Quranic root
بغي
b · gh · y
The root has two principal semantic orientations: seeking or pursuing something, and a form of corruption expressed as exceeding proper bounds.
The seeking branch extends to purposeful or earnest pursuit and to seeking something on behalf of another. The second branch develops into envy, wrongful excess, oppression, and related specialized uses; the Form VII construction develops the sense of being suitable, possible, or proper.
- Maqāyīs · row 812
- Mufradāt · row 145
- 8
- Quran-attested forms
- 13
- Quran senses
- 96
- Quran occurrences
Forms in the Quran
The forms this root actually takes in the Quran. Select one to jump to its senses and examples.
بَغَىٰ
baghāā
- Part of speech
- Verb · Form I
- Form
- I
- 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.
To seek, pursue, desire, or endeavor to obtain something.
The object may be something good or harmful. The verb may also express seeking or desiring a result, way, or object.
- Lane · entry 36822
- Mufradāt · row 145
Selected Quran examples
Quran 28:77word 18
“seek”
Quran 12:65word 11
“(could) we desire”
To seek something for another person, or to assist another person in seeking it.
The construction may use a benefactive complement, including the sense “seek for someone” or “help someone seek.”
- Lane · entry 36822
Selected Quran examples
Quran 9:47word 10
“seeking (for) you”
To exceed the proper bounds and thereby act wrongfully, oppressively, or rebelliously toward another.
The construction commonly takes عَلَى with the person or group wronged; passive usage expresses being subjected to such wrong.
- Lane · entry 36822
- Mufradāt · row 145
Selected Quran examples
Quran 49:9word 15
“oppresses”
To speak falsely, in the reported Quranic interpretation “we do not lie.”
This interpretation is specifically reported for the expression مَا نَبْغِي in 12:65; the same expression is also understood as “what do we seek?”
- Lane · entry 36823
Selected Quran examples
Quran 12:65word 11
“(could) we desire”
اِنْبَغَى
āinbaghā
- Part of speech
- Verb · Form VII
- Form
- VII
- 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.
To be suitable, fitting, proper, appropriate, allowable, or incumbent.
Usually occurs in the impersonal construction يَنْبَغِي لِـ or يَنْبَغِي أَنْ, expressing what is proper or behooving for someone or something.
- Lane · entry 36828
- Mufradāt · row 145
Selected Quran examples
Quran 19:92word 2
“is appropriate”
Quran 38:35word 9
“(will) belong”
To be facilitated, possible, practicable, or manageable.
This sense emphasizes whether an action can readily occur or be carried out, rather than merely whether it is normatively proper.
- Lane · entry 36828
- Mufradāt · row 145
Selected Quran examples
Quran 36:69word 5
“it is befitting”
ٱبْتَغَىٰ
abtaghāā
- Part of speech
- Verb · Form VIII
- Form
- VIII
- Quran occurrences
- 34 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 seek, pursue, or aim at something with earnest or deliberate effort.
Form VIII characteristically emphasizes purposeful exertion in seeking; the object may be a material benefit, a way, a divine favor, or another desired end.
- Lane · entry 36822
- Mufradāt · row 145
Selected Quran examples
بَاغٍ
bāghin
- Part of speech
- Active participle
- Quran occurrences
- 3 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.
One who seeks what is not permitted or exceeds the necessary limit.
In the Quranic dietary exception, it describes neither seeking the forbidden food for appetite or pleasure nor exceeding the amount needed to relieve hunger; it may also be understood as not acting rebelliously or wrongfully.
- Lane · entry 36838
- Mufradāt · row 145
Selected Quran examples
بَغِيّ
baghiyy
- Part of speech
- Noun / adjective
- 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 sexually unchaste woman; a fornicatress or prostitute.
The lexical term is explicitly feminine in the supplied evidence and is not applied to a man.
- Lane · entry 36835
Selected Quran examples
Quran 19:20word 11
“unchaste”
Quran 19:28word 11
“unchaste”
بَغْي
baghy
- Part of speech
- Noun
- Quran occurrences
- 11 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.
Envy: a rancorous wish that another’s blessing, happiness, or excellence should pass to oneself.
This sense describes the motive or disposition of resenting another’s favor, rather than the overt act of oppression itself.
- Lane · entry 36822
- Mufradāt · row 145
Selected Quran examples
Quran 2:213word 31
“(out of) jealousy”
Wrongful transgression, oppression, tyranny, or rebellion; exceeding the bounds of right.
The noun may describe injustice toward people, rebellion against rightful authority, or corrupt excess generally.
- Lane · entry 36822
- Mufradāt · row 145
Selected Quran examples
Quran 16:90word 13
“and the oppression”
Quran 42:39word 4
“tyranny”
بِغَاء
bighāʾ
- Part of speech
- Verbal 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.
Fornication or prostitution; the practice of prostituting oneself.
The Quranic construction concerns compelling young women to engage in prostitution.
- Lane · entry 36822
- Mufradāt · row 145
Selected Quran examples
Quran 24:33word 32
“[the] prostitution”
ٱبْتِغَاء
abtighāʾ
- Part of speech
- Verbal noun
- Quran occurrences
- 14 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.
Earnest seeking, pursuit, or aiming at a desired end.
The verbal noun denotes purposeful seeking and may take a material object, a means, a divine favor, or an intended result.
