Quranic root
أجل
ʾ · j · l
The root presents several distinct lexical branches. Its central temporal branch concerns an appointed limit or endpoint, with related ideas of deferral, futurity, and assigning a term; other branches include affirmation, crime and causation, restraint, a wild-cattle herd, a neck ailment, and a water basin.
The temporal branch extends from a fixed endpoint or term to postponement, futurity, and the appointment of a term. The lexical sources also explicitly treat several other branches as independent rather than deriving every meaning from one root principle.
- Maqāyīs · row 39
- Lane · entry 6235
- 4
- Quran-attested forms
- 8
- Quran senses
- 56
- Quran occurrences
Forms in the Quran
The forms this root actually takes in the Quran. Select one to jump to its senses and examples.
أَجَّلَ
ʾajjala
- Part of speech
- Verb · Form II
- Form
- II
- 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.
To assign, appoint, specify, or fix a term or time for something.
The Quranic active occurrence concerns a term assigned by God; the assigned term may be understood as a death term or another eschatological endpoint.
- Lane · entry 6228
- Mufradāt · row 19
Selected Quran examples
Quran 6:128word 21
“You appointed”
To postpone or defer.
The active and passive Quranic forms are represented together under the Form II verb: one occurrence presents postponement in the passive, while the lexical relation is that of causing something to be deferred.
- Lane · entry 6228
Selected Quran examples
Quran 77:12word 3
“are (these) postponed”
أَجَل
ʾajal
- Part of speech
- Noun
- Quran occurrences
- 52 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.
An appointed or fixed term, period, endpoint, or due time.
The broad temporal noun applies to a period allotted to a person, event, community, or undertaking. Quranic two-term constructions may contrast different appointed durations or endpoints; the contextual object determines whether the term concerns this life, an event, or the hereafter.
- Lane · entry 6235
- Mufradāt · row 19
Selected Quran examples
Quran 6:2word 9
“and a term”
An allotted lifespan or appointed time of death.
This sense is used of the duration or endpoint of human or communal life. Interpretive discussions of the Quranic term include death, the completion of life, and, in particular constructions, the interval before resurrection or other divinely appointed endpoints.
- Lane · entry 6235
- Mufradāt · row 19
Selected Quran examples
Quran 6:128word 19
“our term”
The prescribed waiting period after divorce.
In the Quranic legal construction concerning divorced women, it denotes the interval ending when the waiting period is completed and remarriage becomes permissible.
- Lane · entry 6235
- Mufradāt · row 19
Selected Quran examples
Quran 2:231word 5
“their (waiting) term”
Destruction or doom.
A Quranic interpretation records the noun as meaning approaching destruction rather than merely approaching a chronological deadline. The reported citation is preserved without assigning it a modern verse location not supplied by QAC.
- Lane · entry 6235
أَجْل
ʾajl
- Part of speech
- Causal preposition · in من أجل
- 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.
Because of, on account of, or by reason of.
The Quranic occurrence is the causal expression مِنْ أَجْلِ ذَلِكَ, historically explained in relation to an offense or its consequence. This construction is distinct from the temporal noun أَجَل meaning a term.
- Mufradāt · row 19
- Lane · entry 6232
Selected Quran examples
Quran 5:32word 2
“time”
مُؤَجَّل
muʾajjal
- Part of speech
- Passive participle
- 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.
Appointed, fixed, or determined for a specified time.
The passive participle describes something whose time has been set or limited; the Quranic occurrence presents a determined written decree.
- Lane · entry 6240
Selected Quran examples
Quran 3:145word 10
“determined”
Occurrences in the Quran
Every place this root appears, in Quran order. The first few are shown here.
- 2:231أَجَلَهُنَّtheir (waiting) term
- 2:232أَجَلَهُنَّtheir (waiting) term
- 2:234أَجَلَهُنَّtheir (specified) term
- 2:235أَجَلَهُۥ ۚits end
- 2:282أَجَلٍۢa term
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 16 Classical meanings
أَجِلَ
To be or become delayed, postponed, or kept back.
