Quranic root
حوب
ḥ · w · b
A semantic field centered on culpable wrongdoing, extending toward need, poverty, and vulnerability.
Classical root analysis connects sin, need, and destitution as related states; Quran-focused discussion also connects حَوْباءُ with the soul exposed to wrongdoing. The camel-driving cries are treated as conventional vocal expressions rather than a development from the root principle.
- Maqāyīs · row 1466
- Mufradāt · row 367
- 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.
حُوبٌ
ḥūbun
- 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 sin, crime, or grave wrongdoing.
In the Quranic expression حُوبًا كَبِيرًا at 4:2, it denotes a great sin; reported lexical interpretation also includes serious wrong, injustice, or tyranny.
- Lane · entry 15978
- Mufradāt · row 367
Selected Quran examples
Quran 4:2word 15
“a sin”
Occurrences in the Quran
Every place this root appears, in Quran order. The first few are shown here.
- 4:2حُوبًۭاa sin
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 36 Classical meanings
حَابَ
To sin, commit a crime, or do what is unlawful.
Form I verb; the unlawful act may be expressed with بِـ.
- Lane · entry 15969
حَابَ
To become or fall into an evil condition or state.
A Classical verbal use distinct from the basic meaning ‘to sin’.
- Lane · entry 15969
حَابَ
To slay another.
A dialectal usage attributed to the tribe of Asad.
- Lane · entry 15969
حَوْبٌ
The act of chiding a male camel by a cry, to urge it onward.
A camel-driving usage associated with the cry حَوْبِ.
- Lane · entry 15969
حَوَّبَ بِالإِبِلِ
To chide camels by calling حَوْبِ حَوْبِ, urging them onward.
Form II verbal construction with بِالإِبِلِ.
- Lane · entry 15970
حَوْبِ
A cry used to chide or urge on a male camel.
Other vocalic forms are also reported as permissible variants of the cry.
- Lane · entry 15976
حَوْبٌ
A he-camel, especially a bulky he-camel.
The term is also explained as originating from the cry used to urge such a camel.
- Lane · entry 15977
أَحْوَبَ
To pursue a course that leads to sin or crime.
Form IV verbal use.
- Lane · entry 15971
تَحَوَّبَ
To abstain from, shun, or avoid sin; to devote oneself to acts of worship.
Form V has an established lexical use beyond simple reflexive force; مِنْ may introduce what is shunned.
- Lane · entry 15972
تَحَوَّبَ
To humble oneself in prayer or supplication.
A devotional constructional use.
- Lane · entry 15972
تَحَوَّبَ
To express pain, grief, or sorrow; to lament or complain.
With مِنْ, the expression may describe distress or anger occasioned by something.
- Lane · entry 15972
تَحَوَّبَ
To cry aloud in pain, grief, lamentation, or supplication; to weep with loud crying.
The use may also be generalized to crying out loudly.
- Lane · entry 15972
تَحَوَّبَ
Of a jackal, to cry or howl.
An animal use modeled on a cry of pain or distress.
- Lane · entry 15972
حَوْبٌ
Grief or sorrow; loneliness or solitariness.
A nominal emotional-state use.
- Lane · entry 15977
حَوْبٌ
Difficulty, distress, trouble, fatigue, trial, or affliction.
The lexical field includes both hardship and an afflicting trial.
- Lane · entry 15977
- Lane · entry 15978
حَوْبٌ
Pain.
A nominal bodily or experiential state.
- Lane · entry 15977
حَوْبٌ
A difficult road.
A lexical use applied to a route characterized by hardship.
- Lane · entry 15977
حَوْبٌ
A kind, sort, mode, or manner.
Used in expressions referring to two or more kinds or modes of a thing.
- Lane · entry 15977
حُوبٌ
Perdition, destruction, or death.
A Classical nominal meaning distinct from the Quranic sense of sin.
- Lane · entry 15978
اِبْنَةُ حَوْبٍ
A quiver.
A conventional expression, synonymous with كِنَانَةٌ.
- Lane · entry 15978
حُوبٌ
Disease.
A Classical nominal use.
- Lane · entry 15978
حَوْبَةٌ
Maternal tenderness of heart.
A nominal emotional or relational use.
- Lane · entry 15980
حَوْبَةٌ
Anxiety.
A nominal emotional-state use.
- Lane · entry 15980
حَوْبَةٌ
Want, poverty, or indigence; by extension, a person or family oppressed by need.
The word may denote the condition of need itself or those experiencing it.
- Lane · entry 15980
حَوْبَةٌ
A state or condition, specifically an evil state or condition.
Used in expressions describing passing or remaining in an evil condition.
- Lane · entry 15980
حَوْبَةٌ
A weak or dependent person, including a needy dependent who cannot maintain themselves; by extension, weak persons collectively.
The evidence includes needy women and persons unable to benefit or harm others among its applications.
- Lane · entry 15980
حَوْبَةٌ
A dependent or protected relation whose abandonment could expose them to loss or ruin, such as a parent, sibling, child, wife, or concubine.
The term can denote a relation within the prohibited degrees of marriage or another person whom one is obliged to honor, defend, or maintain.
- Lane · entry 15980
حَوْبَةٌ
A sacred or inviolable right of a person that it would be sinful to disregard.
Used in the construction لِحَوْبَةِ فُلَانٍ, ‘for the sake of so-and-so’s inviolable right’.
- Lane · entry 15980
حَوْبَةٌ
A horse or similar beast that requires care and sustenance.
A dependent-animal use, synonymous with دَابَّةٌ.
- Lane · entry 15980
حَوْبَةٌ
The middle of a house.
A specialized nominal use; the lexical source notes a possible substitution of ب for م in this word.
- Lane · entry 15980
حُوبَةٌ
A bad or poor tract of land.
Used in the expression حُوبَةٌ مِنَ الأَرْضِ.
- Lane · entry 15981
حَوْبَاءُ
The soul, especially the soul seated in the heart.
The term may refer to the animal soul or the self understood as exposed to wrongdoing.
- Lane · entry 15983
- Mufradāt · row 367
حَوْبَاءُ
The body or person.
A Classical nominal use, also glossed as Persian تَنْ.
- Lane · entry 15983
حَائِبٌ
Slaying, or a slayer.
A dialectal usage attributed to the tribe of Asad.
- Lane · entry 15984
أَحْوَبُ
Very, more, or most sinful or criminal.
An epithet applied to a person.
- Lane · entry 15985
مُحَوِّبٌ
A person whose wealth passes away from him and then returns.
A specialized participial or descriptive use; an alternative passive-participial form is also reported.
- Lane · entry 15986
Cautions
Points that affect how this root should be read.
The Quran-attested form is the noun حُوبٌ in its inflected occurrence حُوبًا; the related verbal, derived, dialectal, and idiomatic forms listed under Classical meanings are not additional QAC Quranic form groups.
Several Classical entries preserve dialectal, specialized, or attributed usages, which are labeled in their usage conditions rather than treated as Quranic meanings.