فضّلهُ

(K, TA) عَلَى غَيْرِهِ, (TA,) verbal noun تَفْضِيلٌ, i. q. مَزَّاهُ, (K, TA,) i. e. He attributed to him an excellence distinguishing him from [or above] another, or others: (TA:) or فَضَّلْتُهُ عَلَى غَيْرِهِ, verbal noun as above, I judged him (S, O, Msb, * TA) to be more excellent than another, or others: (S, * O, * Msb, TA: *) or I made him (S, O, Msb, * TA) to be so. (S, * O, * Msb, TA.) وَفَضَّلْنَاهُمْ عَلَى كَثِيرٍ مِمَّنْ خَلَقْنَا, in the Qur'an, 17:72, i. e. And we have made them to excel many of those that we have created], has been explained as meaning that the excellence of the son of Adam consists in his walking erect, whereas the beasts, the camels and the asses and the like, walk pronely; and the son of Adam takes food with his hands, whereas the other animals take it with the mouth. (TA.) And وَاللّٰهُ فَضَّلَ بَعْضَكُمْ عَلَى بَعْضٍ, in the Qur'an, 16:73, i. e. And God hath made some of you to excel some others], means, in ability, and wealth, and rank or station, and power; which are excellences that may be acquired. (Er-Rághib, TA.) And you say, فضّلهُ بِهِ, meaning خَصَّهُ [i. e. He distinguished him particularly, peculiarly, or specially, by it, namely, a thing]. (A and K in article خص.) And فضّل فِى العَطَاءِ He gave to some more than to others. (S in article افق.)

[An explanation of فضّل given by Golius, as on the authority of the K, (“ i. q. وسخ, Sordibus infecit, vel pro sordida habuit, quotidianam vestem, ”) is a strange mistake; apparently caused by his finding in a copy of the K التَّفْضِيلُ التَّوْسِيخُ instead of التَّفَضُّلُ التَّوَشُّحُ: see 5.

اِسْمُ التَّفْضِيلِ The noun of the attribution of excess or excellence is a term applied to the comparative and superlative noun or epithet; also called أَفْعَلُ التَّفْضِيلِ, because it is regularly of the measure أَفْعَلُ: see exs. voce خَيْرٌ.]