a thing's being complete, all its parts and conditions present
Distinguish from
kamāl (perfection) — kamāl is perfection, a further actuality beyond completeness; tamām is completeness itself.
General Technical Meaning
Tamām is completion: a thing's reaching the point at which it is all there. The lexicon also records a wider use in which what a thing exists for is called its tamām; the criterion Ṭabāṭabāʾī uses is the first — completion by the part that makes a thing what it is.
In ʿAllāmah Ṭabāṭabāʾī’s Works
al-Mīzān fī Tafsīr al-Qurʾān
Completion and perfection
At Q 5:3, al-Mīzān first quotes al-Rāghib’s lexical formulations: kamāl is the attainment of a thing’s intended purpose, while tamām is its reaching a limit that needs nothing external. ʿAllāmah then says the distinction may be obtained ‘by another route’ and analyzes how effects depend on a thing’s parts: tamām requires all constitutive parts or conditions, whereas kamāl can accrue through the effects of the parts. Other passages refine the distinction and allow metaphorical overlap, so it remains contextual rather than absolute.
Limits of this account
It does not make tamām and kamāl absolutely disjoint, since it expressly allows metaphorical substitution, and it does not by itself settle how al-Manāmāt uses the two terms.
Nihāyat al-Ḥikmah
completeness — explanation
The end of motion is described as a second perfection, while completion is the end sought for itself in contrast with deficiency.
Limits of this account
It does not make perfection and completeness interchangeable labels.
Read in context
Open a passage in the edition where this term is linked.