Quranic root
شرك
sh · r · k
The root centers on joining or sharing something so that it is not exclusive to one party; a secondary branch denotes extension and linear spread.
The first branch develops into participation, partnership, making someone a partner, and religiously attributing a partner to God. The second develops into road tracks, sandal straps, and hunting snares through the ideas of extension and connected lines.
- Maqāyīs · row 2621
- Mufradāt · row 763
- 6
- Quran-attested forms
- 9
- Quran senses
- 168
- Quran occurrences
Forms in the Quran
The forms this root actually takes in the Quran. Select one to jump to its senses and examples.
شَارَكَ
shāraka
- Part of speech
- Verb · Form III
- Form
- III
- Quran occurrences
- 1 occurrence
Selected examples are shown with the sense they illustrate — chosen to teach that sense, not the complete list of this form’s Quran occurrences.
To share or participate with another; to become a partner or associate in an affair.
Takes a person or party as the partner and may be followed by فِي for the affair, property, or matter shared. Quranic usage includes being made a partner in another's affair.
- Lane · entry 38392
- Mufradāt · row 763
Selected Quran examples
Quran 17:64word 10
“and be a partner”
أَشْرَكَ
ʾashraka
- Part of speech
- Verb · Form IV
- Form
- IV
- Quran occurrences
- 71 occurrences
Selected examples are shown with the sense they illustrate — chosen to teach that sense, not the complete list of this form’s Quran occurrences.
To make someone a partner, associate, or participant in an affair.
The person made a partner may be introduced as sharing in an affair, sale, property, or other matter; the Quranic construction وَأَشْرِكْهُ فِي أَمْرِي exemplifies inclusion in an affair.
- Lane · entry 38393
- Mufradāt · row 763
Selected Quran examples
Quran 20:32word 1
“And make him share”
To attribute a partner or partners to God; to associate another with Him in worship or divine prerogative.
This is the Quranic theological construction أَشْرَكَ بِاللَّهِ and includes treating another as sharing God's exclusive divinity. Lexically, unbelief may be described more broadly as a form of this association.
- Lane · entry 38393
- Mufradāt · row 763
Selected Quran examples
Quran 4:48word 6
“partners be associated”
شَرِيك
sharīk
- Part of speech
- Noun
- Quran occurrences
- 40 occurrences
Selected examples are shown with the sense they illustrate — chosen to teach that sense, not the complete list of this form’s Quran occurrences.
A partner, co-owner, associate, or colleague sharing a thing, affair, right, or dominion.
The Quran commonly uses the plural شُرَكَاء for alleged partners of God and for parties treated as sharing authority or possession.
- Lane · entry 38407
- Mufradāt · row 763
Selected Quran examples
Quran 17:111word 11
“a partner”
Quran 10:34word 4
“your partners”
شِرْك
shirk
- Part of speech
- Noun
- Quran occurrences
- 5 occurrences
Selected examples are shown with the sense they illustrate — chosen to teach that sense, not the complete list of this form’s Quran occurrences.
Sharing, participation, partnership; a share or portion in something.
The noun can denote participation between parties or an allocated share, including a share in property or an affair.
- Lane · entry 38397
- Mufradāt · row 763
Selected Quran examples
Quran 34:22word 21
“partnership”
Religious association: attributing a partner to God or sharing religious devotion or regard with another.
In theological usage this includes the great shirk of affirming a partner for God and the more hidden association described as ostentation or hypocrisy in some religious acts.
- Lane · entry 38397
- Mufradāt · row 763
Selected Quran examples
Quran 31:13word 12
“associating partners”
مُشْرِك
mushrik
- Part of speech
- Active participle · substantivized
- Quran occurrences
- 49 occurrences
Selected examples are shown with the sense they illustrate — chosen to teach that sense, not the complete list of this form’s Quran occurrences.
One who attributes a partner or partners to God; a polytheist.
This active participle is substantivized for people characterized by associating others with God. The feminine forms مُشْرِكَة and مُشْرِكَات are included under this headword.
- Lane · entry 38408
- Mufradāt · row 763
Selected Quran examples
Quran 2:105word 9
“those who associate partners (with Allah)”
Quran 2:221word 10
“a polytheistic woman”
A disbeliever in God, in the widened lexical sense that unbelief entails a form of shirk.
This is an extended usage related to the primary sense of polytheism; Quranic contexts most directly identify the person who associates another with God.
- Lane · entry 38408
- Mufradāt · row 763
مُشْتَرِك
mushtarik
- Part of speech
- Active participle
- Quran occurrences
- 2 occurrences
Selected examples are shown with the sense they illustrate — chosen to teach that sense, not the complete list of this form’s Quran occurrences.
Sharing or participating jointly with others; a co-sharer.
The active participle describes parties who share or participate together in a matter; the Quranic occurrences are plural and substantivized.
- Lane · entry 38395
- Mufradāt · row 763
Selected Quran examples
Quran 37:33word 5
“(will be) sharers”
Quran 43:39word 9
“sharing”
Occurrences in the Quran
Every place this root appears, in Quran order. The first few are shown here.
