Quranic root
جدل
j · d · l
The root centers on firm interweaving, compactness, and the extension of contention through repeated exchange of speech.
The concrete notion of twisting or making something firm develops into strength and compact construction, while the figurative idea of each disputant turning the other from an opinion yields the meanings of argumentation and contention. Related formations also retain notions of firmness, strong construction, and continuous extension.
- Maqāyīs · row 1108
- Mufradāt · row 236
- 3
- Quran-attested forms
- 3
- Quran senses
- 29
- Quran occurrences
Forms in the Quran
The forms this root actually takes in the Quran. Select one to jump to its senses and examples.
جَادَلَ
jādala
- Part of speech
- Verb · Form III
- Form
- III
- Quran occurrences
- 25 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 engage another in disputation or debate; to argue or contend with someone.
An interactive construction used for arguing about a claim, doctrine, or matter with another party. The disputation may be forceful or competitive, or may be conducted in a prescribed good manner.
- Lane · entry 46196
- Mufradāt · row 236
Selected Quran examples
Quran 16:125word 8
“and discuss with them”
Quran 40:5word 13
“and they disputed”
Quran 58:1word 6
“disputes with you”
جَدَلٌ
jadalun
- 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.
Contentious argumentation or disputation.
A noun for argument carried on through contention or competition; in the Quran it can describe quarrelsome argument or something advanced for the sake of argument.
- Lane · entry 46205
- Mufradāt · row 236
Selected Quran examples
Quran 18:54word 14
“quarrelsome”
Quran 43:58word 10
“(for) argument”
جِدَالٌ
jidālun
- 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.
Disputation or argumentative contention.
Used for engaging in dispute with another and for disputation generally, including the Quranic construction referring to disputation during pilgrimage.
- Lane · entry 46196
- Mufradāt · row 236
Selected Quran examples
Quran 2:197word 13
“quarrelling”
Quran 11:32word 6
“(in) dispute with us”
Occurrences in the Quran
Every place this root appears, in Quran order. The first few are shown here.
- 2:197جِدَالَquarrelling
- 4:107تُجَـٰدِلْargue
- 4:109جَـٰدَلْتُمْ[you] argue
- 4:109يُجَـٰدِلُwill argue
- 6:25يُجَـٰدِلُونَكَand argue with you
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 36 Classical meanings
جَدَلَهُ
To twist something firmly, especially a rope; to make it firm, strong, or compact.
Also used of compact physical make or compacture.
- Lane · entry 46194
جَدَلَهُ
To act according to a strongly formed natural disposition or established manner of conduct.
Occurs in a construction describing the particular way or course to which a person is strongly disposed by nature.
- Lane · entry 46194
جَدَلَ
To become hard or strong; of grain, to become strong in the ear, or, in an alternative explanation, to come into the ears; of a young gazelle, to become strong and follow its mother.
The developmental and grain-related uses are distinct applications of becoming firm or mature.
- Lane · entry 46194
جَدِلَ
To contend in an altercation, dispute, or litigation vehemently or violently.
This is the Form I verbal use and is distinct in form from the Quranic Form III verb.
- Lane · entry 46194
جَدَّلَهُ
To throw someone down upon the ground, especially by a thrust or piercing blow.
The intensive form may indicate doing this much or repeatedly.
- Lane · entry 46195
جَادَلَهُ
To dispute or litigate vehemently or powerfully; in later legal usage, to compare evidences in discussion so that the preponderant evidence becomes apparent.
The legal-evidentiary specialization is a broader Classical usage of the Form III verb, distinct from the Quranic general sense of disputing or debating.
- Lane · entry 46196
اَجْدَلَتْ
Of a female gazelle: to have her young sufficiently grown to walk with her.
- Lane · entry 46197
تَجَادَلُوا
To contend, dispute, or litigate with one another.
The reciprocal Form VI expresses mutual participation in the contention.
- Lane · entry 46199
اِنْجَدَلَ
To fall upon the ground or become thrown down upon it.
The form can also convey falling or being thrown down repeatedly or extensively.
- Lane · entry 46200
اِجْتِدَالٌ
The act of building or constructing.
- Lane · entry 46201
جَدْوَلَ
To rule a book with lines, such as lines around a page, columns, or a table.
