The Qur’anic root TH L L
A company, gathering, and their distinction from collapse and destruction
Qur’anic and lexical forms
ثُلَّةٌ / وَثُلَّةٌ
(thullatun / wa-thullatun)
A company of people; three occurrences, Al-Wāqiʿah 56:13, Al-Wāqiʿah 56:39, and Al-Wāqiʿah 56:40
ثَلَّة
(thallah)
A flock or wool; not Qur’anic
ثِلَّة
(thillah)
Destruction in one lexical use; not Qur’anic
ثَلَل
(thalal)
Ruin or destruction; not Qur’anic
ثَلَّ
(thalla)
Demolished; Form I; not Qur’anic
ثُلَّ
(thulla)
Passive form in Zuhayr’s witness; not Qur’anic
ثَلَّةُ الْبِئْر
(thallatu al-biʾr)
Earth excavated from a well; not Qur’anic
Arabic TH L L has two recognized semantic branches: gathering and forming a company, and falling apart, demolition, or destruction. Early lexicons record both, but a definite historical relationship between them is not established.
In the first branch, thallah denotes a flock of sheep or its wool, and thullah a company of people. In the second, thalla can denote demolishing a building, the collapse of power, or destruction.
The Qur’an uses this root only as thullah, a company of people. All three occurrences are in Al-Wāqiʿah: Al-Wāqiʿah 56:13, Al-Wāqiʿah 56:39, and Al-Wāqiʿah 56:40.
Quranic Arabic Corpus: three occurrences in Al-Wāqiʿah
The difference is more than repetition of a noun. The first passage contrasts thullatun mina al-awwalīn with qalīlun mina al-ākhirīn, whereas the later passage describes both earlier and later people as a thullah. The contexts present different patterns of numbers within two distinct groups.
1. Semantic core and root forms
TH L L is a doubled root: its second and third consonants are identical. Many forms represent the two lāms with a doubling mark.
Ibn Fāris distinguishes two separate semantic foundations in Maqāyīs al-Lughah:
«أَحَدُهُمَا التَّجَمُّعُ، وَالْآخَرُ السُّقُوطُ وَالْهَدْمُ وَالذُّلُّ»
aḥaduhumā al-tajammuʿu wa-al-ākharu al-suqūṭu wa-al-hadmu wa-al-dhullu
One is gathering; the other is falling, demolition, and abasement.
Maqāyīs al-Lughah: two distinct foundations
This distinction prevents deriving Qur’anic thullah from destruction without evidence.
Thallah: a flock and wool
Early Arabic uses thallah, with initial fatḥah, for a flock of sheep.
Some lexicographers apply it generally to sheep, few or many; others restrict it to wool-bearing sheep. Other names are recorded for goats.
Ibn Al-Sikkīt distinguishes wool-bearing sheep from goats, calling a numerous flock of sheep thallah. When sheep and goats gather together, the name may also apply to the combined flock.
The disagreements show a livestock term whose precise scope was not universally agreed.
The noun also denotes wool: kisāʾun jayyidu al-thallati means a garment of good wool, and ḥablu thallatin a woolen rope.
The association is clear: wool comes from sheep gathered as a thallah. This does not prove that every group sense arose from wool, since the historical sequence is uncertain.
Al-Ṣiḥāḥ and Lisān al-ʿArab: sheep, wool, and differing definitions
Thullah: a company of people
Thullah, with initial ḍammah, is recorded as a company of people.
Al-Farrāʾ explains it through fiʾah, a group of people. Ibn Durayd likewise distinguishes thallah for sheep from thullah for a human company.
The central feature is that multiple individuals are viewed as one group.
Definitions differ over their number. Some specify a large company, while others allow a company whether few or many.
A basic definition should therefore retain company and gathering, with size established through linguistic evidence and context.
Al-Lubāb: differing definitions concerning large numbers
In Al-Wāqiʿah, the contrast with qalīl shows a substantial company in verse 13 against a small number. It does not establish that every Arabic use necessarily denotes a large population.
Thalla and thalal: collapse and destruction
The second branch records thalla for demolishing or bringing something down.
