Quranic root
جعل
j · ʿ · l
A broad root of making, bringing about, or assigning something a form, condition, place, or relation, alongside several unrelated lexical branches.
The lexical evidence presents جعل as broader than فعل and صنع, extending from making or creating to constituting, placing, appointing, judging, and assigning; separate nominal branches concern payment, insects, and related terms.
- Maqāyīs · row 1179
- Mufradāt · row 253
- 2
- Quran-attested forms
- 8
- Quran senses
- 346
- Quran occurrences
Forms in the Quran
The forms this root actually takes in the Quran. Select one to jump to its senses and examples.
جَعَلَ
jaʿala
- Part of speech
- Verb · Form I
- Form
- I
- Quran occurrences
- 340 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 make or bring something into existence; to create or bring about.
A broad making or creation sense, including bringing a thing or state into being.
- Lane · entry 46938
- Mufradāt · row 253
Selected Quran examples
Quran 10:5word 3
“made”
To make or provide something from, out of, or for something or someone.
Used in constructions expressing the production or provision of one thing from a source, or the making of something available for a recipient.
- Lane · entry 46938
- Mufradāt · row 253
Selected Quran examples
Quran 16:72word 2
“(has) made”
To prepare, arrange, or bring about something for a particular purpose or result.
Especially used of preparing a way, facility, or favorable outcome for someone.
- Lane · entry 46938
Selected Quran examples
Quran 65:2word 28
“He will make”
To cause someone or something to be or become a specified state, form, role, or status; to appoint or establish.
Causative constructions may take a predicative complement, as in making someone a prophet or making something a light, bed, or other specified state. A Quranic expression is also interpreted as making the revelation known or revealing it as an Arabic Quran.
- Lane · entry 46938
- Mufradāt · row 253
Selected Quran examples
Quran 19:31word 1
“And He (has) made me”
Quran 43:3word 2
“(have) made it”
To change or turn something from one state or arrangement into another.
Used where the resulting condition reverses or replaces the former condition, rather than merely describing creation or ordinary placement.
- Lane · entry 46938
Selected Quran examples
Quran 15:74word 1
“And We made”
To judge, declare, designate, name, or attribute something as being something else.
The judgment may be true or false. The construction can express naming, describing, believing, or attributing a quality, status, or share to someone or something.
- Lane · entry 46938
- Mufradāt · row 253
Selected Quran examples
Quran 16:57word 1
“And they assign”
To put, lay, place, or insert something somewhere, including into a person’s heart or mind.
Covers physical placement and insertion as well as figurative placement of an emotion or quality within the heart.
- Lane · entry 46938
Selected Quran examples
Quran 2:19word 9
“They put”
جَاعِلٌ
jāʿilun
- 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 makes, appoints, places, or causes someone or something to be in a specified role or condition.
An active participle of جَعَلَ; Quranic uses include appointing or establishing a person or thing in a designated status.
- Mufradāt · row 253
Selected Quran examples
Quran 2:30word 6
“going to place”
Quran 2:124word 9
“(am) the One to make you”
Quran 28:7word 20
“and (will) make him”
Quran 35:1word 6
“(Who) makes”
Occurrences in the Quran
Every place this root appears, in Quran order. The first few are shown here.
- 2:19يَجْعَلُونَThey put
- 2:22جَعَلَmade
- 2:22تَجْعَلُوا۟set up
- 2:30جَاعِلٌۭgoing to place
- 2:30أَتَجْعَلُWill You place
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 20 Classical meanings
جَعَلَ
To think or regard one thing as another.
A transitive construction expressing an assessment or mistaken identification.
- Lane · entry 46938
جَعَلَ
To begin, set about, or become occupied with doing something.
Used with a following imperfect verb; it may also express being on the point of doing something.
- Lane · entry 46938
جَعَلَ
To appoint, stipulate, or give wages, pay, or a stipend.
Includes stipulating compensation for a service or for serving as a substitute in war.
- Lane · entry 46938
جَعِلَ
Of water, to contain many beetles, or dead beetles.
A distinct vocalized verb from the Form I entry.
- Lane · entry 46938
جَعِلَ
To become short and fat.
Reported especially of a boy.
- Lane · entry 46938
جَعِلَ
To persist obstinately, especially in contention or litigation.
جَعَلٌ in this usage is treated as synonymous with لَجَاجٌ.
- Lane · entry 46938
جاعَلَ
To seek to conciliate someone by means of a bribe.
A Form III construction involving an attempted conciliatory payment.
- Lane · entry 46939
أَجْعَلَ
To put a cooking-pot down from the fire using a piece of cloth.
A specialized Form IV usage.
- Lane · entry 46940
أَجْعَلَ
To desire or seek sexual copulation.
A metonymic Form IV usage applied to animals; the evidence does not establish a broader human restriction.
- Lane · entry 46940
تَجَاعَلَ
To stipulate among themselves to give wages, pay, or a stipend.
A reciprocal Form VI construction, including agreements concerning substitutes for military service.
- Lane · entry 46941
اِجْتَعَلَ
To take or receive wages, pay, or a stipend.
A Form VIII usage connected with compensation for service.
- Lane · entry 46942
جَعْلٌ
A short palm-tree, a palm shoot or offset, or a palm-tree of a specified rough or elevated kind.
A nominal botanical meaning, distinct from the verbal noun and payment terms.
- Lane · entry 46944
جُعْلٌ
Wages, pay, a stipend, or a thing promised for work or service; also a bribe or a reward promised to a diver.
The term is broader in scope than أُجْرَةٌ and ثَوَابٌ in the cited lexical discussion.
- Lane · entry 46945
جِعْلٌ
A beetle or similar black insect; of water or land, a place containing such insects.
The cited entry chiefly describes beetle-infested water or land.
- Lane · entry 46946
جُعَلٌ
A black dung-beetle; figuratively, an ugly small man, an obstinate disputant, or, according to one usage, a watcher or observer.
The human applications are figurative or lexical extensions associated with the insect term.
- Lane · entry 46949
جِعَالٌ
A piece of cloth used to take a cooking-pot down from the fire.
A concrete utensil term, also appearing in related feminine and nominal forms.
- Lane · entry 46950
جَعْوَلٌ
The young of an ostrich.
A distinct nominal branch.
- Lane · entry 46951
جَاعِلٌ
A person who gives wages, pay, or a stipend.
This is the broader Classical specialization of the active participle, separate from its Quranic form-level uses.
- Lane · entry 46956
مُجْعِلٌ
Desiring or seeking sexual copulation.
A derived active participle applied in the cited evidence to a bitch or other animal; the evidence does not establish a broader human restriction.
- Lane · entry 46957
مُجْتَعِلٌ
One who takes or receives wages, pay, or a stipend.
A derived participial form related to اِجْتَعَلَ.
- Lane · entry 46958
Cautions
Points that affect how this root should be read.
The Quranic Form I verb has several constructionally distinct uses; English renderings such as make, place, appoint, assign, and attribute do not by themselves determine the sense.
The active participle جَاعِلٌ is presented as a Quranic form-level item, while its separate Classical specialization meaning a wage-giver is retained under broader Classical meanings.
Lane’s historical Quran citations have not been converted into modern verse locations unless the corresponding QAC location is supplied and secure.