Quranic root
نصب
n · ṣ · b
The root centers on setting something upright, raising it, or presenting it prominently in a stable position.
From erecting or raising objects come meanings for erected markers and sacrificial stones, exertion and fatigue from sustained effort, a designated share as something set out for someone, and related notions of origin, attachment, and elevation.
- Maqāyīs · row 4646
- Mufradāt · row 1446
- 6
- Quran-attested forms
- 8
- Quran senses
- 32
- Quran occurrences
Forms in the Quran
The forms this root actually takes in the Quran. Select one to jump to its senses and examples.
نَصَبَ
naṣaba
- Part of speech
- Verb · Form I
- Form
- I
- 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 set up, place upright, erect; to be set up or fixed upright
The passive Quran occurrence describes things being set upright or fixed; this sense covers the corresponding active setting-up relation.
- Lane · entry 43776
- Mufradāt · row 1446
Selected Quran examples
Quran 88:19word 4
“they are fixed”
to apply oneself, labor, or exert oneself
In the imperative فَانْصَبْ after completing a task or prayer, the construction is interpreted as applying oneself in supplication or voluntary worship.
- Lane · entry 43776
- Mufradāt · row 1446
Selected Quran examples
Quran 94:7word 3
“then labor hard”
نَصَبٌ
naṣabun
- Part of speech
- Noun
- Quran occurrences
- 4 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.
fatigue, weariness, or toil
A noun for the state or burden of physical or other exertion; Quranic contexts deny or describe such fatigue.
- Lane · entry 43776
- Lane · entry 43786
- Mufradāt · row 1446
Selected Quran examples
Quran 15:48word 4
“fatigue”
Quran 35:35word 10
“any fatigue”
نَصِيبٌ
naṣībun
- Part of speech
- Noun
- Quran occurrences
- 21 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.
a share, portion, lot, or allotted part
The Quranic noun denotes a portion assigned or belonging to someone, including a share of property, reward, authority, or worldly provision.
- Lane · entry 43792
- Mufradāt · row 1446
Selected Quran examples
Quran 16:56word 5
“a portion”
Quran 4:85word 7
“a share”
نُصْبٌ
nuṣbun
- Part of speech
- Noun
- 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.
distress, affliction, trouble, or hardship
In بِـنُصْبٍ, the noun denotes an afflicting burden or distress accompanying a trial.
- Lane · entry 43784
- Mufradāt · row 1446
Selected Quran examples
Quran 38:41word 10
“with distress”
نُصُبٌ
nuṣubun
- 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.
erected stones used as sacrificial altars or objects of pagan worship
The Quranic plural refers to stones set up for sacrifice or associated with worship other than God, including the altars mentioned in the prohibition of sacrificial practices.
- Lane · entry 43788
- Mufradāt · row 1446
Selected Quran examples
Quran 5:3word 25
“the stone altars”
Quran 5:90word 7
“and (sacrifices at) altars”
an erected marker, sign, or goal toward which one hastens
In 70:43, the word is understood either as an erected sign or as a goal toward which people rush; the supplied lexical evidence preserves both interpretations.
- Lane · entry 43783
- Mufradāt · row 1446
Selected Quran examples
Quran 70:43word 8
“a goal”
نَاصِبَةٌ
nāṣibahun
- Part of speech
- Adjective · 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.
toiling, laboring, and exhausted
The feminine active-participial adjective describes people engaged in exhausting labor and consequently wearied.
- Mufradāt · row 1446
Selected Quran examples
Quran 88:3word 2
“exhausted”
Occurrences in the Quran
Every place this root appears, in Quran order. The first few are shown here.
- 2:202نَصِيبٌۭ(is) a share
- 3:23نَصِيبًۭاa portion
- 4:7نَصِيبٌۭa portion
- 4:7نَصِيبٌۭa portion
- 4:7نَصِيبًۭاa portion
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 49 Classical meanings
نَصَبَ
to put or lay down a thing
A separately reported, opposite-direction use of the same verb, explicitly noted as contrary to setting something up.
- Lane · entry 43776
نَصَبَ لَهُ
to set a person or thing up as an obstacle, target, or object to encounter
Includes setting someone up as a butt for archers or as an object against which one goes to meet.
