقَكُمْ وَمَا تَعْمَلُونَ

Qāla a-taʿbudūna mā tanḥitūna. Wa-Allāhu khalaqakum wa-mā taʿmalūna.

“He said: Do you worship what you carve? And The God created you and what you do.”

Two main grammatical analyses of ما تعملون (mā taʿmalūna) have long been proposed. Mā can be relative, referring to “what you make,” or it can be understood as nominalizing, yielding “your doing.”

The context of carving idols strengthens the first reading, but ʿ M L itself does not resolve this grammatical disagreement. A root study should therefore not present either interpretation as the definitive meaning of ʿ M L itself.

10. Differences from nearby roots

ʿ M L (ʿamal) compared with F ʿ L (faʿala): work and action

These two families are very close, and early sources do not draw a uniform boundary between them.

Ibn Fāris treats ʿamal as a general family for work that is performed, but says that fiʿl denotes bringing something about, whether work or otherwise. In this account, fiʿl is broader than ʿamal.

Al-Rāghib likewise makes ʿamal narrower than fiʿl, associating it more closely with an action proceeding intentionally from a living being.

These findings permit a cautious statement of tendency:

Fiʿl is a very general word for the performance or occurrence of an action;
ʿamal is more often attributed to work in which an agent engages and which can be regarded as that agent’s work or deed.

“Full awareness,” “purposefulness,” “moral responsibility,” or “lasting effect” should not, however, be treated as obligatory components of every use of ʿamal.

ʿ M L (ʿamal) compared with Ṣ N ʿ (ṣanaʿa): work and making

The root ص ن ع (Ṣ N ʿ) tends more toward making and producing something and, in some uses, skill in making.

The Qur’an places both families together in Hūd 11:16:

وَحَبِطَ مَا صَنَعُوا فِيهَا وَبَاطِلٌ مَا كَانُوا يَعْمَلُونَ

Wa-ḥabiṭa mā ṣanaʿū fīhā wa-bāṭilun mā kānū yaʿmalūna.

“And what they made therein has come to nothing, and what they used to do is void.”

This coordination alone does not establish a definitive boundary between the roots, but it shows that the Qur’an can use them separately.

The general tendency is as follows:

ʿAmal covers a broader range of work and deeds;
ṣunʿ tends more toward making and producing something.

For this reason, يعملون (yaʿmalūna) in Sabaʾ 34:13 can naturally be translated as “they made,” because of the objects mentioned after it.

ʿ M L (ʿamal) compared with K S B (kasaba): doing and acquiring

The root ك س ب (K S B) is associated with seeking and acquiring.

In the Qur’an, both families can operate within the sphere of human responsibility, but their perspectives differ:

ʿAmal is the work itself that is done;
kasb is what a person acquires or obtains for themselves.

The Qur’an even speaks of acquiring إثم (ithm) and سيئة (sayyiʾah). The idea of “an outcome or consequence belonging to a person” is therefore closer to the field of kasb and should not be inserted into the definition of ʿ M L without justification.

11. Translation guide

Depending on context, عَمِلَ / يَعْمَلُ (ʿamila / yaʿmalu) can be rendered as “did,” “performed,” “acted,” “worked,” or, in a context of making, “made,” with the tense adjusted to the form and sentence.

عَمَل (ʿamal) can be “work,” “action,” or “deed.”

أَعْمَال (aʿmāl) means “works” or “deeds”; the word itself does not determine a positive or negative direction.

عَامِل (ʿāmil) is “one who acts,” “one who works,” or, according to context, an “administrator.”

For:

آمَنُوا وَعَمِلُوا الصَّالِحَاتِ

Āmanū wa-ʿamilū al-ṣāliḥāti.

one may say:

“They believed and did righteous works.”

For:

مَنْ عَمِلَ صَالِحًا

Man ʿamila ṣāliḥan.

“Whoever does righteous work.”

For:

أَيُّكُمْ أَحْسَنُ عَمَلًا

Ayyukum aḥsanu ʿamalan.

“Which of you is better in work.”

For:

وَقُلِ اعْمَلُوا فَسَيَرَى اللَّهُ عَمَلَكُمْ

Wa-quli iʿmalū fa-sa-yarā Allāhu ʿamalakum.

“And say: Work; then The God will see your work.”

The precise translation in each verse must be determined by its grammatical role, object, description, and context.

Conclusion

The root ع م ل (ʿ M L) is fundamentally a family for working, doing, and work that proceeds from an agent. Early sources define it much more broadly than the moral and religious connotations that ʿamal has acquired in later religious discourse.

The Qur’an itself also shows that work is inherently neither good nor evil. The same verb is used of خير (khayr) and سوء (sūʾ). In “righteous work,” ṣāliḥ is a separate description specifying the work’s value.

Work in the Qur’an is extensively connected with responsibility, reckoning, seeing, recompense, and results. These belong, however, to the Qur’an’s view of human works, not to ʿ M L’s lexical definition. The fact that human works are reckoned in the Qur’an does not establish that ʿamal itself means “work whose result returns to the person.”

Nor is this root confined to ethics. The Qur’an uses the same family for making objects, working over charitable contributions, and other practical activities. ʿĀmil, too, basically denotes someone who does work and becomes an “administrator” only in particular contexts.

Two verses also require continued caution. In Hūd 11:46, إنه عمل غير صالح (innahu ʿamalun ghayru ṣāliḥin) involves disagreements over reading and pronoun reference; it should not ground a definitive theory about human identity and work. In Al-Ṣāffāt 37:96, ما تعملون (mā taʿmalūna) has likewise been analyzed as either “what you make” or “your doing.” The root itself does not resolve this grammatical disagreement.

Comparison with nearby roots shows that fiʿl has a more general field of action, ṣunʿ tends more toward making and producing, and kasb focuses more on acquiring and obtaining. Among these, ʿ M L centers on the work itself and its performance by an agent.

A cautious account of this root is therefore:

ʿ M L: a family for working and doing; work attributed to an agent that may be material, administrative, moral, righteous, bad, or neutral. Its precise value, purpose, result, and responsibility come from its description, object, and context, not from the root alone.