Quranic root
محص
m · ḥ · ṣ
The root centers on freeing something from attached impurity, defect, or admixture and making it clear or clean.
Its concrete sense includes purifying gold and removing attached material; this extends to moral purification, the removal or reduction of sins, becoming clear, worn surface fibers, and vigorous movement.
- Maqāyīs · row 4303
- Mufradāt · row 1346
- 1
- Quran-attested forms
- 2
- Quran senses
- 2
- Quran occurrences
Forms in the Quran
The forms this root actually takes in the Quran. Select one to jump to its senses and examples.
مَحَّصَ
maḥḥaṣa
- Part of speech
- Verb · Form II
- Form
- II
- 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.
To purify or cleanse believers or what is in their hearts by removing attached defilement, including sins or moral impurity.
Attested in the Quranic construction referring to believers and what is in their hearts; the action is understood as purification, cleansing, or removal of what clings to them.
- Lane · entry 12290
- Mufradāt · row 1346
Selected Quran examples
Quran 3:141word 1
“And so that may purify”
Quran 3:154word 68
“and that He may purge”
To test or prove someone, with the trial understood as diminishing or reducing sins.
An alternative interpretation of the Quranic Form II construction, linking purification with the testing of believers and the consequent reduction of sins.
- Lane · entry 12290
Selected Quran examples
Quran 3:141word 1
“And so that may purify”
Occurrences in the Quran
Every place this root appears, in Quran order. The first few are shown here.
View all 2 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 8 Classical meanings
مَحْصٌ
The becoming or being clear, pure, and free from admixture or imperfection.
A verbal noun describing the state or process of becoming clear or clean.
- Lane · entry 12289
مَحَصَ
To run swiftly or vigorously; also, to exert oneself in travelling.
A Form I usage describing energetic or rapid movement.
- Lane · entry 12289
- Mufradāt · row 1346
مَحَّصَ
To clear or purify a thing, especially gold, from earth, dust, dirt, or other admixture, commonly by fire.
A concrete Form II transitive use applied to material purification.
- Lane · entry 12290
تَمْحِيصٌ
The clearing or cleansing of flesh from sinews so that the sinews can be twisted into a bow-string.
A specialized material-processing use.
- Lane · entry 12290
تَمَحَّصَ
To become clear or free from admixture or imperfection; figuratively, for sins to be purged, darkness to clear, the sun to emerge after an eclipse, or a person to recover from illness.
An intransitive or reflexive Form V development describing the subject's becoming clear, relieved, or recovered.
- Lane · entry 12292
مُمَحَّصٌ
One whose sins have been put away.
A reported participial usage; the source records uncertainty about applying the form to the person rather than to the sin itself.
- Lane · entry 12295
مَحَصَ
To wear away so that surface fibers or nap disappear: a cloth loses its nap, or a rope becomes worn until its nap is gone.
A usage describing abrasion or wearing away of attached surface material.
- Mufradāt · row 1346
- Maqāyīs · row 4303
مُمَحَّصٌ
Of a horse: strongly built, understood by analogy as free from defects.
A reported descriptive expression applied specifically to a horse.
- Maqāyīs · row 4303
Cautions
Points that affect how this root should be read.
The testing or proving sense is an alternative lexicographic interpretation of the Quranic Form II construction; the supplied contextual English glosses independently support purification or purging, not that interpretation by themselves.
A Lane Quran citation in the testing discussion is preserved as historical citation evidence and is not converted into a modern verse location; the examples use only independently supplied QAC locations.
The reported use of مُمَحَّصٌ for one whose sins are removed is attributed with uncertainty in the lexical evidence.