- Lane · entry 43776
- Lane · entry 43783
نُصِبَ
to be appointed or set up for a public task
A tropical use for appointing someone to maintain or improve a town or district.
- Lane · entry 43776
نَصِبَ / أَنْصَبُ / نَصْبَاءُ
to have or be characterized by erect bodily features
Applied to erect ears or horns and to an elevated breast in animals; the cited examples establish these physical-feature uses.
- Lane · entry 43776
- Lane · entry 43797
نَصْبٌ
a distinctive Arab song, chant, or melodic recitation
The term is associated with raising or elevating the voice and includes a kind of camel-driving chant or modulation.
- Lane · entry 43776
- Lane · entry 43783
نَصْبٌ
a technical quality of verse-rhyme that is free from defects
Used of a complete, unshortened verse whose rhyme is properly formed; the term is not applied in the cited explanation when the verse is curtailed.
- Lane · entry 43783
نَصَبَ / اِنْتَصَبَ
to pronounce or write a word with naṣb, the accusative or fatḥa inflection
A technical grammatical use concerning the final letter or vowel of a word.
- Lane · entry 43776
- Lane · entry 43782
نَصَبَ لَهُ / نَاصَبَهُ
to act with hostility toward someone, openly oppose him, or make war upon him
The Form I construction and the Form III construction are both attested for hostile opposition, enmity, or war.
- Lane · entry 43776
- Lane · entry 43778
نَصَبْتُ لَهُ رَأْيًا
to give someone firm counsel or a course of advice
The counsel is presented as something from which the recipient should not deviate.
- Lane · entry 43776
نَصَبَهُ
to cause someone pain
The subject may be a disease or another source of pain.
- Lane · entry 43776
نَصَبَ السَّيْرَ
to travel diligently, exerting oneself in one's pace or journey
A specialized travel use covering sustained or energetic progress, including journeying through the day or night.
- Lane · entry 43776
نَصِبَ
to become fatigued, suffer difficulty, or experience distress
This verbal state is distinct from the imperative use meaning to apply oneself.
- Lane · entry 43776
نَصَّبَ
to erect or raise repeatedly or intensively
The cited construction describes horses repeatedly or strongly erecting their ears; the gemination carries frequentative or intensive force.
- Lane · entry 43777
أَنْصَبَ
to fatigue, tire, or weary someone or something
The object may be a person, an affair, grief, or anxiety.
- Lane · entry 43779
أَنْصَبَ
to attribute or ascribe a report to someone
The construction انصب الحديث إلى denotes tracing or assigning a tradition to its transmitter.
- Lane · entry 43779
أَنْصَبَ
to assign or give someone a share or portion
The verb is used causatively with the noun نَصِيبٌ.
- Lane · entry 43779
أَنْصَبَ
to fit a handle to a knife
The object fitted is the knife handle, نِصَابٌ.
- Lane · entry 43779
تَنَصَّبَ
to stand around or take up positions around something
The cited construction describes she-asses standing around a male ass.
- Lane · entry 43780
تَنَاصَبَ
to divide something into lots or portions among themselves
A reciprocal distribution construction.
- Lane · entry 43781
اِنْتَصَبَ
to become upright, erect, vertical, or standing out
Used of people, objects, hair, or teeth that stand erect or project outward; it may include raising the head.
- Lane · entry 43782
اِنْتَصَبَ
to rise high
The cited specialized subject is dust rising upward.
- Lane · entry 43782
اِنْتَصَبْ
to set up a cooking-pot upon a trivet or support
An imperative construction addressed to a cook.
- Lane · entry 43782
اِنْتِصَابٌ
an erection of the penis
An anatomical use of the verbal noun.
- Lane · entry 43782
مُنْتَصِبٌ
rising high or standing out
Applied to rising dust, full-grown hair standing out, and teeth projecting forward.
- Lane · entry 43803
نُصْبُ عَيْنِي
a conspicuous object, a thing in full view
The expression describes something manifest and prominently before one's eye, including an object that is lying or thrown down.
