The Qur’anic root B H L
Letting go and leaving alone; earnest, humble supplication; and invoking a curse upon liars
Qur’anic and lexical forms
نَبْتَهِلْ
(nabtahil)
First-person plural jussive imperfect; Āl ʿImrān 3:61
ابْتَهَلَ
(ibtahala)
Form VIII; lexical base of the Qur’anic verb
ابْتِهَال
(ibtihāl)
Form VIII verbal noun; this form is not Qur’anic
بَهَلَ
(bahala)
Left alone or cursed, by context; not Qur’anic
أَبْهَلَ
(abhala)
Left loose or unattended; not Qur’anic
بَاهِل
(bāhil)
Adjective for being free of restraint or care; not Qur’anic
اسْتَبْهَلَ
(istabhala)
Form X, attested for leaving alone; not Qur’anic
بَاهَلَ
(bāhala)
Form III, mutual invocation; not Qur’anic
مُبَاهَلَة
(mubāhalah)
Form III verbal noun; this word is not Qur’anic
تَبَاهَلَ
(tabāhala)
Form VI, mutual invocation; not Qur’anic
بَهْلَة / بُهْلَة
(bahlah / buhlah)
Two attested forms meaning curse; not Qur’anic
بَهْل
(bahl)
Curse; in another branch, a small quantity; not Qur’anic
The Arabic root B H L has several uses, chiefly letting go or leaving alone, earnest supplication, and cursing. Another use of bahl denotes a small quantity, especially of water or property.
These senses should not be reduced to a single definition without investigation. A semantic connection between leaving alone and invoking a curse is conceivable, but does not by itself establish that all uses arose from one original meaning.
The root occurs only once in the Qur’an, as nabtahil in Āl ʿImrān 3:61. The verb belongs to an invitation to confront a disputed claim. After argument and the communication of knowledge, both sides are invited to summon their close relations and then earnestly pray for The God’s curse upon the liars.
Quranic Arabic Corpus: one Form VIII occurrence
Ibtihāl here directly concerns supplication and invoking a curse. Its general meaning must nevertheless be distinguished from the particular request made in this verse.
In Arabic, ibtihāl can denote serious prayer with humility and persistence; such prayer need not always be a curse. In Āl ʿImrān 3:61, the words fa-najʿal laʿnata Allāhi ʿalā al-kādhibīna specify that the request concerns a curse.
A root study must therefore clarify ibtihāl independently and show how the complete verse connects it with mutual prayer concerning who speaks truth and who lies.
1. Semantic branches in early Arabic
In Maqāyīs al-Lughah, Ibn Fāris identifies three principles for B H L:
«أُصُولٌ ثَلَاثَةٌ: أَحَدُهَا التَّخْلِيَةُ، وَالثَّانِي جِنْسٌ مِنَ الدُّعَاءِ، وَالثَّالِثُ قِلَّةٌ فِي الْمَاءِ»
uṣūlun thalāthatun aḥaduhā al-takhliyatu wa-al-thānī jinsun mina al-duʿāʾi wa-al-thālithu qillatun fī al-māʾi
That is, three branches: leaving alone, a kind of supplication, and a small quantity of water.
Maqāyīs al-Lughah: leaving alone, supplication, and little water
This division matters because Ibn Fāris does not derive every sense from one shared image. He discusses leaving alone separately, puts supplication in the second branch, and treats a small quantity of water as another branch.
Works such as Tahdhīb al-Lughah and Lisān al-ʿArab record further uses that can be studied within these fields.
Letting go and leaving alone
Bahaltuhu means that I left someone alone and allowed him to follow his own will.
Abhaltuhu is also attested with this meaning.
A person or thing may previously have been under care, control, or restraint, but is now left free or unattended.
Early Arabic uses this family, for example, for a camel left loose and without certain customary restraints.
Nāqatun bāhilun can describe a she-camel without a binding on her udder to prevent access to milk. Other explanations describe a camel without a halter, ownership brand, or accompanying herdsman.
