Quranic root
حرج
ḥ · r · j
The root centers on things being gathered closely together, producing narrowness or constriction.
From physical closeness and dense gathering, the semantic range develops toward confined space, difficulty, inner distress, sin or blame, and related states of restriction; several specialized nominal branches retain the idea of dense or closely joined material.
- Maqāyīs · row 1329
- Mufradāt · row 308
- 1
- Quran-attested forms
- 2
- Quran senses
- 15
- Quran occurrences
Forms in the Quran
The forms this root actually takes in the Quran. Select one to jump to its senses and examples.
حَرَجٌ
ḥarajun
- Part of speech
- Noun / Adjective
- Quran occurrences
- 15 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.
Constriction, distress, difficulty, or uneasiness; of the chest, a state of being constricted and unreceptive to what is good or right.
Used for burdensome difficulty and inward constraint, including the construction of a person's chest becoming narrow or constricted. The Quranic uses include both general difficulty and spiritual or emotional constriction.
- Lane · entry 14020
- Mufradāt · row 308
Selected Quran examples
Sin, blame, or objectionable liability; in لا حرج, absence of blame, sin, or harm in doing something.
The no-haraj construction removes blame or sin from an act and can accordingly be rendered as there being no blame, fault, or objection.
- Lane · entry 14019
- Mufradāt · row 308
Selected Quran examples
Quran 24:61word 4
“any blame”
Quran 48:17word 4
“any blame”
Occurrences in the Quran
Every place this root appears, in Quran order. The first few are shown here.
- 4:65حَرَجًۭاany discomfort
- 5:6حَرَجٍۢdifficulty
- 6:125حَرَجًۭاand constricted
- 7:2حَرَجٌۭany uneasiness
- 9:91حَرَجٌany blame
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 31 Classical meanings
حَرِجَ
To become collected together and close, strait, or narrow; said of things that gather tightly, including dust collected in a confined place.
- Lane · entry 14013
حَرِجَ
To become inwardly constricted or disquieted; to be doubtful or in doubt.
Used of a person's bosom or inner state.
- Lane · entry 14013
حَرِجَ
To become straitened through sin or wrongdoing, and hence to commit a punishable sin, crime, or act of disobedience.
- Lane · entry 14013
حَرِجَ
Of the eye, to become dazzled or sunken in its socket, with vision narrowed; also to remain fixed without turning or blinking through intense gazing.
This is a specialized use applied to the eye.
- Lane · entry 14013
حَرِجَ
To become forbidden or prohibited, especially as something attended by constraint or difficulty.
Used in constructions describing a wrong, a meal, or prayer as prohibited.
- Lane · entry 14013
حَرِجَ
To betake oneself or have recourse to someone or something for protection from constraint or difficulty.
The construction حَرِجَ إِلَى expresses turning to or seeking refuge in a person or thing.
- Lane · entry 14013
حَرَّجَ
To make something strait or difficult, or to forbid violation of a right; in a warning addressed to a serpent, to threaten it with pursuit and expulsion if it returns.
The serpent wording is a specialized warning construction built on the causative sense of imposing constraint.
- Lane · entry 14014
أَحْرَجَ
To force a person or animal into a narrow or confined place; by extension, to constrain someone to seek recourse or to cause him to need something.
The object may be a person, a dog, or another beast; the construction with إِلَى expresses constraint toward a refuge, person, or thing.
- Lane · entry 14015
أَحْرَجَ
To cause someone to fall into difficulty or a strait.
- Lane · entry 14015
أَحْرَجَ
To cause someone to fall into a punishable sin, crime, or act of disobedience.
- Lane · entry 14015
أَحْرَجَ
To declare or pronounce prayer forbidden.
- Lane · entry 14015
أَحْرَجَ
To give a dog a portion of the prey or game it has taken.
This is a specialized hunting use, distinct from the causative meanings of making something difficult or confined.
- Lane · entry 14015
تَحَرَّجَ
To make a matter strait or difficult for oneself.
- Lane · entry 14016
تَحَرَّجَ
To put away, shun, avoid, or keep aloof from sin or crime.
The construction تَحَرَّجَ مِنْهُ expresses avoiding something as sinful or criminal.
- Lane · entry 14016
حِرْجٌ
The portion of prey or game given to a dog, such as a piece of flesh or specified parts of the carcass.
This is a hunting noun; its plural is reported as أَحْرَاجٌ.
- Lane · entry 14018
حِرْجٌ
A cowry shell.
The plural forms include أَحْرَاجٌ, أَحْرِجَةٌ, and حِرَاجٌ; the shells may be hung around dogs' necks.
- Lane · entry 14018
حِرْجٌ
A collar made of cowry shells for a dog or other animal.
- Lane · entry 14018
حَرَجٌ
Of a she-camel: lean, lank, slender, or light in flesh; variant descriptions also include sharp-spirited, large-bodied, long, or strong.
These are reported variant descriptions in the specialized application to a she-camel and should not be generalized to the ordinary noun حَرَجٌ.
- Lane · entry 14019
حَرَجٌ
A wooden framework or vehicle used to carry the dead, including a bier-cover or a headless conveyance for women or men.
The term may refer to a structure of bound wood placed over a bier or to a vehicle used for carrying people.
- Lane · entry 14019
حَرِجٌ
A strait, narrow, confined, or close place, especially a densely wooded place impenetrable to grazing animals.
- Lane · entry 14020
حَرِجٌ
A person whose bosom is strait or contracted and does not expand toward what is good.
This is the adjectival or participial use of حَرِجٌ applied to a person.
- Lane · entry 14020
حَرِجٌ
One who fears or dreads venturing upon an affair.
- Lane · entry 14020
حَرِجٌ
One who seldom or never withdraws from battle and is not readily put to flight.
This specialized description is explained as if withdrawal were difficult to justify.
- Lane · entry 14020
حَرِجٌ
One who commits a sin, crime, or punishable act of disobedience.
This is distinct from the contrary use in which the same form describes abstention from sin.
- Lane · entry 14020
حَرِجٌ
One who abstains from, shuns, or keeps away from sin or crime.
The lexical record reports this as a contrary signification to the sense of committing sin.
- Lane · entry 14020
حَرِجٌ
Forbidden or prohibited.
Used in the construction describing another person's wronging as prohibited to the speaker.
- Lane · entry 14020
حَرَجَةٌ
A wood, thicket, or dense and tangled collection of trees; also a tree or wooded place inaccessible to grazing animals.
The noun denotes a dense gathering of trees, with several reported plural or collective forms.
- Lane · entry 14021
حَرَجَةٌ
A collection of camels, also specified as a hundred camels.
- Lane · entry 14021
حِرَاجٌ
Dense darkness.
Used in the expression حِرَاجُ الظَّلْمَاءِ and related variants.
- Lane · entry 14025
مُحَرَّجٌ
A dog wearing a collar of cowry shells.
This derived adjective denotes the animal marked by cowries around its neck.
- Lane · entry 14029
الْمُحَرَّجَاتِ
In the expression حَلَفَ بِالْمُحَرَّجَاتِ, the three divorces that make a wife absolutely forbidden to her former husband, or constricting oaths that narrow a person's available scope.
This is an idiomatic oath expression.
- Lane · entry 14030
Cautions
Points that affect how this root should be read.
The Quranic form group combines the noun and adjective uses of حَرَجٌ across its inflected Quran occurrences; related vocalized headwords such as حَرِجٌ and حِرْجٌ remain separately represented in the Classical meanings.