Quranic root
بأس
b · ʾ · s
A root of severity, force, and what approaches hardship or affliction; it extends from martial strength to distress, punishment, and severe blame.
The core orientation is intensity or harsh force: بَأْسٌ is strength in war, while related forms describe hardship in living, calamity, inflicted punishment, and inward grief. بِئْسَ develops as the conventional verb of emphatic dispraise.
- Maqāyīs · row 671
- Mufradāt · row 84
- 6
- Quran-attested forms
- 7
- Quran senses
- 73
- Quran occurrences
Forms in the Quran
The forms this root actually takes in the Quran. Select one to jump to its senses and examples.
بِئْسَ
biʾsa
- Part of speech
- Verb · Form I
- Form
- I
- Quran occurrences
- 40 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 be utterly bad or wretched; an emphatic verb of dispraise or blame.
A defective, conventionally inflected verb used for emphatic condemnation. With مَا it condemns an action or thing; with a definite noun it takes the praised or blamed subject in the usual بِئْسَ construction, while an indefinite noun may function as a specification.
- Lane · entry 35445
- Mufradāt · row 84
Selected Quran examples
Quran 2:90word 1
“Evil (is) that”
Quran 18:29word 25
“Wretched”
اِبْتَأَسَ
āibtaʾasa
- Part of speech
- Verb · Form VIII
- Form
- VIII
- 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.
To be distressed or grieved by something.
Used with بِهِ or مِنْهُ for distress at an unwelcome matter. The lexical description includes humbling or abasing oneself in grief; it does not simply mean disliking or hating something.
- Lane · entry 35449
- Lane · entry 35466
- Mufradāt · row 84
Selected Quran examples
Quran 11:36word 14
“(be) distressed”
Quran 12:69word 13
“grieve”
بَأْسٌ
baʾsun
- Part of speech
- Noun
- Quran occurrences
- 25 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.
Might, strength, or force, especially the force exercised in war or fighting.
Depending on context, this martial force may be rendered as might, power, violence, battle, or the strength of a fighting group.
- Lane · entry 35450
- Mufradāt · row 84
Selected Quran examples
Quran 4:84word 15
“(the) might”
Quran 21:80word 7
“your battle”
Punishment, torment, or severe punitive force inflicted upon someone.
In Quranic contexts it can refer to divine punishment, wrath, or torment as an affliction imposed upon a people, rather than to their own military strength.
- Lane · entry 35450
- Mufradāt · row 84
Selected Quran examples
Quran 12:110word 16
“Our punishment”
Quran 6:147word 10
“His wrath”
بَأْسَاءُ
baʾsāʾu
- Part of speech
- Noun
- Quran occurrences
- 4 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.
Adversity, hardship, suffering, or affliction.
A state of severe difficulty or suffering; in the Quranic account of the trial of a people, it can include hunger or pressing material adversity, as in 6:42.
- Lane · entry 35455
- Mufradāt · row 84
Selected Quran examples
Quran 2:177word 42
“[the] suffering”
Quran 6:42word 8
“with adversity”
بَائِسٌ
bāʾisun
- Part of speech
- 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 distressed, needy, or miserable person; one suffering hardship.
An active participle describing a person marked by distress, want, or suffering.
- Lane · entry 35462
Selected Quran examples
Quran 22:28word 19
“the miserable”
بَئِيسٌ
baʾīsun
- Part of speech
- Adjective
- 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.
Severe, vehement, or grievous.
In the Quranic occurrence it qualifies punishment in the expression عَذَابٌ بَئِيسٌ, meaning a severe or vehement punishment.
- Lane · entry 35458
- Mufradāt · row 84
Selected Quran examples
Quran 7:165word 15
“wretched”
Occurrences in the Quran
Every place this root appears, in Quran order. The first few are shown here.
- 2:90بِئْسَمَاEvil (is) that
- 2:93بِئْسَمَاEvil (is) that
- 2:102وَلَبِئْسَAnd surely evil
- 2:126وَبِئْسَand evil
- 2:177ٱلْبَأْسَآءِ[the] suffering
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 14 Classical meanings
بَؤُسَ
To be or become mighty or strong in war; to be courageous, valiant, or powerful in fighting.
A Form I verbal usage distinct from the conventional dispraise verb بِئْسَ.
- Lane · entry 35445
بَئِسَ، بَؤُسَ
To be or become distressed, poor, in pressing want, or afflicted.
Describes a state of poverty, misfortune, trial, or affliction, and may also describe distress befalling someone.
- Lane · entry 35445
تَبَاءَسَ
To feign or display the lowliness and submissiveness of poverty, humbling or abasing oneself before people.
A conventional Form VI usage involving affected poverty or self-abasement.
- Lane · entry 35448
بَأْسٌ
Courage, valour, or prowess.
A Classical Arabic characterization of a person’s bravery, especially in fighting, distinct from the noun’s force or punishment senses.
- Lane · entry 35450
بَأْسٌ
Fear or danger in the idiom لَا بَأْسَ عَلَيْكَ; by extension, the idiom can convey security or protection.
An idiomatic, figurative development of the notion of war or danger.
- Lane · entry 35450
بَأْسٌ
Harm, injury, or adverse consequence.
Used especially in لَا بَأْسَ and لَا بَأْسَ بِكَذَا or فِي كَذَا, meaning that there is no harm in something.
- Lane · entry 35450
بُؤْسٌ
Distress, poverty, pressing want, misfortune, or calamity.
A noun for hardship in livelihood or circumstances, including a state of severe affliction; it is also used in imprecations such as بُؤْسًا لَهُ.
- Lane · entry 35451
بَنَاتُ بِئْسٍ
Calamities or misfortunes.
A fixed idiomatic expression referring collectively to adverse events.
- Lane · entry 35452
بَأْسَاءُ
The act of beating or striking.
A rare Classical Arabic nominal usage, distinct from the Quranic sense of adversity.
- Lane · entry 35455
بَؤُوسٌ
One in whom distress is apparent or manifest.
An adjective describing the visible manifestation of بُؤْسٌ.
- Lane · entry 35456
بَئِيسٌ
Mighty or strong in war; courageous or valiant.
A Classical adjective for martial strength or bravery, distinct from the Quran-attested use describing severe punishment.
- Lane · entry 35458
بَيْئَسٌ
Strong or powerful.
A rare adjectival usage.
- Lane · entry 35463
البَيْئَسُ
The lion.
A figurative or conventional designation based on strength.
- Lane · entry 35463
الأَبْأَسُ
The most vehement refusal.
A superlative expression for extreme refusal or rejection.
- Lane · entry 35464
Cautions
Points that affect how this root should be read.
بِئْسَ is a defective conventional verb of emphatic dispraise; its Quranic translations such as “wretched” and “evil” do not represent the ordinary distress meaning of related forms.
The Quranic adjective بَئِيسٌ is attested in the construction عَذَابٌ بَئِيسٌ, where the supported sense is severe or vehement punishment; the contextual translation “wretched” should not obscure that construction.