Quranic root
منع
m · n · ʿ
The root centers on withholding rather than giving, and therefore on blocking access, action, or possession.
From the basic opposition to giving, the lexicon develops meanings of preventing or denying, protecting against intrusion, and being resistant or inaccessible.
- Maqāyīs · row 4468
- Mufradāt · row 1390
- Lane · entry 5852
- Lane · entry 5858
- 5
- Quran-attested forms
- 7
- Quran senses
- 17
- Quran occurrences
Forms in the Quran
The forms this root actually takes in the Quran. Select one to jump to its senses and examples.
مَنَعَ
manaʿa
- Part of speech
- Verb · Form I
- Form
- I
- Quran occurrences
- 12 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 prevent, hinder, stop, or bar someone from an action, access, or occurrence.
In constructions such as ما منعك أن... it can ask what held or deterred someone and led them to omit an action, not only what physically obstructed them.
- Lane · entry 5852
- Mufradāt · row 1390
Selected Quran examples
Quran 2:114word 4
“prevents”
Quran 7:12word 3
“prevented you”
To protect, defend, or guard someone or something against encroachment, invasion, attack, or harm.
This is the protective or defensive use, with the protected party or thing understood from the construction.
- Lane · entry 5852
- Mufradāt · row 1390
Selected Quran examples
Quran 4:141word 22
“and we protected you”
To withhold, deny, or refuse to give something to someone.
A doubly transitive construction; it denotes withholding a thing or benefit and is presented as the opposite of giving.
- Lane · entry 5852
- Mufradāt · row 1390
Selected Quran examples
Quran 107:7word 1
“And they deny”
مَمْنُوع
mamnūʿ
- Part of speech
- Passive participle
- 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.
Withheld, denied, or made unavailable.
Passive participle describing something that has been refused, withheld, or prevented from being obtained.
- Lane · entry 5852
- Mufradāt · row 1390
Selected Quran examples
Quran 56:33word 4
“forbidden”
مَنُوع
manūʿ
- Part of speech
- Adjective
- 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.
Habitually withholding or refusing to give; niggardly.
An adjectival description of one characterized by persistent refusal to give or release what is due or available.
- Lane · entry 5859
- Mufradāt · row 1390
Selected Quran examples
Quran 70:21word 4
“withholding”
مَانِع
māniʿ
- Part of speech
- Active participle
- 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.
One who prevents or protects; a defender against harm or attack.
In the Quranic occurrence, the active participle denotes a party able to defend others from an opposing force.
- Lane · entry 5852
- Mufradāt · row 1390
Selected Quran examples
Quran 59:2word 19
“would defend them”
مَنَّاع
mannāʿ
- Part of speech
- Adjective
- 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.
Habitually or emphatically withholding or refusing to give, especially good or beneficence.
An intensive adjectival form describing a person strongly characterized by withholding what should be given.
- Lane · entry 5859
- Lane · entry 5861
- Mufradāt · row 1390
Selected Quran examples
Quran 50:25word 1
“Forbidder”
Quran 68:12word 1
“A preventer”
Occurrences in the Quran
Every place this root appears, in Quran order. The first few are shown here.
- 2:114مَّنَعَprevents
- 4:141وَنَمْنَعْكُمand we protected you
- 7:12مَنَعَكَprevented you
- 9:54مَنَعَهُمْprevents them
- 12:63مُنِعَHas been denied
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 18 Classical meanings
مَنُعَ
To become difficult of access or attainment; to be hard to obtain.
Said of a thing that becomes inaccessible or difficult.
- Lane · entry 5852
مَانَعَ
To contest or dispute a thing with another, seeking to prevent one another from obtaining or doing it.
The Form III reciprocal construction can also describe barring or holding off an enemy.
- Lane · entry 5853
تَمَنَّعَ
To withstand a year of dearth by virtue of youthful vigor.
An expression applied to a young animal resisting the conditions of a famine year.
- Lane · entry 5853
تَمَنَّعَ
To become strengthened or fortified against something through one's people or party.
The strengthening is achieved by reliance on one's supporting group.
- Lane · entry 5854
تَمَنَّعَ
To refrain or abstain from something voluntarily; to refuse it.
Often used of abstention from something regarded as forbidden or prohibited.
- Lane · entry 5854
تَمَنَّعَ
To protect or defend oneself by means of a fortress or stronghold.
The protective means is expressed with بِـ and may be a fortress or comparable defensive refuge.
- Lane · entry 5854
تَمَانَعَا
To hold one another off or keep one another apart.
A reciprocal construction equivalent to mutually barring or separating one another.
- Lane · entry 5855
اِمْتَنَعَ
To be impossible or necessarily not to occur; to be precluded by the existence of something else.
A technical or abstract use describing impossibility or necessary non-occurrence.
- Lane · entry 5856
اِمْتَنَعَ
To refrain, abstain, or refuse voluntarily.
Constructed with مِن or عَنْ for the thing or affair from which one holds back.
- Lane · entry 5856
اِمْتَنَعَ
To oppose, resist, or be unyielding to someone.
Describes resistance or incompliance directed toward another party.
- Lane · entry 5856
اِمْتَنَعَ
To be inaccessible, unapproachable, or difficult of access.
Used of something that is fortified or otherwise difficult to reach.
- Lane · entry 5856
مَنَعَةٌ
Protective strength or power of resistance that makes a person or group difficult to attack or overcome.
Especially the strength supplied by one's people or party, resulting in resistance or inaccessibility.
- Lane · entry 5858
مَنِيعٌ
Inaccessible, fortified, strong, or resistant to attack.
Applied particularly to a fortress or to a people characterized by resistance and inapproachability.
- Lane · entry 5860
مَانِعٌ
One who denies or refuses to give.
This is the withholding sense of the active participle, distinct from its Quranic defensive use in the supplied form group.
- Lane · entry 5862
المُتَمَنِّعَانِ
A young she-camel and a young she-kid that withstand a year of dearth through youthful vigor.
A specialized plural expression for the two young animals.
- Lane · entry 5863
مُمْتَنِعٌ
Resisting attack; unyielding or incompliant.
An adjectival active-participle use describing resistance and refusal to yield.
- Lane · entry 5864
مَنِيعَة
A woman described euphemistically as chaste or sexually inaccessible.
An idiomatic figurative application of the inaccessibility branch.
- Mufradāt · row 1390
مَنَاعِ
A prohibitive imperative: “keep away,” “refrain,” or “prevent!”
An imperative noun used like other fixed command forms such as نَزَالِ.
- Mufradāt · row 1390
Cautions
Points that affect how this root should be read.
The root's Quranic forms distinguish prevention, protection, and withholding by construction; contextual English renderings alone do not establish these distinctions.