Quranic root
حمل
ḥ · m · l
The root centers on bearing or lifting something, whether externally on a back or head, internally in a womb or tree, or figuratively as a burden, duty, or responsibility.
The lexical branches develop from physical carrying into pregnancy and fruit-bearing, transport, imposed obligations, endurance, surety, and things or persons carried from one place to another. The contrast between حَمْلٌ for an internal burden and حِمْلٌ for an external load is especially prominent.
- Maqāyīs · row 1452
- Mufradāt · row 358
- 8
- Quran-attested forms
- 15
- Quran senses
- 64
- Quran occurrences
Forms in the Quran
The forms this root actually takes in the Quran. Select one to jump to its senses and examples.
حَمَلَ
ḥamala
- Part of speech
- Verb · Form I
- Form
- I
- Quran occurrences
- 41 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 carry, bear, take up, convey, or transport something or someone.
Includes active and passive Quranic constructions involving people, objects, animals, ships, the earth, mountains, and the divine throne.
- Lane · entry 15718
- Mufradāt · row 358
Selected Quran examples
Quran 17:70word 5
“and We carried them”
To bear or assume a burden, wrongdoing, duty, trust, or responsibility.
Used for bearing sins and obligations, and for accepting or taking upon oneself a trust; in some contexts the burden is figurative rather than physical.
- Lane · entry 15718
- Mufradāt · row 358
Selected Quran examples
Quran 29:13word 1
“But surely they will carry”
To become pregnant, conceive, or carry a fetus.
Said of a female; the Quran also uses the verb for the state or process of carrying a pregnancy.
- Lane · entry 15718
- Mufradāt · row 358
Selected Quran examples
Quran 19:22word 1
“So she conceived him”
To provide transport or a riding mount for someone.
In the relevant construction, carrying a person means giving that person an animal or other means on which to ride.
- Lane · entry 15718
- Mufradāt · row 358
Selected Quran examples
Quran 9:92word 7
“that you provide them with mounts”
To charge or attack in battle.
This is the military construction حَمَلَ عَلَيْهِ; the Quranic contextual rendering identifies an attack, while the lexical construction is independently attested.
- Lane · entry 15718
Selected Quran examples
Quran 7:176word 15
“you attack”
To provide or procure sustenance for oneself or another.
In the Quranic statement that a beast does not carry its sustenance, the verb is explained as meaning that it does not provide or arrange its provision.
- Lane · entry 15718
Selected Quran examples
Quran 29:60word 5
“carry”
حَمَّلَ
ḥammala
- Part of speech
- Verb · Form II
- Form
- II
- Quran occurrences
- 5 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 make or require someone to bear or carry something; to impose a burden, task, duty, or responsibility.
The passive means to be made responsible for or entrusted with something. In the Quranic Torah construction, being charged with the scripture entails being required to uphold its obligations, not merely to carry a physical object.
- Lane · entry 15719
- Mufradāt · row 358
Selected Quran examples
اِحْتَمَلَ
āiḥtamala
- Part of speech
- Verb · Form VIII
- Form
- VIII
- 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 raise or carry something on the back; to carry or bear along.
The Quran applies the construction both to material things carried by a flood and to things borne by people.
- Lane · entry 15725
- Mufradāt · row 358
Selected Quran examples
Quran 13:17word 8
“and carries”
To bear, endure, tolerate, or take upon oneself a burden, wrongdoing, or harm.
Includes assuming the consequence of a sin and bearing injury or offense; the sense may imply forbearance or endurance rather than physical transport.
- Lane · entry 15725
- Lane · entry 15722
- Mufradāt · row 358
Selected Quran examples
Quran 4:112word 11
“he (has) burdened (himself)”
Quran 33:58word 9
“they bear”
حَمْلٌ
ḥamlun
- Part of speech
- Noun
- Quran occurrences
- 8 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.
An internally borne burden, especially pregnancy, the fetus, or gestation.
Contrasted with حِمْلٌ, an external load. Quranic uses include a pregnancy, the child carried in the womb, and the burden of pregnancy referred to in the plural أَحْمَال.