Thalla al-bayta means demolishing a house. Figurative thalla ʿarshahu concerns the collapse of someone’s standing, power, or ordered affairs.
Thalal denotes ruin or destruction. Some lexicons also record thillah, with initial kasrah, for destruction.
The initial vowel matters. Qur’anic thullah names a company, while one use of thillah names destruction. Shared consonants do not make the meanings interchangeable.
Al-Qāmūs al-Muḥīṭ: thillah meaning destruction
Do gathering and collapse have one common origin?
In Al-Mufradāt, Al-Rāghib al-Iṣfahānī proposes a semantic connection among these uses.
He describes thallah as a gathered piece of wool and explains thullah for people through gathering. His explanation of thulla ʿarshuhu also concerns a portion of the structure falling away.
An illustrative connection can be proposed: things gather into a whole on one side, while a whole falls apart or loses part of its structure on the other.
This can illuminate a possible relationship without proving that early Arabic speakers historically formed every usage from one concept.
Ibn Fāris instead distinguishes two foundations. Their disagreement prevents treating historical unity as certain.
2. Early Arabic usage
A poetic witness concerning a human company
Ḥassān ibn Thābit’s Dīwān includes this verse in a poem attributed to him about Banū al-Ḥimās:
أَبَنِي الْحِمَاسِ فَمَا أَقُولُ لِثُلَّةٍ
تَرْعَى الْبِقَاعَ خَبِيثَةِ الْأَوْطَانِ
a-banī al-ḥimāsi fa-mā aqūlu li-thullatin / tarʿā al-biqāʿa khabīthati al-awṭāni
Translation:
“Children of Al-Ḥimās, what shall I say to a company grazing the open lands, foul in its dwelling places?”
Thullah here refers to people.
The poet disparages a people, comparing them through tarʿā al-biqāʿa to creatures grazing the open country.
The lexical point is that thullah denotes the company, rather than grazing or its members’ moral character.
The witness illustrates human usage outside the Qur’an.
Ḥassān ibn Thābit was a mukhadram poet who lived across the pre-Islamic and Islamic periods. The poem’s presence in his Dīwān does not establish its exact date, so this verse cannot automatically be called certainly pre-Qur’anic.
Ḥassān ibn Thābit’s Dīwān: the Banū al-Ḥimās witness
An early witness concerning a flock and wool
Maqāyīs al-Lughah and Lisān al-ʿArab transmit the wording below. Jamharat al-Lughah has ʿithwall and rikhw instead of qithwall and rathth, while also noting qithwall as a variant:
Jamharat al-Lughah: variants ʿithwall/qithwall and rikhw/rathth
قَدْ قَرَنُونِي بِامْرِئٍ قِثْوَلِّ
رَثٍّ كَحَبْلِ الثَّلَّةِ الْمُبْتَلِّ
qad qaranūnī bi-imriʾin qithwalli / raththin ka-ḥabli al-thallati al-mubtalli
Translation:
“They have paired me with a dull, slack fellow, shabby as a wet woolen rope.”
Lisān al-ʿArab: qithwall, dull and slack
Al-thallah concerns wool; ḥabli al-thallati is a rope made from it.
The word thus connects with livestock and their products in everyday Arabic life.
The consulted transmissions do not establish the speaker or exact date. This is usage recorded in early lexicons, rather than a poem securely attributed to a pre-Islamic poet.
A poetic witness concerning collapse
Zuhayr ibn Abī Sulmā, a recognized pre-Islamic poet, says:
تَدَارَكْتُمَا الْأَحْلَافَ قَدْ ثُلَّ عَرْشُهَا
وَذُبْيَانَ إِذْ زَلَّتْ بِأَقْدَامِهَا النَّعْلُ
tadāraktumā al-aḥlāfa qad thulla ʿarshuhā / wa-dhubyāna idh zallat bi-aqdāmihā al-naʿlu
Translation:
“You two came to the allies’ rescue when their foundations had fallen, and to Dhubyān when their footing slipped.”
Thulla ʿarshuhā does not concern a literal throne being destroyed, but a community’s order and power collapsing.
ʿArsh can depict the structure sustaining a whole. Its collapse means the loss of that community’s power or order.
