Quranic root
ضرر
ḍ · r · r
The root centers on harm or detriment, contrasted with benefit, and extends to states of adversity, constraint, and impairment.
The lexical tradition also connects the root with gathered or accumulated parts and with strength or endurance; from adversity and straitness developed the sense of being compelled by necessity, while related formations describe co-wives, bodily masses, wealth, and persistent vigor.
- Maqāyīs · row 2906
- 11
- Quran-attested forms
- 12
- Quran senses
- 74
- Quran occurrences
Forms in the Quran
The forms this root actually takes in the Quran. Select one to jump to its senses and examples.
ضَرَّ
ḍarra
- Part of speech
- Verb · Form I
- Form
- I
- Quran occurrences
- 19 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 harm, injure, damage, or cause detriment to someone or something.
A transitive use; Quranic contexts contrast causing harm with benefit and may express inability to harm another independently.
- Lane · entry 17607
- Mufradāt · row 871
Selected Quran examples
Quran 2:102word 54
“harms them”
Quran 3:120word 14
“will harm you”
ضَارَّ
ḍārra
- Part of speech
- Verb · Form III
- Form
- III
- Quran occurrences
- 3 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 harm or be harmed through reciprocal or adversarial dealings; to inflict injury on one another.
The Quranic forms occur in constructions that can be read actively or passively: causing harm, being subjected to harm, or making someone suffer through a harmful interaction.
- Lane · entry 17608
- Mufradāt · row 871
Selected Quran examples
Quran 2:233word 23
“made to suffer”
Quran 2:282word 112
“(should) be harmed”
Quran 65:6word 8
“harm them”
اِضْطَرَّ
āiḍṭarra
- Part of speech
- Verb · Form VIII
- Form
- VIII
- Quran occurrences
- 7 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 compel, constrain, or drive someone to something, especially against the will and through necessity; to be compelled or forced to resort to or do something.
The construction may be transitive or intransitive. Compulsion can arise from an external force or threat, or from an internal necessity such as life-threatening hunger.
- Lane · entry 17612
- Mufradāt · row 871
Selected Quran examples
Quran 2:126word 25
“I will force him”
Quran 2:173word 14
“(is) forced by necessity”
Quran 31:24word 4
“We will force them”
ضَارّ
ḍārr
- 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.
One who harms; harmful or injurious.
An active-participial description of a person or agent as capable of causing harm; Quranic contexts deny that such agents can independently harm others.
- Lane · entry 17627
- Mufradāt · row 871
Selected Quran examples
Quran 2:102word 45
“at all [be those who] harm”
Quran 58:10word 9
“he (can) harm them”
ضَرّ
ḍarr
- Part of speech
- Noun
- Quran occurrences
- 10 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.
Harm, detriment, or a damaging effect.
A noun contrasted with benefit; Quranic uses may express the capacity or result of causing harm rather than an adverse condition as such.
- Lane · entry 17607
- Lane · entry 17614
Selected Quran examples
Quran 7:188word 7
“(power to) harm”
Quran 13:16word 18
“(to) harm”
ضَرَّاء
ḍarrāʾ
- Part of speech
- 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.
Hardship, distress, adversity, or a hurtful condition.
A condition of adversity contrasted with prosperity or ease; it can concern a person's circumstances, livelihood, or bodily state.
- Lane · entry 17625
- Mufradāt · row 871
Selected Quran examples
Quran 2:177word 43
“and [the] hardship”
Quran 10:21word 7
“adversity”
ضِرَار
ḍirār
- Part of speech
- Verbal noun
- 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.
Harming or injurious conduct, including inflicting harm in return or requital.
Used for harmful action between people and for acting with the purpose of causing harm in social or religious affairs.
- Lane · entry 17608
- Mufradāt · row 871
Selected Quran examples
Quran 2:231word 13
“(to) hurt”
Quran 9:107word 4
“(for causing) harm”
ضُرّ
ḍurr
- Part of speech
- Noun
- Quran occurrences
- 19 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.
Harm, injury, hurt, damage, or other adverse effect.
The direct counterpart of benefit; it may describe harm that reaches a person or thing.
- Lane · entry 17614
- Mufradāt · row 871
Selected Quran examples
Quran 39:38word 19
“harm”
An adverse condition or affliction, including bodily illness or impairment, poverty, diminished standing, or other serious hardship.
This sense describes a state or condition rather than merely an act of harming. The lexical discussion allows bodily and outward circumstances, and also deficiencies in a person's condition or resources.
- Lane · entry 17614
- Mufradāt · row 871
Selected Quran examples
Quran 6:17word 4
“with affliction”
Quran 21:83word 7
“the adversity”
ضَرَر
ḍarar
- Part of speech
- 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.
Detriment, deficiency, impairment, or loss.
A noun for a disabling or disadvantageous deficiency; the Quranic occurrence is in a construction concerning exemption on account of such an impediment.