- Lane · entry 36822
- Mufradāt · row 145
Selected Quran examples
Occurrences in the Quran
Every place this root appears, in Quran order. The first few are shown here.
- 2:90بَغْيًاgrudging
- 2:173بَاغٍۢ(being) disobedient
- 2:187وَٱبْتَغُوا۟and seek
- 2:198تَبْتَغُوا۟you seek
- 2:207ٱبْتِغَآءَseeking
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 27 Classical meanings
بَغَى
To love or favor a thing.
- Lane · entry 36822
بَغَى عَلَى
To envy another, wishing that the other’s blessing or excellence would transfer to oneself.
This is the verbal construction underlying the corresponding noun sense of envy.
- Lane · entry 36822
بَغَى
To procure disease for someone or cause disease to befall someone.
Attested in the construction بَغَانِي دَاءً.
- Lane · entry 36822
ذُو بُغَايَةٍ
A person who seeks gain or makes much gain.
The expression is reported with some variation in interpretation.
- Lane · entry 36822
مَا بُغِيَ لَهُ
Good was not appointed or destined to befall him.
A fixed or specialized passive expression.
- Lane · entry 36822
بَغَى
To lie or say what is untrue.
This is the general verbal meaning, beyond the specifically reported interpretation of مَا نَبْغِي in 12:65.
- Lane · entry 36822
بَغَى
To look at a thing in order to determine how it is.
- Lane · entry 36823
بَغَى
To look for, watch, or wait for a person or thing.
- Lane · entry 36823
أَبْغَى
To cause or make someone seek, desire, or endeavor to obtain a thing.
The construction makes another person the seeker of the object.
- Lane · entry 36825
تَبَاغَى
To act wrongfully, oppressively, or tyrannically toward one another; to overpower or oppress one another.
A reciprocal Form VI construction.
- Lane · entry 36827
اِسْتَبْغَى
To ask a group to seek a thing for someone, after which they seek it for him.
The construction expresses requesting or commissioning others to search.
- Lane · entry 36830
بَغَى
Of the sky, to rain vehemently or beyond the amount needed.
Also used of rain exceeding the desired or customary limit.
- Lane · entry 36822
بَغَى
Of a valley, to flow with water beyond a place reached previously.
A specialized description of water overflowing its former limit.
- Lane · entry 36822
بَغْي
The main portion or vehemence of rain from the sky.
The noun may denote the heavy bulk or force of rainfall.
- Lane · entry 36831
بَغَى الجُرْحُ
Of a wound, to swell, become corrupt, and produce thick purulent matter.
A specialized medical usage.
- Lane · entry 36822
بَغَى
To magnify oneself or behave proudly, haughtily, or insolently.
The sense is explained as exceeding one’s proper station.
- Lane · entry 36822
بَغَى فِي مِشْيَتِهِ
Of a horse, to move with proud self-confidence and excessive briskness or liveliness.
A specialized description of a horse’s gait.
- Lane · entry 36822
بِغْيَة
A thing sought, wanted, needed, or required; an object of desire or need.
The related forms distinguish, in some accounts, the sought state from the wanted thing itself.
- Lane · entry 36833
بَغِيّ
A female slave, whether or not sexually unchaste; also, by extension, a female singer even if chaste.
The slave and singer usages are historical extensions and are distinct from the Quranic sense of a sexually unchaste woman.
- Lane · entry 36835
بَغَايَا
Scouts or companies of scouts preceding an army.
A specialized plural usage.
- Lane · entry 36835
بَاغٍ
A seeker or pursuer, especially one searching for a stray animal or another object.
This is the broad active-participle meaning apart from the Quranic restriction on seeking beyond what is permitted or needed.
- Lane · entry 36838
بَاغٍ
A camel that does not impregnate or become pregnant.
A specialized animal term.
- Lane · entry 36838
بَاغٍ
A horse that is proud or self-conceited and exceptionally brisk or lively.
A specialized and disputed lexical application to a horse.
- Lane · entry 36838
بُغْيَان
The game or other object sought by a sportsman or hunter.
A plural form used as a collective designation for quarry.
- Lane · entry 36838
مَبْغًى
A place, route, or manner in which something is sought.
The term can denote the means or proper way of pursuing an object.
- Lane · entry 36838
الْمُبْتَغِي
The lion, as a persistent seeker of prey.
A figurative or zoological designation based on the animal’s pursuit of prey.
- Lane · entry 36840
بِغَاء
According to one reported usage, knowledge of and acquiescence in a woman’s fornication or prostitution.
The report itself treats this as an amplification in expression rather than the ordinary lexical sense.
- Lane · entry 36822
Cautions
Points that affect how this root should be read.
The expression مَا نَبْغِي in 12:65 has competing lexical interpretations in the supplied evidence: “what do we seek?” and “we do not lie”; both are retained under the Form I verb.
One Lane phrase under the Form III entry is retained as ambiguous because the evidence itself assigns it to other possible roots.
Unassigned or ambiguous evidence
lane-unit:bgy:36824:g2:main reports the phrase إِنَّكِ لَجَمِيلَةٌ وَلَا تُبَاغِى with a proposed interpretation, but the same evidence says that some authorities assign the verb to the roots بوغ or بيغ rather than بغي; it is therefore not assigned to a public meaning.