all involve the soul’s transition from one state to another and activity on its part; this is movement appropriate to its nature. Hence these meanings are expressed in terms of movement. One says, “So-and-so yearns towards so-and-so,” as in the verse:

My heart’s yearnings flutter towards the bān trees—
yet not for the trees, but for those in Dārat al-Bān.

This expression is used for the swift movement of something light. Thus one says, “The bird fluttered its wings,” meaning that it flapped them and flew; and something is said to flutter through the air when it drifts like a tuft of wool or the like (*). Likewise, “The gazelle passed by, bounding,” means that it was leaping. Hence a lapse is called a hafwa (slip), just as it is called a zalla (slip): a slip is a slight movement, and so too is a hafwa.

Similarly, a yearning lover whose love has grown stronger than attachment is called “sabā,” and his condition is called sabāba: the tenderness and heat of longing. A sabb is a yearning lover, so called because his heart pours towards the beloved as running water pours forth. Water pours down a mountain—that is, it descends. Since, in descending, it moves with a motion that nothing turns back, the lover’s movement is called “sabāba.” This expression is used of both praiseworthy and blameworthy love.

An example is the hadith:

“When the Prophet, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, sent Abū ‘Ubayda, may Allah be pleased with him, on a military expedition, he wept out of ardent love and longing for the Prophet, may Allah bless him and grant him peace.”

Sabāba and sabb are related through ‘greater derivation.’ The Arabs alternate between a weak letter