ثلث

Core meaning

The number three, and the third derived from it: an exact count, in sharing as in reckoning.

Uses

1. ثَلَٰث, ثَلَٰثَة → "three" : the cardinal number: days, nights, months, cycles, times.

   • «ثَلَٰثَ لَيَالٍۢ سَوِيًّۭا» — "three complete nights" (19:10)
   • «فَصِيَامُ ثَلَٰثَةِ أَيَّامٍۢ فِى ٱلْحَجِّ» — "an abstention of three days during the Hajj" (2:196)

2. ثُلُث, ثُلُثَانِ → "a third", "two-thirds" : the fraction, in the sharing of inheritance and of the night.

   • «فَلِأُمِّهِ ٱلثُّلُثُ» — "to his mother belongs a third" (4:11)
   • «أَدْنَىٰ مِن ثُلُثَىِ ٱلَّيْلِ وَنِصْفَهُۥ وَثُلُثَهُۥ» — "a little less than two-thirds of the night, and of half of it, and of a third of it" (73:20)

3. ثَالِث, ثُلَٰث, ثَلَٰثُونَ → "the third", "by threes", "thirty" : the ordinal, the distributive and the tens.

   • «إِنَّ ٱللَّهَ ثَالِثُ ثَلَٰثَةٍۢ» — "God is the third of three" (5:73)
   • «مَّثْنَىٰ وَثُلَٰثَ وَرُبَٰعَ» — "by twos, by threes, by fours" (35:1)
   • «ثَلَٰثُونَ شَهْرًا» — "thirty months" (46:15)

Evidence from the text

The number is always exact. It counts durations (2:196, 3:41, 11:65, 19:10), persons (18:22, 58:7) and shares (4:11, 4:12, 4:176). The third divides the inheritance by fixed shares, and the night by what one keeps awake of it (73:20).

Two uses make the number a stake. In 58:7, no secret talk among three takes place but God is their fourth. In 4:171 and 5:73, counting applied to God is rejected: one is told not to say "Three", and those who say that God is the third of three have disowned.

See also

ربع (four)