Wahm

وهمwahm

Preferred translation
estimation
Also rendered contextually as
acts of estimation, estimative acts, estimative faculty, estimative fancies, estimative matters, estimative opinions, estimative things, illusory, purely estimative opinions, purely estimative things, rulings of estimation
Grammatical variants
estimative
Technical senses
  • estimative faculty
  • supposed or illusory content
Distinguish from
khayāl (imagination) — khayāl is imagination, the faculty that retains sensible forms; wahm is estimation, which apprehends particular non-sensible meanings and may supply illusory content.

General Technical Meaning

Wahm can name the estimative faculty that apprehends particular nonsensible meanings attached to sensible individuals. In an epistemic register, wahm can also mean an outweighed belief or judgment.

In ʿAllāmah Ṭabāṭabāʾī’s Works

Estimative faculty

In the reviewed al-Manāmāt psychological analysis, ʿAllāmah Ṭabāṭabāʾī uses al-quwwa al-wahmiyya for an estimative faculty that operates on an unverified conception by alteration and transfer among similars. This faculty use must not be collapsed into wahm as a merely false or illusory content.

Source: Risālat al-Manāmāt wa-l-Nubuwwāt

Supposed or illusory content

In the reviewed al-Manāmāt ethical analysis, ʿAllāmah Ṭabāṭabāʾī contrasts a true perfection with a supposed or illusory perfection. Here wahm qualifies a content or evaluation rather than naming the estimative faculty; the two uses require separate treatment.

Source: Risālat al-Manāmāt wa-l-Nubuwwāt

Read in context

Open a passage in the edition where this term is linked.

Canonical address: /glossary/wahm/