Quranic root
هلك
h · l · k
The root centers on breaking, falling, and loss of integrity, extending to perishing, death, ruin, destruction, and perdition.
The basic notion of falling or collapse develops into becoming nonexistent or ruined, dying, causing destruction, and describing things or circumstances that lead to perdition.
- Maqāyīs · row 4929
- 7
- Quran-attested forms
- 10
- Quran senses
- 68
- Quran occurrences
Forms in the Quran
The forms this root actually takes in the Quran. Select one to jump to its senses and examples.
هَلَكَ
halaka
- 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 die or pass away.
Intransitive Form I usage referring to a person’s death or passing away.
- Lane · entry 17141
- Mufradāt · row 1527
Selected Quran examples
Quran 4:176word 9
“died”
To perish, be destroyed, come to an end, or cease to be.
Intransitive usage for a person or thing that perishes or is brought to an end; this is distinct from the causative Form IV meaning.
- Lane · entry 17141
Selected Quran examples
Quran 8:42word 22
“that (might be) destroyed”
To be gone or lost from someone while still existing elsewhere.
A loss or absence construction, as in the Quranic expression for something being gone from a person although not annihilated.
- Mufradāt · row 1527
Selected Quran examples
Quran 69:29word 1
“Is gone”
أَهْلَكَ
ʾahlaka
- Part of speech
- Verb · Form IV
- Form
- IV
- Quran occurrences
- 51 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 destroy, cause to perish, bring to an end, ruin, or take away life.
Transitive causative usage for people, communities, crops, or other things; Quranic contexts include destruction, death, corruption, and ruin, including the destruction of a people or generation and the bringing about of perdition.
- Lane · entry 17143
- Mufradāt · row 1527
Selected Quran examples
Quran 2:205word 8
“and destroys”
Quran 26:139word 2
“then We destroyed them”
Quran 46:35word 24
“(any) be destroyed”
هَالِك
hālik
- Part of speech
- Active 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.
Dead or dying; one who has perished.
Active participial description of a person who is dead or in the process of dying.
- Lane · entry 17149
- Mufradāt · row 1527
Selected Quran examples
Quran 12:85word 12
“those who perish”
Subject to perish; destined to pass away.
Predicative or attributive use for what is liable to perish or cease to exist, including the Quranic statement that everything is perishable except God’s face.
- Lane · entry 17149
- Mufradāt · row 1527
Selected Quran examples
Quran 28:88word 13
“(will be) destroyed”
مَهْلِك
mahlik
- Part of speech
- 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.
Destruction or perishing; the event of being destroyed.
Used in constructions referring to the destruction or perishing of persons or a people, including possessive and genitive constructions.
- Lane · entry 17151
- Mufradāt · row 1527
Selected Quran examples
Quran 18:59word 7
“for their destruction”
Quran 27:49word 11
“(the) destruction”
مُهْلَك
muhlak
- 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.
Destroyed or made to perish.
Passive participial description of those who have been brought to ruin or destruction.
- Lane · entry 17143
- Mufradāt · row 1527
Selected Quran examples
Quran 23:48word 4
“those who were destroyed”
مُهْلِك
muhlik
- Part of speech
- Active participle
- 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.
One who destroys or causes others to perish.
Active participial description of the agent responsible for destruction or ruin.
- Lane · entry 17143
Selected Quran examples
Quran 6:131word 6
“one who destroys”
Quran 28:59word 4
“(the) one to destroy”
Quran 28:59word 16
“(the) one to destroy”
تَهْلُكَة
tahlukah
- 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.
What leads to destruction; a cause or course of ruin.
Used for an action, condition, or course that brings about perdition or destruction.
- Mufradāt · row 1527
Selected Quran examples
Quran 2:195word 9
“[the] destruction”
Occurrences in the Quran
Every place this root appears, in Quran order. The first few are shown here.
- 2:195ٱلتَّهْلُكَةِ ۛ[the] destruction
- 2:205وَيُهْلِكَand destroys
- 3:117فَأَهْلَكَتْهُ ۚthen destroyed it
- 4:176هَلَكَdied
- 5:17يُهْلِكَdestroy
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
هَلَكَ
To fall; to become bad, corrupt, vitiated, marred, or spoiled; or to go away so that none knows where.
Broader Form I uses describing collapse, deterioration, or disappearance, apart from the Quran-attested uses of dying, perishing, or being gone from someone.
- Lane · entry 17141
هَلَكَ
Of land, to have its herbage dry up through drought.
A specialized use with land as the subject.
- Lane · entry 17141
وَادِي تُهُلِّكَ
A valley described as misleading or causing one to go astray.
Fixed expression for a named or characterized valley.
- Lane · entry 17142
تَهَالَكَ
To perish gradually from grief.
Used with غَمًّا, “through grief.”
- Lane · entry 17144
تَهَالَكَ
To be vehemently eager for something.
Used in the construction تَهَالَكَ عَلَيْهِ.
- Lane · entry 17144
تَهَالَكَ
To strive, toil, exert oneself, and hasten in an activity or affair.
Used with فِي for strenuous exertion in running or another matter.
- Lane · entry 17144
تَهَالَكَتْ
Of a she-camel, to vehemently desire the stallion.
A specialized description of a female camel’s sexual desire.
- Lane · entry 17144
اِسْتَهْلَكَ
To seek or court destruction; to risk oneself as one bent on death.
A Form X usage comparable to اِسْتَمَاتَ.
- Lane · entry 17146
اِسْتَهْلَكَ
To distress, trouble, or fatigue oneself concerning something.
Used in the construction اِسْتَهْلَكَ فِي كَذَا.
- Lane · entry 17146
هَلَكَةٌ
The drying up of plants or herbage.
A noun for the condition produced by drought.
- Lane · entry 17147
هَلَاكٌ
Perdition, destruction, a lost state, or death.
The noun may also be used of punishment, fear, or poverty and in expressions for being caught in situations of perdition.
- Lane · entry 17148
- Mufradāt · row 1527
هُلْكٌ
Destruction or the act of causing destruction.
A noun described as equivalent to إهلاك.
- Mufradāt · row 1527
مَهْلَكَةٌ
A cause of perdition or death.
Used for something that brings about ruin or death.
- Lane · entry 17152
مَهْلَكَةٌ
A place of perdition or death, especially a desert in which people perish.
A figurative or place-name use based on the danger of the locality.
- Lane · entry 17152
مُسْتَهْلِكٌ
One who courts destruction or is bent on risking death.
Used in the expression هُوَ مُسْتَهْلِكٌ إِلَى كَذَا.
- Lane · entry 17153
مُسْتَهْلِكُ الوِرْدِ
A road that destroys the person seeking water because of its great distance.
An idiomatic description of a dangerously long route to water.
- Lane · entry 17153
هَلُوكٌ
A woman who moves with languorous, broken or swaying gait; figuratively, a wanton woman.
The figurative sense derives from the manner of her swaying.
- Mufradāt · row 1527
هَالِكِيٌّ
A blacksmith; a person belonging by attribution to Hālik, the eponym associated with the craft.
A specialized nisbah usage, extended to blacksmiths generally.
- Mufradāt · row 1527
هُلْكٌ
A thing that is perishing or has perished.
A nominal use describing the thing itself as ruined or perished.
- Mufradāt · row 1527
Cautions
Points that affect how this root should be read.
The Quran Foundation gloss “I have squandered” at 90:6 is retained only as contextual translation evidence; the packet supplies no independent Lane or Mufradat evidence for a separate lexical sense of “squander.”