This illustrates the demolition and collapse branch.
Its verbal meaning should not be transferred to Qur’anic thullah: Zuhayr describes a company’s order being lost; the Qur’an names the company itself.
Maqāyīs al-Lughah, ʿarsh: Zuhayr and the collapse of order
Thallatu al-biʾr: earth removed from a well
Arabic also records thallatu al-biʾri for earth removed when digging a well.
It is associated with thalla al-biʾra, removing earth or mud from the well.
Here the noun denotes excavated earth, neither people nor sheep.
The material uses differ, and each requires separate attention to form and setting.
3. First Qur’anic occurrence: thullatun mina al-awwalīn
Al-Wāqiʿah 56:13
ثُلَّةٌ مِّنَ الْأَوَّلِينَ
thullatun mina al-awwalīna
Translation:
“A numerous company from among the earlier people.”
This describes al-sābiqūn, the forerunners mentioned in Al-Wāqiʿah 56:10 and Al-Wāqiʿah 56:11.
Al-Wāqiʿah 56:10
وَالسَّابِقُونَ السَّابِقُونَ
wa-al-sābiqūna al-sābiqūna
Translation:
“And the forerunners—the forerunners.”
Al-Wāqiʿah 56:11
أُولَٰئِكَ الْمُقَرَّبُونَ
ulāʾika al-muqarrabūna
Translation:
“They are those brought near.”
Their place in gardens of bliss follows, before their numbers are described across two temporal groups.
Why “a numerous company”?
Thullah contrasts with qalīl in the following verse.
Al-Wāqiʿah 56:14
وَقَلِيلٌ مِّنَ الْآخِرِينَ
wa-qalīlun mina al-ākhirīna
Translation:
“And a few from among the later people.”
The contrast presents more forerunners among the earlier people than among the later ones.
Although thullah basically denotes a company, “a numerous company” can clarify the distinction in this construction.
That conclusion comes from the contrast, rather than from thullah necessarily meaning a large population in every usage.
The referents of al-awwalīn and al-ākhirīn
These expressions concern earlier and later people, but verses 13 and 14 specify no exact historical boundary.
Some early commentators identify the earlier people as previous communities and the later people as Muḥammad’s community. Others consider earlier and later generations of one community.
Ibn Kathīr: two readings of earlier and later people
Thullah’s meaning alone cannot decide between these readings. Al-awwalīn and al-ākhirīn require study throughout the surah and related Qur’anic passages.
The same surah uses them in a resurrection setting:
Al-Wāqiʿah 56:49
قُلْ إِنَّ الْأَوَّلِينَ وَالْآخِرِينَ
qul inna al-awwalīna wa-al-ākhirīna
Translation:
“Say: indeed, the earlier and the later people.”
Al-Wāqiʿah 56:50
لَمَجْمُوعُونَ إِلَىٰ مِيقَاتِ يَوْمٍ مَّعْلُومٍ
la-majmūʿūna ilā mīqāti yawmin maʿlūmin
Translation:
“Will surely be gathered for the appointed time of a known day.”
These two verses place the earlier and later people within resurrection’s broad horizon.
This supports an inclusive historical reading of verses 13 and 14, although a definite temporal boundary requires independent study.
Thullah itself does not identify followers of a particular prophet, religious school, or period. It names a human company whose identity comes from the surah’s other elements.
4. Second and third occurrences: companies of earlier and later people
Al-Wāqiʿah 56:39
ثُلَّةٌ مِّنَ الْأَوَّلِينَ
thullatun mina al-awwalīna
Translation:
“A numerous company from among the earlier people.”
Al-Wāqiʿah 56:40
وَثُلَّةٌ مِّنَ الْآخِرِينَ
wa-thullatun mina al-ākhirīna
Translation:
“And a numerous company from among the later people.”
Both groups are called a thullah.
Unlike verses 13 and 14, neither is contrasted with qalīl here. The two groups appear in parallel constructions.
Who are these two companies?
The preceding passage concerns aṣḥābu al-yamīn.
