A certain man of letters said: “Love (ḥubb) is a name for affection that is pure, [32]because the Bedouin Arabs call the purity and radiance of white teeth ḥabāb. Moreover, ḥabāb (froth, bubbles) is something that floats on water during a hard rain, and ḥabāb also means a pure white grain.”

Another said: “Love (ḥubb) is taken from the word ḥabāb, because the ḥabāb (mass, bulk) of water is the greater part of it, and because the Bedouin Arabs also say ‘Your ḥabāb is to do that,’ meaning ‘your aim is to do that,’ where the initial ḥ is pronounced with a following a. So love seems to have been called ḥubb because it is the aim of the greater part of the concerns of the heart.”

According to another: “The word is derived from persistence and perseverance without any interruption, since to describe a camel that kneels and does not rise we use the verb aḥabba, the verbal noun of which is iḥbāb and the active participle of which is muḥibb.” Thus, referring to the exegesis of the Koranic passage (in which Solomon says), “Lo, I have loved the love of good things (better than the remembrance of my Lord)” (38:52), Abū ʿUbayda said: “The meaning is, ‘I have clung to the world out of love for horses,and so have neglected the time of prayer.’”

According to another of the belletrists: “Love (ḥubb) is derived from unrest (qalaq), because the Bedouin call an earring ḥibb, as the poet [al-Raʿī] said:

The earring was called [33] hibb (earring, friend, loved one, love) either because it clings constantly to the ear or because of its unrest and agitation.”

Another said: “It is derived from ḥabb (grain, grains). This is the collective of ḥabba (a single grain). The ḥabba (core, “bottom”) of the heart is that by which the heart has its being, since it is to the heart what the heart is to the other members of the body.