Quranic root
عهد
ʿ · h · d
The root centers on preserving, maintaining, and keeping something present in mind or practice. From this arise the meanings of a binding undertaking, an instruction entrusted for observance, repeated attention, and renewed acquaintance.
The semantic field develops from preservation and continued attention to covenants and obligations, acquaintance with what has been encountered before, places or times associated with prior knowledge, and rain returning to land after earlier rain.
- Maqāyīs · row 3337
- Mufradāt · row 1019
- 3
- Quran-attested forms
- 6
- Quran senses
- 46
- Quran occurrences
Forms in the Quran
The forms this root actually takes in the Quran. Select one to jump to its senses and examples.
عَهِدَ
ʿahida
- Part of speech
- Verb · Form I
- Form
- I
- 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.
To enjoin, charge, or entrust someone with an instruction or duty.
Especially in the construction عَهِدَ إِلَى, with the matter entrusted for observance or performance.
- Lane · entry 5100
- Mufradāt · row 1019
Selected Quran examples
Quran 36:60word 2
“I enjoin”
Quran 2:125word 12
“And We made a covenant”
To make, undertake, or keep a binding promise or commitment.
A commitment may be made to a person or concerning a matter; this is distinct from the directive construction عَهِدَ إِلَى.
- Lane · entry 5100
Selected Quran examples
Quran 7:134word 11
“He has promised”
Quran 43:49word 8
“He has made covenant”
عَاهَدَ
ʿāhada
- Part of speech
- Verb · Form III
- Form
- III
- Quran occurrences
- 11 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 enter into a covenant, compact, treaty, or other mutual undertaking with someone.
The Form III construction presents the undertaking as reciprocal or between parties; the object may be a person or a community, and the commitment may be religious, social, or political.
- Lane · entry 5101
- Mufradāt · row 1019
Selected Quran examples
Quran 9:1word 7
“you made a covenant”
Quran 2:100word 2
“they took”
Quran 16:91word 5
“you have taken a covenant”
عَهْدٌ
ʿahdun
- Part of speech
- Noun
- Quran occurrences
- 29 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.
A covenant, compact, pledge, promise, or binding undertaking.
The undertaking may be between people or between God and people; it is something placed under an obligation to preserve and observe.
- Lane · entry 5107
- Mufradāt · row 1019
Selected Quran examples
Quran 2:124word 18
“My Covenant”
Quran 13:20word 3
“the covenant”
The keeping or fulfilment of a promise, covenant, or comparable obligation.
This sense emphasizes faithful observance of what has been undertaken rather than the undertaking itself.
- Lane · entry 5107
- Mufradāt · row 1019
Selected Quran examples
Quran 7:102word 5
“covenant”
A covenant with God consisting in affirmation of His unity.
A Quranic religious interpretation of عهد in the expression concerning one who takes a covenant with the Compassionate; it is a specific content of the covenant, not a general synonym for monotheism.
- Lane · entry 5107
Selected Quran examples
Quran 19:87word 9
“a covenant”
Occurrences in the Quran
Every place this root appears, in Quran order. The first few are shown here.
- 2:27عَهْدَ(the) Covenant
- 2:40بِعَهْدِىٓMy Covenant
- 2:40بِعَهْدِكُمْyour covenant
- 2:80عَهْدًۭاa covenant
- 2:80عَهْدَهُۥٓ ۖHis Covenant
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 34 Classical meanings
عَهِدَ
To impose a condition or stipulate terms; also, to write a statement of a compact or covenant as binding.
A broader Classical construction concerning conditions or a written compact, not separately identified as a Quranic Form I usage in the supplied evidence.
- Lane · entry 5100
عَهِدَ
To be mindful, regardful, or observant of what is sacred or inviolable.
Used with something entitled to reverence, respect, honour, or defence.
- Lane · entry 5100
عَهِدَ
To meet or encounter someone or something in a particular place.
The object may be a person or thing, commonly with a specification of place.
- Lane · entry 5100
عَهِدَ
To know, recognize, or be acquainted with someone or something in a given state or place.
Includes the passive sense of being known and expressions referring to what one previously knew or encountered.
- Lane · entry 5100
عُهِدَ
Of land, a meadow, or a place, to be rained upon by عهد rain.
A passive or intransitive weather use referring to the first or subsequent rain of the relevant kind.
- Lane · entry 5100
مُعَاهَدَةٌ
A mutual compact, contract, covenant, agreement, confederacy, league, treaty, or engagement.
A verbal noun describing the joining of parties in a reciprocal undertaking.
- Lane · entry 5101
عَاهَدَ
To swear to someone.
A conventional extension of covenant-making in which the undertaking is expressed as an oath.
- Lane · entry 5101
أَعْهَدَ
To hold someone clear of responsibility for an occurrence, or to make someone secure from it; by extension, to undertake responsibility for that person’s security.
Attested in the construction أَعْهَدُكَ مِنْ, including release from liability or assurance of protection.
- Lane · entry 5102
تَعَهَّدَ
To renew acquaintance with something, seek knowledge of it repeatedly, and attend to or restore it carefully.
May describe repeated return, inspection, care, reform, or putting a person or thing into proper condition; it can also mean frequent attention without a separate repair implication.
