العروة الوثقى
al-ʿUrwa al-Wuthqā
Topic
The firmest handhold: the indissoluble bond of Islam to which a believer holds fast.
What it means
ʿUrwa is a handle by which something is grasped, and wuthqā means the firmest. The Quran says that whoever believes in God has grasped “the firmest handhold that never breaks” (2:256), and that whoever submits his whole self to God while doing good has grasped the same handhold (31:22). Commentators explain it as faith itself, or the declaration of God’s oneness, and Muslims use the phrase for the bond of Islam that cannot be dissolved.
Term and Arabic as listed in Ismail al Faruqi, Toward Islamic English (International Institute of Islamic Thought, 1995), p. 64, listed as AL ‘URWAH AL WUTHQĀ. The definition is restated here.