الٌ

A man's أَهْل [or family]; (T, S, M, Msb, K;) i. e. his relations: (Msb:) his عَشِيرَة [or kinsfolk; or nearer, or nearest, relations by descent from the same father or ancestor; &c.]; from أَوْلٌ as signifying رُجُوعٌ, because recourse is had to them in all affairs: (Har p. 578:) and his household; (S, TA;) the people of his house: (Msb:) and his followers; (S, Msb, K;) including soldiers: (S, TA:) and his أَوْلِيَاء [i. e. friends, and the like]: (K:) those who bear a relation to him, as members to a head, (مَنْ الَ إِلَيْهِ,) by religion or persuasion or kindred; as in the Qur'an, 3:9 and viii. 54 and 56 &c.: (Ibn-'Arafeh:) [or in these and many other instances, it may be rendered people:] but in general it is not used save in relation to that in which is eminence, or nobility; so that one does not say, الُ الإِسْكَافِ, like as one says أَهْلُهُ: (K:) and it is peculiarly used as a prefix to the proper names of rational beings; not to indeterminate nouns, nor to nouns of places or of times; so that one says, الُ فُلَانٍ; but not الُ رَجُلٍ, nor الُ زَمَانِ كَذَا, nor الُ مَوْضَعِ كَذَا, like as one says, [أَهْلُ رَجُلٍ, and أَهْلُ زَمَانِ كَذَا, and] أَهْلُ بَلَدِ كَذَا and مَوْضِعِ كَذَا: (TA:) Ks disallows its being prefixed to a pronoun; so that one should not say, الُهُ, but أَهْلُهُ; but his opinion in this matter is not correct: it is originally أَوَلٌ; the و being changed into ا, (M, * Msb,) as in قَالَ [which is originally قَوَلَ]: so say some: (Msb:) or it is originally أَهْلٌ, (T, M, Msb, K,) then أَأْلٌ, and then الٌ: (K:) so say some, arguing thus from its having أُهَيْلٌ for its diminutive: (T, Msb:) but according to Ks, it assumes the form ↓ أُوَيْلٌ as a diminutive: (T:) or each of these is its diminutive (M, K.) By the ال of the Prophet are meant, according to some persons, His followers, whether relations or others: and his relations, whether followers or not: (Ahmad Ibn-Yahyà, T:) or, as some say, his family (أَهْلُهُ [q. v.]) and his wives: [but it seems to be indicated that what I have rendered “and his wives” is meant as an explicative adjunct to اهله:] or, as some say, the people of his religion: (Esh-Sháfi'ee, T:) being himself asked who were his ال, he answered all pious persons: (Anas, TA:) but in a tradition in which it is said that the poor-rates are prohibited to him and to his ال, by this is meant those to whom was appropriated the fifth [of the spoils] instead of the poor-rates; and these were the genuine descendants of Háshim and El-Muttalib. (Esh-Sháfi'ee, T.)

يَا لَزَيْدٍ and يَالَ زَيْدٍ, according to the Koofees, are contractions of يَا الَ زَيْدٍ [O family of Zeyd]. (Mughnee, on the letter ل; and El-Ashmoonee on the Alfeeyeh of Ibn-Málik, section الاستغاثة. [See the letter ل.])

[See also إِيلَةٌ.]

-A2- (tropical:) I. q. شَخْصٌ [meaning The body, or corporeal form or figure or substance, (of anything, as is said in the T,) which one sees from a distance; or, in this case, often, though not always, the person, or self]; (AA, T, S, M, K;) of a man: a metaphorical application, from الٌ as signifying أَهْلٌ and عَشِيرَةٌ; because comprising the members and the senses. (Har p. 578.)