These different explanations show that bāhil does not necessarily name one technical condition. Their shared feature is release from a particular restraint or form of care.
Ṣirār in this setting was a binding put on an animal’s udder to prevent milking or suckling.
A camel without it is free of that restraint; her young may suckle, or others may milk her.
In social usage, abhala al-wālī raʿiyyatahu describes a governor who leaves his subjects to themselves.
Leaving alone here may mean non-intervention or withdrawal of oversight, rather than release from prison or physical bonds.
The core of this branch is therefore removing restraint or care and leaving a person or thing to itself.
It can involve freedom from restriction or, alternatively, neglect and abandonment. The verb alone does not determine whether this is positive or negative.
Lisān and Tahdhīb: the bāhil camel and leaving alone
Ibtihāl: persistence and humility in prayer
The second branch concerns supplication.
Ibtahala fī al-duʿāʾ describes someone praying with seriousness, persistence, and humility.
Prayer here is more than a passing request: the person presents the request with sustained attention and effort.
Lexicons explain ibtihāl with expressions including al-taḍarruʿ, al-ijtihād fī al-duʿāʾ, and ikhlāṣ al-duʿāʾ.
These explanations emphasise three related aspects.
Taḍarruʿ foregrounds humility and asking from a position of need.
Ijtihād in prayer indicates effort and persistence in requesting.
Ikhlāṣ in prayer indicates sincere attention and turning towards the One addressed.
These explanations do not mean that every instance of ibtihāl necessarily involves tears, a loud voice, kneeling, or a particular hand movement.
Such actions may accompany some prayers, but are not fixed components of the verb’s lexical meaning.
What stands out in ibtihāl is seriousness and persistence in requesting, accompanied by humble supplication.
Bahl and a small quantity
The third lexical branch concerns a small quantity of water or property.
Lisān al-ʿArab explains al-bahl as little property, while Al-Muḥkam gives a small quantity of water.
A poetic line transmitted by Ibn Sīdah likewise uses bahl for a meagre amount accepted by someone.
This use has no demonstrably clear etymological connection with earnest prayer or leaving a camel loose.
One should therefore not invent an image linking little water to surrender of personal control or humility in prayer and then call it the original meaning of ibtihāl.
This branch does not occur in the Qur’an and plays no direct part in understanding nabtahil.
2. Early Arabic and poetic witnesses
Poetic witnesses illuminate the uses concerning leaving alone and supplication.
Al-Nābighah al-Dhubyānī: leaving alone
A verse in the collected poetry attributed to al-Nābighah al-Dhubyānī reads:
وَرَبِّ بَنِي الْبَرْشَاءِ ذُهْلٍ وَقَيْسِهَا
وَشَيْبَانَ حَيْثُ اسْتَبْهَلَتْهَا الْمَنَاهِلُ
wa-rabbi banī al-Barshāʾi Dhuhlin wa-Qaysihā / wa-Shaybāna ḥaythu istabhalathā al-manāhilu
Translation: “By the Lord of the sons of al-Barshāʾ, Dhuhl and her Qays, and Shaybān, where the watering places had left them to themselves.”
Istabhalathā here concerns being left alone or unattended.
Some lexical transmissions give the second hemistich as wa-Shaybāna ḥaythu istabhalathā al-sawāḥilu.
This reading is explained as referring to Banū Shaybān living beyond the direct oversight of the rulers of al-Ḥīrah and being left to themselves.
The difference between al-manāhil and al-sawāḥil, as well as minor differences in the first hemistich, matters when identifying the witness. Neither should be declared the sole definitive reading without collating the collected poetry. The opening wa-rabbi is an oath by the Lord, rather than quantitative rubba, “many a”; the oath’s response begins la-qad ghālanī in the next verse.
Faṣl al-Maqāl: al-Nābighah’s witness with al-manāhil
The lexical reports nevertheless make the verb’s intended sense clear: being left alone or released from possible oversight or control.
