previous next
حَسْبٌ حسب Sufficiency. (K voce هَسْبٌ.) ― -b2- حَسْبُ is a [prefixed] noun (S) [syn. with كَفْىُ, as is implied in the K voce قَطْ; or] syn. with كَافِى; (Msb;) or [virtually] meaning كَفَى [as a pret. in the sense of an emphatic aor.]; (S, K;) or يَكْفِى: (TA:) Sb says that it is used to denote the being sufficed, or content. (TA.) You say, حَسْبُكَ دِرْهَمٌ [and بِحَسْبِكَ دِرْهَمٌ, in which latter the ب is redundant; meaning Thy sufficiency, or a thing sufficing thee, is a dirhem; a phrase which may be used in two ways; as predicating of what is sufficient, that it is a dirhem; and as predicating of a dirhem, that it is sufficient; in which latter case, بحسبك is an enunciative put before its inchoative, (as also حَسْبُكَ,) so that the meaning is, a dirhem is a thing sufficing thee, i. e. a dirhem is sufficient for thee; as is shown in a marginal note in my copy of the Mughnee, in art. بِ; or, accord. to the S and K, a dirhem suffices thee: accord. to Bd (iii. 167), بحسبك means مُحْسِبُكَ, and كَافِيكَ, from أَحْسَبَهُ meaning كَفَاهُ; and is shown to have this meaning by its not importing a determinate signification in consequence of its being a prefixed noun with its complement in the saying, هٰذَا رَجُلٌ حَسْبُكَ This is a man sufficing thee]. (S, Msb, K.) You say also, حَسْبُكَ ذٰلِكَ That is, or will be, [or let that be,] sufficient for thee. (TA.) And حَسْبُكَ ا@للّٰهُ, in the Kur viii. 65, God is, or will be, sufficient for thee. (Fr, TA. See also حَسِيبُكَ ا@للّٰهُ.) And حَسْبُكَ بِصَدِيقِنَا [A person sufficing thee is our friend]; in which the ب is added to denote emphatic praise. (Fr, TA in art. بِ.) In the saying, هٰذَا رَجُلٌ حَسْبُكَ مِنْ رَجُلٍ This is a man sufficing thee as a man, i. e. supplying to thee the place of any other [by his excellent qualities], (S, K,) and مَرَرْتُ بِرَجُلٍ حَسْبِكَ مِنْ رَجُلٍ I passed by a man sufficing thee as a man, (TA,) حسبك is an expression of praise, referring to the indeterminate noun [رجل]; because, in its case, [what is originally (see below)] an inf. n. (فِعْلٌ [under which term lexicologists, but not grammarians, include the مَصْدَر]) is rendered, in grammatical analysis, by another word, [i. e., by an act. part. n.,] as though one said مُحْسِبٌ لَكَ, or كَافٍ لَكَ. (S. [Thus حسبك in these two instances is a صِفَة, i. e. an epithetic phrase; and من رجل is a تَمْيِيز, i. e. a specificative phrase.]) When the noun to which حسبك refers is determinate, you put حسب in the accus. case, as a حال, i. e. a denotative of state; as in the saying, هٰذَا عَبْدُ ا@للّٰهِ حَسْبَكَ مِنْ رَجُلٍ This is 'Abd-Allah; being one sufficing thee as a man. (S. [Here من رجل is, as before, a specificative phrase.]) [See also 4, the corresponding verb.]) حسب, in this manner, is used alike as sing. and dual and pl.; (S, K;) being [originally] an inf. n. (S.) It is also used alone, [as a prefixed noun of which the complement is understood,] as in the phrase زَيْدٌ حَسْبُ, without tenween, for حَسْبِى or حَسْبُكَ [&c., meaning Zeyd is sufficient for me or for thee &c.]; like as one says, جَآءَنِى زَيْدٌ لَيْسَ غَيْرُ, for لَيْسَ غَيْرُهُ عِنْدِى. (S. [That is, حَسْبُ, when thus used, is subject to the same rules as غَيْرُ and قَبْلُ, and بَعْدُ &c. when so used.]) ― -b3- See also حَسَبٌ, in three places. -A2- Also, (TA,) and ↓ حِسْبَةٌ , (K,) Burial of the dead: (TA:) or burial of the dead in stones [app. meaning in a grave cased with stones]: or burial of the dead wrapped in grave-clothes: like تَحْسِيبٌ. (K. [See 2.])
An Arabic-English Lexicon. London. Williams and Norgate. 1863.

The U.S. Department of Education, The Max Planck Society provided support for entering this text.

Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 United States License.

An XML version of this text is available for download, with the additional restriction that you offer Perseus any modifications you make. Perseus provides credit for all accepted changes, storing new additions in a versioning system.

hide Dictionary Entry Lookup
Use this tool to search for dictionary entries in all lexica.
Search for in
hide Display Preferences
Greek Display:
Arabic Display:
View by Default:
Browse Bar: