Quranic root
لهب
l · h · b
A rising, visible flame or blaze, especially the upward tongue of fire, with related extensions to intense heat, brightness, ardor, and forceful motion.
The root develops from the elevation and brilliance of fire into analogous states of burning heat, thirst, dust raised by rapid movement, and emotional or physical intensity. The mountain-gap term لِهْبٌ is treated as a separate homonymous formation rather than part of this development.
- Maqāyīs · row 4230
- Mufradāt · row 1324
- 1
- Quran-attested forms
- 2
- Quran senses
- 3
- Quran occurrences
Forms in the Quran
The forms this root actually takes in the Quran. Select one to jump to its senses and examples.
لَهَبٌ
lahabun
- Part of speech
- Noun
- Quran occurrences
- 3 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.
Flame or blaze of fire—the visibly rising, burning manifestation of a fire.
Used in Quranic descriptions of fire, including expressions for a fire possessing flame and for something that does not protect from the flame.
- Lane · entry 9902
- Mufradāt · row 1324
Selected Quran examples
Quran 77:31word 6
“the flame”
Quran 111:3word 4
“Blazing Flames”
In أَبُو لَهَبٍ, a personal epithet or name associated with flame; in a reported Quranic interpretation, an appellation assigning its bearer to the Fire rather than merely his established kunya.
Restricted to the proper-name or epithet construction أَبُو لَهَبٍ; the descriptive interpretation is reported as one exegetical explanation, alongside the established use as a kunya.
- Mufradāt · row 1324
Selected Quran examples
Quran 111:1word 4
“Lahab”
Occurrences in the Quran
Every place this root appears, in Quran order. The first few are shown here.
View all 3 occurrencesBroader 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
لَهِبَ
To be thirsty, especially with burning thirst.
A Form I verb; the thirsty state is presented as a burning or heated condition.
- Lane · entry 9895
لَهَّبَ
To make a fire flame or blaze fiercely or intensely; to cause it to burn without smoke.
Form II, with an intensive causative force.
- Lane · entry 9896
أَلْهَبَ
To make a fire flame or blaze, including to make it blaze free from smoke.
Form IV causative use with fire as the object.
- Lane · entry 9897
أَلْهَبَ
Of lightning, to flash continuously or uninterruptedly.
A specialized intransitive use describing repeated or sustained lightning.
- Lane · entry 9897
أَلْهَبَ
To run ardently or impetuously, with energy or effort, raising dust.
Used of a horse or another runner; the dust raised by violent motion is likened to flame.
- Lane · entry 9897
أَلْهَبَ
To speak rapidly and vehemently.
A figurative Form IV use describing forceful, heated speech.
- Lane · entry 9897
أَلْهَبَ
For an affair or matter to excite, stir, or inflame someone.
A figurative causative construction in which the matter acts as the stimulus.
- Lane · entry 9897
تَلَهَّبَ
For a fire to flame or blaze fiercely or intensely, including without smoke.
Form V, functioning as the quasi-passive or reflexive counterpart of causative blazing.
- Lane · entry 9898
تَلَهَّبَ
To burn with intense hunger or to burn with wrath or rage.
Figurative Form V uses describing an inwardly heated condition.
- Lane · entry 9898
اِلْتَهَبَ
For a fire to flame or blaze, including to blaze free from smoke.
Form VIII intransitive use with fire as the subject.
- Lane · entry 9899
اِلْتَهَبَ
To become incensed or inflamed with anger against someone.
A figurative construction with عَلَيْهِ, expressing directed anger.
- Lane · entry 9899
اِلْتَهَبَ
For a part of the body to become inflamed.
An intransitive bodily use of Form VIII.
- Lane · entry 9899
لِهْبٌ
A gap, cleft, fissure, or narrow ravine between or in mountains; also a steep mountain face resembling a wall.
A homonymous noun with several landscape applications, including a gap or ravine that may widen like a road and a corresponding feature at the horizon.
- Lane · entry 9901
لَهَبٌ
Smoke or dust rising in a visible cloud, especially dust likened to smoke or flame.
A broader non-Quranic application of the noun to airborne dust or smoke, distinct from its Quranic fire-flame use.
- Lane · entry 9902
- Mufradāt · row 1324
لُهَابٌ
The heat that reaches or afflicts a thirsty person.
A heat-related use of the variant لُهَابٌ, not a claim about the Quranic noun لَهَبٌ.
- Lane · entry 9902
- Mufradāt · row 1324
لُهْبَةٌ
A clear white color or the brightness of the complexion or skin.
A nominal use describing visible brightness of appearance.
- Lane · entry 9903
لُهْبَةٌ
Thirst, probably burning thirst.
A figurative heat-related noun for the state of thirst.
- Lane · entry 9903
لَهَبَانٌ
Intense or smoldering heat: the burning of coals or embers without blazing, heat upon heated ground, vehement heat, or a hot day.
A heat noun covering both smoldering combustion and oppressive environmental heat.
- Lane · entry 9904
لَهْبَانُ
Thirsty or burning with thirst.
An adjective applied to a man or woman, with feminine لَهْبَى and plural لِهَابٌ reported.
- Lane · entry 9905
لَهِيبٌ
The visible manifestation of a fire's burning.
A derived noun for what appears from the kindling or blazing of fire.
- Mufradāt · row 1324
لُهَابَةٌ
A garment or cloth containing a stone, used to balance one side of a camel litter or load.
A specialized material-culture term.
- Lane · entry 9908
أُلْهُوبٌ
Ardor or impetuosity in running; a violent run that raises dust, or the beginning of a run.
Used both as a noun for the forceful running and as an epithet for a run characterized by raised dust.
- Lane · entry 9909
مُلْهِبٌ
Swift or impetuous in running, especially one that raises dust.
An epithet for a horse or other swift runner; the comparison is to a blazing fire.
- Mufradāt · row 1324
مِلْهَبٌ
Pleasing in beauty and abundant in hair.
An epithet explicitly applied to a man.
- Lane · entry 9910
مُلَهَّبٌ
A garment or piece of cloth imperfectly dyed red and not fully saturated with the dye.
A material and textile use, marked as figurative in the lexical source.
- Lane · entry 9911
Cautions
Points that affect how this root should be read.
The interpretation of أَبُو لَهَبٍ as a descriptive fire-assignment rather than solely an established kunya is reported as an exegetical alternative, not as an exclusive etymology.
لِهْبٌ meaning a mountain gap is included as a homonymous lexical item because it is directly recorded in the classical evidence, while the root-level evidence separately derives that form from an altered صاد.
Unassigned or ambiguous evidence
The supplied transcription of Lane entry 9902 contains an elided phrase concerning heat. Its attribution to لُهَابٌ is retained only where independently corroborated by the explicit lexical statement that لُهَابٌ denotes heat affecting the thirsty.