Quranic root
أهل
ʾ · h · l
The root chiefly centers on belonging through shared residence, kinship, affiliation, or qualification; a separate lexical branch denotes rendered fat or oil.
The أهل branch develops from people of a dwelling or place to household, kin, social or religious communities, and entitlement or fitness. Maqāyīs also records a distinct branch for إهالة, fat or oil used as food.
- Maqāyīs · row 162
- 1
- Quran-attested forms
- 5
- Quran senses
- 127
- Quran occurrences
Forms in the Quran
The forms this root actually takes in the Quran. Select one to jump to its senses and examples.
أَهْل
ʾahl
- Part of speech
- Noun
- Quran occurrences
- 127 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.
People associated with and inhabiting a house, settlement, land, or other place; the inhabitants or people of a locality.
Used with a place or domain to identify its inhabitants or people. The referent may be a community or locality rather than a biological family.
- Lane · entry 7429
- Mufradāt · row 61
Selected Quran examples
Quran 10:24word 24
“its people”
Household, family, or kin: those joined by residence, descent, marriage, or close domestic relation.
Context may narrow the reference to a person's wife, children, household, dependents, or nearer kin. In أهل البيت, the expression can designate a particular household or family; kinship alone is not always sufficient for inclusion.
- Lane · entry 7429
- Mufradāt · row 61
Selected Quran examples
Quran 2:196word 63
“his family”
People united by a religion, scripture, doctrine, craft, or other recognized affiliation; the members of such a group.
Quranic constructions such as أهل الكتاب identify a religious or scriptural community. The sense concerns collective affiliation rather than merely shared residence or ancestry.
- Lane · entry 7429
- Mufradāt · row 61
Selected Quran examples
Quran 3:64word 2
“O People”
Entitled, worthy, deserving, or fit for a thing; one having a right or just title to it.
May be used predicatively with لِـ or in the construction أهلُ الشيء. In the Quranic expression أهل التقوى وأهل المغفرة, it denotes the One entitled to be regarded with piety and to forgive.
- Lane · entry 7429
- Lane · entry 7428
- Mufradāt · row 61
Selected Quran examples
Quran 74:56word 8
“(is) worthy”
The possessor or owner of property or something entrusted to a person.
The construction identifies the person or people to whom property belongs or for whom it is held; it is distinct from the broader sense of being worthy or entitled.
- Lane · entry 7429
Selected Quran examples
Quran 4:58word 8
“their owners”
Occurrences in the Quran
Every place this root appears, in Quran order. The first few are shown here.
- 2:105أَهْلِ(the) People
- 2:109أَهْلِ(the) People
- 2:126أَهْلَهُۥits people
- 2:196أَهْلُهُۥhis family
- 2:217أَهْلِهِۦits people
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 18 Classical meanings
أَهَلَ
To people or inhabit a place; to become peopled or inhabited.
A verb used of a place or dwelling.
- Lane · entry 7422
أَهَلَ
To marry or take a wife.
A Form I verbal use, distinct from the noun أهل meaning household or family.
- Lane · entry 7422
أَهِلَ بِهِ
To become sociable, companionable, friendly, or familiar with someone or something; to be cheered by the person's or thing's presence.
The construction takes بِـ and may be used of a person or a thing.
- Lane · entry 7422
أَهَّلَ / تَأْهِيلٌ
To welcome or receive someone hospitably, as by saying أهلًا or مرحبًا وأهلًا.
The welcoming formula conveys that the visitor has found an ample place and people treated as kin rather than strangers.
- Lane · entry 7424
أَهَّلَ
To make someone worthy, deserving, qualified, or entitled to something.
A causative construction with لِـ; it may express making someone fit for a benefit or undertaking.
- Lane · entry 7424
آهَلَ
To unite a person with a wife or family in Paradise, or to grant him a family there.
A specialized supplicatory or benedictive expression, آهلك الله في الجنة.
- Lane · entry 7425
تَأَهَّلَ
To marry or establish a household.
A Form V derivative referring to entering the state of having a spouse or household.
- Lane · entry 7426
اِتَّهَلَ
To marry or take a wife.
A Form VIII derivative cited as an alternative to the Form I marriage use.
- Lane · entry 7427
إِهَالَةٌ
Rendered fat, grease, oil, or another fatty seasoning used with food.
The term may include melted tail-fat and similar fats or oils; related verbs can mean taking or eating it.
- Lane · entry 7428
- Lane · entry 7435
- Lane · entry 7437
- Lane · entry 7439
أَهْلُ الله / أَهْلُ القرآن
People specially associated with God or the Quran, especially readers or reciters of the Quran.
A conventional honorific or group designation, not the ordinary meaning of household or inhabitants.
- Lane · entry 7429
أَهْلُ العِلْم / أَهْلُ الأَمْر / أَهْلُ المَرَاتِب
People characterized by, responsible for, or distinguished in a particular field, authority, knowledge, or rank.
The noun أهل may be followed by a domain or quality to identify its recognized practitioners, possessors, or officials.
- Lane · entry 7429
أَهْلُ الذِّمَّة / أَهْلُ العَهْد
Non-Muslims protected under a compact or covenant with the Muslim community.
A technical legal designation for covenant communities whose security is guaranteed under the stated conditions.
- Lane · entry 7429
أَهْلٌ
The author or authors, practitioners, or perpetrators of a thing.
In compounds such as أهل البدع or أهل الظلم, the following noun identifies the practice or action attributed to the people.
- Lane · entry 7429
أَهِلَةٌ
In a reported expression, people possessing property or cattle; alternatively, people of a distinguished sort.
A rare expression with divergent lexical explanations in the cited evidence.
- Lane · entry 7432
أَهْلِيٌّ
Domestic or tame, especially an animal or bird accustomed to a human dwelling.
Opposed to وَحْشِيٌّ, wild; the evidence illustrates the use with domestic asses.
- Lane · entry 7433
أَهْلِيَّةٌ
Eligibility, legal capacity, or the quality of being fit and entitled to bear or exercise a right or obligation.
A technical nominal development of the worthiness and fitness branch, especially in legal contexts.
- Lane · entry 7434
آهِلٌ / مَأْهُولٌ
Peopled, inhabited, or having its people present.
Used especially of a town, village, dwelling, or other place; مَأْهُولٌ is also used of a place that has been inhabited.
- Lane · entry 7436
- Lane · entry 7437
مُتَأَهِّلٌ
Having a wife or being married.
A participial description of marital status.
- Lane · entry 7438
Cautions
Points that affect how this root should be read.
The 127 QAC occurrences are inflected and pronominal forms of one nominal headword; differences such as family, people, household, and owners arise from construction and context, not separate QAC lemmas.
Lane's historical Quran citation notation, including the citation attached to the owners sense, is not transcribed as a modern surah:ayah location. The supplied QAC location 4:58 is used only because it independently appears in the packet with the contextual gloss “their owners”.
The rare أهل أهلة expression has divergent reported interpretations, which are retained together under its Classical Arabic meaning rather than presented as a Quranic sense.
Unassigned or ambiguous evidence
lane-unit:Ahl:7423:g1:main is materially lexical but truncated after “أهّل به ... inf. n.”, so its exact Form II definition cannot be assigned confidently beyond the related welcoming evidence elsewhere in the packet.