Sometimes, it is redundant, or pleonastic; [being only used for the sake of metre in verse, or to give more force to an expression;] as in the following instance:

أُلَاقِى مِنْ تَذَكُّرِ الِ لَيْلَى

كَمَا يَلْقَى السَّلِيمُ مِنَ العِدَادِ

[I experience, from remembrance of Leylà, or of Leylà's person or self, the like of what the person bitten or stung by a venomous reptile experiences from the paroxysm of pain occasioned by the bits or sting]. (TA.) [See also another example, voce جَأْبٌ; and another, voce مِزْمَارٌ.]

[Like شَخْصٌ, it seems to be sometimes applied to Any material thing that is somewhat high, and conspicuous: and hence, perhaps, the signification next following.]

مَا أَشْرَفَ مِنَ البَعِيرِ [apparently meaning The overtopping, or higher, part, or parts, of the camel]. (M, K.)

A [tent of the kind called] خَيْمَة. (M.)

The poles of the خَيْمَة; (M, K;) as also ↓ الَةٌ; of which the plural is الاتٌ: (K:) or ↓ الَةٌ is the singular of الٌ and الَاتٌ, [or n. un. of the former and plural of the latter,] which signify the pieces of wood (خَشَبَات) upon which the خيمة is raised, or constructed: and hence Kutheiyir likens the legs of his she-camel to four الات of the [wood of the tree called] طَلْح. (S.)

The pieces of wood (خَشَب, T, M, K) of خَيْم [or tents], (M,) stripped [of the tent-cloths]. (T, TA.)

Also, [apparently because rising from the general surface of the ground,] The extremities and sides of a mountain. (M, K. *)

-A3- The سَرَاب [or mirage]: (As, T, M, K:) or peculiarly applied to that which is in the first part of the day, (K,) as though raising figures seen from a distance (شُخُوص), and making them to quiver: (TA:) or that which one sees in the first part of the day, and in the last part thereof, as though raising figures seen from a distance (شخوص); not the same as the سراب: (S:) or what resembles the سراب: (Msb:) or, as some say, that which is in the ضُحَى [or early part of the day when the sun is yet low], like water between the sky and the earth, [in appearance] raising figures seen from a distance (شخوص), and making them to quiver; whereas the سراب is that which is at mid-day, [apparently] cleaving to the ground, as though it were running water: Th says, the ال is in the first part of the day: (M:) As says that the ال and the سراب are one: but others say that the former is from the ضُحَى [see above] to the declining of the sun from the meridian; whereas the سراب is after the declining of the sun from the meridian to the prayer of the عَصْر; and in favour of their assertion they urge, that the former [in appearance] raises everything so that it becomes what is termed ال, i. e. شَخْص; for the ال of everything is its شخص; and that the سراب [in appearance] lowers every شخص in it so that it becomes [as though it were] cleaving to the ground, having no شخص: Yoo says, the Arabs say that the ال is from the غُدْوَة [or period between the prayer of daybreak and sunrise] to the time when the sun is very high, or near the meridian; then it is called سراب for the rest of the day: ISk says, the ال is that which [in appearance] raises figures seen from a distance (شخوص), and is in the ضُحَى [explained above]; and the سراب is that which is upon the surface of the ground, as though it were water, and is at midday: and this, I [namely Az] say, is what I have found the Arabs in the desert to say: (T:) El- Hareeree speaks of the glistening of the ال; apparently using this word in the sense of سراب; for it is the latter that glistens; not the former: (Har p. 363:) the word is masculine and feminine (Msb, K.) The phrase يَرفَعُ الْالَا, ending a verse (S, M) of En-Nábighah, (M, TA,) i. e. Edh-Dhubyánee, (TA,) or El-Jaadee, (S,) [variously cited in the S and M and TA,] is an instance of inversion; the meaning being يَرْفَعُهُ الْالُ [The ال raising it]: (S, TA:) or the meaning is, making the ال conspicuous more than it would otherwise be; the agent of the verb being a prominent portion of a mountain, which, being itself raised [in appearance] by the ال, has the effect of doing this. (M.)

-A4- See also the next paragraph.

-A5- And see أَلَيَانٌ, in article الي.