Quranic root
فرض
f · r · ḍ
The root centers on making a marked cut or incision, and by extension on fixing something with a clear boundary, measure, or determination.
From notching, cutting, and marking, the root develops meanings of apportioning, prescribing, imposing a binding determination, and designating an access point or defined share.
- Maqāyīs · row 3565
- Mufradāt · row 1103
- Lane · entry 33852
- 4
- Quran-attested forms
- 9
- Quran senses
- 18
- Quran occurrences
Forms in the Quran
The forms this root actually takes in the Quran. Select one to jump to its senses and examples.
فَرَضَ
faraḍa
- Part of speech
- Verb · Form I
- Form
- I
- Quran occurrences
- 9 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 apportion, appoint, or specify a definite share, amount, or due for someone.
Commonly occurs with لِـ; in Quranic usage it includes specifying a marital dower or assigning a defined portion.
- Lane · entry 33852
- Mufradāt · row 1103
Selected Quran examples
Quran 2:237word 13
“you have specified”
To impose, prescribe, or make obligatory and binding by authoritative decree.
Used for binding a person to an act or for establishing obligatory statutes, ordinances, or religious requirements.
- Lane · entry 33852
- Mufradāt · row 1103
Selected Quran examples
Quran 24:1word 3
“and We (have) made it obligatory”
To make lawful or allowable, or to grant something as permitted to someone.
Especially in the construction فَرَضَ لَهُ or فَرَضَ لَكُمْ, where the matter is made available or permissible rather than imposed upon the beneficiary.
- Lane · entry 33852
- Mufradāt · row 1103
Selected Quran examples
Quran 66:2word 2
“has ordained”
To designate or undertake a prescribed observance for oneself, especially pilgrimage.
In the pilgrimage construction, the person fixes or commits himself to performing the pilgrimage during its appointed period.
- Lane · entry 33852
- Mufradāt · row 1103
Selected Quran examples
Quran 2:197word 5
“undertakes”
فَارِض
fāriḍ
- Part of speech
- Active participle
- 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.
Old or advanced in age.
In the Quranic usage, it describes a cow that is old or aged; the broader classical extensions of this adjective are listed separately.
- Lane · entry 33865
- Mufradāt · row 1103
Selected Quran examples
Quran 2:68word 15
“old”
فَرِيضَة
farīḍah
- 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.
An obligatory statute, duty, or divinely prescribed requirement.
Used for a requirement binding on a person or community, including a prescribed religious or legal obligation.
- Lane · entry 33862
- Mufradāt · row 1103
Selected Quran examples
Quran 4:11word 64
“An obligation”
An apportioned or appointed due, share, or fixed allocation.
In Quranic contexts this includes a specified marital dower and fixed allocations connected with inheritance or alms; the common element is an assigned due.
- Lane · entry 33862
- Mufradāt · row 1103
Selected Quran examples
Quran 2:236word 13
“an obligation (dower)”
Quran 9:60word 17
“an obligation”
مَفْرُوض
mafrūḍ
- Part of speech
- Passive 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.
Made obligatory, binding, or prescribed.
A passive participle describing something imposed or established as a requirement.
- Lane · entry 33856
- Mufradāt · row 1103
Selected Quran examples
Quran 4:7word 19
“obligatory”
Appointed, fixed, or assigned as a definite share or portion.
Used of a portion marked out or allotted to a person, including a prescribed entitlement.
- Lane · entry 33856
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Selected Quran examples
Quran 4:118word 8
“appointed”
Occurrences in the Quran
Every place this root appears, in Quran order. The first few are shown here.
- 2:68فَارِضٌۭold
- 2:197فَرَضَundertakes
- 2:236تَفْرِضُوا۟you specified
- 2:236فَرِيضَةًۭ ۚan obligation (dower)
- 2:237فَرَضْتُمْyou have specified
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 43 Classical meanings
فَرَضَ
To notch, incise, cut, or cleave; also to cut out and shape a garment or shield, or to make a trench in a grave.
A concrete cutting or marking sense, applied to wood, a tooth-stick, a bow, a garment, a shield, or a grave.
- Lane · entry 33852
فَرْض
A notch, incision, groove, or perforation; especially the string-notch of a bow or the socket in a fire-drill.
Also used for notches in an unfurnished arrow.
- Lane · entry 33856
فَرْض
A defined or allotted share or portion.
A nominal use for something cut off, measured, or appointed as a person's portion.
- Lane · entry 33856
فَرْض
A binding religious or legal duty or statute.
In legal terminology, a duty may be classified as individually incumbent or collectively incumbent; this technical classification is distinct from the general verb meaning.
- Lane · entry 33856
فَرْض
A statute, ordinance, command, or prohibition instituted as an authoritative religious rule.
A classical legal-religious usage that may be contrasted with a sunna.
- Lane · entry 33856
فَرْض
An assigned gift, stipend, pay, or freely given contribution.
May denote a grant made without expectation of recompense, including an assigned soldier's stipend.
- Lane · entry 33856
- Lane · entry 33852
فَرْض
A soldier who receives an assigned stipend.
A metonymic plural usage for soldiers holding definite assigned portions.
- Lane · entry 33856
فَرْض
The act of reading or reciting one's allotted portion.
Used in the expression for reading or reciting one's assigned section.
