Quranic root
بلو
b · l · w
Within the supplied lexical evidence, بلو centers on trying or testing in order to discover or manifest a condition, with related branches involving trial, affliction, benefit, and wearing or being worn.
The evidence connects testing with the disclosure of a thing’s quality or state. It also preserves related developments toward probationary benefit or affliction, and toward physical wearing, decay, and exhaustion. No Maqāyīs or Mufradāt discussion was supplied, so this is a cautious synthesis of the direct lexical evidence.
- Lane · entry 37179
- Lane · entry 37192
- 5
- Quran-attested forms
- 8
- Quran senses
- 38
- Quran occurrences
Forms in the Quran
The forms this root actually takes in the Quran. Select one to jump to its senses and examples.
بَلَا
balā
- Part of speech
- Verb · Form I
- Form
- I
- Quran occurrences
- 20 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 try, prove, or test someone or something, bringing its condition or quality to light.
May be testing by good or by evil. When God is the agent, the emphasis may be on manifesting the object’s response or quality rather than acquiring previously unknown information.
- Lane · entry 37179
Selected Quran examples
Quran 2:155word 1
“And surely We will test you”
To wear out, deteriorate, or become worn.
Used of something undergoing wear or deterioration; the Quranic occurrence includes the sense of deteriorating.
- Lane · entry 37179
Selected Quran examples
Quran 20:120word 13
“(that will) deteriorate”
أَبْلَى
ʾablā
- Part of speech
- Verb · Form IV
- Form
- IV
- 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 try or test.
The Quran attests both active and passive uses of the Form IV verb.
- Lane · entry 37182
Selected Quran examples
Quran 3:186word 1
“You will certainly be tested”
To confer a beneficial gift, favour, blessing, or other good benefit.
Especially used with a good or beneficial trial; the Quranic construction in 8:17 is interpreted as God conferring a good benefit on the believers.
- Lane · entry 37182
Selected Quran examples
Quran 8:17word 13
“and that He may test”
اِبْتَلَى
āibtalā
- Part of speech
- Verb · Form VIII
- Form
- VIII
- Quran occurrences
- 8 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 try, prove, or put someone or something through a trial; often, to afflict by way of testing.
Used actively and passively, with persons or circumstances as the object of testing. The trial may involve adversity, prosperity, commands, or other circumstances that disclose a person’s condition.
- Lane · entry 37185
Selected Quran examples
بَلَاء
balāʾ
- 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.
A trial, test, trouble, or affliction by which patience or another quality is tested.
Includes a probationary hardship or distress; the Quran uses it of severe trials and testing circumstances.
- Lane · entry 37192
Selected Quran examples
Quran 2:49word 15
“(was) a trial”
A probationary benefit, favour, blessing, or good gift.
A beneficial sense, especially in the construction بَلَاءٌ حَسَنٌ, where the good bestowed is itself a test of gratitude or a divine favour.
- Lane · entry 37192
Selected Quran examples
Quran 8:17word 16
“(with) a trial”
مُبْتَلٍ
mubtalin
- Part of speech
- Active participle
- 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.
One who tests or puts someone through a trial; a tester.
Active participle of Form VIII, used in the Quran for one who is testing others.
- Lane · entry 37185
Selected Quran examples
Quran 2:249word 8
“will test you”
Quran 23:30word 7
“surely testing”
Occurrences in the Quran
Every place this root appears, in Quran order. The first few are shown here.
- 2:49بَلَآءٌۭ(was) a trial
- 2:124ٱبْتَلَىٰٓtried
- 2:155وَلَنَبْلُوَنَّكُمAnd surely We will test you
- 2:249مُبْتَلِيكُمwill test you
- 3:152لِيَبْتَلِيَكُمْ ۖso that He may test you
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 29 Classical meanings
بَلَا
To smell something.
A figurative or transferred use of the Form I verb.
- Lane · entry 37179
بَلَا
To know, become acquainted with, or learn about something.
Used of becoming acquainted with a matter or its circumstances.
- Lane · entry 37179
بَلِيَ
To become old, withered, consumed, or decayed.
Applied to plants, corpses, bones, and comparable things undergoing wasting or decay.
- Lane · entry 37179
بَلِيَ
To fall out of regard or notice; to become worn out in reputation.
A figurative use applied to a person’s reputation.
- Lane · entry 37179
بَلِيَّةٌ
A worn, emaciated, dying animal, especially an animal bound or placed at its dead master’s grave and left without food or water.
Refers to the pre-Islamic grave custom involving a camel, horse, or other livestock; the term may also describe an animal wearied and wasting away.