The witness shows the root extending beyond animals to the social situation of a group.
Lisān al-ʿArab: al-sawāḥil and the Banū Shaybān explanation
Labīd ibn Rabīʿah: ibtihāl in an image of destruction
In his elegy for Arbad, Labīd ibn Rabīʿah says:
فِي قُرُومٍ سَادَةٍ مِنْ قَوْمِهِ
نَظَرَ الدَّهْرُ إِلَيْهِمْ فَابْتَهَلْ
fī qurūmin sādatin min qawmihi / naẓara al-dahru ilayhim fa-ibtahal
Translation: “Among eminent men, leaders of his people; Time looked upon them and, as though invoking their destruction, pressed on against them.”
Fa-ibtahal is attributed here to Time.
Al-Ṭabarī explains it as praying for destruction; other explanations stress intense effort in destroying them.
Since al-dahr, Time, is the subject, this is not ordinary human prayer to The God. The poet personifies the destruction of leading men as though Time had uttered an urgent prayer against them.
This use helps reveal ibtihāl’s expressive range, but the whole poetic image should not become the verb’s ordinary definition.
Labīd lived across the pre-Islamic and early Islamic periods. Dating this elegy requires attention to its occasion and his biography; the line attests early Arabic, but cannot be declared certainly pre-Qur’anic without separate investigation.
Al-Ṭabarī: Labīd’s witness and invoking destruction
Al-Nābighah of Banū Shaybān: ibtihāl in devotion
Al-Nābighah of Banū Shaybān says:
أَقْطَعُ اللَّيْلَ آهَةً وَانْتِحَابًا
وَابْتِهَالًا لِلَّهِ أَيَّ ابْتِهَالِ
aqṭaʿu al-layla āhatan wa-intiḥāban / wa-ibtihālan li-Allāhi ayya ibtihāli
Translation: “I pass the night in sighing and weeping, and in fervent prayer to The God—what fervent prayer!”
Here ibtihāl accompanies sighing and weeping and denotes prayer and earnest turning to The God.
The verse itself does not request a curse upon anyone else.
It therefore attests supplication with humility and persistence whose subject need not be cursing.
Al-Nābighah of Banū Shaybān is an Islamic-period poet. This is not pre-Qur’anic evidence, but remains useful for understanding general classical Arabic usage.
Al-Zāhir: ibtihāl in al-Nābighah of Banū Shaybān
Together with the lexicons, these witnesses show that the prayer-related use of B H L was not confined to one ceremony or technical term.
3. Bahl, ibtihāl, and mubāhalah
Bahl, ibtihāl, and mubāhalah are related forms with different functions and structures.
Bahl meaning a curse
Lexicons record bahalahu Allāhu as meaning that The God cursed him.
ʿAlayhi bahlatu Allāhi likewise invokes or attributes The God’s curse upon someone. Buhlah, with ḍammah on the bāʾ, is also attested in this sense.
The root here concerns cursing and imprecation.
Some lexicographers connect it with leaving alone, as though the cursed person were abandoned and deprived of protection.
That semantic explanation can be examined, but Ibn Fāris treats prayer and leaving alone as separate branches.
Without independent evidence, the connection should not be presented as the root’s established historical development.
Bahl meaning a curse also remains distinct from the independent root L ʿ N. Words may approach each other in imprecatory usage while retaining their own forms and semantic ranges.
Ibtihāl meaning earnest prayer
Ibtihāl is the Form VIII verbal noun and can denote prayer and requesting with humility.
The person asks The God for something and makes that request earnestly.
If the prayer asks for mercy, forgiveness, or help, ibtihāl need not be a curse.
If it asks for a curse to descend upon someone, ibtihāl becomes imprecatory prayer in that context.
The kind of action must therefore be distinguished from what is requested.
Ibtihāl describes the manner and intensity of prayer; the accompanying sentence identifies its object.