- Lane · entry 15728
- Mufradāt · row 358
Selected Quran examples
Quran 7:189word 15
“a burden”
Quran 22:2word 12
“her load”
Quran 46:15word 10
“And (the) bearing of him”
Quran 65:4word 16
“pregnant”
حِمْلٌ
ḥimlun
- Part of speech
- Noun
- 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.
An external load or burden carried on the back, head, or another support.
This noun is distinguished from حَمْلٌ, which denotes an internally borne burden; Quranic uses concern a load that may be carried by a person or animal.
- Lane · entry 15728
- Mufradāt · row 358
Selected Quran examples
حَمُولَةٌ
ḥamūlahun
- 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.
A beast used or able to carry burdens, especially a camel or similar transport animal.
The term may apply whether or not a load is presently placed on the animal; the Quranic usage classifies livestock by their carrying function.
- Lane · entry 15740
- Mufradāt · row 358
Selected Quran examples
Quran 6:142word 3
“(are some for) burden”
حَمَّالَةٌ
ḥammālahun
- Part of speech
- Intensive 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.
A carrier, especially an intensive or habitual carrier of loads.
The Quranic expression literally evokes a female carrier of firewood; the form is an intensive active participle used as an epithet.
- Lane · entry 15743
- Mufradāt · row 358
Selected Quran examples
Quran 111:4word 2
“(the) carrier”
A calumniator or slanderer who carries tales between people.
In the Quranic epithet حَمَّالَةَ الْحَطَبِ, the literal carrier expression is used figuratively for a persistent tale-bearer or slanderer.
- Lane · entry 15743
- Mufradāt · row 358
Selected Quran examples
Quran 111:4word 2
“(the) carrier”
حَامِلٌ
ḥāmilun
- 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 bears or carries a load or responsibility; a bearer or carrier.
The Quranic plural حَامِلَاتِ وِقْرًا is conventionally interpreted as the clouds bearing water, while حَامِلِينَ denotes people who will carry; the common lexical relation is bearing or carrying.
- Lane · entry 15744
- Mufradāt · row 358
Selected Quran examples
Quran 51:2word 1
“And those carrying”
Quran 29:12word 12
“(are) going to carry”
Occurrences in the Quran
Every place this root appears, in Quran order. The first few are shown here.
- 2:248تَحْمِلُهُwill carry it
- 2:286تَحْمِلْlay
- 2:286حَمَلْتَهُۥ(which) You laid [it]
- 2:286تُحَمِّلْنَاlay on us
- 4:112ٱحْتَمَلَhe (has) burdened (himself)
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 79 Classical meanings
حَمَلَ
To bear or produce fruit, said of a tree.
A figurative extension of carrying, applied to a tree that bears or puts forth its fruit.
- Lane · entry 15718
حَمَلَ
To undertake responsibility for a debt, bloodwit, or other obligation; to act as a guarantor.
Often construed with بِ or عَنْ and may describe assuming an obligation on behalf of another person or group.
- Lane · entry 15718
حَمَلَ
To carry tales or slander, literally described as carrying firewood.
A figurative idiom based on carrying firewood; it denotes going about with calumny.
- Lane · entry 15718
حَمَلَ
To harbor resentment or anger, or to refuse to bear injury.
The expression may describe concealing rancor, manifesting anger, or not submitting to harm; these are related figurative uses of bearing an emotional or social burden.
- Lane · entry 15718
حَمَلَ
To retain a report, tradition, or Quran in memory and know it by heart.
Used of learning and preserving transmitted material rather than physically carrying it.
- Lane · entry 15718
حَمَلَ
To rely on someone for intercession or the fulfillment of a need.
A figurative construction with a person as the one upon whom reliance is placed.
- Lane · entry 15718
حُمِلَ عَلَى النَّاقَةِ
To cover a she-camel sexually by a stallion.
A specialized zoological expression describing mating, not ordinary transport.
- Lane · entry 15718
حَمَلَ
To task a beast or oneself beyond the capacity to bear.
Used of excessive exertion, especially in travel or marching.
- Lane · entry 15718
حَمَلَ عَلَى
To stir up mischief, disagreement, or dissension among people.
A causative social construction in which disorder is brought upon or between a group.
- Lane · entry 15718
حَمَلَهُ عَلَى
To incite, urge, induce, or instigate someone to do something.
The object of عَلَى is the action or affair to which the person is urged.