- Lane · entry 37179
- Lane · entry 37182
- Lane · entry 37195
لَا أُبَالِي
To care about, heed, regard, or be disquieted by someone or something; in the negative idiom, not to care.
Commonly occurs with negation, with or without بِ; the construction can convey disregard or lack of concern.
- Lane · entry 37181
بَالَى
To vie or contend with another for superiority in glory, excellence, or generous conduct.
Includes competitive boasting, striving to be foremost, or contending in excellence.
- Lane · entry 37181
أَبْلَى
To make someone swear or test his veracity by an oath.
Used with an oath as the means of testing or eliciting a person’s truthfulness.
- Lane · entry 37182
أَبْلَى
To swear an oath to someone, thereby reassuring or placating him.
The oath is directed to the other person and serves to soothe his mind.
- Lane · entry 37182
أَبْلَى
To inform, acquaint, or tell someone.
A transitive use involving imparting information or making a person acquainted with a matter.
- Lane · entry 37182
أَبْلَى
To make something manifest, apparent, or clear; to present an excuse in a way that makes it understood.
The construction may take a person and an excuse or explanation, with the resulting clarification removing blame or uncertainty.
- Lane · entry 37182
أَبْلَى
To exert oneself, show one’s ability, or display prowess in work or war.
Includes striving so as to manifest one’s effort, excuse, might, valour, or accomplishment.
- Lane · entry 37182
أَبْلَى
To wear out a garment or wear down a person.
Extended to wasting or exhausting someone through travel, anxiety, experiences, or other prolonged hardship.
- Lane · entry 37182
أَبْلَى
To bind or place a she-camel at its dead master’s grave and leave it until it dies.
Refers to the pre-Islamic grave custom associated with the belief that the deceased would be raised with the animal.
- Lane · entry 37182
تَبَالَى
To vie with others in hastening to a small supply of water and drawing from it.
A conventional reciprocal construction describing people competing to obtain water.
- Lane · entry 37184
اِبْتَلَى
To seek information, news, or tidings from someone; to adjure or question people about what they know.
Includes conjuring or adjuring someone in order to elicit information.
- Lane · entry 37185
اِبْتَلَى
To desire or seek a thing.
A non-testing use applied to seeking a desired object or outcome.
- Lane · entry 37185
اِبْتَلَى
To choose, select, or elect someone.
A use reported for choosing a person or making a selection.
- Lane · entry 37185
اِبْلَوْلَى
For herbage to become tall enough for camels to benefit from it.
Used specifically of growing vegetation and its availability for grazing camels.
- Lane · entry 37186
بِلْوٌ
Worn or wasted by travel, anxiety, or trying events.
Applied to a man, camel, or she-camel exhausted by journeys or hardship.
- Lane · entry 37187
بِلْوٌ
One who has strength or power to endure good or evil and has been seasoned by it.
Describes someone tried or proved through experience and able to bear what follows.
- Lane · entry 37187
بِلْوٌ
A person who manages or tends camels and the like well.
A substantive description of competence in managing livestock.
- Lane · entry 37187
بَلَاء
A difficult or troublesome imposition, requirement, or exaction.
The difficulty imposed on the body or person motivates the lexical association with trial and distress.
- Lane · entry 37192
بِلَاء
An anxiety about which one talks to oneself or soliloquizes.
A nominal use referring to inwardly entertained worry or concern.
- Lane · entry 37193
بَالٍ
One who tries, proves, or tests.
Active participle of the Form I testing verb.
- Lane · entry 37196
بَالٍ
Knowing or acquainted with a thing.
A participial use describing one who has been informed or made acquainted.
- Lane · entry 37196
بَالٍ
Old, worn, or wearing out.
Applied especially to a garment or other thing showing the effects of use.
- Lane · entry 37196
بَالِيَاتٌ
The places where tents have stood.
A figurative or lexicalized plural use associated with worn or former dwelling places.
- Lane · entry 37196
مُبَلِّيَاتٌ
Women who stand around a deceased man’s riding-camel or grave-bound animal and wail for him.
Refers to the women associated with the pre-Islamic grave custom involving the بَلِيَّة.
- Lane · entry 37199
Cautions
Points that affect how this root should be read.
No Maqāyīs or Mufradāt evidence was supplied; the root-level orientation is therefore based on the supplied direct Lane evidence rather than an independent root-principle discussion.
The Form IV occurrence at 8:17 is contextually glossed as testing, while the explicit lexical interpretation supports conferring a good benefit or favour; both materially distinct readings are retained under separate senses.