- Lane · entry 17618
Selected Quran examples
Quran 4:95word 8
“[the] disabled”
مُضَارّ
muḍārr
- Part of speech
- Active 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.
Causing harm; injurious or harmful.
An active-participial form used of conduct or an agent whose action causes harm, including in a legal or social context.
- Lane · entry 17608
- Mufradāt · row 871
Selected Quran examples
Quran 4:12word 82
“(being) harmful”
مُضْطَرّ
muḍṭarr
- 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.
One compelled, driven by necessity, or placed in distress.
A passive-participial description of someone forced to seek relief or act because circumstances leave no viable alternative.
- Lane · entry 17612
- Mufradāt · row 871
Selected Quran examples
Quran 27:62word 3
“(to) the distressed one”
Occurrences in the Quran
Every place this root appears, in Quran order. The first few are shown here.
- 2:102بِضَآرِّينَat all [be those who] harm
- 2:102يَضُرُّهُمْharms them
- 2:126أَضْطَرُّهُۥٓI will force him
- 2:173ٱضْطُرَّ(is) forced by necessity
- 2:177وَٱلضَّرَّآءِand [the] hardship
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 47 Classical meanings
ضَرَّة
Need, hardship, distress, or an afflictive condition.
A lexical use distinct from the homonymous term for a co-wife or a bodily mass.
- Lane · entry 17616
ضِرّ
A co-wife, or marriage to a woman in addition to an existing wife.
Used in expressions describing a woman taken as an additional wife or a marriage involving fellow-wives.
- Lane · entry 17615
ضَرَّة
A woman's fellow-wife or co-wife.
The term may also be used of each of two or more women married to the same man.
- Lane · entry 17616
ضَرَّة
A discordant thing or affair, by comparison with co-wives who do not agree.
A figurative extension from the co-wife meaning.
- Lane · entry 17616
الضَّرَّتَانِ
The two stones of a hand-mill.
A specialized dual expression.
- Lane · entry 17616
ضَرَّة
A gathered or substantial mass of flesh, especially part of the udder, the palm or hand, the sole of the foot, or the buttocks.
The specific anatomical location varies by expression; the shared notion is a gathered fleshy part.
- Lane · entry 17616
ضَرَّة
A substantial body of property or livestock, especially resources on which one relies for maintenance.
The term can refer to cattle, camels, sheep, or goats, including a detached group of such animals.
- Lane · entry 17616
ضَرَّ
To be more sufficient or advantageous than another option; to exceed it in adequacy.
An idiomatic construction with عَلَى in which the ordinary meaning of harm is not intended.
- Lane · entry 17607
ضَرَّ
To become blind.
A distinct intransitive lexical use, with ضَرِير as its associated participial noun.
- Lane · entry 17607
ضِرّ
A strong, formidable, or highly cunning person.
An epithet applied to a person; the sources report both strength and shrewdness as explanations.
- Lane · entry 17615
ضَرِير
Injurious conduct or the act of harming, especially harm in the first instance or in return.
A substantive use equivalent to injurious action rather than the more common personal adjective.
- Lane · entry 17619
ضَرِير
Jealousy, especially jealousy concerning one's wife.
A figurative use describing intense protective jealousy.
- Lane · entry 17619
ضَرِير
Spirit, remaining bodily vigor, strength, patient endurance, or perseverance.
Applied to people and animals, especially to lasting energy and the ability to endure hardship or exertion.
- Lane · entry 17619
ضَرِير
Blind, diseased, lean, emaciated, or crippled through illness or loss of an eye.
A respectful epithet for blindness and a broader adjective for persistent bodily impairment or disease.
- Lane · entry 17619
ضَرِير
Intermixed or mingled with harm or injury.
An adjectival use describing something combined with ضُرّ, harm or affliction.
- Lane · entry 17619
ضَرِير
The side or brink of a valley.
A geographical noun; it can denote either of the two sides of a valley.
- Lane · entry 17619
ضَرِير
The last part of a journey.
A reported poetic usage.
- Lane · entry 17619
ضَرَائِر
People in want, the needy, or the poor.
This is a lexical plural use, distinct from the regular plural of ضَرَّة in other senses.
- Lane · entry 17620
ضَرَر
A defect, deficiency, detriment, or loss affecting property or goods.
The source specifically illustrates loss or deficient prosperity in property or livestock.
- Lane · entry 17618
ضَرَر
Narrowness, straitness, or a narrow place or passage.
May describe a constricted location or water confined in a narrow place.
- Lane · entry 17618
ضَرَر
The brink or edge of a cave or cavern.
A specialized geographical use.
- Lane · entry 17618
ضَرُورَة
Necessity, need, want, difficulty, or distress that presses someone toward an action.
Includes ordinary need and the hardship, trouble, inconvenience, or fatigue arising from necessity; it can also refer to poetic license by necessity.
- Lane · entry 17622
ضَرُورِيّ
Necessary, indispensable, or obtained without inferential deliberation; in technical usage, necessary knowledge or a proposition true by necessity.
