Quranic root
حرس
ḥ · r · s
The root centers on guarding, preserving, and keeping watch; a separate reported branch associates it with time or duration.
The preservation branch extends from guarding and guardianship to guarded objects and self-protection. The theft usage is explained as watching or guarding an object until it can be taken. A duration sense is reported in Classical usage but remains disputed in the supplied evidence.
- Maqāyīs · row 1334
- Mufradāt · row 310
- 1
- Quran-attested forms
- 1
- Quran senses
- 1
- Quran occurrences
Forms in the Quran
The forms this root actually takes in the Quran. Select one to jump to its senses and examples.
حَارِسٌ
ḥārisun
- Part of speech
- Noun · 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.
Guards or guardians who protect and watch over a place.
The Quranic form حَرَسًا is the plural of حَارِسٌ and is used here of guarding a place; the lexical branch is especially associated with places rather than valuables and goods.
- Mufradāt · row 310
- Lane · entry 14087
Selected Quran examples
Quran 72:8word 6
“guards”
Occurrences in the Quran
Every place this root appears, in Quran order. The first few are shown here.
- 72:8حَرَسًۭاguards
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 12 Classical meanings
حَرَسَ
To guard, protect, preserve, keep, or take care of someone or something.
Classical Form I verb; حِرَاسَةٌ is used for the act of guarding.
- Lane · entry 14078
حَرَسَ
To steal, especially livestock or something taken from pasture by night.
A figurative or ironic usage; the sources vary over the precise object and circumstances of the theft.
- Lane · entry 14078
حَرَسٌ
A period of time or a long duration.
A reported and disputed interpretation of a poetic occurrence; it is not the Quranic sense of the form.
- Mufradāt · row 310
أَحْرَسَ
To become provided with guards or come to have a guard.
Classical Form IV usage expressing becoming possessed of guards.
- Mufradāt · row 310
تَحَرَّسَ
To guard oneself against someone or something; to protect oneself against it.
Normally construed with مِنْ; it denotes self-protection or precaution.
- Lane · entry 14081
حِرَاسَةٌ
Stolen things, especially livestock taken successively and eaten.
Appears in the plural idiom الحِرَاسَاتِ describing repeated theft of sheep or goats and consumption of what was stolen.
- Lane · entry 14085
حَرِيسَةٌ
Something guarded, kept, preserved, or taken care of.
An affected or protected object noun, without a restriction to a particular object class.
- Lane · entry 14086
حَرِيسَةٌ
A thing stolen, especially livestock taken by night from a mountain or pasture.
A figurative usage with differing explanations: it may denote the stolen thing itself or an animal that was insufficiently protected.
- Lane · entry 14086
حَرِيسَةٌ
A stone wall or enclosure made to guard sheep or goats.
A concrete protective structure for livestock.
- Lane · entry 14086
حَارِسٌ
A guardian or keeper; also guards collectively, including a ruler’s guards.
The noun may denote an individual guardian or function as a collective designation for guards.
- Lane · entry 14087
حَارِسٌ
A thief.
An ironic or figurative usage based on the notion that supposed guardians may themselves steal.
- Lane · entry 14087
مُحْتَرَسٌ
Someone against whom one guards oneself; by extension, an entrusted guardian from whom one is not safe because he may betray the trust.
Used in a proverbial construction contrasting a person who requires protection from someone who is himself called a guardian.
- Lane · entry 14088
Cautions
Points that affect how this root should be read.
The duration or time sense of حَرَسٌ is reported from a poetic interpretation but is disputed in the supplied discussion and does not apply to the Quranic occurrence.
The theft senses are marked figurative, ironic, or debated in the lexical evidence and are distinct from the ordinary guarding branch.