Skip to content
Pray for the Truth

Quranic root

فجر

f · j · r

The root centers on opening, cleaving, or breaking through something.

From the opening of darkness into dawn and the opening of channels so water flows, the root develops meanings of bursting forth and causing flow. Figuratively, departure from the straight way becomes sinful transgression, while a further classical branch concerns overflowing generosity.

  • Maqāyīs · row 3517
8
Quran-attested forms
9
Quran senses
24
Quran occurrences

Forms in the Quran

The forms this root actually takes in the Quran. Select one to jump to its senses and examples.

فَجَرَ

fajara

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.

  1. To break open or open a passage so that water gushes or flows forth.

    In the Quran, used transitively of causing a spring or water source to gush forth.

    • Lane · entry 33286
    • Mufradāt · row 1092
    Selected Quran examples

    Quran 17:90word 6

    you cause to gush forth

  2. To persist in sinful defiance or denial, departing from the way of truth.

    In 75:5, the expression concerns continuing in wrongdoing or denying what lies ahead, including resurrection and judgment, while postponing repentance.

    • Lane · entry 33286
    • Mufradāt · row 1092
    Selected Quran examples

    Quran 75:5word 4

    to give (the) lie

فَجَّرَ

fajjara

Part of speech
Verb · Form II
Form
II
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.

  1. To cause water to gush forth by opening or making channels, springs, or sources.

    The intensive/causative Form II is used of making water flow abundantly; the Quran also has a passive use meaning that waters are made to gush forth.

    • Mufradāt · row 1092
    • Lane · entry 33287
    Selected Quran examples

    Quran 18:33word 9

    And We caused to gush forth

    Quran 82:3word 3

    are made to gush forth

تَفَجَّرَ

tafajjara

Part of speech
Verb · Form V
Form
V
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.

  1. To burst open and gush or flow forth.

    An intransitive or quasi-reflexive development of opening, used in the Quran of springs or water bursting forth.

    • Mufradāt · row 1092
    Selected Quran examples

    Quran 2:74word 16

    gush forth

اِنْفَجَرَ

āinfajara

Part of speech
Verb · Form VII
Form
VII
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.

  1. To burst open and gush or flow forth.

    Used in the Quran of water bursting from a source and flowing out.

    • Mufradāt · row 1092
    • Lane · entry 33291
    Selected Quran examples

    Quran 2:60word 9

    Then gushed forth

فَاجِر

fājir

Part of speech
Active participle
Quran occurrences
5 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.

  1. A wicked or transgressing person; one who departs from obedience and the way of truth.

    The singular فَاجِر and the Quranic plural فُجَّار/فَجَرَةُ function as active-participial descriptions of persistently sinful people.

    • Lane · entry 33302
    • Mufradāt · row 1092
    Selected Quran examples

    Quran 71:27word 9

    a wicked

    Quran 80:42word 4

    the wicked ones

فَجْر

fajr

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.

  1. Daybreak; the light that breaks through the darkness before sunrise.

    The Quranic noun includes the dawn whose spreading marks the beginning of the day; classical discussion distinguishes a preliminary false dawn from the true spreading dawn relevant to fasting and prayer.

    • Lane · entry 33293
    • Mufradāt · row 1092
    Selected Quran examples

    Quran 2:187word 42

    [the] dawn

    Quran 89:1word 1

    By the dawn

فُجُور

fujūr

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.

  1. Wickedness, sinful transgression, or breach of religious obedience.

    The noun denotes the condition or conduct of departing from the bounds of right conduct.

    • Lane · entry 33286
    • Mufradāt · row 1092
    Selected Quran examples

    Quran 91:8word 2

    (to distinguish) its wickedness

تَفْجِير

tafjīr

Part of speech
Verbal noun
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.

  1. Causing water to gush forth or flow abundantly.

    The Form II verbal noun denotes the act and its abundant or repeated effect, especially the opening of channels or springs.

    • Lane · entry 33286
    • Mufradāt · row 1092
    Selected Quran examples

    Quran 17:91word 11

    abundantly

    Quran 76:6word 7

    abundantly

Occurrences in the Quran

Every place this root appears, in Quran order. The first few are shown here.

  • 2:60فَٱنفَجَرَتْThen gushed forth
  • 2:74يَتَفَجَّرُgush forth
  • 2:187ٱلْفَجْرِ ۖ[the] dawn
  • 17:78ٱلْفَجْرِ ۖat dawn
  • 17:78ٱلْفَجْرِ(at) the dawn
View all 24 occurrences

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 38 Classical meanings
  • فَجَرَ

    To cleave, cut, or open something, especially lengthwise.

    This is the primary concrete branch from which the water-opening meanings develop.

    • Lane · entry 33286
  • فَجَرَ

    To open a vent or passage for a fluid to flow forth.

    Classically applied to water, blood, and other fluids; the Quranic water use is listed under the Form I sense above.

    • Lane · entry 33286
  • فَجَرَ

    To incline, lean, decline, or deviate from a course; also to err in answering.

    The deviation may be literal, as of a rider from a saddle, or figurative, as from a proper course or answer.

    • Lane · entry 33286
  • فَجَرَ

    To lie or commit a foul act, such as swearing a false oath.

    This is a classical moral and forensic use related to departure from the right course.

    • Lane · entry 33286
  • فَجَرَ

    To disobey or oppose someone.

    This transitive construction is distinct from the intransitive description of being sinful.

    • Lane · entry 33286
  • فَجَرَ

    To perform an action that induces doubt, suspicion, or an evil opinion.

    • Lane · entry 33286
  • فَجَرَ

    To commit adultery or fornication.

