Quranic root
نحر
n · ḥ · r
The root centers on the nahr, the upper breast or front of the chest, especially the place reached by a decisive stroke. From this bodily locus developed the verb for stabbing or slaughtering there, with related extensions to facing, adjacency, contest, and mastery.
The primary physical sense concerns striking or slaughtering at the nahr. Classical usage extends the image to things that face or approach one another, temporal boundaries that meet the next period, people who contend fiercely, and a learned person who has mastered a subject.
- Maqāyīs · row 4567
- Lane · entry 43381
- Lane · entry 43385
- 1
- Quran-attested forms
- 3
- 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.
نَحَرَ
naḥara
- 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 slaughter an animal as an offering by nahr—stabbing it at the upper breast or throat.
In 108:2, the command is understood as an exhortation to perform nahr on a sacrificial offering, paired with prayer. The lexical discussion also records a non-canonical reading in 2:71, فَنَحَرُوهَا, meaning that they slaughtered it.
- Lane · entry 43381
- Lane · entry 43385
- Mufradāt · row 1419
Selected Quran examples
Quran 108:2word 3
“and sacrifice”
To place the hands at the neck during the opening takbīr of prayer.
A reported exegetical interpretation of the command in 108:2; it refers to a prayer gesture rather than animal slaughter.
- Mufradāt · row 1419
To subdue desire by metaphorically killing the self.
Another reported interpretation of 108:2, presenting nahr as disciplined suppression of desire rather than a literal act of slaughter.
- Mufradāt · row 1419
Occurrences in the Quran
Every place this root appears, in Quran order. The first few are shown here.
- 108:2وَٱنْحَرْand sacrifice
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 22 Classical meanings
نَحَرَ
To stab or slaughter a camel or other beast at the nahr; hence, to slay it.
The ordinary physical verb, especially for striking the animal at the upper breast where the windpipe begins.
- Lane · entry 43381
نَحَرَ
To strike or injure a person's nahr, the upper chest or neck-front.
Used with a person as the object of the blow or injury.
- Lane · entry 43381
نَحَرَ
To master or know affairs, knowledge, or poetry thoroughly.
A figurative use in which thorough intellectual command is expressed as mastering the subject.
- Lane · entry 43381
نَحَرَ
To perform or recite the prayer at the first part of its appointed time.
A figurative conventional use referring specifically to prayer performed early.
- Lane · entry 43381
نَحَرَ
In the expression نَحَرَهُمُ اللهُ, to hasten to do them good; alternatively, to slay them.
A reported expression with two transmitted interpretations; the slaying interpretation overlaps the literal branch, while the hastening interpretation is idiomatic.
- Lane · entry 43381
نَحَرَ
To face, front, or stand opposite someone or something.
Used of a person facing another person, or of houses or dwellings facing one another or a road.
- Lane · entry 43381
نَحْرٌ
The uppermost breast, chest, or bosom, especially the place of the collar or necklace; also the point at which an animal is stabbed for slaughter.
The anatomical noun may denote the chest generally or the more specific slaughtering point where the windpipe begins.
- Lane · entry 43385
- Mufradāt · row 1419
نَحْرٌ
The first part or commencement of the day, month, or midday period.
A temporal extension of the notion of an upper or foremost part.
- Lane · entry 43385
نَحْرٌ
The position directly in front of, facing, or opposite another.
Used in expressions describing one person or thing as situated before or opposite another.
- Lane · entry 43385
تَنَاحَرَ
To stab or slay one another in combat.
A reciprocal Form VI use referring to mutual violence at the nahr.
- Lane · entry 43383
تَنَاحَرَ
To contend mutually and greedily for something, as though nearly killing one another over it.
A figurative reciprocal construction for extreme avarice, tenacity, or rivalry.
- Lane · entry 43383
تَنَاحَرَ
To face or front one another.
A reciprocal Form VI use applied especially to houses or places of abode.
- Lane · entry 43383
اِنْتَحَرَ
To stab oneself at the nahr, and hence to kill oneself.
A reflexive Form VIII use; in a proverb it may instead mean to bring about one's own destruction figuratively.
- Lane · entry 43384
اِنْتَحَرَ
Of a cloud, to burst with abundant water.
A figurative use applied to a cloud releasing a great quantity of rain.
- Lane · entry 43384
نَحْرَةً
In open view; openly.
A conventional adverbial expression, as in لَقِيتُهُ صَحْرَةً بَحْرَةً نَحْرَةً.
- Lane · entry 43387
نِحْرِيرٌ
A learned, skilled, intelligent, and experienced person; an expert.
The noun denotes someone thoroughly versed in what he does, figuratively connected with mastering knowledge.
- Lane · entry 43388
نَحِيرٌ
An animal stabbed at the manḥar; slaughtered. Figuratively, a son devoted to be sacrificed.
The adjective or noun may describe the slaughtered animal itself or, figuratively, one dedicated for sacrifice.
- Lane · entry 43389
نَحِيرٌ
A temporal boundary of the month, especially its first day or, according to another usage, its last day or last night.
The authorities differ over whether the term denotes the beginning or the end of the month; it can also include the last night together with the following day.
- Lane · entry 43389
- Mufradāt · row 1419
نَاحِرٌ
A facing or opposite part; something situated in front of another.
Attested especially in the plural expression نَوَاحِرُ الأَرْضِ for parts facing or opposite the land.
- Lane · entry 43392
مِنْحَارٌ
An intensive epithet for a great slaughterer of camels; figuratively, liberal, bountiful, munificent, or generous.
The figurative generosity is associated with lavish slaughtering of valuable camels for guests or recipients.
- Lane · entry 43394
مَنْحُورٌ
Faced or fronted.
A figurative passive-participial use derived from the notion of being directly opposite something.
- Lane · entry 43395
النَّاحِرَانِ
The two veins in a horse's chest; the dāʾirat al-nāḥir is an anatomical mark in the throat region below them.
Specialized anatomical terminology recorded in the root's classical lexical discussion.
- Maqāyīs · row 4567
Cautions
Points that affect how this root should be read.
The QAC occurrence is the imperative ٱنْحَرْ; the public headword is normalized to the Form I perfect citation form نَحَرَ.
The sacrifice reading of 108:2 is presented as the principal Quranic lexical sense, while the hand-position and desire-suppression readings are reported interpretive alternatives.
The reading فَنَحَرُوهَا associated with 2:71 is explicitly identified as non-canonical in the supplied lexical evidence and is not counted as a QAC occurrence.