Quranic root
بعل
b · ʿ · l
The root has three principal classical branches: the spouse or companion and the authority associated with a husband or lord; bewilderment and stunned incapacity; and elevated, naturally self-sufficient land or vegetation.
The evidence connects the spouse, lordship, elevated land, and deep-rooted palms through the idea of being established above or over another or of standing independently. A separate branch denotes bewilderment, fear, and remaining fixed without knowing what to do.
- Maqāyīs · row 800
- Mufradāt · row 141
- 2
- Quran-attested forms
- 2
- Quran senses
- 7
- Quran occurrences
Forms in the Quran
The forms this root actually takes in the Quran. Select one to jump to its senses and examples.
بَعْل
baʿl
- Part of speech
- Noun
- Quran occurrences
- 6 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.
Husband; male spouse.
Used in the Qur'an for a woman's husband, including the plural form بُعُولَة.
- Lane · entry 36771
- Mufradāt · row 141
Selected Quran examples
Quran 2:228word 22
“And their husbands”
Quran 4:128word 5
“her husband”
Quran 11:72word 7
“my husband”
Quran 24:31word 23
“to their husbands”
بَعْل
baʿl
- Part of speech
- Proper 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.
Baal, the named deity or idol invoked by the people associated with Ilyas.
In the Qur'anic occurrence this is a proper name. The lexical interpretation is also reported as “a lord” in a Yemeni dialect, and other reports identify the referent as a king; these are alternative interpretations of the same name.
- Lane · entry 36771
- Mufradāt · row 141
Selected Quran examples
Quran 37:125word 2
“Baal”
Occurrences in the Quran
Every place this root appears, in Quran order. The first few are shown here.
- 2:228وَبُعُولَتُهُنَّAnd their husbands
- 4:128بَعْلِهَاher husband
- 11:72بَعْلِىmy husband
- 24:31لِبُعُولَتِهِنَّto their husbands
- 24:31بُعُولَتِهِنَّ(of) their husbands
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 22 Classical meanings
بَعَلَ
To become a husband; to marry or take a wife; of a woman, to become a wife.
The verb is used of a man becoming a husband and, with a feminine subject, of a woman becoming a wife.
- Lane · entry 36765
بَعَلَ
To resist, withstand, or disobey someone.
Used in the construction بَعَلَ عَلَيْهِ, “he resisted or disobeyed him.”
- Lane · entry 36765
بَعِلَ
To become confounded or perplexed, unable to see the right course.
The state may involve fear or disgust and remaining fixed in place without knowing what to do.
- Lane · entry 36765
بَعِلٌ
Confounded or perplexed; lacking strength, power, or ability to accomplish one's affair.
This is the active-participle form associated with the bewilderment branch.
- Lane · entry 36772
بَاعَلَ
To intermarry; for one people or tribe to marry into another.
Used of reciprocal marriage relations between peoples or tribes.
- Lane · entry 36766
بَاعَلَ
To play or toy with one's spouse.
The corresponding reciprocal noun denotes playful interaction between husband and wife.
- Lane · entry 36766
بَاعَلَ
To have sexual intercourse with a woman, by metonymic usage.
This is an expressly euphemistic or figurative extension of the marital-play expression.
- Lane · entry 36766
بَاعَلَ
To sit with or keep company with another.
The usage is an extension in which playful interaction is understood.
- Lane · entry 36766
تَبَعَّلَ
For a woman, to be obedient to her husband or to adorn herself for him.
The cited usage describes conduct toward one's husband.
- Lane · entry 36767
اِسْتَبْعَلَ
Of palm trees, to become bَعْل and to become large.
The term بَعْل for palms denotes trees established with roots sufficient to live without ordinary irrigation.
- Lane · entry 36770
- Lane · entry 36771
اِسْتَبْعَلَ
Of a place, to become bَعْل or to become elevated.
The usage applies the term to the character of a place or its elevation.
- Lane · entry 36770
بَعْل
Wife; female spouse.
This is a broader Classical Arabic use of the noun and is distinct from its supplied Quranic use for husband.
- Lane · entry 36771
بَعْل
A lord, master, owner, possessor, chief, ruler, or other person of authority.
The term may denote authority or possession over a thing, as well as social or political leadership.
- Lane · entry 36771
بَعْل
A person to whom obedience is owed.
Parents and comparable figures of authority are given as examples.
- Lane · entry 36771
بَعْل
A family or household whose maintenance is incumbent on a man.
The meaning concerns dependants whose support one is responsible for providing.
- Lane · entry 36771
بَعْل
Possibly a contracted form of بَعِلٌ meaning lacking strength, power, or ability to accomplish one's affair.
The lexical source presents this as a possible contraction related to the bewilderment branch.
- Lane · entry 36771
بَعْل
A weight or burden.
It may be applied to a person who becomes a burden upon his family, with the figurative idea of ascendancy over them.
- Lane · entry 36771
بَعْل
Elevated land with little access to running water or rainfall.
Descriptions include land receiving rain only rarely or not being reached by ordinary torrents.
- Lane · entry 36771
بَعْل
Palms, other trees, or crops that are rain-fed or draw water through their roots without ordinary irrigation.
The term covers vegetation that needs no supplied watering, including palms rooted deeply enough to obtain their own water; variant descriptions distinguish rain-fed from root-watered growth.
- Lane · entry 36771
بَعْل
A male palm tree; also dates called قَسْب.
The palm-tree meaning is metaphorically related to the noun's human and authority senses in the cited lexical discussion.
- Lane · entry 36771
بَعْل
The tax or impost given for watering palm trees.
This is a specialized agricultural usage.
- Lane · entry 36771
بَعِلَةٌ
A woman who dresses or arranges her personal appearance poorly.
The term is used as an epithet for a woman whose clothing or personal state is not well adjusted.
- Lane · entry 36772
Cautions
Points that affect how this root should be read.
The two Quranic form groups share the written form بَعْل but are distinct in QAC: a common noun with six occurrences and a proper noun with one occurrence.
The interpretation of بَعْل in 37:125 is reported variously as a deity or idol, a king, or “lord” in a Yemeni dialect; these are treated as interpretations of the same proper name.