Al-Wāqiʿah 56:27
وَأَصْحَابُ الْيَمِينِ مَا أَصْحَابُ الْيَمِينِ
wa-aṣḥābu al-yamīni mā aṣḥābu al-yamīni
Translation:
“And the companions of the right—what companions of the right!”
The following verses describe their blessings. Al-Wāqiʿah 56:38 names aṣḥābi al-yamīn again; Al-Wāqiʿah 56:39 and Al-Wāqiʿah 56:40 then describe earlier and later companies within that group.
The three uses of thullah should not be interpreted identically without considering the group discussed.
Verse 13 concerns the forerunners; verses 39 and 40 concern the companions of the right.
These categories are related, but their positions are distinct.
Are the companies equal in number?
Repeating thullah in verses 39 and 40 indicates substantial companies from both periods among the companions of the right.
A repeated noun does not establish exact numerical equality.
Two groups may both be numerous while one is larger than the other.
The verses affirm companies from both earlier and later people, rather than an arithmetic calculation or equal division.
Nor do they make every earlier or later person a companion of the right. Min indicates companies from among them, rather than everyone in either period.
The difference from verse 13
The earlier passage describes the forerunners as a company of earlier people and a few of later people.
Both sides of the companions-of-the-right passage are called a thullah.
The two positions therefore have different numerical descriptions.
This does not make being a forerunner possible only in the past. Verse 14 explicitly includes a few later people; few does not mean none.
Thullah itself does not define being a forerunner or a degree of nearness. Those positions come from other verses, rather than the lexical meaning of company.
6. Translation proposals for Forqan
For human thullah, natural equivalents are “company,” “group,” or “a group of people.”
Where the context emphasizes large numbers, “a numerous company” or “a large group” may fit better.
The word gives no exact figure and should not become “the majority,” “thousands,” or “an immense multitude” without evidence.
Livestock thallah, with initial fatḥah, can mean “flock of sheep,” or in another use “wool.” Neither belongs in the translation of these Al-Wāqiʿah verses.
For thalla in the demolition branch, “fall down,” “demolish,” “break apart,” or figurative “destroy power and order” depends on context.
Thalal can denote destruction or ruin. That branch is not directly present in any of the root’s three Qur’anic occurrences.
Al-Wāqiʿah 56:13 — thullatun
Brief root meaning: A company and the gathering of individuals into a group.
Meaning in this verse: A numerous company of earlier people among the forerunners.
Proposed translation:
“A numerous company from among the earlier people.”
“Numerous” reflects the following verse’s contrast with qalīl.
Al-Wāqiʿah 56:39 — thullatun
Brief root meaning: A company and the gathering of individuals into a group.
Meaning in this verse: A company of earlier people among the companions of the right.
Proposed translation:
“A numerous company from among the earlier people.”
Al-Wāqiʿah 56:40 — wa-thullatun
Brief root meaning: A company and the gathering of individuals into a group.
Meaning in this verse: And a company of later people among the companions of the right.
Proposed translation:
“And a numerous company from among the later people.”
Wa- is a conjunction attached to the noun, preserving the connection to the preceding group.
Repeating thullah in verses 39 and 40 applies the same description to both companies without establishing exact numerical equality.
7. Conclusion
Arabic TH L L has two recognized branches: gathering into a company, and collapse or destruction. Ibn Fāris distinguishes them, while Al-Rāghib proposes an illustrative connection between some uses. Such an explanation does not prove historical unity across all meanings.
The Qur’an uses only the noun thullah from this root, three times in Al-Wāqiʿah, each referring to a human company.
Al-Wāqiʿah 56:13 contrasts thullah with qalīl, indicating a substantial company of earlier forerunners. Al-Wāqiʿah 56:39 and Al-Wāqiʿah 56:40 apply it to both earlier and later companies among the companions of the right.
Company is the basic Qur’anic meaning. Relative size comes from context; the word alone specifies no exact number.
Qur’anic thullah means neither destruction nor collapse, sheep nor wool, although those meanings occur elsewhere in this family’s forms and branches.
“Company” or “group” preserves the basic meaning, while “a numerous company” can express contextual abundance. Identifying the periods and people concerned requires contextual study and should not be added to thullah’s lexical definition.