Al-Rāghib: supplication and the verse’s requested curse
Mubāhalah as mutual invocation
Mubāhalah is the Form III verbal noun. In its established use, two parties disputing a claim invite each other to pray for a curse upon whichever party lies.
Lexicons use bāhala al-qawmu baʿḍuhum baʿḍan and tabāhalū for this mutual invocation.
It is more than one side simply cursing the other.
Both stand before The God and entrust judgment concerning falsehood to Him.
If a party asks that whoever lies in the dispute be cursed, the wording can therefore encompass that party too.
This follows from the reciprocal usage and the prayer’s object, rather than from every B H L verb necessarily carrying this meaning.
Is mubāhalah the same as any debate?
Disputation, reasoned argument, and mubāhalah are different activities.
Two people may disagree and each offer reasons to support a position.
That encounter is not yet mubāhalah.
In its established use, mubāhalah involves disputing parties turning to mutual prayer for a curse upon the liar.
Disagreement, questions, criticism, or presenting arguments should not by themselves be called mubāhalah.
Nor is praying for an opponent’s guidance identical with mubāhalah in this particular sense.
The distinction matters for the root’s sole Qur’anic occurrence.
4. The sole Qur’anic occurrence: Āl ʿImrān 3:61
Verse text:
فَمَنْ حَاجَّكَ فِيهِ مِنْ بَعْدِ مَا جَاءَكَ مِنَ الْعِلْمِ فَقُلْ تَعَالَوْا نَدْعُ أَبْنَاءَنَا وَأَبْنَاءَكُمْ وَنِسَاءَنَا وَنِسَاءَكُمْ وَأَنْفُسَنَا وَأَنْفُسَكُمْ ثُمَّ نَبْتَهِلْ فَنَجْعَلْ لَعْنَتَ اللَّهِ عَلَى الْكَاذِبِينَ
fa-man ḥājjaka fīhi min baʿdi mā jāʾaka mina al-ʿilmi fa-qul taʿālaw nadʿu abnāʾanā wa-abnāʾakum wa-nisāʾanā wa-nisāʾakum wa-anfusanā wa-anfusakum thumma nabtahil fa-najʿal laʿnata Allāhi ʿalā al-kādhibīna
Translation:
“Whoever disputes with you about him after the knowledge that has come to you, say: Come, let us summon our children and your children, our women and your women, and ourselves and yourselves; then let us pray with humility and persistence, and place The God’s curse upon the liars.”
Āl ʿImrān 3:61
The verse follows discussion of Jesus, son of Mary.
Āl ʿImrān 3:59 compares Jesus’ creation with Adam’s; Āl ʿImrān 3:60 attributes the stated truth to the Lord.
Āl ʿImrān 3:61 then addresses those who continue disputing the subject with the Prophet after this knowledge has arrived.
Nabtahil thus belongs to a particular confrontation whose disputed subject and supporting argument have already been stated.
The verse begins with disputation, proceeds to an invitation to gather, and ends with mutual prayer for The God’s curse upon liars.
Ibtihāl here therefore follows the communication of knowledge and continued dispute; it does not replace the initial work of understanding and discussion.
The meaning of nabtahil
Nabtahil is a first-person plural imperfect verb in Form VIII.
The sentence’s syntax places it in the jussive.
Its verbal subject is plural: “we.”
Semantically, it denotes earnest, humble turning to prayer.
Since the verse invites both disputing parties to gather, this proposed “we” includes both the inviter and the other party.
It is therefore not simply the Prophet’s private prayer, but an invitation to an act in which both sides are present.
Some early explanations gloss nabtahil as nataḍarraʿ fī al-duʿāʾ: let us supplicate humbly.
Another gives najtahid fī al-duʿāʾ: let us strive earnestly and persist in prayer.
Abū ʿUbaydah and al-Kisāʾī also relate the verb in this context to naltaʿin: let us invoke a curse mutually.
