Quranic root
كلأ
k · l · ʾ
The root expresses vigilant observation and protection, with distinct lexical branches for herbage and for the kidney or related bodily forms.
The vigilance branch develops into guarding, watchfulness, cautious self-preservation, deferred payment monitored until due, and sheltered mooring. A separate branch denotes pasture or herbage; the bodily branch and its figurative extensions are recorded as distinct root material.
- Maqāyīs · row 4018
- Lane · entry 28399
- Lane · entry 28400
- 1
- Quran-attested forms
- 1
- Quran senses
- 1
- Quran occurrences
Forms in the Quran
The forms this root actually takes in the Quran. Select one to jump to its senses and examples.
كَلَأَ
kalaʾa
- Part of speech
- Verb · Form I
- Form
- I
- 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.
To guard, protect, or keep safe.
In the attested Quranic construction, the verb asks who can protect people by night and day from the Merciful; it is transitive with the protected party as its object.
- Lane · entry 28399
- Mufradāt · row 1261
Selected Quran examples
Quran 21:42word 3
“(can) protect you”
Occurrences in the Quran
Every place this root appears, in Quran order. The first few are shown here.
- 21:42يَكْلَؤُكُم(can) protect 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 27 Classical meanings
كَلَأَ
To act as a scout or lookout for a party.
A conventional use for performing lookout duty on behalf of a group or people.
- Lane · entry 28399
كَلَأَ
To keep turning one's eye toward something; to watch or observe it attentively.
Used of repeatedly looking at a thing, or watching a star to see when it rises.
- Lane · entry 28399
كَلَأَ
To postpone or be postponed; to defer a debt or its payment, and, of a lifetime, to be prolonged or brought to its delayed end.
The source applies the delay branch to debts, payments, and lifetime duration.
- Lane · entry 28399
كَلَأَ
To beat with a whip.
- Lane · entry 28399
كَلَأَ
Of a she-camel, to eat herbage; of land, to contain or abound in herbage.
The subject determines the construction: an animal grazes, while land is described as rich in pasture.
- Lane · entry 28399
كَلَّأَ
To bring a ship alongside a riverbank and moor it.
Used of positioning a vessel at a bank or sheltered mooring place.
- Lane · entry 28400
كَلَّأَ
To retain, detain, or confine a person.
A figurative extension from keeping a ship in place.
- Lane · entry 28400
كَلَّأَ
To come to a place and stop, or to come to a person concerning an affair.
It may describe stopping at a place, especially one sheltered from the wind, or approaching someone about a matter.
- Lane · entry 28400
كَلَّأَ
To look into or consider something attentively; to regard someone attentively and be pleased with him.
The construction may take an affair as its object or a person who is being examined attentively.
- Lane · entry 28400
كَلَّأَ
To pay in advance for corn, food, or similar goods.
The payment precedes delivery of the purchased food or other goods.
- Lane · entry 28400
كَالَأَ
To watch or observe.
A Form III reciprocal or intensive-derived usage of watching.
- Lane · entry 28401
أَكْلَأَ
To make an eye sleepless or wakeful; of an eye, to remain wakeful.
The source records both a causative use with the eye as object and an intransitive use of the eye's wakefulness.
- Lane · entry 28402
أَكْلَأَ
To bring a person's lifetime to its close.
Used with a person's lifetime as the object.
- Lane · entry 28402
تَكَلَّأَ
To buy or take something on credit, or to seek a deferment of payment.
The usage concerns taking goods under deferred payment or asking that the payment period be extended.
- Lane · entry 28403
اِكْتَلَأَ
To guard oneself against someone or something; to be cautious or vigilant.
With an eye as subject, it means to remain wakeful, vigilant, or cautious.
- Lane · entry 28404
اِكْتَلَأَ
To receive an earnest or money paid in advance.
The verb takes كُلْأَةً in the cited construction.
- Lane · entry 28404
كَلَأٌ
Fresh or dry herbage or pasture used as fodder.
A collective noun for vegetation eaten by livestock; it is reported as having no fixed singular, though كَلَاءٌ is also given as a singular form.
- Lane · entry 28406
كُلْأَةٌ
A deferment or credit arrangement, especially the postponement of a debt's payment.
The term belongs to the vocabulary of deferred payment and is also used for taking goods on credit.
- Lane · entry 28403
كُلْأَةٌ
An earnest or money paid in advance.
The term is distinguished in the lexical evidence from its related sense of deferred payment.
- Lane · entry 28403
- Lane · entry 28404
- Lane · entry 28411
كَلِئَةٌ
Rich in pasture; of land, containing or abounding in herbage.
One reported specialization describes land whose pasture has been sufficient to satiate its camels.
- Lane · entry 28408
كَلُوءٌ
Having a strong, sleepless, or wakeful eye.
It may describe an eye itself or a person or camel characterized by such an eye.
- Lane · entry 28409
كَلَّاءٌ
A riverbank station or sheltered place where ships are brought and moored; also the bank of a river.
The place is associated with shelter from wind and the safe keeping of vessels.
- Lane · entry 28410
كَلَّاءٌ
In the expression of walking on the riverbank, an idiomatic image for openly committing calumny and incurring the full prescribed punishment.
This is a figurative conventional expression built on the literal riverbank sense.
- Lane · entry 28410
كَالِئٌ
A deferred debt or deferred payment; a postponement, including payment for food made at a later period.
In الكالِئُ بالكالِئِ, the expression refers to exchanging one deferred debt or obligation for another.
- Lane · entry 28411
كَالِئٌ
An earnest or money paid in advance.
This is a distinct commercial use from the deferred-payment sense.
- Lane · entry 28411
أَكْلَأُ
Longer or longest; more or most protracted.
A comparative or superlative adjective used especially of duration or the length of life.
- Lane · entry 28412
مَكْلُوءٌ
An eye constantly fixed upon a person or thing, as when watching it with interest or pleasure.
The participial expression describes the object of sustained, appreciative attention.
- Lane · entry 28414
Cautions
Points that affect how this root should be read.
The Mufradat entry prints the cited location as al-Anbiya 43, while QAC supplies the secure occurrence at 21:42:3; the Quran example follows the QAC location.