Quranic root
حصب
ḥ · ṣ · b
The root centers on pebbles or small stones as a kind of earth material.
From the basic notion of pebbles come meanings involving pelting, pebble-bearing winds, pebble-strewn places, fuel thrown into a fire, and several derived or figurative usages.
- Maqāyīs · row 1374
- 2
- Quran-attested forms
- 2
- Quran senses
- 5
- Quran occurrences
Forms in the Quran
The forms this root actually takes in the Quran. Select one to jump to its senses and examples.
حَاصِبٌ
ḥāṣibun
- Part of speech
- Active participle
- Quran occurrences
- 4 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 pebble-bearing or stone-casting wind or storm.
In the Quranic occurrences, the active participle is used substantivally for a violent wind or storm that raises, carries, or casts pebbles, sometimes together with dust.
- Lane · entry 14681
Selected Quran examples
Quran 17:68word 10
“a storm of stones”
Quran 29:40word 8
“a violent storm”
Quran 54:34word 4
“a storm of stones”
Quran 67:17word 9
“a storm of stones”
حَصَبٌ
ḥaṣabun
- 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.
Fuel or firewood cast into a fire; in the Quranic expression, the fuel of Hell.
The form occurs in the construction حَصَبُ جَهَنَّمَ, referring to material used as fuel for the fire.
- Lane · entry 14674
Selected Quran examples
Quran 21:98word 7
“(are) firewood”
Occurrences in the Quran
Every place this root appears, in Quran order. The first few are shown here.
- 17:68حَاصِبًۭاa storm of stones
- 21:98حَصَبُ(are) firewood
- 29:40حَاصِبًۭاa violent storm
- 54:34حَاصِبًاa storm of stones
- 67:17حَاصِبًۭا ۖa storm of stones
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 26 Classical meanings
حَصَبَ
To throw or pelt with pebbles; more generally, to pelt.
The direct object may be a person or thing being pelted.
- Lane · entry 14670
حَصَبَتِ الرِّيحُ
Of wind, to cast, drive along, or tear up pebbles.
Used with the wind as subject and pebbles as what it carries or displaces.
- Lane · entry 14670
حَصَبَ
To spread or strew pebbles over a place.
Especially used of spreading pebbles in a mosque or other designated place.
- Lane · entry 14670
حَصَبَ
To throw material or firewood into a fire; to kindle or make a fire blaze with it.
The construction may take the firewood or other material as object, with the fire understood or expressed.
- Lane · entry 14670
حَصَبَ
To hasten away in flight or turn away from someone.
This is a figurative branch describing rapid withdrawal, especially from a companion.
- Lane · entry 14670
حَصَبَ فِي الأَرْضِ
To go away in or into the country or land.
Reported as a usage equivalent to going away through the land.
- Lane · entry 14670
حَصَبَ فِي الأَرْضِ
To discharge excrement.
A separately reported interpretation of the same expression.
- Lane · entry 14670
حَصِبَ
To break out with measles or a similar spotted cutaneous fever.
Said of a person's skin or body when affected by the eruption.
- Lane · entry 14670
حَصَّبَ
To stop or sleep at al-Muḥaṣṣab, the pebble-strewn place or route associated with the pilgrimage.
A pilgrimage-related usage referring especially to stopping there for a short time on the return from Minā to Mecca.
- Lane · entry 14671
أَحْصَبَ
Of a horse or other beast, to strike up pebbles while running.
The subject is an animal whose movement scatters or lifts pebbles.
- Lane · entry 14672
تَحَاصَبَ
To pelt one another with pebbles.
A reciprocal Form VI usage.
- Lane · entry 14673
حَصَبٌ
Stones or pebbles; specifically, a stone that is thrown.
This is the ordinary stone-related noun, distinct from the Quranic fire-fuel usage.
- Lane · entry 14674
حَصِبٌ
Pebbly; containing or abounding in pebbles.
Used of land or a place with many pebbles.
- Lane · entry 14675
حَصْبَةٌ
A single throwing of pebbles.
The noun may also occur in the conventional expression for the night following the pilgrimage days of stoning.
- Lane · entry 14676
لَيْلَةُ الحَصْبَةِ
The night following the days of the pilgrimage stoning rites.
A conventional calendrical expression referring to the night after the days known as Ayyām al-Tashrīq.
- Lane · entry 14676
حَصْبَةٌ
Measles or a similar spotted cutaneous eruption.
The term is also reported by some authorities for smallpox, but the primary descriptions identify a measles-like eruption.
- Lane · entry 14676
حَصْبَاءُ
Pebbles or small pebbles.
A quasi-plural noun for pebbles.
- Lane · entry 14679
حَاصِبٌ
A thrower or pelter of stones; figuratively, a calumniator in an idiomatic expression.
This is the human-agent use of the active participle, distinct from its Quranic wind or storm use.
- Lane · entry 14681
حَاصِبٌ
A punishment from God.
A figurative extension of the destructive-storm sense.
- Lane · entry 14681
حَاصِبٌ
Dust containing pebbles.
A nominal description of pebble-laden dust.
- Lane · entry 14681
حَاصِبٌ
Clouds that cast down snow or hail.
The term is applied to clouds because of what they cast down.
- Lane · entry 14681
حَاصِبٌ
Pebbles borne along by the wind.
A noun for the pebbles themselves when carried by wind.
- Lane · entry 14681
حَاصِبٌ
Small particles of snow or hail scattered about.
A transferred use based on the scattering of small particles like pebbles.
- Lane · entry 14681
حَاصِبٌ
A large number of men on foot.
A rare reported usage.
- Lane · entry 14681
مَحْصُوبٌ
Affected by measles or the cutaneous eruption called ḥaṣbah.
A passive participial description of a person affected by the disease.
- Lane · entry 14684
حَصِبٌ
Of milk, thick or congealed so that it does not yield butter.
A rare reported lexical use explained through the image of becoming hard like pebbles.
- Maqāyīs · row 1374
Cautions
Points that affect how this root should be read.
The bare noun حَصَبٌ has broader Classical senses including stones, but its supplied Quranic occurrence is the fire-and-fuel expression.
The active participle حَاصِبٌ has both a human-agent sense and a wind-or-storm sense; the Quranic form is represented here by the latter.