These explanations need not represent three wholly separate meanings.
The first two emphasise how the prayer is made.
The third identifies the kind of prayer at issue in this verse.
The general verb concerns humble, persistent supplication; the complete verse makes that supplication specifically a request for a curse upon liars.
Al-Ṭabarī: naltaʿin and liars from either party
Distinguishing nadʿu and nabtahil
The verse contains two verbs that must be distinguished.
First comes nadʿu:
«نَدْعُ أَبْنَاءَنَا وَأَبْنَاءَكُمْ»
nadʿu abnāʾanā wa-abnāʾakum
“Let us summon our children and your children.”
This verb belongs to D ʿ W.
Its objects are children, women, and the people themselves, so it means summoning or inviting people to attend.
Nabtahil then concerns earnest, humble prayer.
Summoning people and praying are therefore different actions within the same verse.
Translating the opening nadʿu simply as “let us pray” could suggest that children and women are the objects of worship, whereas the sentence concerns summoning them.
Conversely, nabtahil concerns turning to prayer rather than calling people to attend.
This distinction clarifies the verse’s sequence.
Why mention children, women, and the people themselves?
The verse names three corresponding groups:
Our children and your children; our women and your women; ourselves and yourselves.
The invitation thus extends beyond two individual debaters: each side mentions close relations and people associated with its group.
Their presence makes the proposal’s seriousness and gravity apparent, since the prayer requests The God’s curse upon liars.
The verse itself does not name the particular individuals to occupy each category.
Historical and exegetical reports identify people whom the Prophet brought, or intended to bring, to this encounter.
Those reports can inform its history, but the lexical meanings of abnāʾanā, nisāʾanā, and anfusanā should first be understood from the words and the sentence.
Nor should the verse be taken, without separate examination, to require every intellectual disagreement in every age to end with families present and a curse invoked.
It describes a specific situation concerning a particular subject.
Thumma nabtahil and the sequence of stages
Thumma comes between summoning the people and ibtihāl.
Its established usage indicates sequence with an interval between stages.
The verse therefore first invites attendance and then turns to prayer and supplication.
This sequence does not establish the details of a fixed ceremony, such as the gathering’s duration, seating, positions, or precise hand movements.
Those details are not given in the verse.
What is clear is the general order: summoning and then ibtihāl.
Fa-najʿal laʿnata Allāhi ʿalā al-kādhibīna
This phrase specifies the prayer’s object and direction.
Najʿal belongs to J ʿ L and here concerns placing or directing something.
Laʿnata Allāhi is its object; ʿalā al-kādhibīna identifies those upon whom the request bears.
Since the curse is attributed to The God, this does not mean that humans independently control its application to whomever they wish.
Placing the curse here occurs within prayer and requesting from The God.
The parties turn to prayer for The God’s curse to fall upon those lying about the disputed claim.
The distinction matters in translation and explanation.
Reducing the expression to “we curse the liars” weakens its explicit attribution of the curse to The God.
Saying “we prove that our opponents are lying” would likewise turn a request to The God into a claim of automatic victory in debate.
The verse does not say that.
Why al-kādhibīna?
Al-kādhibīna belongs to K DH B and means the liars.
The verse does not replace that description with a particular sect’s or group’s name.
Although the disputing parties are known, the request concerns liars generally; its wording does not simply prejudge the opposing party as lying.
That structure matters.
The person proposing the prayer believes the position to be true, but the request directs the curse towards whoever actually lies.
Truth and falsehood, rather than membership of one debating side, therefore determine the request’s wording.
This differs from a unilateral curse in which someone merely asks for an opponent’s destruction.
In the verse, “the liars” supplies the criterion of the request.
5. Does ibtihāl simply mean cursing?
Some early explanations gloss nabtahil directly as naltaʿin.
That is understandable in Āl ʿImrān 3:61, where a curse upon liars is immediately requested.