- Lane · entry 46202
جَدْلٌ
Hardness or strength.
- Lane · entry 46203
جَدْلٌ
A strong, firm, or compact penis.
An anatomical specialization of the headword.
- Lane · entry 46203
جَدْلٌ
A member or limb.
The plural is also used for bodily members.
- Lane · entry 46203
جَدْلٌ
A complete, unbroken bone, especially a bone of the arms or legs.
The lexical usage includes the bones of the limbs and of an animal's fore and hind legs.
- Lane · entry 46203
جَدَلٌ
In logic, a syllogism composed of well-known or conceded premises, intended to convince an opponent who does not grasp the premises of a demonstration.
A technical terminology distinct from ordinary disputation.
- Lane · entry 46205
جَدِلٌ
A person who contends, disputes, or litigates vehemently or powerfully.
An active personal description rather than the name of the disputation itself.
- Lane · entry 46206
جَدْوَلٌ
A rivulet or streamlet, natural or artificially formed for irrigation.
It is smaller than a sāqiyah, which is smaller than a river.
- Lane · entry 46208
جَدْوَلٌ
A regular, orderly, or uninterrupted course of affairs; figuratively, an uninterrupted line of a caravan.
A figurative extension from the steady flow of a streamlet.
- Lane · entry 46208
جَدْوَلٌ
A small vein.
A specialized anatomical usage reported as figurative.
- Lane · entry 46208
جَدْوَلٌ
A ruled line, column, or table in a book.
A figurative extension of the channel or line formed by a streamlet.
- Lane · entry 46208
جَدِيلٌ
A rope or cord that is firmly twisted.
The word may function as an adjective applied to a firmly twisted rope.
- Lane · entry 46209
جَدِيلٌ
A camel's nose-rein or a firmly twisted cord of hide, leather, or hair worn around its neck; also a kind of women's ornament.
A concrete object named for its firmly twisted construction.
- Lane · entry 46209
جَدَالَةٌ
Ground, especially hard ground or ground having fine sand.
- Lane · entry 46210
جَدِيلَةٌ
A waist garment of hide or leather worn like an izār.
The cited usage concerns a garment worn by boys and menstruous women.
- Lane · entry 46211
جَدِيلَةٌ
A tribe or a region, quarter, or tract.
In the expression meaning 'according to his jadīlah,' it denotes the way of his tribe or region.
- Lane · entry 46211
جَدِيلَةٌ
A state or condition.
- Lane · entry 46211
جَدِيلَةٌ
A particular way, course, mode, or manner of acting or conduct.
A figurative use comparable to a person's established way or manner.
- Lane · entry 46211
جَدِيلَةٌ
A determination of the mind.
A figurative mental specialization.
- Lane · entry 46211
جَدِيلَةٌ
The management or ordering of a people's affairs, including the exercise of the office of an ʿarīf.
A figurative administrative use.
- Lane · entry 46211
جَادِلٌ
A boy or young camel that has become strong, vigorous, or robust.
Of a young camel, it denotes one beyond the stage called rāshiḥ and able to walk with its mother.
- Lane · entry 46212
أَجْدَلٌ
A hawk or falcon.
It may be used as an epithet of the hawk and has the plural أَجَادِلُ.
- Lane · entry 46214
مِجْدَلٌ
A strongly constructed palace, castle, or pavilion.
- Lane · entry 46216
مِجْدَالٌ
A piece of rock or stone, especially an oblong roofing stone used in forming the roof of a subterranean passage.
- Lane · entry 46217
مَجْدُولٌ
A compact or firmly constructed coat of mail.
A figurative extension of firm interweaving or construction.
- Lane · entry 46218
مَجْدُولٌ
A person or limb of firm, compact build; of a person, slender or spare without emaciation, and of an arm or shank, well-formed and rounded.
Applied to compact bodily make, including a woman compact in flesh and a limb of firm construction.
- Lane · entry 46218
Cautions
Points that affect how this root should be read.
The Quranic verb group is normalized to the Classical Arabic perfect citation form جَادَلَ; its 25 occurrences include imperfect, perfect, and imperative inflections.
جَدَلٌ and جِدَالٌ overlap in the domain of disputation but are retained as distinct public forms because QAC supplies separate nominal form groups.