- Lane · entry 15718
حَمَلَ لَفْظًا عَلَى لَفْظٍ
To construe one word or expression in accordance with another in form, meaning, or syntax.
A technical grammatical and lexicological construction, including construing according to the wording or according to the underlying meaning.
- Lane · entry 15718
حَمَلَهُ أَحْسَنَ مَحْيَلٍ
To put the best construction or interpretation on a statement.
A figurative interpretive use of placing or carrying an utterance toward a favorable reading.
- Lane · entry 15718
حَمَلَهُ عَلَى النَّاسِخِ
To attribute a mistake to the copyist or charge it to a transcription error.
A technical editorial construction concerning the source of an error.
- Lane · entry 15718
حَمَلَ شَيْئًا عَلَى آخَرَ
To predicate one thing of another.
A technical logical use in which a property or statement is assigned to a subject.
- Lane · entry 15718
حَمَّلَ
To charge someone with a crime, offense, or fault.
A figurative extension of imposing a burden, with the charge understood as a moral or legal liability.
- Lane · entry 15719
حَامَلَ
To bear a burden together with another person or share the burdens of an office.
Used of cooperation in carrying responsibilities, including the burdens of royal or governmental office.
- Lane · entry 15720
حَامَلَ
To requite someone, especially with beneficence.
A specialized reciprocal use of Form III; it may denote returning kindness rather than carrying a load.
- Lane · entry 15720
أَحْمَلَ
To help someone bear or carry a load.
The causative Form IV construction means to assist another person with what that person is carrying.
- Lane · entry 15721
أَحْمَلَتْ
To yield milk without being pregnant.
Said of a woman or female animal, especially a camel, that produces milk in the absence of pregnancy.
- Lane · entry 15721
تَحَمَّلَ
To undertake the bearing of loads or burdens.
This is the primary Form V sense and may describe taking a physical load upon oneself.
- Lane · entry 15722
تَحَمَّلَ
To burden oneself with a sin, crime, debt, or fine.
A figurative extension of undertaking a burden; the related Form VIII expression is also used for bearing wrongdoing.
- Lane · entry 15722
تَحَمَّلَ
To bind and place a load on a saddle or beast.
The construction describes securing the burden for transport rather than merely carrying it.
- Lane · entry 15722
تَحَمَّلُوا
To depart, go away, or journey.
An idiomatic development from taking up one's loads and setting out.
- Lane · entry 15722
تَحَامَلَ
To bear weight or press heavily upon something or someone.
May describe leaning one's weight on an object or exerting pressure despite difficulty.
- Lane · entry 15723
تَحَامَلَ عَلَيْهِ
To wrong or treat someone unjustly; figuratively, to turn against or favor someone.
The form may describe oppressive treatment, or—of time or fortune—turning away from or becoming favorable to a person.
- Lane · entry 15723
تَحَامَلَ
To impose a difficult task on oneself or another, or force oneself to act despite hardship and fatigue.
Used for exertion under difficulty, trouble, inconvenience, or fatigue.
- Lane · entry 15723
اِنْحَمَلَ عَلَى
To be incited, urged, induced, or made to undertake an affair.
An intransitive or passive-like construction describing the person who is moved to act.
- Lane · entry 15724
اِحْتَمَلَ
To bear wealth or a benefit properly and gratefully.
The object may be prosperity or a benefaction; the expression can also criticize bearing wealth badly.
- Lane · entry 15725
اِحْتَمَلَ
To admit, allow, or be susceptible to a meaning or interpretation.
A technical use in lexicology, law, theology, and scholarship; a statement may be said to admit several possible interpretations.
- Lane · entry 15725
اِحْتَمَلَهُ الْغَضَبُ
To be disturbed, flurried, or angered so that one's state or color changes.
A specialized construction in which anger is the disturbing force.
- Lane · entry 15725
اِحْتَمَلَتْ
To use a drug or similar substance as a vaginal suppository.
A rare anatomical and medical usage.
- Lane · entry 15725
اِحْتَمَلَ
To acquire or take a captive or other person carried from one country to another.
The specialized noun حَمِيلٌ refers to someone carried among captives or transferred from one territory to another.
- Lane · entry 15725
اِسْتَحْمَلَ
To ask someone to carry one or to provide a mount.