It does not follow that ibtihāl means precisely cursing in every Arabic use.
Al-Nābighah of Banū Shaybān’s verse attests devotional, humble prayer without necessarily requesting a curse upon someone else.
Bahl meaning a curse and mubāhalah meaning mutual invocation of a curse are nevertheless attested Arabic uses.
Three levels should therefore be distinguished.
First, ibtihāl as earnest, humble prayer.
Second, invoking a curse upon a particular person or group.
Third, mubāhalah as a mutual encounter in which The God is asked to place His curse upon whichever party lies.
They can coincide, as in Āl ʿImrān 3:61, but remain lexically distinct.
The relationship with L ʿ N
L ʿ N is an independent root.
In different Qur’anic contexts, cursing is attributed to The God, angels, and humans and concerns distancing, exclusion, and grave divine consequences.
Its precise meaning requires a separate study of that root.
In Āl ʿImrān 3:61, the prayer specifically concerns laʿnata Allāhi.
Ibtihāl alone should therefore not be made to contain the entire meaning of a curse.
Equally, since the curse follows nabtahil, it must remain part of the verb’s contextual explanation.
Ibtihāl here is earnest prayer, and the requested curse is its object.
Does ibtihāl require a particular hand movement?
Some reports concerning methods of prayer associate ibtihāl with raising or extending the hands.
Those reports concern how prayer is performed; they do not establish these movements as inseparable elements of the root’s lexical meaning.
Āl ʿImrān 3:61 gives no instructions about hand position, kneeling, standing, or sitting.
A specific bodily posture should therefore not be inserted into the translation of nabtahil.
The word and context establish earnest, humble prayer requesting The God’s curse upon liars.
7. Limits of the Qur’anic use and the place of mubāhalah
In later religious language, mubāhalah became the established name for this type of encounter.
Different historical reports concern Āl ʿImrān 3:61, including accounts of the Prophet’s discussion with Christians from Najrān and of those present at the proposed mubāhalah.
These reports matter for the event’s history, but are not the first reference point for the root’s meaning.
The verse states the invitation, rather than every procedural detail or the event’s historical outcome.
Without independently investigating the historical reports, details such as attendance numbers, location, participants’ positions, or an immediate physical result should not become part of ibtihāl’s meaning.
Nor does the verse alone require parties to invoke mubāhalah after every scholarly or religious disagreement.
It concerns a particular dispute about Jesus, following the Qur’an’s own account of that subject.
The distinction matters for research method.
The prayer should not be detached from its setting and made a way to force an end to every discussion in place of examining evidence.
The invitation’s seriousness should likewise be recognised: the parties place their claims before The God and request a curse upon liars.
This differs from cursing out of personal anger or social hostility.
The prayer concerns lying about a particular claim, rather than mere differences of preference, group membership, or opposition to someone’s status.
Applying the verse to conduct in another period therefore requires independent examination of available knowledge, the disputed subject, the claims’ truth, and the limits of individual responsibility.
That caution preserves ibtihāl’s clear meaning while preventing a specific Qur’anic use from becoming a general rule the text does not expressly state.
8. Morphology and translation proposals for Forqan
Nabtahil comes from ibtahala, Form VIII.
In Āl ʿImrān 3:61, it is a first-person plural imperfect in the jussive.
Syntactically, taʿālaw is imperative, with nadʿu responding to that invitation. Nabtahil and fa-najʿal are then coordinated with it.
The sentence therefore combines summoning, ibtihāl, and placing a curse upon liars within prayer.
Morphologically, nabtahil differs from bāhala.
Ibtahala is Form VIII; bāhala is Form III.
Mubāhalah is the Form III verbal noun, with an established reciprocal use.
Form VIII alone should not therefore be taken to make the action necessarily reciprocal in every occurrence.
Reciprocity here follows from the complete invitation and the two disputing parties.
