Quranic root
فدي
f · d · y
The central semantic orientation is making one thing a protective substitute for another: ransoming, compensating, or preserving someone from harm. A distinct lexical branch denotes food stores and related bulk or drying places.
The substitution principle develops into freeing captives by payment or exchange, offering a ransom for oneself, mutual protection, and avoidance. Classical Arabic also preserves a separate food-and-storage branch associated with فَدَاء.
- Maqāyīs · row 3550
- Mufradāt · row 1095
- Lane · entry 33554
- Lane · entry 33559
- 5
- Quran-attested forms
- 6
- Quran senses
- 13
- Quran occurrences
Forms in the Quran
The forms this root actually takes in the Quran. Select one to jump to its senses and examples.
فَدَى
fadā
- Part of speech
- Verb · Form I
- Form
- I
- 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 ransom or free someone by making a substitute or compensation stand in that person's place, thereby protecting the person from captivity, harm, or slaughter.
Transitive; the substitute may be property, a person, or a sacrificial victim. The Quranic occurrence describes a sacrificial animal being made a ransom for a person and freeing him from slaughter.
- Lane · entry 33550
- Mufradāt · row 1095
Selected Quran examples
Quran 37:107word 1
“And We ransomed him”
فَادَى
fādā
- Part of speech
- Verb · Form III
- Form
- III
- 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 ransom or exchange captives, securing the release of those held by an enemy in return for payment or another captive.
A reciprocal or negotiated captive-release construction; the Quranic occurrence has the captives as the direct object.
- Lane · entry 33550
- Mufradāt · row 1095
Selected Quran examples
Quran 2:85word 18
“you ransom them”
افْتَدَى
āftadā
- Part of speech
- Verb · Form VIII
- Form
- VIII
- 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.
To ransom oneself by offering something in exchange for one's own release or deliverance.
Reflexive or intransitive; the offering may be property, another person, or anything proposed as a ransom. Quranic uses extend from release in a worldly or legal situation to attempting to avert punishment in the Hereafter.
- Lane · entry 33555
- Mufradāt · row 1095
Selected Quran examples
Quran 2:229word 33
“she ransoms”
Quran 5:36word 13
“to ransom themselves”
Quran 70:11word 5
“he (could be) ransomed”
فِدَاء
fidāʾ
- Part of speech
- 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.
A ransom or compensatory substitute given in place of a person to secure release or avert harm, especially the ransom offered for a captive.
The Quranic occurrence concerns the ransom or substitute offered in connection with the release of captives.
- Lane · entry 33550
- Mufradāt · row 1095
Selected Quran examples
Quran 47:4word 16
“ransom”
فِدْيَة
fidyah
- Part of speech
- Noun
- 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.
A compensatory offering made in lieu of a required religious observance or for falling short in performing it.
The Quran applies the term to compensatory acts such as feeding a needy person, fasting, or giving charity in the relevant ritual context.
- Lane · entry 33556
- Mufradāt · row 1095
Selected Quran examples
Quran 2:184word 17
“a ransom”
Quran 2:196word 27
“then a ransom”
A ransom or compensatory payment offered to avert punishment or obtain release.
In the Quranic eschatological use, such a ransom is presented as unavailable or unacceptable.
- Lane · entry 33556
- Mufradāt · row 1095
Selected Quran examples
Quran 57:15word 5
“any ransom”
Occurrences in the Quran
Every place this root appears, in Quran order. The first few are shown here.
- 2:85تُفَـٰدُوهُمْyou ransom them
- 2:184فِدْيَةٌۭa ransom
- 2:196فَفِدْيَةٌۭthen a ransom
- 2:229ٱفْتَدَتْshe ransoms
- 3:91ٱفْتَدَىٰhe offered as ransom
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 14 Classical meanings
فِدَاكَ / فَدًى لَكَ
A precatory formula meaning “may I or another be a ransom for you” or “may you be ransomed.”
Conventional formulaic usage, including expressions in which the understood predicate is “may be ransomed.”
- Lane · entry 33550
- Lane · entry 33551
- Lane · entry 33553
- Lane · entry 33562
فَدَتْ نَفْسَهَا
She redeemed herself from her husband by giving him property in exchange for release through divorce.
A specific marital-release construction.
- Lane · entry 33550
فَادَى
To free a slayer or the person answerable for him by accepting bloodwit as a substitute for the blood claim.
Used in the context of settling a blood claim by compensation rather than exacting the blood.
- Lane · entry 33552
أَفْدَى
To accept from someone the ransom of a captive.
The subject is the party receiving or accepting the ransom, not the party paying it.
- Lane · entry 33553
أَفْدَى
To dance with or dandle a child.
A conventional use associated with repeated ransom-formula language.
- Lane · entry 33553
أَفْدَى
To make a store-chamber for dried dates.
A specialized Classical Arabic use concerning date storage.
- Lane · entry 33553
أَفْدَى
To become large in body.
A figurative or assumed-tropical use in the cited lexical tradition.
- Lane · entry 33553
أَفْدَى
To sell dates.
A specialized lexical use concerning the sale of dates.
- Lane · entry 33553
تَفَادَى
To ransom one another or exchange persons mutually.
Reciprocal Form VI usage.
- Lane · entry 33554
تَفَادَى
To protect one another, each treating the other as a ransom or safeguard for himself.
A figurative reciprocal-protection use.
- Lane · entry 33554
تَفَادَى مِنْهُ
To guard against, avoid, or keep aloof from something.
Typically constructed with مِنْ for the thing avoided.
- Lane · entry 33554
فَدَاء
A collection or store of food, especially grain, dates, barley, and similar provisions; also a place where dates are spread for drying.
The food-and-storage branch is distinct from the ransom branch and includes dialectally reported uses.
- Lane · entry 33559
فَدَاء
The bulk, protuberant part, or prominent portion of a thing.
A nominal use applied to a thing of any kind.
- Lane · entry 33559
الفِدَاوِيَّة
A class or sect whose members undertake perilous adventures, especially attacks against the enemies of their party, as though offering themselves as ransoms or victims.
A specialized collective designation in later Classical Arabic usage.
- Lane · entry 33561
Cautions
Points that affect how this root should be read.
The root includes a distinct food-and-storage lexical branch under فَدَاء; it is kept separate from ransom and compensation meanings.
Lane's historical Quran citation notation is not used as a modern verse location; Quran examples here use only the supplied QAC locations.