Quranic root
حبس
ḥ · b · s
The root centers on holding something back, stopping its movement, or keeping it within bounds.
From physical restraint, the lexical development extends to detention, self-restraint, retained water and water-control structures, and the permanent reservation of property. These related developments are not all meanings of the supplied Quranic verb.
- Maqāyīs · row 1278
- Mufradāt · row 289
- Lane · entry 13296
- Lane · entry 13305
- Lane · entry 13307
- 1
- Quran-attested forms
- 1
- Quran senses
- 2
- Quran occurrences
Forms in the Quran
The forms this root actually takes in the Quran. Select one to jump to its senses and examples.
حَبَسَ
ḥabasa
- Part of speech
- Verb · Form I
- Form
- I
- 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 hold back, restrain, confine, or detain a person or thing, preventing its movement, escape, release, or progress.
A transitive verb. In the Quranic occurrences it denotes detaining people and holding something back; the construction in 5:106 refers to detaining two people after prayer. The same restraint relation can express withholding someone or something from a course, purpose, or desired object.
- Lane · entry 13296
- Mufradāt · row 289
Selected Quran examples
Quran 5:106word 28
“Detain both of them”
Quran 11:8word 10
“detains it”
Occurrences in the Quran
Every place this root appears, in Quran order. The first few are shown here.
View all 2 occurrencesBroader Classical Arabic meanings
Recorded for this root in the Classical lexicons beyond its Quran usage. These are secondary to the Quran senses above.
Show 17 Classical meanings
حَبَسَ الْمِلْكَ عَلَيْهِ
To restrict or settle property upon a specified person, by will or another legal disposition.
A conventional extended construction in which property is confined to a beneficiary.
- Lane · entry 13296
حَبَسَ
To bequeath or dedicate an animal or other property permanently for the cause of God or religion, making it inalienable while its benefit is assigned to that cause.
A legal or pious endowment usage; the dedicated object is not subsequently sold, inherited, or given away.
- Lane · entry 13296
حَابَسَ
To confine or restrain one another, each party restricting the other.
A reciprocal Form III construction.
- Lane · entry 13298
تَحَبَّسَ
To restrain or hold oneself back; to confine oneself to a matter or withhold oneself from proceeding.
A reflexive Form V construction, commonly used with عَلَى for restriction to something or with عَنْ for holding back from something.
- Lane · entry 13300
اِحْتَبَسَ
To become confined, restricted, or limited, or to confine oneself.
A quasi-passive or reflexive Form VIII use; the related Form VII entry is referred to this usage.
- Lane · entry 13302
اِحْتَبَسَ
Of urine, to become suppressed or retained.
A specialized bodily use of the intransitive/reflexive form.
- Lane · entry 13302
اِحْتَبَسَ
To appropriate something to oneself, restricting it to one's exclusive possession; also, to constitute it a permanent ḥabīs.
A possessive or endowment-related extension of the Form VIII verb.
- Lane · entry 13302
حَبْسٌ
A place of confinement, such as a prison or jail.
A concrete noun for a location in which people or things are confined.
- Lane · entry 13303
حِبْسٌ
A dam, barrier, basin, or other structure that confines water; also water collected and retained behind such a structure.
Used in water management and irrigation contexts, including barriers in channels and enclosed areas that retain water.
- Lane · entry 13305
حُبْسَةٌ
A state of confinement, restriction, or limitation.
An abstract noun denoting the condition of being held back or restricted.
- Lane · entry 13306
حُبْسَةٌ
Difficulty or hesitation in speaking distinctly.
A specialized use for impeded or hesitant speech.
- Lane · entry 13306
حَبِيسٌ
Confined, restricted, or limited; a person or thing held back.
A passive or resultative adjective and noun. It can also denote something characterized by being held or retained.
- Lane · entry 13307
حَبِيسٌ
An animal, property, land, or house permanently dedicated as an inalienable endowment for charitable or religious use.
The endowed object remains itself unavailable for sale or inheritance while its benefit is assigned for the designated purpose.
- Lane · entry 13307
حَبَّاسٌ
A jailer or person responsible for confinement.
An intensive occupational noun formed from the root of confinement.
- Lane · entry 13310
حَابِسٌ
One who confines, restrains, or retains; also something that holds or retains what is placed in it. حَابِسُ الْفِيلِ, “Restrainer of the Elephant,” is an epithet applied to God.
An active-participle noun. The epithet alludes to the Quranic account of the elephant, while the retaining sense can describe a container or herbage that holds water.
- Lane · entry 13311
مَحْبِسٌ
A manger or stable for an animal.
A specialized place noun for keeping an animal confined or housed.
- Lane · entry 13312
مُحْتَبِسَةٌ
Of livestock, remaining at the house rather than going out to pasture, as though restrained from grazing.
A specialized passive/reflexive participial use explicitly applied to camels kept at home.
- Lane · entry 13316
Cautions
Points that affect how this root should be read.
The supplied Quran evidence contains only active Form I imperfect occurrences; the other derived forms and nominals are broader Classical Arabic evidence, not additional Quranic form groups.
The epithet حَابِسُ الْفِيلِ is preserved as a Quran-allusive lexical use, but no modern verse location is assigned because no independently matching QAC occurrence for that participle is supplied.