Mīm is a bilabial letter: the speaker brings both lips together to pronounce it. The Arabs therefore made it a marker of plurality. Addressing one person, they say anta (“you”); when they move to the plural, they say antum. Of one absent person they say huwa (“he”); when they move to the plural, they say hum (“they”). Likewise, with attached pronouns they say darabta (“you struck”) and darabtum (“you [plural] struck”); iyyāka (“you [singular]”) and iyyākum (“you [plural]”); iyyāhu (“him”) and iyyāhum (“them”); and similarly, bihi (“with him”) and bihim (“with them”). They call something blue azraq; when its blueness intensifies, gathers strength, and becomes firmly established, they say zurqum. They call someone with a large backside suthum, on the same pattern as qunfudh.

Consider words containing mīm, and you will find the notion of gathering bound up with them. An example is lamma al-shay’, “he gathered the thing,” and “he gathers it.” Hence the expression lamma Allāhu sha‘thahu, meaning “May Allah bring together his scattered affairs.” Another example is their expression dār lamūmah: a house that brings people together and gathers them. Another is al-akl al-lamm, all-consuming eating, which has been explained as eating both one’s own share and one’s companion’s. Its root is lamm, gathering, just as one says laffahu, yaluffuhu (“he wrapped it; he wraps it”). Another example is alamma bi-l-shay’: to come close to joining or reaching something.

From this too comes al-lamam: coming close to involvement in major sins. Another example is al-mulimmah, a calamity that befalls a person. Another is al-limmah: hair that has gathered and drawn together, extending beyond the earlobe. The same applies to lamma al-shay’, “gathering something,” and its various derived forms.

Another example is badr al-timm, the full moon, when its light becomes complete and gathers in its fullness.

Another is taw’am (“twin”), used of two children together in one womb.

Another is umm (“mother”). The umm of something is the origin from which it branches out, and thus encompasses it. Hence Mecca is called Umm al-Qurā (“Mother of the Towns”), al-Fātihah is called Umm al-Qur’ān (“Mother of the Quran”), and the Preserved Tablet is called Umm al-Kitāb (“Mother of the Book”).

Al-Jawharī says: “The umm of something is its origin. Mecca is Umm al-Qurā. Umm mathwāk is the woman of your dwelling.” That is, the woman with whom you take shelter and whose company you share. Umm al-dimāgh (“mother of the brain”) is the membrane enclosing the brain; it is also called umm al-ra’s (“mother of the head”). Allah Most High says concerning the verses of clear meaning: