Quranic root
برر
b · r · r
The root has a central orientation toward truthful, expansive goodness and beneficent conduct, alongside distinct branches for vocal imitation, land opposed to sea, and wheat or vegetation.
The moral sense develops through the idea of breadth or expansiveness into abundant goodness, obedience, kindness, and truthful fulfillment. The lexical tradition also preserves separate sound, land, and plant branches rather than deriving every usage from one direct meaning.
- Maqāyīs · row 728
- Mufradāt · row 107
- 3
- Quran-attested forms
- 6
- Quran senses
- 32
- Quran occurrences
Forms in the Quran
The forms this root actually takes in the Quran. Select one to jump to its senses and examples.
بَرَّ
barra
- Part of speech
- Verb · Form I
- Form
- I
- 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 do good and act with piety; to treat someone kindly and beneficently.
Used absolutely for good conduct and transitively for kind treatment; the Quranic forms are active imperfects.
- Lane · entry 35949
- Mufradāt · row 107
Selected Quran examples
Quran 2:224word 7
“you do good”
Quran 60:8word 15
“you deal kindly”
بَرّ
barr
- Part of speech
- Noun / Adjective
- Quran occurrences
- 22 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.
Land or dry, open country, as opposed to the sea.
Used in the Quranic land-and-sea contrast and for the terrestrial or open expanse.
- Lane · entry 35955
- Mufradāt · row 107
Selected Quran examples
Quran 10:22word 5
“the land”
Righteous, pious, and morally upright; substantively, a righteous person or people.
The plural أَبْرَار denotes the righteous generally. The Quranic بَرَرَة refers to angels and is treated in the lexical discussion as the stronger plural form.
- Lane · entry 35955
- Mufradāt · row 107
Selected Quran examples
Quran 3:193word 20
“the righteous”
Quran 80:16word 2
“dutiful”
Dutiful, kind, and beneficent in conduct toward parents, kin, or others; as the divine epithet al-Barr, supremely benign or merciful.
The human use describes benevolent treatment, while the divine use is a Quranic epithet expressing abundant mercy and beneficence.
- Lane · entry 35955
- Mufradāt · row 107
Selected Quran examples
Quran 19:14word 1
“And dutiful”
Quran 52:28word 8
“(is) the Most Kind”
بِرّ
birr
- Part of speech
- Noun
- 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.
Righteousness and comprehensive goodness: obedience to God, sound belief, prescribed duties, fidelity, and good works, including kind treatment.
The Quranic usage presents birr as more than a nominal ritual orientation: it encompasses belief, duties, charity, patience, and other approved conduct.
- Lane · entry 35957
- Mufradāt · row 107
Selected Quran examples
Quran 2:177word 2
“[the] righteousness”
Quran 3:92word 3
“[the] righteousness”
Quran 5:2word 40
“[the] righteousness”
Quran 58:9word 13
“for righteousness”
Good or benefit, including the good of worldly life and the hereafter; in a reported Quranic interpretation, Paradise.
This extension is preserved as a reported Quranic interpretation in the lexical evidence; no modern verse location is assigned to the historical citation.
- Lane · entry 35957
Occurrences in the Quran
Every place this root appears, in Quran order. The first few are shown here.
- 2:44بِٱلْبِرِّ[the] righteousness
- 2:177ٱلْبِرَّ[the] righteousness
- 2:177ٱلْبِرَّthe righteous[ness]
- 2:189ٱلْبِرُّ[the] righteousness
- 2:189ٱلْبِرَّ[the] righteous
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 37 Classical meanings
بَرَّ
To be true or veracious in speech or in an oath.
Used with sayings, statements, and oaths.
- Lane · entry 35949
بَرَّ
Of a deed or pilgrimage, to be performed sinlessly, accepted, or rewarded.
A conventional description of an approved deed or pilgrimage and its favorable outcome.
- Lane · entry 35949
بَرَّ
Of a commodity, to be easy to sell and to procure gain.
A figurative commercial use describing an article that recompenses the seller's care.
- Lane · entry 35949
بَرَّ
Of God toward a person, to show mercy or recompense and reward obedience.
A transitive theological or figurative use distinct from the human subject's piety or kindness.
- Lane · entry 35949
بَرَّ
To drive or call sheep or goats.
A specialized pastoral use.
- Lane · entry 35949
بَارَّهُ
To treat another with reciprocal kindness, affection, gentleness, and regard for his circumstances.
Form III expresses mutual or reciprocal beneficent treatment.
- Lane · entry 35950
أَبَرَّ
To carry out a saying or oath truthfully, or to cause an oath to be verified.
The subject may perform a statement or oath truly; God may be said to verify an oath.
- Lane · entry 35951
أَبَرَّ
To assent or consent to another person's conjurement or oath.
A specialized construction concerning assent to a sworn appeal.
- Lane · entry 35951
أَبَرَّ
To overcome or subdue; by extension, to prevail in evil or transgress.
The transgressive use is an extension from prevailing over others and is not a Quranic meaning of the supplied form group.
