Quranic root
أوب
ʾ · w · b
The root centers on returning or turning back, especially a deliberate return toward a prior place, state, or direction.
From the basic notion of return, the evidence extends to restoring a hand or limb, repeated movement in travel, a destination or abode of return, repentance and repeated turning toward God, and echoing or repeating praise. The Quran-focused discussion distinguishes أَوْبٌ as a voluntary return by an agent with will from the broader notion of return.
- Maqāyīs · row 165
- Mufradāt · row 62
- 4
- Quran-attested forms
- 5
- Quran senses
- 17
- Quran occurrences
Forms in the Quran
The forms this root actually takes in the Quran. Select one to jump to its senses and examples.
أَوَّبَ
ʾawwaba
- Part of speech
- Verb · Form II
- Form
- II
- 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 repeat or echo praises of God.
Quranic imperative addressed to the mountains in conjunction with David. A transmitted alternative reading understands the construction as returning with him in repeated praise rather than echoing his praise.
- Lane · entry 7451
Selected Quran examples
Quran 34:10word 7
“Repeat praises”
إِيَاب
ʾiyāb
- Part of speech
- Verbal noun
- 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.
Return; coming back.
In the Quranic occurrence, the return of people to God is intended. The form denotes the act of returning rather than a place of return.
- Mufradāt · row 62
- Lane · entry 7450
Selected Quran examples
Quran 88:25word 3
“(will be) their return”
أَوَّاب
ʾawwāb
- Part of speech
- Intensive active participle / adjective
- Quran occurrences
- 6 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 repeatedly turns back to God through repentance and obedience.
The repeated return may involve leaving sin, resuming obedience, seeking forgiveness, and remaining mindful of God's ordinances.
- Mufradāt · row 62
- Lane · entry 7463
Selected Quran examples
Quran 17:25word 11
“to those who often turn (to Him)”
Quran 38:30word 7
“(was) one who repeatedly turned”
Quran 50:32word 5
“who turns”
One devoted to praising God.
A transmitted religious explanation uses the form for a praiser of God, including in the expression صلاة الأوابين; this is distinct from the more general description of repeated repentance and obedience.
- Lane · entry 7463
مَآب
maʾāb
- Part of speech
- Noun · verbal/place noun
- Quran occurrences
- 9 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.
Return, or the place and destination to which one returns; a return-abode.
In Quranic contexts it can denote an ultimate destination or final abode, whether favorable or unfavorable, as well as the act or prospect of return.
- Mufradāt · row 62
- Lane · entry 7466
Selected Quran examples
Occurrences in the Quran
Every place this root appears, in Quran order. The first few are shown here.
- 3:14ٱلْمَـَٔابِ[the] abode to return
- 13:29مَـَٔابٍۢplace of return
- 13:36مَـَٔابِ(is) my return
- 17:25لِلْأَوَّٰبِينَto those who often turn (to Him)
- 34:10أَوِّبِىRepeat praises
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 29 Classical meanings
آبَ
To return to a place, person, or thing, or to return from a journey.
The basic intransitive verb of return.
- Lane · entry 7450
آبَ
To come or return to one's family, people, or the water at night.
A conventional temporal construction; some accounts specify the beginning of the night.
- Lane · entry 7450
آبَ
To return from disobedience to obedience; to repent.
Used with return from sin or offense, including the construction آبَ إِلَى اللهِ.
- Lane · entry 7450
آبَتِ الشَّمْسُ
Of the sun, to set or return to its setting place.
The setting is understood figuratively as the sun's return to the place from which it began its course.
- Lane · entry 7450
آبَ إِلَيْهِ
To come to someone from every direction or quarter.
A construction describing people arriving from all sides.
- Lane · entry 7450
آبَ بِهِ
To make someone or something return; to put a hand back to a sword, bow, or arrow.
Transitive use, including restoring a person or object and directing the hand back toward a weapon or projectile.
- Lane · entry 7450
أَوَّبَ
To journey through the day, sometimes continuing until night; of travelling camels, to vie with one another in pace.
