Grammar term · Sarf · morphology
صَحِيح سَالِم
sahih salim
Sound root
Sarf · morphologyRoot soundness (sihha/i'lal)core term8,045+ in the Qur'an
In one line
The fully sound root: no weak letters, no hamza, no doubling — كَتَبَ conjugates with nothing to watch out for.
Classical definition
الصَّحِيحُ السَّالِمُ مَا خَلَتْ أُصُولُهُ مِنْ حُرُوفِ العِلَّةِ وَالهَمْزِ وَالتَّضْعِيفِ.
“The sound-and-intact verb is that whose root letters are free of weak letters, hamza and doubling.”
(بتصرف من شذا العرف)
Key words in the Arabic
خَلَتْ أُصُولُهُits radicals are free of
حُرُوف الْعِلَّةthe weak letters ا و ي
Understand it
Sarf sorts every root by its health, and this is the healthy baseline: three sturdy radicals like كتب، عبد، نصر that never melt, drop or merge. Every conjugation table you first memorise is built on salim roots precisely because nothing unexpected happens. The other categories — mahmuz, mudaaf, mithal, ajwaf, naqis, lafif — are each defined by which radical misbehaves and where.
How to spot it
Recognition test
Check the three radicals: no ا/و/ي among them, no hamza, no repeated letter — salim. Anything else, name the weakness and its position.
In the Qur'an
لَآ أَعْبُدُ مَا تَعْبُدُونَ
Al-Kafirun 109:2 — “I do not worship what you worship”
عبد — three sound radicals: no weak letter, no hamza, no doubling; the verb conjugates without surprises.
Related terms