    The construction may take a partner with بِـ; the meaning is a classical specialization of sinful conduct.

    • Lane · entry 33286
  • فَجَرَ

    To pursue a headlong, rash, or random course without regard to its destination.

    • Lane · entry 33286
  • فَجَرَ

    Of a case or state of affairs, to become bad.

    Occurs in the idiomatic expression فَجَرَ أَمْرُهُمْ.

    • Lane · entry 33286
  • فَجَرَ

    To become dim or dull in sight.

    • Lane · entry 33286
  • فَجَرَ مِنْ مَرَضِهِ

    To become free from an illness.

    This is an intransitive idiomatic construction.

    • Lane · entry 33286
  • فَجَّرَ

    To attribute wickedness to someone, or accuse or charge someone with it.

    The construction takes a person as the object and is comparable to calling that person sinful or transgressive.

    • Lane · entry 33287
  • أَفْجَرَ

    To make a spring or source well forth.

    A causative Form IV use, distinct from the Quran-attested Form II causative.

    • Lane · entry 33289
  • أَفْجَرَ

    To make a gift large or be generous in giving.

    Reported as a figurative or assumed-tropical extension.

    • Lane · entry 33289
  • أَفْجَرَ

    To enter upon, or approach, the time of daybreak.

    Used in temporal expressions for the onset or approach of dawn.

    • Lane · entry 33289
  • أَفْجَرَ

    To bring or possess much property.

    The associated abundance of property is termed فَجَرٌ.

    • Lane · entry 33289
  • اِنْفَجَرَ

    For water to have a passage opened and pour, run, or stream forth.

    This intransitive Form VII meaning is the broader classical counterpart of the Quranic bursting-water use.

    • Lane · entry 33291
  • اِنْفَجَرَ

    To come upon people suddenly and in great number, as an enemy or calamity pours upon them.

    A figurative extension emphasizing sudden and abundant onset.

    • Lane · entry 33291
  • اِنْفَجَرَ

    To be profuse in generosity, bounty, or beneficence.

    A figurative extension of overflowing or pouring forth.

    • Lane · entry 33291
  • اِنْفَجَرَ

    For dawn to break forth, or for night to depart before the rising dawn.

    A classical dawn expression, distinct from the Quranic Form VII water occurrence.

    • Lane · entry 33291
  • اِفْتَجَرَ

    To forge or invent speech without having heard or learned it.

    Used with فِي الْكَلَامِ, ‘in speech.’

    • Lane · entry 33292
  • فَجْر

    The time of daybreak.

    A temporal metonymy derived from the dawn itself.

    • Lane · entry 33293
  • فَجْر

    The prayer performed at daybreak.

    The noun is used metonymically with the prefixed word for prayer omitted.

    • Lane · entry 33293
  • فَجْر

    The troubles or hardships of present existence.

    A metonymic figurative use.

    • Lane · entry 33293
  • فَجَر

    Donation, generosity, bounty, or munificence.

    A separate classical noun branch, sometimes emphasizing large or ample generosity.

    • Lane · entry 33294
  • فَجَر

    Property, much property, or abundance of wealth.

    Distinct from the generosity meaning, though the two can occur in the same lexical discussion.

    • Lane · entry 33294
  • فَجْرَةُ

    A proper-name form used in the sense of vice, wickedness, or a foul deed.

    It occurs in idioms for lying, false swearing, adultery, fornication, or other foul conduct.

    • Lane · entry 33296
  • فِجْرَةٌ

    The last child born to a woman.

    A rare lexical use.

    • Lane · entry 33298
  • فِجَارٌ

    Roads or ways.

    A plural whose singular is not specified in the cited discussion.

    • Lane · entry 33300
  • فِجَارٌ

    The Days of Fijār, conflicts in which Arabs violated the sanctity of the sacred months.

    The name is associated with transgression of what was held sacred and with the expressions فَجَرْنَا and فِجَار.

    • Lane · entry 33300
  • فِجَارَاتُ

    The Arabs’ contests or rivalries in boasting and glorying.

    A plural expression referring to competitive acts of boasting.

    • Lane · entry 33300
  • فَاجِر

    Inclining, leaning, declining, or falling away from the road.

    A participial description of deviation from a course.

    • Lane · entry 33302
  • فَاجِر

    A liar or one who denies a matter; also a false oath.

    The false-oath expression is a figurative use; the Quranic wicked-person sense is listed under the public form above.

    • Lane · entry 33302
  • فَاجِر

    An adulterer or fornicator.

    A classical specialization of the active participle for a person committing sexual immorality.

    • Lane · entry 33302
  • فَاجِر

    An enchanter or practitioner of enchantment.

    A rare lexical use reported for the active participle.

    • Lane · entry 33302
  • فَاجِر

    Having much wealth or property.

    A possessive epithet derived from the separate noun فَجَرٌ.

    • Lane · entry 33302
  • مَفْجَر

    A place of opening through which water flows, including a channel, outlet, or low ground into which valleys pour.

    The plural مَفَاجِرُ may designate the parts of a valley where a torrent disperses or places opened for irrigation.

    • Lane · entry 33304
  • مُنْفَجَر

    A road or way through sand.

    A figurative or specialized place noun.

    • Lane · entry 33306

Cautions

Points that affect how this root should be read.

  • Form I has separate Quranic water-opening and moral-transgression uses; the latter is specifically tied to the construction in 75:5.

  • The public فَاجِر entry combines the singular active participle with its Quranic plural فُجَّار under the singular dictionary citation form; the occurrence count remains the sum of the two QAC groups.