- Lane · entry 35951
أَبَرَّ
To ride or journey upon the land.
Opposed to journeying by sea.
- Lane · entry 35951
تَبَرَّرَ
To cultivate or affect piety and to abstain from crime or sin.
Form V expresses adopting or endeavoring to characterize oneself by birr.
- Lane · entry 35952
تَبَارَّ
To practice mutual birr: reciprocal kindness, goodness, affection, and gentle regard.
A reciprocal Form VI construction.
- Lane · entry 35953
بَرْبَرَ
To talk profusely and noisily, cry out, or speak confusedly, often with anger or aversion.
The sense concerns clamorous or unprofitable speech.
- Lane · entry 35954
بَرْبَرَ
Of a goat, to cry or utter cries when excited by desire for a female.
An animal vocalization distinct from human clamorous speech.
- Lane · entry 35954
بَرّ
True or veracious.
An adjectival or substantive use concerning a person, saying, or oath.
- Lane · entry 35955
بَرّ
Open or exposed ground outside a house or town, including elevated ground open to view.
Used in contrast with shelter, concealment, or an enclosed place; some later expressions are marked as less characteristic by the lexical authorities.
- Lane · entry 35955
بَرّ
Publicity or openness, as opposed to concealment or secrecy.
A figurative extension of being out in the open.
- Lane · entry 35955
بُرّ
Wheat or wheat grain.
The singular grain is بُرَّةٌ; the word is also used for wheat as a substance.
- Lane · entry 35956
بِرّ
A gratuitous gift, favor, bounty, or benefit.
A substantive use emphasizing a benefit bestowed rather than moral conduct itself.
- Lane · entry 35957
بِرّ
Religious obedience or an incumbent duty, including pilgrimage.
A Classical specialization of comprehensive goodness, retained separately from the Quranic form's broader definition.
- Lane · entry 35957
بِرّ
The heart or mind.
A rare substantive use in expressions concerning inner composure.
- Lane · entry 35957
بِرّ
A call or sound associated with driving or calling sheep or goats.
A sound-imitation branch also reflected in related vocalization terms.
- Lane · entry 35957
بِرّ
A rat or small animal resembling a rat; also the young of the fox.
A rare zoological use with several reported species identifications.
- Lane · entry 35957
بَرِيرٌ
The fruit of the arak tree.
A collective noun for the fruit, with the lexical discussion distinguishing stages or forms of the fruit, including its first appearance, sweetness, hardness, and berry or cluster size.
- Lane · entry 35959
بُرَّى
A good, sweet, pleasant, or agreeable word, expression, or saying.
Applied to speech or an utterance; the sense is associated with benevolent regard or conduct.
- Lane · entry 35960
بَرِّيّ
Of or belonging to the land or desert; wild, uncultivated, or produced in the desert.
A relational adjective and its related desert-land nouns; distinct from the Quranic nominal headword بَرّ.
- Lane · entry 35961
بَرَّانِيّ
External, outward, apparent, or public.
Used of what is outward as opposed to the inner or hidden state.
- Lane · entry 35964
بَرْبَر
The Berber peoples, especially inhabitants of the Maghrib and related regions.
A foreign ethnic designation treated as Arabicized in the lexical discussion.
- Lane · entry 35965
بَرْبَار
A person who talks much, vociferates, or speaks confusedly and unprofitably.
An agent noun related to clamorous speech.
- Lane · entry 35969
بَرْبَار
A lion.
A figurative designation attributed to the noise, anger, and aversion associated with the animal.
- Lane · entry 35969
بَرْبَار
A bucket that makes a noise in the water.
A descriptive use based on sound.
- Lane · entry 35969
بُرْبُور
Coarsely ground wheat or wheat flour.
A prepared wheat product.
- Lane · entry 35970
أَبَرّ
More or most distant in the desert with respect to habitation.
A rare comparative or superlative use; the lexical evidence rejects an otherwise possible analogical moral interpretation as its attested sense.
- Lane · entry 35972
مُبِرّ
One who overcomes.
An active participial use related to prevailing over another.
- Lane · entry 35973
مُبِرّ
A prudent or sound manager who keeps something under control.
A specialized transitive construction meaning one who manages or regulates a matter well.
- Lane · entry 35973
مَبْرُور
Of a pilgrimage, sinlessly performed, accepted, approved, and rewarded.
A conventional blessing and description of an accepted pilgrimage, sometimes associated with feeding people and pleasant speech.
- Lane · entry 35975
مَبْرُور
Of a sale, executed truly and honestly.
A passive-participial use applied to an honestly completed transaction.
- Lane · entry 35975
Cautions
Points that affect how this root should be read.
The Quranic imperfect lemma تَبَرُّوا is presented under the normalized Form I citation form بَرَّ.
The nominal headword بَرّ has distinct Quranic land, righteous, and beneficent or divine uses; these are not treated as contextual variants of one translation.
A historical Quran citation in the lexical evidence is retained only as a reported interpretation and has not been converted into a modern verse location without an independently matching QAC occurrence.