Contrasted with acquired or inferential knowledge, and extended to indispensable things and necessary qualities.
- Lane · entry 17623
ضَرَّاء
Drought, barrenness, or severe scarcity.
A specialized adverse condition distinguished in some lexical explanations from hardship affecting persons or property more generally.
- Lane · entry 17625
ضَرَّاء
Punishment or a hurtful consequence.
A reported extension of the general sense of a hurtful state or condition.
- Lane · entry 17625
ضَرَّاء
A long-continuing or crippling disease or malady.
A specialized bodily application of the adverse-condition meaning.
- Lane · entry 17625
ضَارُورَاء
Drought, hardship, distress, or adversity.
An archaic variant formation associated with severe scarcity and difficult circumstances.
- Lane · entry 17630
ضَرَّار
One who harms, injures, or hurts much.
An intensive active adjective.
- Lane · entry 17626
أَضَرَّ
To compel someone against his will to do something.
A Form IV transitive construction with عَلَى; distinct from the Form VIII necessity construction.
- Lane · entry 17609
أَضَرَّ
To approach or draw near so closely as to harm, annoy, inconvenience, or press upon someone or something.
Used of a person, road, torrent, cloud, or other thing approaching another; closeness may itself cause inconvenience.
- Lane · entry 17609
أَضَرَّ
To press, importune, harass, persecute, or be urgent with someone.
A transitive construction with عَلَيْهِ expressing persistent pressure.
- Lane · entry 17609
أَضَرَّ
For a horse to champ or bite upon the bar of the bridle.
A specialized equestrian use.
- Lane · entry 17609
أَضَرَّ
To bear patiently a hard journey.
A reported figurative use concerning endurance of severe travel.
- Lane · entry 17609
أَضَرَّ
To take or give in marriage a wife in a situation where another wife is already present.
A specialized marriage-related construction describing polygamous arrangements.
- Lane · entry 17609
أَضَرَّ
To hasten somewhat in running.
A reported usage attributed to one authority and disputed by another, who prefers a different form.
- Lane · entry 17609
تَضَرَّرَ
To be harmed, injured, hurt, afflicted, grieved, or sick; to experience pressure or inconvenience.
A Form V intransitive or middle-like expression of undergoing harm or hardship.
- Lane · entry 17610
مُضَارَّة
In testamentary practice, frustrating or improperly altering a bequest or appointing an unfit beneficiary.
A specialized legal construction involving failure to execute a testament, partial violation, or a contrary bequest.
- Lane · entry 17608
تَضَارَّ
To differ, oppose, dispute, or act adversely toward one another.
A reported interpretation of the Form VI expression; the source also records variant explanations involving mutual hurt.
- Lane · entry 17608
تَضَارَّ
To crowd, press, or constrict one another.
An alternative lexical interpretation of the same reported expression, involving people pressing together or disputing access.
- Lane · entry 17608
مُضِرّ
A man with two or more wives, or a woman with a fellow-wife.
A derived adjective describing a polygamous marital relation.
- Lane · entry 17633
مُضِرّ
One who possesses a substantial body of cattle or a herd that returns to him from pasture.
A specialized description of a person whose livestock constitute a significant resource.
- Lane · entry 17633
مَضَرَّة
A cause or means of harm, injury, hurt, mischief, or damage; also harm itself.
Contrasted with مَنْفَعَة, a benefit.
- Lane · entry 17634
مِضْرَار
A woman, mare, or she-camel that takes fright, runs away, and goes at random because of liveliness or briskness.
A specialized descriptive noun for an energetic, skittish female or female animal.
- Lane · entry 17635
اِضْطِرَارِيَّة
A natural or inborn quality, opposed to a chosen quality.
A technical philosophical or grammatical adjective describing what arises by nature or compulsion rather than choice.
- Lane · entry 17631
بَيْعُ الْمُضْطَرّ
A sale made under compulsion or urgent necessity.
Classically distinguished between a sale contracted against one's will, which is void, and a sale made under debt or pressing need at a loss, which may be valid though disapproved.
- Lane · entry 17637
ضَرَارَة
Blindness.
A lexical noun for loss of sight, distinct from the adjective ضَرِير.
- Lane · entry 17621
مُضِرّ
Approaching or drawing near, especially so closely as to harm, injure, or inconvenience.
Used of something approaching another, including clouds approaching the earth; this is the derived adjective مُضِرّ, distinct from the Form IV verb أَضَرَّ.
- Lane · entry 17633
Cautions
Points that affect how this root should be read.
The Quranic Form III verb is morphologically supplied as passive in QAC, while the lexical discussion records active and passive readings; the sense therefore states both reciprocal harming and being subjected to harm.
The Quranic form ضَرَر is defined from direct lexical evidence as detriment, deficiency, impairment, or loss; the supplied contextual rendering “the disabled” illustrates its Quranic construction but is not used alone to establish an additional sense.
Lane's cited Quran references in its discussion were not converted into modern verse locations unless independently supplied by QAC.