Quranic root
صبع
ṣ · b · ʿ
The root's primary concrete referent is the human finger or digit.
From the concrete finger, the lexicon extends to pointing and indication, controlled manipulation with the fingers, and metaphorical notions of a visible impress or influence.
- Maqāyīs · row 2748
- Mufradāt · row 39
- Lane · entry 25309
- Lane · entry 25313
- 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.
إِصْبَعٌ
ʾiṣbaʿun
- Part of speech
- Noun
- 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.
A finger of the hand.
The supplied Quran occurrences use the plural form أَصَابِعَ, referring specifically to fingers. The term denotes the digit as a whole, including its constituent parts.
- Lane · entry 25313
- Mufradāt · row 39
Selected Quran examples
Quran 2:19word 10
“their fingers”
Quran 71:7word 7
“their fingers”
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 22 Classical meanings
صَبَعَ
To point at or toward someone or something with the finger, whether disparagingly or as a means of indicating or directing.
One reported use involves pointing disparagingly or intending harm while the other person is unaware; the same pointing construction is also used to direct someone toward a person, road, or hidden thing.
- Lane · entry 25309
صَبَعَ
To insert one's finger into something.
Attested of putting a finger into offered food and of probing a hen to determine whether she is near laying an egg.
- Lane · entry 25309
صَبَعَ
To channel or let liquid flow between the fingers into a vessel.
The fingers are used to control the stream so that the liquid does not scatter or pour forth too freely.
- Lane · entry 25309
صَبَعَ
To hit or hurt someone's finger.
- Lane · entry 25309
صَبَعَ عَلَى القَوْمِ
To come forth upon a people or party.
This usage is reported as possibly originating in صَبَأَ, with hamza, rather than representing the ordinary finger-related verb.
- Lane · entry 25309
صَبْعٌ
Self-magnification, pride, haughtiness, or insolent vain glory.
A figurative noun usage.
- Lane · entry 25311
إِصْبَعٌ
A toe, as a digit of the foot.
This is a broader Classical Arabic bodily-part use distinct from the Quranic occurrences, which refer to fingers.
- Lane · entry 25313
إِصْبَعٌ
A good visible impress or favorable effect, especially the mark of good care on livestock.
The expression may also describe a good effect or favor upon a person or property, including an effect attributed to God.
- Lane · entry 25313
- Mufradāt · row 39
إِصْبَعٌ
In the expression بِهِمْ تُثْنَى الأَصَابِعُ, to be counted among the best or among the select.
A conventional idiom in which the fingers are figuratively bent when such people are mentioned.
- Lane · entry 25313
مُغِلُّ الإِصْبَعِ
Unfaithful, treacherous, or perfidious.
Occurs in the fixed figurative expression مُغِلُّ الإِصْبَعِ.
- Lane · entry 25313
لَهُ إِصْبَعٌ فِي الأَمْرِ
To have a hand or involvement in an affair.
A figurative expression using the finger as a sign of participation or influence.
- Lane · entry 25313
إِصْبَعٌ
In the expression قَلْبُ المُؤْمِنِ بَيْنَ إِصْبَعَيْنِ مِنْ أَصَابِعِ اللَّهِ, a figurative image of the believer's heart being under God's turning and control.
A conventional theological expression, not a literal bodily description.
- Lane · entry 25313
بِإِصْبَعٍ وَاحِدَةٍ
To accomplish or dispose of an affair with extreme ease.
The expression may refer even to accomplishing it with one's smallest finger.
- Lane · entry 25313
أَبُو الإِصْبَعِ
A byname of the Devil.
A conventional proper epithet.
- Lane · entry 25313
إِصْبَعٌ
A prong or projection resembling a finger.
A figurative or technical extension based on shape.
- Lane · entry 25313
أَصَابِعُ الفَتَيَاتِ
Common clinopodium or wild basil, a sweet-smelling plant.
A botanical name based on the resemblance of the plant to fingers.
- Lane · entry 25313
أَصَابِعُ العَذَارَى
A species of long black grapes, likened to the dyed fingers of virgins.
A conventional botanical or agricultural name.
- Lane · entry 25313
أَصَابِعُ هُرْمُسَ
The flowers of the plant called سُورَنْجَان.
A botanical name for the flowers, associated with the medicinal plant.
- Lane · entry 25313
أَصَابِعُ فِرْعَوْنَ
Red objects resembling finger-length applicators, used medicinally to help consolidate wounds.
A traditional medicinal designation based on their shape and appearance.
- Lane · entry 25313
أَصَابِعُ صُفْرٌ
The hand-shaped root of a plant with yellow and white variegation, used medicinally.
Reported uses include treatment for madness or diabolical possession, poisons, venomous bites, and thick excrescences.
- Lane · entry 25313
إِصْبَعٌ
A finger-breadth used as a unit of measure.
Defined as the width of six moderate-sized barleycorns, or one quarter of a قبضَة.
- Lane · entry 25313
مَصْبُوعٌ
Self-magnifying or proud.
A figurative derived form describing a person characterized by pride or self-exaltation.
- Lane · entry 25316
Cautions
Points that affect how this root should be read.
The public headword is the normalized singular citation form إِصْبَعٌ; the two supplied Quran occurrences are its plural form أَصَابِعَ.
Unassigned or ambiguous evidence
The Lane Form IV entry اصبع reports a livestock-management meaning but explicitly suggests that the report may derive from a mistranscription of لِلرَّاعِي عَلَى مَاشِيَتِهِ إِصْبَعٌ; it is therefore left unresolved rather than presented as an established Form IV lexical sense.