Quranic root
أبي
ʾ · b · y
The root centers on deliberate refusal: withholding assent, declining, refraining, or resisting.
The primary sense of refusal extends in Classical Arabic to strong aversion in people and animals, including aversion to food, water, mating, or injury. Related derived expressions also describe deficient or inaccessible water and other specialized lexical usages.
- Maqāyīs · row 17
- Mufradāt · row 11
- Lane · entry 6046
- 1
- Quran-attested forms
- 1
- Quran senses
- 13
- Quran occurrences
Forms in the Quran
The forms this root actually takes in the Quran. Select one to jump to its senses and examples.
أَبَى
ʾabā
- Part of speech
- Verb · Form I
- Form
- I
- Quran occurrences
- 13 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 refuse, decline, or withhold assent; to refrain from undertaking something or accepting it.
The refusal is deliberate and strongly unwilling. The verb may be intransitive or take an object, and Quranic constructions include أَبَى أَنْ and أَبَى ... إِلَّا, expressing refusal to do or accept something except in the stated manner.
- Lane · entry 6046
- Mufradāt · row 11
Selected Quran examples
Quran 9:32word 7
“but Allah refuses”
Quran 2:282word 16
“(should) refuse”
Quran 2:34word 9
“He refused”
Quran 33:72word 8
“but they refused”
Occurrences in the Quran
Every place this root appears, in Quran order. The first few are shown here.
- 2:34أَبَىٰHe refused
- 2:282يَأْبَ(should) refuse
- 2:282يَأْبَ(should) refuse
- 9:8وَتَأْبَىٰbut refuse
- 9:32وَيَأْبَىbut Allah refuses
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 22 Classical meanings
أَبَى
To leave or relinquish food or milk without becoming satiated.
A specialized use describing voluntary cessation from eating or drinking before satisfaction.
- Lane · entry 6046
أَبِيَ
Of a young camel: to suffer indigestion from milk and consequently develop an aversion to food.
A reported animal-health usage, distinct from the ordinary verb of refusal.
- Lane · entry 6046
أَبَى عَلَيْهِ
To resist someone, remain unyielding toward him, or refuse to submit to him; also to refuse to submit to being harmed.
The object or matter resisted may be left unexpressed; the construction أَبَى أَنْ يُضَامَ expresses refusal to undergo injury or oppression.
- Lane · entry 6046
أَبَيْتَ اللَّعْنَ
A pre-Islamic greeting addressed to a king: may you refuse what would cause you to be cursed.
A fixed greeting formula whose wording contains a supplicatory use of the verb.
- Lane · entry 6046
آبَى (Form IV)
To make someone refuse, refrain, or dislike something.
A causative derived verb, distinct from the Quranic Form I group.
- Lane · entry 6047
آبَى (Form IV) / مُؤْبٍ
Of water or a related resource, to decrease, become deficient, or be liable to run out; مُؤْبٍ denotes water that is failing or scanty.
The reported expressions also apply to a well, pasture, or money that does not fail or become exhausted.
- Lane · entry 6047
- Lane · entry 6057
آبَى (Form IV)
Of water in a well, to become difficult or dangerous to access.
The usage concerns water whose retrieval exposes the person descending into the well to peril.
- Lane · entry 6047
إِبْيَةٌ
A paucity or deficiency of milk together with its revulsion in the breast or udder.
A specialized term used in connection with a woman’s postpartum fever or with milk in an animal’s udder.
- Lane · entry 6049
أُبَاءٌ
A disease-like dislike or loathing of food.
The noun denotes being affected by an aversion to food, especially in the expression أُبَاءٌ مِنَ الطَّعَامِ.
- Lane · entry 6051
آبٍ
One who refuses, refrains, abstains, or withholds assent; also one who dislikes or hates something.
An active-participial nominal or adjective derived from أَبَى; related variant forms and plurals are recorded in the same lexical field.
- Lane · entry 6056
آبٍ
A person who dislikes or loathes food.
A specialized nominal use of the active participle.
- Lane · entry 6056
أَبَيَانٌ
A person who refuses or dislikes food, or who refuses things regarded as base, mean, or blameworthy.
A specialized adjective or noun; the reported plurals and variant vocalizations do not constitute separate meanings.
- Lane · entry 6056
أَبِيٌّ
A person who refuses or refrains vehemently; one who is incompliant, unyielding, or resistant and will not bear oppression.
The adjective emphasizes forceful or persistent refusal rather than mere nonparticipation.
- Lane · entry 6056
- Mufradāt · row 11
أَبِيٌّ
An animal that refuses fodder because of indigestion, or a female animal that refuses the male because of low appetency.
An animal-specific adjectival use reported for the relevant forms; the examples do not impose a broader restriction on the ordinary verb.
- Lane · entry 6053
أَبَّاءٌ
A man who refuses or does not submit to being harmed or injured.
An intensive personal description of resistance to injury.
- Lane · entry 6054
أُبِيَةٌ
Pride, self-magnification, greatness, majesty, or haughtiness.
A specialized noun for an attitude of self-exaltation or proud self-regard.
- Lane · entry 6055
الآبِي
The lion.
A conventional appellation derived from the idea of being unyielding or refusing.
- Lane · entry 6056
آبِيَةٌ
A female camel that dislikes and will not drink water, or that has no desire for evening food.
A specialized animal noun; its plural and related forms are recorded separately in the lexicographical discussion.
- Lane · entry 6056
آبِيَةٌ
A covered female camel that does not conceive; أَوَابٍ denotes she-camels that refuse the stallion.
A specialized animal use concerning failure to conceive or refusal of mating.
- Lane · entry 6056
أَبْوَاءٌ
A goat ailment associated with oryx urine that causes the animal to avoid drinking.
The reports describe the trigger either as smelling the urine or as drinking water containing it.
- Maqāyīs · row 17
- Mufradāt · row 11
مَأْبَاةٌ
Water that camels refuse or dislike.
A specialized noun for water rejected by camels.
- Lane · entry 6058
أَبَاءَةٌ
The tips or ends of reeds; also a thicket.
A specialized botanical usage recorded in the root discussion, distinct from the ordinary verb of refusal.
- Maqāyīs · row 17
Cautions
Points that affect how this root should be read.
The Quranic form is Form I أَبَى; the Form IV material and its participle are retained separately under Classical Arabic meanings despite their related spelling and semantics.
The shared Mufradat entry mufradat:row:8 concerns the father-term أَبَا and is not treated as unique evidence for this root.
The goat ailment أَبْوَاءٌ is reported with two closely related descriptions: avoidance caused by smelling oryx urine, or by water containing it.
Unassigned or ambiguous evidence
Maqayis suggests that one poetic occurrence of أَبَاءَةٌ may refer to spears by comparison with reeds; because that interpretation is explicitly conjectural, it is not given a separate meaning.