The requested carrying may be literal transport or the provision of an animal on which to ride.
- Lane · entry 15726
اِسْتَحْمَلَ
To impose one's wants or affairs upon someone.
A figurative Form X use derived from asking another to bear one's needs.
- Lane · entry 15726
حَوْمَلَ
To carry water.
A rare root-quadriliteral formation recorded as a specialized carrying verb.
- Lane · entry 15727
حَمْلٌ
An internal thing borne in a womb or tree, such as an animal's young or a tree's fruit.
This broader nominal classification explains the internal-load branch and the analogy between pregnancy, fruit, and water held in clouds.
- Lane · entry 15728
حِمْلٌ
A group of vehicles or camels carrying howdahs or panniers.
The plural حُمُولٌ may refer specifically to camels equipped with howdahs, whether or not women are inside.
- Lane · entry 15729
حَمَلٌ
A young sheep or lamb, especially in its first year.
The designation is explained by the young animal's being carried or by its close relation to its mother's pregnancy.
- Lane · entry 15730
حَمَلٌ
Aries, the first sign of the zodiac.
The astronomical name is a later figurative extension from the lexical noun حَمَلٌ.
- Lane · entry 15730
حَمَلٌ
Clouds containing much water, or dark rain clouds.
A figurative meteorological use connected with clouds bearing water.
- Lane · entry 15730
حِمْلَةٌ
Carriage or transport from one place or settlement to another.
A nominal specialization of carrying as a service or movement between locations.
- Lane · entry 15733
حُمْلَانٌ
A beast on which a gift or present is carried.
A specialized noun derived from the act of carrying a present.
- Lane · entry 15734
حُمْلَانٌ
The hire paid for carrying or transporting something.
Refers to compensation for the carrying service rather than to the animal itself.
- Lane · entry 15734
حُمْلَانٌ
Adulterating alloy added to silver dirhams or coin.
A technical term of metalworkers and coinage.
- Lane · entry 15734
حَمُولٌ
Forbearing or clement.
A character description developed figuratively from bearing or tolerating things.
- Lane · entry 15736
حَمِيلٌ
Rubbish, rotten leaves, or scum carried by a torrent.
The noun denotes material borne along by floodwater.
- Lane · entry 15737
حَمِيلٌ
A person or thing carried from one country or town to another among captives; a captive transferred in this way.
The usage includes a captive or other transported person whose origin and transfer are emphasized.
- Lane · entry 15737
حَمِيلٌ
A child carried away and reared by others, including a foundling.
The term may refer to a child transferred with a woman or group, or one cast out and taken in for upbringing.
- Lane · entry 15737
حَمِيلٌ
A person of suspected origin or lineage, including one who claims a false father or is falsely claimed as a son.
A figurative social and genealogical extension of being carried from elsewhere; it is synonymous with دَعِيٌّ in this use.
- Lane · entry 15737
حَمِيلٌ
A stranger or outsider.
The sense is explained by comparison with something carried along by a torrent or a child carried in the womb.
- Lane · entry 15737
حَمِيلٌ
A surety or person responsible for a debt or bloodwit.
The surety bears the obligation together with the person to whom it properly belongs.
- Lane · entry 15737
حَمِيلٌ
Withered, black plant material such as dried grasses or reeds.
A specialized botanical noun for material understood as carried or left in a spent state.
- Lane · entry 15737
حَمِيلٌ
The thong or strap of a sandal.
A specialized object-name derived from the function of supporting or carrying.
- Lane · entry 15737
حَمَالَةٌ
A bloodwit, debt, or obligation undertaken by a person or group on behalf of others.
The noun may denote the obligation itself or the act of assuming responsibility for its payment or discharge.
- Lane · entry 15738
حِمَالَةٌ
The occupation or business of a porter or burden-carrier.
A professional activity noun, distinct from the obligation-noun حَمَالَةٌ.
- Lane · entry 15739
حَمُولَةٌ
Loads or burdens themselves, according to one lexicographic usage.
This is a reported nominal variant; other authorities distinguish the loads as حُمُولَةٌ with a different vowel.
- Lane · entry 15740
حَمِيلَةٌ
A dependent or person who is a burden upon those supporting him.
The expression حَمِيلَةٌ عَلَيْنَا means someone whom we must maintain or support.