This is the Form I intransitive branch, distinct from the Quranic Form II verb that causes or assigns a delay.
- Lane · entry 6227
أَجَلَ
To confine, restrain, withhold, hinder, or prevent.
The usage includes restricting cattle from pasture; that example illustrates the act of withholding and is not a general limitation on the objects of the verb.
- Lane · entry 6227
أَجَلَ
To commit evil against someone, or to draw, procure, stir up, or provoke evil against them.
The construction takes the person or group against whom the evil is committed or directed.
- Lane · entry 6227
أَجَلَ
To acquire, earn, collect, bring, or provide resources, and to manage affairs for one's family.
This is a separate Form I usage concerned with obtaining or arranging provision and affairs for a household.
- Lane · entry 6227
تَأَجَّلَ
To ask or request that a term or period be assigned or appointed for oneself.
The construction may include requesting permission or a period of delay, such as time to return to one's family.
- Lane · entry 6230
أَجْل
A crime, offense, or injurious act whose consequence is feared.
This lexical noun is distinct from the causal preposition in مِنْ أَجْلِ; the causal expression developed from the relation of an offense to its consequence.
- Lane · entry 6232
- Mufradāt · row 19
أَجَل
Yes, indeed, or it is as you say.
A response particle acknowledging the truth of an affirmative statement or, in some grammatical accounts, answering a request or demand. It is not the temporal noun أَجَل.
- Lane · entry 6234
- Maqāyīs · row 39
أَجَل
The maturity or due date of a debt or other obligation.
This is the specialized legal and commercial use for the period at which payment or delivery falls due; it is a narrower Classical Arabic application of the temporal noun.
- Lane · entry 6235
أَجِيل
A person or thing granted a delay until a specified time; deferred.
The adjective describes the recipient or object of an allowed postponement and is lexically distinct from the related form آجِل.
- Lane · entry 6238
آجِل
Delayed, postponed, deferred, or consequently future and yet to come.
It may describe what is deferred until the end of a period and, by contrast with عاجل, what belongs to the future rather than the immediate present.
- Lane · entry 6239
- Maqāyīs · row 39
الْآجِلَة
The future, ultimate, or latter abode or life; the hereafter.
This is the substantive feminine usage contrasted with the present or immediate life, العاجلة.
- Lane · entry 6239
آجِل
A person who commits a crime, or the committing of a crime.
This is a separate lexical branch from the temporal adjective meaning deferred or future.
- Lane · entry 6239
مُؤَجَّل
Deferred or not yet due, especially a debt.
In this Classical Arabic specialization it is contrasted with حالّ, an obligation that is currently due.
- Lane · entry 6240
إِجْل
A herd or group of wild cattle.
This is an independent nominal branch, with the plural آَجَال reported in the lexical discussion.
- Maqāyīs · row 39
إِجْل
A pain or ailment in the neck.
An anatomical and medical usage, independent of the temporal noun and the causal expression.
- Maqāyīs · row 39
مَأْجَل
A broad basin or reservoir in which water from a well or channel is held before being released for irrigation.
The noun refers to a constructed or natural holding place for water; its plural is مَآجِل.
- Maqāyīs · row 39
Cautions
Points that affect how this root should be read.
The temporal noun أَجَل has several Quranic interpretive applications, especially in the discussion of 6:2 and 6:128; these are grouped under the term and lifespan senses rather than treated as wholly separate lexical meanings.
Lane reports a destruction interpretation with a historical citation written as [vii. 184], and reports the passive-participle discussion with a citation to iii. 139. These historical references are not converted into modern verse locations; the QAC occurrence at 3:145 is used for the supplied passive-participle form.
The Maqayis discussion explicitly treats several branches of this root as distinct lexical origins, so the rare herd, neck-ailment, and water-basin meanings are not presented as developments of the temporal sense.