Meanings
- uncountableIslamThe fact of God's being invested in a book (the Qur'an), as opposed to in flesh as held by Christianity.First known use 20th c.
Inlibration works in contrast—for Muslims the Qur'an is god, a fixed point as god's creation goes on around it.
2015, Steve Aylett, Heart of the Original, Unbound, page 302 more examples
Consequently, […] the question arises in our mind whether […] there was not also in Islam a controversy over the inlibration, that is, the embookment, of the pre-existing Koran in the revealed Koran and also over the problem of whether the revealed Koran had two natures, a divine and a man-made, or only one nature, a man-made nature.
1976, Harry Austryn Wolfson, The Philosophy of the Kalam, page 146The Prophet had to be a vessel unstained by external knowledge for the Word's inlibration, just as Mary had to be virgin in order to be a pure vessel for the Word's incarnation.
1992, Annemarie Schimmel, Islam: An Introduction, page 75
Origin
- Latinliber“book”
- Englishinlibration
Coined by Harry A Wolfson (1887–1974) on the model of incarnation, from in- + inflected stem of Latin liber (“book”) + -ation.
More words from Latin
Full word history & related roots →Cite this entry
inlibration. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 3, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/inlibration
“inlibration.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/inlibration. Accessed November 3, 2026.
WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “inlibration,” accessed November 3, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/inlibration.
Source: inlibration on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.