م ث لlikeness

مثل · mathal · a likeness, a parable

• Met in: V1 p10 ¶3i: «مثل ما بعثني الله عز وجل به من الهدى والعلم كمثل الغيث الكثير», "the likeness of the guidance and knowledge with which Allah sent me is the likeness of abundant rain"; and V1 p10 ¶3j: «فالأول ذكره مثلا للمنتفع بعلمه», "the first he gave as a likeness for the one who benefits from his knowledge".
• Dictionary form: مَثَل. Lane: "in the language of the Arabs it means a description by way of comparison"; "a similitude is a description by way of comparison".
• Pattern: فَعَل (faʿal). Written the same way, without vowels, is مِثْل (mithl), "A like; a similar person or thing" (Lane).
• Meaning here: A likeness, a parable: the Prophet ﷺ pictures the knowledge he brought as rain, and the people who receive it as three kinds of land.

Ibn Faris, Maqāyīs al-Lugha, root مثل, vol 5, p 296

الميم والثاء واللام أصل صحيح يدل على مناظرة الشيء للشيء. وهذا مثل هذا، أي نظيره

One sound origin: it points to one thing matching another. "This is like this" means it is its counterpart. He goes on: «والمثل المضروب مأخوذ من هذا», "and the parable that is 'struck' (told) is taken from this".

Urdu bridge

مثال (an example), مثلاً (for example), ضرب المثل (a proverb), تمثیل (an allegory) and بے مثال (without equal) are all Urdu. (to be confirmed)

Quran

169 words from this root (Quranic Arabic Corpus). Most common: مَثَل (a likeness, an example) ×88, مِثْل (the like of) ×75.

مَثَلُهُمْ كَمَثَلِ ٱلَّذِى ٱسْتَوْقَدَ نَارًا فَلَمَّآ أَضَآءَتْ مَا حَوْلَهُۥ ذَهَبَ ٱللَّهُ بِنُورِهِمْ وَتَرَكَهُمْ فِى ظُلُمَٰتٍ لَّا يُبْصِرُونَ

Their example is that of one who kindled a fire, but when it illuminated what was around him, Allah took away their light and left them in darkness [so] they could not see.

Surah Al-Baqara (2), ayah 17 · Saheeh International

Why this ayah: «مَثَلُهُمْ كَمَثَلِ», "Their example is that of": the same build as the hadith on V1 p10 ¶3i, «مثل … كمثل».

In the Ihya

مثل: 641 times in the Ihya (the spelling of both مَثَل and مِثْل).