- Lane · entry 5103
تَعَاهَدُوا
To unite with one another in a compact, contract, covenant, agreement, league, treaty, or engagement.
A reciprocal plural construction, synonymous in the supplied evidence with joining a contract or alliance.
- Lane · entry 5104
اِسْتَعْهَدَ
To make someone responsible for accidents or consequences arising from himself.
A causative-request construction assigning responsibility for possible harm or liability.
- Lane · entry 5106
عَهْدٌ
An injunction, charge, bidding, order, or command.
A nominal use of عهد as the instruction or obligation that is to be observed.
- Lane · entry 5107
عَهْدٌ
Protection, safeguard, assurance of security, responsibility, or suretyship.
May denote a protective guarantee or the security owed under an established compact; ذُو عَهْدٍ refers to a person under such protection.
- Lane · entry 5107
عَهْدٌ
An oath, especially one securing the parties to a compact or covenant.
Often used in an oath formula in which the undertaking is invoked by God.
- Lane · entry 5107
عَهْدٌ
A writ or diploma appointing someone to an office such as a governorship.
A written instrument of appointment; this is distinct from the covenant or obligation recorded in it.
- Lane · entry 5107
عَهْدٌ
Defence and attentive observance of persons or things regarded as sacred, inviolable, or worthy of honour.
Includes mindfulness of what should be protected and observance of love or affection.
- Lane · entry 5107
عَهْدٌ
A time or period, especially the time of a particular person, condition, or stage of life.
Used in expressions such as “in the time of” someone or “during my youth.”
- Lane · entry 5107
عَهْدٌ
A recent meeting, sighting, knowledge, or acquaintance with someone or something.
In expressions such as عَهْدِي بِهِ, it can refer to the last known state, place, or encounter and to the recency of that acquaintance.
- Lane · entry 5107
عَهْدٌ
The first rain, or rain falling after earlier rain while the earlier moisture remains.
The related plural عِهَادٌ may denote such rains or the portions of land on which they have fallen; usage varies in its designation of the rainy season and type of rain.
- Lane · entry 5107
عَامُ العُهُودِ
A year of scant rainfall.
An idiomatic expression based on the rain sense of عهد.
- Lane · entry 5107
عَهِيدٌ
A person who makes a compact and with whom a compact is made; a confederate or treaty partner.
The word presents the relationship as mutual between the parties.
- Lane · entry 5114
عَهِيدٌ
Old or ancient.
Used adjectivally of an old town, village, or comparable place.
- Lane · entry 5114
عَهْدَةٌ
A place not reached by the sun, associated in a rare cited usage with a depository of a secret.
The spelling and interpretation are reported as an unusual, verse-based usage and are not generalized to the ordinary warranty sense of عُهْدَةٌ.
- Lane · entry 5109
عُهْدَةٌ
A written statement recording a purchase or sale, or a confederacy, league, compact, or covenant.
The document is something to which one returns when doubt or uncertainty arises.
- Lane · entry 5110
عُهْدَةٌ
A return, claim for indemnification, warranty, or responsibility for a defect in something sold or entrusted.
In commercial usage it concerns the purchaser’s right to return a faulty article or the seller’s continuing liability for its defect.
- Lane · entry 5110
عُهْدَةٌ
A defect, weakness, or unfinished matter requiring return and rectification.
May describe an imperfection in an affair, an intellectual weakness, or faulty formation in handwriting.
- Lane · entry 5110
عِهَادٌ
Parts of land upon which the relevant seasonal rain has fallen.
A plural rain term connected with rain following or associated with the وَسْمِيّ season.
- Lane · entry 5113
مُعَاهِدٌ
A person bound by a treaty or covenant and thereby living under a protection agreement; by extension, a peaceful non-Muslim party under a defined truce or compact.
In legal and traditional usage it commonly denotes a member of أهل العهد or أهل الذمة, and can also apply to another unbelieving party with whom peace has been made for a specified time.
- Lane · entry 5120
مَعْهَدٌ
A place where one used to know or meet someone or something, or a former abode to which people return.
Includes a remembered place associated with love, familiarity, or recurrent return.
- Lane · entry 5117
مَعْهُودٌ
Known or previously familiar.
The adjective may be applied to what is known from prior experience or acquaintance.
- Lane · entry 5119
مَعْهُودٌ
Rained upon by the rain called عهد or عهدة.
Applied to a place, land, or meadow; this is the passive adjectival weather use.
- Lane · entry 5119
أَرْضٌ مُعَهَّدَةٌ
Land upon which a partial rain has fallen.
A derived adjectival description of land reached by part of a rain.
- Lane · entry 5118
عَهِدَ
To be responsible, answerable, accountable, or a surety or guarantor for something.
Used in the construction عَهِدَ إِلَيَّ فُلَانٌ فِي كَذَا for assuming responsibility or guaranteeing someone with respect to a matter.
- Lane · entry 5100
عَهِدٌ
A person who repeatedly applies himself to affairs, offices, or their reform.
May describe one who repeatedly attends to affairs and governments or who is devoted to offices and their appointment writs.
- Lane · entry 5108
Cautions
Points that affect how this root should be read.
The Lane citation for the monotheistic interpretation uses historical citation notation and has not been converted into a modern verse location; the supplied QAC occurrence at 19:87 is used for the Quran example.