ع ق لholding back; the intellect

العقل · al-ʿaql · the intellect, reason

• Met in: V1 p13 ¶7d: «والعقل أشرف صفات الإنسان», "and the intellect is the noblest quality of a human being".
• Dictionary form: عَقْل. Lane: "Intelligence, understanding, intellect, mind, reason, or knowledge"; "or the knowledge of the qualities of things, of their goodness and their badness, and their perfectness". It is so called, Lane reports, "because it withholds, or restrains, its possessor from doing that which is not suitable".
• Pattern: فَعْل (faʿl), the verbal noun of عَقَلَ.
• Meaning here: The intellect: by it the religious sciences are grasped, by it Allah's trust is taken up, and by it one comes near to Allah.

Ibn Faris, Maqāyīs al-Lugha, root عقل, vol 4, p 69

العين والقاف واللام أصل واحد منقاس مطرد، يدل عظمه على حبسة في الشيء أو ما يقارب الحبسة

One regular origin: most of it points to a holding back in a thing, or something close to it. From it: «العقل، وهو الحابس عن ذميم القول والفعل», "the intellect, which holds one back from blameworthy words and deeds". And al-Khalīl, he says: «العقل: نقيض الجهل», "the intellect is the opposite of ignorance".

Urdu bridge

عقل (sense, reason), عاقل and عقلمند (sensible), معقول (reasonable) and عقلی (rational, as in عقلی دلائل) are all Urdu. (to be confirmed)

Quran

49 words from this root (Quranic Arabic Corpus), all of them the verb: عَقَلُ ×49. The noun عقل is not in the Quran; it always speaks of using the intellect.

إِنَّآ أَنزَلْنَٰهُ قُرْءَٰنًا عَرَبِيًّا لَّعَلَّكُمْ تَعْقِلُونَ

Indeed, We have sent it down as an Arabic Qur'an that you might understand.

Surah Yusuf (12), ayah 2 · Saheeh International

Why this ayah: «لَّعَلَّكُمْ تَعْقِلُونَ», "that you might understand": the verb, as the Quran always has it.

In the Ihya

العقل: 411 times in the Ihya.