Quranic root
هجر
h · j · r
The root principally conveys cutting off, separation, or severance; a second lexical principle concerns binding or fastening.
From separation develop abandonment, avoidance, mutual estrangement, and emigration. Related extensions include the midday pause in travel, disordered or foul speech, neglected vegetation, and terms for fastening or tethering.
- Maqāyīs · row 4838
- Mufradāt · row 1511
- 5
- Quran-attested forms
- 7
- Quran senses
- 31
- Quran occurrences
Forms in the Quran
The forms this root actually takes in the Quran. Select one to jump to its senses and examples.
هَجَرَ
hajara
- Part of speech
- Verb · Form I
- Form
- I
- 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.
To cut off, abandon, leave, or avoid someone or something.
In Quranic constructions, the separation may concern bodily association, speech, or inward affection. It can describe leaving a person, avoiding association with people, or turning away from idolatry; the expression هَجْرًا جَمِيلًا specifies a gracious manner of avoidance.
- Lane · entry 10217
- Mufradāt · row 1511
Selected Quran examples
To speak irrationally, foolishly, deliriously, or with foul and unseemly speech.
This is the speech-related Quranic use of the Form I verb and is distinct from physical or relational abandonment.
- Lane · entry 10217
- Mufradāt · row 1511
Selected Quran examples
Quran 23:67word 4
“speaking evil”
هَاجَرَ
hājara
- Part of speech
- Verb · Form III
- Form
- III
- Quran occurrences
- 16 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 emigrate or leave one place, land, or community for another.
The Quranic usage commonly concerns leaving a territory of unbelief or persecution for the believers, safety, or a place of refuge, and may be expressed as going forth to God. A broader religious interpretation extends the idea metaphorically to abandoning desires, blameworthy traits, and sins.
- Lane · entry 10219
- Mufradāt · row 1511
Selected Quran examples
Quran 4:100word 2
“emigrates”
Quran 16:110word 5
“emigrated”
هَجْر
hajr
- 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.
Abandonment, avoidance, or separation.
In the Quranic expression هَجْرًا جَمِيلًا, it is an avoidance carried out graciously; the separation may involve bodily association, speech, or the heart.
- Lane · entry 10217
- Mufradāt · row 1511
Selected Quran examples
Quran 73:10word 6
“an avoidance”
مَهْجُور
mahjūr
- Part of speech
- Passive 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.
Forsaken, abandoned, or left without engagement.
In the Quranic description of the Quran, this can mean that it has been abandoned through the heart, the tongue, or both.
- Lane · entry 10243
- Mufradāt · row 1511
Selected Quran examples
Quran 25:30word 9
“(as) a forsaken thing”
Made into an object of irrational, false, or untrue speech.
A distinct Quranic interpretation takes the passive participle as referring to what people say about the Quran—speech that is irrational or untrue—rather than simply neglecting it.
- Lane · entry 10243
- Mufradāt · row 1511
Selected Quran examples
Quran 25:30word 9
“(as) a forsaken thing”
مُهَاجِر
muhājir
- Part of speech
- Active participle
- 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.
One who emigrates; an emigrant.
The Quranic participle denotes a person who leaves a former homeland or community for another in the religiously significant sense associated with هَاجَرَ, including feminine plural مُهَاجِرَات.
- Lane · entry 10245
- Mufradāt · row 1511
Selected Quran examples
Quran 4:100word 16
“(as) an emigrant”
Quran 9:100word 4
“the emigrants”
Quran 24:22word 12
“and the emigrants”
Quran 60:10word 7
“(as) emigrants”
Occurrences in the Quran
Every place this root appears, in Quran order. The first few are shown here.
- 2:218هَاجَرُوا۟emigrated
- 3:195هَاجَرُوا۟emigrated
- 4:34وَٱهْجُرُوهُنَّand forsake them
- 4:89يُهَاجِرُوا۟they emigrate
- 4:97فَتُهَاجِرُوا۟so that you (could) emigrate
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 25 Classical meanings
هَجَرَ
To go away, withdraw, or remove oneself to a distance.
- Lane · entry 10217
هَجَرَ
To abstain from sexual intercourse while fasting.
A specialized fasting-related construction.
- Lane · entry 10217
هَجَرَ بِهِ
To dream of or see someone or something in sleep; also, in some usage, to do so while talking deliriously.
