Quranic root
بيع
b · y · ʿ
The root centers on exchange: giving something of value and receiving its countervalue. The terms of buying and selling may be viewed from either side of the exchange.
The exchange sense extends to reciprocal bargaining and transactions, and figuratively to a covenant of allegiance in which obedience, persons, or property are pledged in return for a promised recompense.
- Maqāyīs · row 894
- Mufradāt · row 168
- 4
- Quran-attested forms
- 5
- Quran senses
- 15
- Quran occurrences
Forms in the Quran
The forms this root actually takes in the Quran. Select one to jump to its senses and examples.
بَايَعَ
bāyaʿa
- Part of speech
- Verb · Form III
- Form
- III
- 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 make a covenant of allegiance with someone; to pledge loyalty, submission, and obedience.
A reciprocal covenantal construction, especially allegiance pledged to a leader or to God. In the Quran, it is used of the pledges made to the Prophet and of the covenant referred to in the transaction imagery of 9:111.
- Lane · entry 37565
- Mufradāt · row 168
Selected Quran examples
Quran 9:111word 32
“you have contracted”
Quran 48:18word 7
“they pledged allegiance to you”
Quran 60:12word 31
“then accept their pledge”
تَبَايَعَ
tabāyaʿa
- Part of speech
- Verb · Form VI
- Form
- VI
- 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.
To transact with one another; to buy and sell mutually.
A reciprocal commercial construction referring to the parties engaging in a sale or other exchange together.
- Lane · entry 37565
- Mufradāt · row 168
Selected Quran examples
Quran 2:282word 110
“you make commercial transaction”
بَيْع
bayʿ
- Part of speech
- Noun
- Quran occurrences
- 7 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 sale or commercial exchange of property; the transaction or contract by which value is exchanged for a countervalue.
The term may be viewed from the seller's or buyer's side, so sale and purchase can be expressed by the same exchange vocabulary. It covers Quranic references to trade, sale, and commercial business.
- Lane · entry 37564
- Mufradāt · row 168
Selected Quran examples
Quran 2:275word 18
“the trade”
Quran 62:9word 15
“the business”
A covenantal transaction or pledge, figuratively framed as an exchange of persons and property for a promised divine recompense.
A Quran-specific figurative use, especially in 9:111, where the believers' pledge and God's promised reward are expressed through the language of sale and purchase.
- Mufradāt · row 168
Selected Quran examples
Quran 9:111word 30
“in your transaction”
بِيعَة
bīʿah
- Part of speech
- Noun · plural form in the Quran
- 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 church or Christian place of worship.
The Quranic form is the plural بِيَع, referring to churches or Christian houses of worship.
- Lane · entry 37573
Selected Quran examples
Quran 22:40word 20
“and churches”
Occurrences in the Quran
Every place this root appears, in Quran order. The first few are shown here.
- 2:254بَيْعٌۭbargaining
- 2:275ٱلْبَيْعُthe trade
- 2:275ٱلْبَيْعَ[the] trade
- 2:282تَبَايَعْتُمْ ۚyou make commercial transaction
- 9:111بِبَيْعِكُمُin your transaction
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 19 Classical meanings
بَاعَ
To sell; also, according to construction and perspective, to buy or to offer something for sale.
The verb may take the thing exchanged and the recipient, with مِنْ or لِ marking the other party; with لِ, it can mean to buy something for another. The same verb can therefore describe either side of the exchange.
- Lane · entry 37564
بَاعَ عَلَيْهِ
To sell something against another person's will or without that person's consent.
A construction used of a judge or other authority selling against the affected person's wishes.
- Lane · entry 37564
بَاعَهُ مِنَ السُّلْطَانِ
To slander or denounce someone to the Sultan.
A tropical idiomatic construction with مِنَ السُّلْطَانِ.
- Lane · entry 37564
بَاعَ عَلَى بَيْعِهِ
To supersede, overpower, or gain mastery over another; in a related idiom, to equal another.
A proverbial or tropical construction describing victory over a rival or taking the position and advantage sought by another.
- Lane · entry 37564
بَيْع
Expansion or spreading out.
A rare lexical usage recorded as equivalent to انبساط.
- Lane · entry 37564
بَايَعَ
To barter or exchange commodities mutually.
This is the commercial reciprocal use, distinct from the Quranic covenantal use of the Form III verb.
- Lane · entry 37565
اِنْبَاعَ
To become saleable or easy to sell; to have a ready sale.
A quasi-passive development from the exchange verb.
- Lane · entry 37568
اِسْتَبَاعَ
To ask someone to sell something to oneself.
The requested object is expressed as the thing one asks the other person to sell.
- Lane · entry 37570
بَيْع
The hire or hiring of land.
A specialized nominal usage distinct from ordinary sale or purchase.
- Lane · entry 37571
بَيْع
A thing sold or bought; also, a kind or type of sale or purchase.
Here the noun denotes the exchanged object or the varieties of commercial dealing, rather than the act or contract itself.
- Lane · entry 37571
بَيْعَة
The striking or taking together of the hands of contracting parties to ratify a sale.
A formal gesture marking confirmation of the sale contract.
- Lane · entry 37572
بَيْعَة
A covenant or oath of allegiance and obedience, and the act of submitting to it.
The term can denote the pledge itself, its obligations, or the formal act by which allegiance is undertaken.
- Lane · entry 37572
بِيعَة
A mode or manner of selling or buying.
A nominal description of how commercial dealing is conducted.
- Lane · entry 37573
بَيَاعَة
An article of merchandise.
A concrete commercial item, with a plural used for articles of merchandise.
- Lane · entry 37575
بَيِّع
A person skilled in selling or buying.
The form has masculine and feminine uses and denotes proficiency in commercial dealing.
- Lane · entry 37576
بَيَّاع
A person who sells or buys much.
An intensive description of someone heavily engaged in selling or buying.
- Lane · entry 37577
بَائِع
A seller or buyer; according to some usage, a bargainer or chafferer.
Without further restriction, the seller meaning is more obvious; in paired legal or commercial expressions it can denote the seller and buyer together.
- Lane · entry 37578
بَائِع
A woman who readily obtains a suitor or is much sought after because of her beauty.
A tropical feminine use, explained figuratively as though she sold herself.
- Lane · entry 37578
مَبِيع
Sold or bought.
A passive participial form used of the result or object of the exchange.
- Lane · entry 37579
Cautions
Points that affect how this root should be read.
بَاعَ and بَيْع can describe either side of an exchange; the intended direction is determined by construction and perspective.
The public headword بِيعَة represents the singular citation form of the Quranic plural بِيَع. The classical evidence records a secondary view extending this word to a Jewish synagogue, while the Quranic context supports churches.