- Lane · entry 15741
حَمَّالٌ
A porter or carrier of burdens.
The intensive form may denote a person's occupation or habitual activity.
- Lane · entry 15743
حَامِلٌ
Pregnant; bearing a fetus.
Applied as an epithet to a female or female animal; this classical specialization is separate from the Quranic active-participle uses for carriers.
- Lane · entry 15744
حَامِلٌ
Bearing fruit, said of a tree.
A figurative active-participial use applied to a fruit-bearing tree.
- Lane · entry 15744
حَامِلٌ
A person who bears the Quran in memory and knows it by heart.
The plural حَمَلَةُ الْقُرْآنِ is an honorific expression for memorizers or learned transmitters.
- Lane · entry 15744
حَوْمَلٌ
Black clouds made dark by abundant water.
A specialized meteorological noun related to bearing water.
- Lane · entry 15745
حَوْمَلٌ
A clear torrent.
A distinct natural-world noun recorded under the same root family.
- Lane · entry 15745
حَوْمَلٌ
The first of anything.
A lexical extension from the root's broader pattern of carrying or bringing something forward.
- Lane · entry 15745
حَوَامِلُ
The legs, as supports that bear a person's weight.
A plural anatomical use of the حامل family.
- Lane · entry 15746
حَوَامِلُ
The tendons, sinews, and associated veins of the foot and forearm.
A specialized anatomical plural, distinct from the ordinary active participle.
- Lane · entry 15746
مَحْمِلٌ
A place, frame, or vehicle for carrying, especially a howdah or pannier arrangement on a camel.
Includes the decorated pilgrim howdah and related carrying structures.
- Lane · entry 15747
مَحْمِلٌ
A basket used to carry grapes for drying.
A specialized carrying container.
- Lane · entry 15747
مَحْمِلٌ
A ground for reliance, dependence, or entrusting a task to someone.
The figurative phrase مَا عَلَى فُلَانٍ مَحْمِلٌ denies that there is a dependable basis or means of imposing a need upon the person.
- Lane · entry 15747
مُحْمِلٌ
A woman or she-camel that yields milk without being pregnant.
A specialized nominal counterpart of the Form IV milk-yielding verb.
- Lane · entry 15748
مِحْمَلٌ
The suspensory strap or shoulder-belt of a sword or bow.
The item carries or supports the weapon on the wearer's body.
- Lane · entry 15749
مِحْمَلٌ
The root of a tree, figuratively compared to a sword's suspensory strap.
A poetic figurative application.
- Lane · entry 15749
مَحَامِلُ الذَّكَرِ
The veins in the root and skin of the penis.
A specialized anatomical plural.
- Lane · entry 15749
مُحَمَّلَةٌ
A she-camel heavily or excessively burdened.
The participial adjective emphasizes the animal's being loaded beyond the ordinary amount.
- Lane · entry 15750
مَحْمُولٌ
A fortunate man.
A figurative usage associated with being carried by brisk, strong riding animals.
- Lane · entry 15751
مَحْمُولٌ
A predicate or accident in logic.
A technical term contrasted with the subject or موضوع.
- Lane · entry 15751
مَحْمُولَةٌ
A dust-colored, high-yielding variety of wheat with large ears.
A specialized agricultural noun.
- Lane · entry 15752
مُحَامِلٌ
One unable to answer another, sometimes out of a desire to preserve affection.
A social and interpersonal usage, not the Form III verb's ordinary carrying sense.
- Lane · entry 15753
مُسْتَحْمِلٌ
A month or period that brings people into difficulty or distress.
A rare descriptive use for a time that is harsh or not as it should be.
- Lane · entry 15757
Cautions
Points that affect how this root should be read.
The vowel distinction between حَمْلٌ and حِمْلٌ is lexically significant: the former primarily concerns an internal burden or pregnancy, while the latter concerns an external load.
The Quranic interpretation of فَالْحَامِلَاتِ وِقْرًا is conventionally understood as clouds bearing water, while the active participle itself retains the broader meaning of bearer or carrier.
حَمُولَةٌ has a reported classical variant meaning 'loads themselves'; the Quranic occurrence is presented as transport animals.
The Form I attack sense is tied to the Quranic military construction and is not a general synonym for every occurrence of carrying.