- Lane · entry 10217
هَجَّرَ
To travel, go forth, or enter upon the time of the ẓahīrah or hājirah, the intense midday heat.
The verb may describe either journeying during that period or the day reaching it.
- Lane · entry 10218
هَاجَرَ
To cut someone off from mutual friendly or loving intercourse; to forsake one another.
This is the transitive or reciprocal severance sense, distinct from the Quranic intransitive sense of emigrating.
- Lane · entry 10219
أَهْجَرَ
To speak foul, evil, bad, abominable, or unseemly language; to talk excessively about what is improper.
The Form IV speech construction may also describe a person who has gone beyond his usual degree of such talk.
- Lane · entry 10220
أَهْجَرَ بِهِ
To mock, deride, scoff at, or ridicule someone with foul or unseemly speech.
- Lane · entry 10220
تَهَجَّرَ
To affect or pretend to be like the emigrants.
The expression can contrast genuine emigration with merely imitating emigrants in outward claim or manner.
- Lane · entry 10221
تَهَاجَرَ
To cut one another off from friendly or loving intercourse; to become mutually estranged.
Synonymous with mutual severance or قطع; this is a reciprocal construction.
- Lane · entry 10222
اِهْتَجَرَ
To journey during the time of the intense midday heat.
- Lane · entry 10223
هُجْر
Foul, evil, abominable, or unseemly speech; abusive or disgraceful words.
The noun also occurs in constructions for assailing someone with foul words or accusing them of disgraceful acts.
- Lane · entry 10225
هِجْرَة
The cutting off of friendly or loving intercourse; abandonment, desertion, or avoidance.
This nominal branch concerns interpersonal severance rather than departure from one land to another.
- Lane · entry 10228
هِجْرَة
Emigration: forsaking one's home, country, district, or land and taking up residence elsewhere.
The term can denote migration from a territory of unbelief to a territory of belief or safety, as well as ordinary removal from one place to another.
- Lane · entry 10228
الهِجْرَة
The Hijrah, the emigration of Muhammad from Mecca to Yathrib, later called Medina.
The technical historical term also occurs in الهِجْرَتَانِ, the two emigrations to Abyssinia and Medina, and in names for the Hijrah era.
- Lane · entry 10228
هَجِير
Left, forsaken, relinquished, abandoned, neglected, or shunned.
An adjectival usage describing something or someone that has been left or avoided.
- Lane · entry 10232
هِجِّير
A custom, habit, wont, or habitual manner; also a person's customary speech or recurring saying.
The related expressions هِجِّيرَى and إِهْجِيرَى denote a persistent customary practice or habitual preoccupation.
- Lane · entry 10234
هَاجِر
One who talks nonsense, foolishly, or deliriously.
Active-participle usage of the Form I speech branch.
- Lane · entry 10236
هَاجِرَة
The period of midday intense heat; the hājirah or noon interval.
The term may also be used elliptically for the noon prayer.
- Lane · entry 10237
مُهْجِر
One who comes or arrives at the time of the midday heat.
Attested in the expression for coming to one's family during the hājirah.
- Lane · entry 10241
مُهَجِّر
One who journeys during the midday heat.
A participial Form II usage connected with travel in the hājirah.
- Lane · entry 10242
مُهَاجَر
A place to which one emigrates.
- Lane · entry 10244
هِجَار
A rope used to fasten or tether a male breeding animal; by analogy, the string of a bow.
The bowstring sense is a comparison with the tethering rope.
- Mufradāt · row 1511
هَجْر
Extraordinary, unmatched, or excellent in quality.
A usage describing something as having no equal because of its distinction from other things.
- Maqāyīs · row 4838
هَجِير
Dry vegetation broken by grazing animals.
An extended lexical usage associated with what the herder leaves behind.
- Maqāyīs · row 4838
هَجِير
A large basin or reservoir for water.
The term is explained as something set apart or cut out for holding water.
- Maqāyīs · row 4838
Cautions
Points that affect how this root should be read.
The Quranic مَهْجُورًا has materially distinct classical interpretations: abandoned or neglected, and made the object of irrational or untrue speech; both are represented.
The feminine plural Quranic active participle مُهَاجِرَات is accounted for under the normalized singular citation form مُهَاجِر.