Quranic root
متع
m · t · ʿ
A root centered on benefit, enjoyment, and useful provision whose benefit may extend over a period of time.
Its lexical development connects enjoyment and usefulness with duration and extension: something useful is made available for continued benefit, while the day, vegetation, a mirage, or a rope may be described through rising or lasting extension. The sources also preserve an alternate emphasis on pleasure or immediate enjoyment.
- Maqāyīs · row 4280
- Mufradāt · row 1341
- 4
- Quran-attested forms
- 9
- Quran senses
- 70
- Quran occurrences
Forms in the Quran
The forms this root actually takes in the Quran. Select one to jump to its senses and examples.
مَتَّعَ
mattaʿa
- Part of speech
- Verb · Form II
- Form
- II
- Quran occurrences
- 18 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 grant someone enjoyment, benefit, or provision, allowing continued use or comfort for a period; to let someone live on in such benefit.
The construction commonly takes a person or group as object and may specify a limited duration or brief worldly enjoyment. The duration is not inherently fixed.
- Lane · entry 5600
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Selected Quran examples
Quran 2:126word 22
“[then] I will grant him enjoyment”
Quran 20:131word 6
“We have given for enjoyment”
To provide a divorced woman with a compensatory gift or provision.
A divorce-related construction; the provision may consist of necessities such as food, clothing, household utensils, or furniture and is assigned according to means.
- Lane · entry 5600
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Selected Quran examples
Quran 2:236word 14
“And make provision for them”
Quran 33:49word 19
“So provide for them”
تَمَتَّعَ
tamattaʿa
- Part of speech
- Verb · Form V
- Form
- V
- Quran occurrences
- 11 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 enjoy or benefit from something; to make use of it or have its enjoyment.
Usually construed with بِـ. Duration may be extended, but the expression does not always imply a specifically long period. In several worldly Quranic commands and warnings, the enjoyment is presented as temporary or threatening contextually.
- Lane · entry 5601
- Mufradāt · row 1341
Selected Quran examples
Quran 15:3word 3
“and enjoy”
Quran 47:12word 15
“they enjoy”
In the pilgrimage construction, to perform ʿumrah together with hajj, taking the ʿumrah as the enjoyment or preliminary use before hajj.
A specialized construction with بِالْعُمْرَةِ إِلَى الْحَجِّ; it is distinct from the ordinary meaning of enjoying or benefiting from something.
- Mufradāt · row 1341
Selected Quran examples
Quran 2:196word 37
“took advantage”
To live or remain alive for a time.
A Quran-linked lexical equivalence to عاش reported for this form; it should not be inferred as the gloss of every Quran occurrence of تَمَتَّعَ.
- Lane · entry 5601
اِسْتَمْتَعَ
āistamtaʿa
- Part of speech
- Verb · Form X
- Form
- X
- Quran occurrences
- 6 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 seek or derive benefit and enjoyment from something; to profit by or enjoy it.
Normally construed with بِـ and applicable to taking one's benefit or enjoyment from a thing, person, or share. The Quranic contexts may express mutual or worldly benefit without requiring a separate sexual sense.
- Lane · entry 5603
- Mufradāt · row 1341
Selected Quran examples
Quran 4:24word 23
“you benefit[ed]”
Quran 9:69word 11
“So they enjoyed”
Quran 46:20word 12
“and you took your pleasures”
مَتَاعٌ
matāʿun
- Part of speech
- Noun
- Quran occurrences
- 35 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.
Anything useful or advantageous: useful goods, possessions, household effects, utensils, baggage, apparatus, commodities, or necessities of life.
A concrete nominal use covering things kept or used for practical benefit, including household goods and food or other necessities.
- Lane · entry 5605
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Selected Quran examples
A provision or gift assigned to a divorced woman.
A divorce-related use; the provision may comprise food, clothing, household utensils, or furniture and is intended for her benefit for a period.
- Lane · entry 5605
- Mufradāt · row 1341
Selected Quran examples
Quran 2:241word 2
“(is) a provision”
Enjoyment or benefit, especially a temporary worldly enjoyment.
An abstract use referring to the benefit or pleasure obtained from worldly life or possessions, often marked as limited in duration or value in comparison with the afterlife.
- Lane · entry 5605
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Selected Quran examples
Quran 42:36word 5
“(is) but a passing enjoyment”
Quran 3:185word 22
“enjoyment”
Occurrences in the Quran
Every place this root appears, in Quran order. The first few are shown here.
- 2:36وَمَتَـٰعٌand a provision
- 2:126فَأُمَتِّعُهُۥ[then] I will grant him enjoyment
- 2:196تَمَتَّعَtook advantage
- 2:236وَمَتِّعُوهُنَّAnd make provision for them
- 2:236مَتَـٰعًۢاa provision
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 9 Classical meanings
مَتَعَ
To advance or rise, especially of the day as the sun climbs before its decline; also to rise in early growth, as vegetation does.
Used of the day and, in the broader lexical discussion, of growing vegetation.
- Lane · entry 5600
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مَاتِعٌ
Extending or lasting, and therefore good in use; said of a good rope and of a mirage that continues into the early day.
A duration-based adjective emphasizing that the benefit or effect continues.
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تَمَتَّعَ
To become provided with household or tent utensils and furniture.
A concrete furnishing sense distinct from enjoying or benefiting from an object.
- Lane · entry 5601
مُتْعَةٌ
Enjoyment; the state or act of enjoying, or a benefit that brings pleasure.
The noun denotes enjoyment or blessing rather than the concrete goods denoted by مَتَاعٌ.
- Lane · entry 5604
مُتْعَةٌ
A gift or provision given to a divorced wife.
A specialized legal and social use of مُتْعَةٌ, lexically distinct from the Quranic nominal form مَتَاعٌ.
- Lane · entry 5604
- Mufradāt · row 1341
مُتْعَةُ الضُّحَى
The beginning or early part of the forenoon.
This expression is reported tentatively as a use of مُتْعَةٌ.
- Lane · entry 5604
المَتَاعُ
In a tropical anatomical usage, the female pudendum or the penis.
A rare figurative or tropical classical specialization, not a Quranic sense of مَتَاعٌ in the supplied occurrences.
- Lane · entry 5605
مُتْعَةُ النِّكَاحِ
A temporary-marriage arrangement in which a woman is contracted for a specified payment and term, after which the couple separate without divorce.
A specialized historical and legal expression involving a fixed duration.
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مَاتِعٌ
Excellent, strong, or weighty by virtue of its quality; said of a drink, a camel, or a judgment or measure.
The source applies the adjective to a drink valued for its quality, a strong camel, and a judgment or measure that is weighty or superior.
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Cautions
Points that affect how this root should be read.
The Form V worldly-enjoyment passages may carry a threatening or admonitory pragmatic force, but that force is contextual rather than a separate lexical sense.
A Form V equivalence with عاش is retained as lexical evidence without assigning Lane's historical citation to a modern Quran location not supplied as a QAC occurrence.
The anatomical meaning of المَتَاعُ is a rare tropical Classical Arabic specialization and is not assigned to the Quranic nominal senses.
The expression مُتْعَةُ الضُّحَى is included with an explicit tentative qualification because the supplied evidence marks the identification of مُتْعَةٌ as uncertain.