Al-Darwīsh: response to an imperative and coordinated jussives
General equivalents
For bahala in the branch of leaving alone, use “let go,” “left,” or “left to himself.”
For abhala concerning an animal, use “left loose” or “left without restraint or care.”
Bāhil describing a camel can be “a camel left loose” or, where appropriate, “a camel whose udder binding is undone.”
For ibtahala in general supplication, use “prayed humbly,” “prayed persistently,” or “turned to earnest prayer.”
For mubāhalah in its particular use, “mutual prayer for a curse upon the liar” explains more than the untranslated term alone.
For bahlah concerning imprecation, use “curse.”
For the rare quantitative bahl, use “a little water” or “meagre property,” according to the sentence.
These equivalents should not be conflated. Leaving an animal loose is not directly the meaning of the Qur’anic prayer, just as little water has no part in translating nabtahil.
Proposed translation of the Qur’anic occurrence
The main expression in Āl ʿImrān 3:61 is:
«ثُمَّ نَبْتَهِلْ فَنَجْعَلْ لَعْنَتَ اللَّهِ عَلَى الْكَاذِبِينَ»
thumma nabtahil fa-najʿal laʿnata Allāhi ʿalā al-kādhibīna
Proposed translation:
“Then let us pray with humility and persistence, and place The God’s curse upon the liars.”
This preserves three features.
First, it renders nabtahil as earnest, humble prayer.
Second, it preserves fa-najʿal as a separate verb.
Third, it attributes the curse to The God and retains the liars as its target.
The contextual explanation can clarify that placing the curse means requesting The God to bring His curse upon whichever party lies.
The basic translation should not reduce this to “then let us curse each other,” which weakens both the divine attribution and the criterion of lying.
“Then let us pray for our opponents to be destroyed” is also unsuitable. The verse speaks of The God’s curse upon liars, rather than “opponents” or “immediate destruction.”
“Then let us swear an oath” likewise fails to convey ibtihāl.
“Then let us pray” captures part of the meaning, but conveys less of the intensity and humility associated with ibtihāl.
“Let us pray with humility and persistence” therefore suits Forqan’s research text better.
9. Conclusion
B H L has several branches in Arabic.
Ibn Fāris identifies leaving alone, a kind of supplication, and a small quantity of water as three principles.
The first branch includes leaving a camel free of restraint or care, allowing someone to follow personal wishes, and withdrawing oversight from a group.
In the second, ibtihāl denotes earnest prayer with humility and persistence. In imprecatory uses, bahl and mubāhalah also concern invoking a curse.
The third concerns little water or property; its historical connection with the other branches is not established.
Only nabtahil in Āl ʿImrān 3:61 occurs in the Qur’an.
The verse concerns a dispute about Jesus. After knowledge is communicated and disputation continues, both sides are invited to summon children, women, and themselves, then turn to earnest prayer requesting The God’s curse upon liars.
Summoning people, praying, and requesting a curse are three related but distinct aspects of this structure.
Ibtihāl’s general meaning cannot be restricted to cursing, since Arabic also uses it for devotion and earnest requesting. In this verse, however, the prayer expressly asks for The God’s curse upon liars.
Al-kādhibīna also makes lying about the disputed subject the criterion; belonging to the opposing side does not by itself label someone a liar.
Final root definition: In one branch, B H L denotes letting go and leaving a person or thing without restraint or care. In supplication, ibtihāl denotes earnest requesting with humility and persistence; in imprecatory use, the family concerns invoking a curse, including mutual prayer between disputing parties. A rare branch also uses bahl for a small quantity of water or property.
Qur’anic nabtahil means earnest, humble prayer accompanied by a request for The God’s curse upon liars.
Its distinguishing feature is turning earnestly to prayer and entrusting judgment concerning lying to The God, rather than mere debate, an ordinary oath, or a unilateral curse out of anger.
The translation of Āl ʿImrān 3:61 should therefore preserve both humble, persistent supplication and its particular object: requesting The God’s curse upon liars.