- Lane · entry 33852
فَرَضَ
To decree or adjudge an expense or other matter.
A judicial construction, especially of assigning an expense or payment.
- Lane · entry 33852
فَرَضَ
To become wide, widen, or dilate.
Applied to a thing that becomes broader or more open.
- Lane · entry 33852
مِفْرَض
An iron instrument used for making notches or incisions.
The instrument sense is distinct from the act of cutting.
- Lane · entry 33867
فَرَّضَ
To set aside a due animal from among one's camels.
A specialized livestock and alms-payment usage.
- Lane · entry 33853
أَفْرَضَ
Of livestock, to reach the number at which an obligatory due animal becomes payable.
Used of herds reaching the threshold that entails giving a prescribed animal.
- Lane · entry 33854
فَرُضَ
To become skilled in the science of inheritance divisions.
A specialized verbal usage referring to expertise in inheritance law.
- Lane · entry 33852
اِفْتَرَضَ
In a rare idiom, of a child, to be born or brought forth by a woman.
Attested in the expression لَمْ يَفْتَرِضْهَا وَلَدٌ; the usage is idiomatic and restricted.
- Lane · entry 33855
اِفْتَرَضَ
Of soldiers, to receive their stipends.
A conventional Form VIII usage concerning assigned military pay.
- Lane · entry 33855
اِفْتَرَضَ
Of a people or company, to perish so that none remains.
Used with the meaning of becoming extinct or annihilated.
- Lane · entry 33855
فَرْض
A shield.
A concrete noun, also used in a poetic comparison for a light shield.
- Lane · entry 33856
فَرْض
A stick or piece of wood.
A poetic and lexical usage for a piece of wood.
- Lane · entry 33856
فَرْض
An arrow before it has been fitted with feathers and a head.
A technical term for an unfinished arrow.
- Lane · entry 33856
فَرْض
A rag, garment, or piece of cloth.
The terms may denote a small piece of material or clothing more generally.
- Lane · entry 33856
فَرْض
A variety of dates from Oman.
A regional name for a date variety.
- Lane · entry 33856
فِرْض
The fruit of the doum palm while it remains red.
A specialized botanical and regional noun.
- Lane · entry 33857
فُرْضَة
A gap or opening in a wall or similar structure.
The basic opening sense, with a plural فُرَض.
- Lane · entry 33858
فُرْضَة
A breach or opening in a riverbank giving access to water.
It may be a place from which water is drawn, by which one descends to the water, or through which boats pass.
- Lane · entry 33858
فُرْضَة
A place where ships unload or are stationed near the shore.
Applied to a harbor or landing place on a sea or large river.
- Lane · entry 33858
فُرْضَة
The place or recess for ink in an ink receptacle.
A specialized container-related usage.
- Lane · entry 33858
فُرْضَة
The wooden pivot piece of a door.
The part in which the door's foot turns.
- Lane · entry 33858
فُرْضَة
A part of a mountain sloping down from its middle or side.
A topographical usage.
- Lane · entry 33858
فِرَاض
The mouth of a river or rivulet.
A plural-form noun for a river opening or outlet.
- Lane · entry 33860
فِرَاض
Roads or ways.
A plural usage connected with openings or passages.
- Lane · entry 33860
فِرَاض
The fire elicited from a fire-drill.
A specialized fire-making usage.
- Lane · entry 33860
فِرَاض
Clothing or covering.
Used in expressions for what is worn or what covers a person.
- Lane · entry 33860
فَرَضِيّ
A person skilled in inheritance law and the division of inheritances.
An adjective used substantivally for an inheritance specialist.
- Lane · entry 33859
أَفْرَض
The person most skilled in inheritance law.
A superlative designation of expertise in inheritance questions.
- Lane · entry 33866
فَرِيض
An arrow whose notch has been cut.
A descriptive participial adjective for a prepared notch in an arrow.
- Lane · entry 33861
فَرِيض
The cud of a camel.
A specialized animal-related noun, with a reported variant pronunciation in some authorities.
- Lane · entry 33861
فَرِيضَة
The camel or other animal taken as an obligatory alms due.
In livestock alms terminology, it denotes the animal prescribed for a specified herd size; by extension it may denote a camel more generally.
- Lane · entry 33862
الفَرَائِض
The science of dividing inheritances and resolving inheritance questions.
A conventional plural usage, often understood elliptically with عِلْمُ.
- Lane · entry 33862
فِرْيَاض
Wide or broad.
An independent adjectival usage.
- Lane · entry 33863
فَارِض
Large, big, bulky, or full-grown; also old or ancient when applied to a thing.
Applied in classical usage to people, dates, animal anatomical parts, skins, beards, and things; this extends beyond the Quranic old-cow adjective.
- Lane · entry 33865
مُفَرَّض
Notched repeatedly, serrated, or jagged.
A Form II passive-participial adjective describing many cuts or notches.
- Lane · entry 33868
مُفَرَّض
A beetle of the specified traditional kinds.
A specialized zoological application of the adjective.
- Lane · entry 33868
Cautions
Points that affect how this root should be read.
The Quranic فَارِض usage is specifically the adjective for an old or advanced-in-age cow; broader classical uses of فَارِض are kept separate.
فَرْض and related forms can express either binding prescription or an appointed share, and the construction and object determine which branch is intended.