The descriptions vary as to whether the journey ends at night, continues through it, or denotes a particular form of travelling-camel competition.
- Lane · entry 7451
آب
The name of the Syrian month corresponding to August in the old calendar.
An Arabicized calendrical term, unrelated to the ordinary verbal-noun senses in usage.
- Lane · entry 7456
أَوْبٌ
The returning or rapid shifting of an animal's fore and hind legs in movement; swiftness.
Used of gait and quick alternation of the limbs, especially in animals.
- Lane · entry 7457
أَوْبٌ
A right or direct way, direction, course, or tendency.
A spatial or figurative direction toward which one proceeds.
- Lane · entry 7457
أَوْبٌ
A course or manner of acting; a customary mode of conduct.
Used of a person's established way of behaving or customary practice.
- Lane · entry 7457
أَوْبٌ
A way, road, quarter, tract, side, or place, including a place to which one returns.
A spatial noun covering a route, region, side, or destination according to context.
- Lane · entry 7457
أَوْبٌ
Bees.
A quasi-plural, explained by the bees' repeated return to their hive or night shelter.
- Lane · entry 7457
أَوْبٌ
Clouds.
A lexical plural or collective usage.
- Lane · entry 7457
أَوْبٌ
The wind.
A lexical usage recorded without a further semantic restriction.
- Lane · entry 7457
أَوْبَةٌ
A return.
A substantive noun formed from the basic verb of returning.
- Lane · entry 7458
أَوْبَةٌ
Return from disobedience to obedience; repentance.
A religious or moral return from sin.
- Lane · entry 7458
أَوْبَةٌ
Speech or language without profit.
Appears in the idiom كلام لا أوبة له.
- Lane · entry 7458
أَوْبَةٌ
The legs of a beast.
The singular of أَوْبَاتٌ in a specialized anatomical or zoological usage.
- Lane · entry 7458
أَيْبَةٌ
A noon-day draught or drink.
A separate lexical usage from the return noun to which the headword is also cross-referenced.
- Lane · entry 7459
أَوُوبٌ
A she-camel quick in shifting her fore and hind legs while moving.
A specialized adjective for rapid animal gait.
- Lane · entry 7461
آئِبٌ
Returning; one who returns.
Active participle of آبَ.
- Lane · entry 7464
آئِبَةٌ
The coming of camels to water to drink every night.
A specialized usage describing the regular nightly return of camels to water.
- Lane · entry 7465
مَآب
The place where the sun sets.
A specialized place noun derived from the notion of return.
- Lane · entry 7466
مَآب
A day-journey.
Used as a measure of travel distance or duration; plural مَآوِبُ is recorded.
- Lane · entry 7466
مِئْوَبٌ
A camel that prevails when vying with another in pace or movement.
A specialized noun for an animal distinguished by superior travelling speed.
- Lane · entry 7467
مَآبَةُ البِئْرِ
The place in a well where water flows back and collects to replenish what has been drawn.
A technical term for the water's returning collection point in a well.
- Lane · entry 7468
مُؤَوِّبَةٌ
A wind that blows throughout the day or comes at night.
The source records variant vocalizations and differing temporal descriptions.
- Lane · entry 7469
مُتَأَوِّبٌ
Returning to one's family at night; coming at night or at the beginning of the night.
An active participial description of nocturnal arrival or return.
- Lane · entry 7472
Cautions
Points that affect how this root should be read.
The Quranic imperative أَوِّبِ is normalized under the dictionary citation form أَوَّبَ; the supplied Quran surface form remains represented by its QAC location.
A Lane-reported opinion restricts إِيَاب to returning to one's family at night, but the Quran-focused evidence supports the broader meaning of return, so that restriction is not imposed on the Quranic sense.
أَوَّاب is transmitted with both the repentant-returner interpretation and a praiser-of-God interpretation; these are retained as separate Quran-attested senses rather than collapsed into contextual gloss variation.