- 2:96أَشْرَكُوا۟ ۚassociate[d] partners (with Allah)
- 2:105ٱلْمُشْرِكِينَthose who associate partners (with Allah)
- 2:135ٱلْمُشْرِكِينَthose who associated partners (with Allah)
- 2:221ٱلْمُشْرِكَـٰتِ[the] polytheistic women
- 2:221مُّشْرِكَةٍۢa polytheistic woman
Broader Classical Arabic meanings
Recorded for this root in the Classical lexicons beyond its Quran usage. These are secondary to the Quran senses above.
Show 21 Classical meanings
شَرِكَهُ
To share or participate with someone in a sale, purchase, inheritance, affair, or other matter; to become his partner.
The construction may also mean to enter or engage with another in an affair.
- Lane · entry 38390
شَرِكَتِ النَّعْلُ
Of a sandal: for its sandal strap to break.
A specialized intransitive use concerning the sandal and its شِرَاك.
- Lane · entry 38390
شَرَّكَ
To sell a part or share of something one has purchased for the price or purpose for which it was purchased.
A commercial technical use of the verbal noun تَشْرِيكٌ.
- Lane · entry 38391
شَرَّكَ
To put a sandal strap on a sandal.
A transitive sandal-making or repair construction; the alternative Form IV expression is also reported in the same lexical discussion.
- Lane · entry 38391
اِشْتَرَكَ
To share, participate, or become a copartner with another in something.
The reciprocal Form VIII verb describes mutual or joint participation between parties.
- Lane · entry 38395
مُشْتَرَكٌ
A word shared by several meanings; a homonym.
A technical lexicological use of مُشْتَرَكٌ, literally something participated in by multiple meanings.
- Lane · entry 38395
- Lane · entry 38413
اِشْتَرَكَ الأَمْرُ
For an affair or case to become confused or dubious.
Lane marks this as an assumed figurative extension.
- Lane · entry 38395
شَرَكٌ
A snare or set of snares for catching wild animals, birds, or other game.
The collective noun may refer to the cords or devices composing a trap; its plural is also reported as شُرُكٌ.
- Lane · entry 38398
شَرَكُ الطَّرِيقِ
The main or middle parts of a road, its conspicuous tracks, furrows, or branching lesser tracks.
The term may refer either to the distinct tracks made in the road or to branch tracks that leave the main road and terminate.
- Lane · entry 38398
شِرْكَةٌ
A piece or portion of flesh-meat shared among people.
A dialectal usage, especially reported of a slaughtered camel and the people sharing it.
- Lane · entry 38402
شُرَكِيٌّ
Quick and consecutive movement or action; a rapid repeated striking or coming to water.
The adjective can describe a quick pace, consecutive slapping, or repeated prompt arrival.
- Lane · entry 38405
شِرَاكٌ
The thong or strap on the upper face of a sandal.
The term may include the arms of the strap attached near the sides of the sandal; its plural is شُرُكٌ.
- Lane · entry 38406
شُرُكٌ
Streaks or discontinuous rows of herbage.
A figurative extension describing vegetation occurring in separate strips rather than continuously.
- Lane · entry 38406
شُرُكٌ
A row of shoots or offsets cut from palm trees and planted.
A specialized agricultural usage reported in connection with planted palm offsets.
- Lane · entry 38406
شِرَاكٌ
A uniform line, manner, or arrangement.
A figurative expression for proceeding in one consistent way or making an affair uniform.
- Lane · entry 38406
شَرِيكٌ
A spouse, beloved woman, or a person related through marriage, such as a son-in-law.
The specialized usage may call a man's wife or object of love شَرِيكَة and may use شَرِيك for a man married to another's daughter or sister.
- Lane · entry 38407
الفَرِيضَةُ المُشَرَّكَةُ
A technical inheritance case in which maternal half-siblings and full siblings are made to share a portion together.
Also called the مُشَرِّكَة, مُشْتَرَكَة, حِمَارِيَّة, حَجَرِيَّة, يَمِّيَّة, or عُمَرِيَّة case in the reported terminology.
- Lane · entry 38410
- Lane · entry 38411
رِيحٌ مُشَارِكٌ
A wind nearer to the crosswind than to either of the two winds between which it blows.
A technical description of an intermediate wind direction.
- Lane · entry 38412
مُشْتَرَكٌ
Shared or common rather than reserved exclusively for one person.
Applied to a road open to common use or to a worker whose services are available to successive clients rather than held exclusively by one employer.
- Lane · entry 38413
الحِسُّ المُشْتَرَكُ
The faculty said by philosophers to be participated in by the five senses; common sense in popular usage.
A technical philosophical expression distinct from the ordinary meaning of مُشْتَرَكٌ.
- Lane · entry 38413
مُشْتَرَكٌ
Of a man, talking to himself as one affected by anxiety or troubled judgment.
An assumed figurative use in which his judgment is described as shared or not unified.
- Lane · entry 38413
Cautions
Points that affect how this root should be read.
Lane's historical Quran citation conventions are not converted into modern verse locations; Quran examples here use only secure QAC-supplied locations.
The wider senses of أَشْرَكَ and مُشْرِك involving unbelief are lexical extensions recorded alongside the primary Quranic sense of associating partners with God.
The masculine, feminine singular, and feminine plural active-participle QAC groups for مُشْرِك are presented under one normalized lexical headword.