- Lane · entry 43784
نُصْبٌ
disease or an affliction caused by disease
A Classical specialization reported alongside the broader sense of distress and hardship.
- Lane · entry 43784
نَصَبٌ
difficulty, trouble, distress, or affliction
A broader Classical noun sense distinct from the Quranic contexts specifically glossed as fatigue.
- Lane · entry 43776
- Lane · entry 43786
نَصِبٌ
diseased, sick, or in pain
An adjectival description of a person or creature suffering illness or pain.
- Lane · entry 43787
أَنْصَابُ الحَرَمِ
markers or boundary stones indicating the limits of the sacred territory
A specialized plural use for signs set up to mark the boundaries of the sanctuary.
- Lane · entry 43788
نَصْبَةٌ
a laid snare, plot, stratagem, or artifice
The concrete sense is a snare; the figurative sense is a plotted device or stratagem.
- Lane · entry 43789
نِصَابٌ
the place of sunset or the place to which the sun returns
A specialized geographic or astronomical noun.
- Lane · entry 43791
نِصَابٌ
the handle of a knife
The handle is the part into which the blade is set.
- Lane · entry 43791
نِصَابٌ
the minimum amount of property that makes alms-tax due
A technical legal-economic use for the qualifying threshold of wealth.
- Lane · entry 43791
نَصِيبٌ
a tank or cistern
A Classical noun use distinct from نَصِيبٌ meaning a share.
- Lane · entry 43792
نَصِيبٌ
a set snare or fowler's net
The concrete net is understood as something set or set up.
- Lane · entry 43792
نَصِيبَةٌ
stones set around a cistern, with their interstices filled with clay
The stones may also mark the quantity of water sufficient for camels.
- Lane · entry 43793
نَاصِبٌ
grief, anxiety, or a condition that fatigues and troubles
The adjective may describe something that causes fatigue, severe trouble itself, or a laborious and troublesome life.
- Lane · entry 43794
النَّاصِبِيَّةُ
a sect characterized by open hostility toward ʿAlī
A historical sectarian designation explained through the hostility sense of the root.
- Lane · entry 43794
نَاصِبَةُ الشُّجَاعِ
the raised eye of the serpent called shujāʿ
An anatomical expression describing the eye as raised to look.
- Lane · entry 43795
نَاصِبَةُ الشُّجَاعِ
a raised, watchful gaze
In the cited poetic comparison, the expression describes an eye or gaze raised to observe something.
- Lane · entry 43795
مَنْصِبٌ
an origin, source, point of reference, or place from which something grows or is set
The noun may denote a person's origin or lineage and the source or place to which a person or thing is referred.
- Lane · entry 43798
مَنْصِبٌ
rank, station, nobility, or elevated quality
The Classical use includes eminence derived from ancestry or office-like status, and can extend to beauty as an elevating quality.
- Lane · entry 43798
مَنْصِبٌ
a post, office, function, or magistracy
A later or post-Classical specialization understood as the place or station in which someone is set or elevated.
- Lane · entry 43798
مِنْصَبٌ
an iron support or trivet on which a cooking-pot is set
A concrete implement for setting up a cooking-pot.
- Lane · entry 43799
مَنْصَبَةٌ
fatigue, labor, trouble, or a cause of them
The noun may denote either the burden itself or something that produces fatigue or trouble.
- Lane · entry 43800
مَنْصُوبَةٌ
a set snare, stratagem, trick, plot, or chess maneuver
The concrete sense is a net or snare set in place; the substantivized figurative sense is an artifice or stratagem.
- Lane · entry 43801
مُنَصَّبٌ
a horse whose bones are characteristically erect so that it stands upright without bending
A specialized description of the horse's bodily conformation.
- Lane · entry 43802
مُنَصَّبٌ
broad, thin stones set upright one upon another
A participial description of stones arranged vertically.
- Lane · entry 43802
مُنَصَّبٌ
evenly aligned teeth or foreteeth
The teeth are understood as set up and made even.
- Lane · entry 43802
Cautions
Points that affect how this root should be read.
The two Quranic nominal patterns نَصَبٌ and نُصْبٌ are kept distinct: the supplied evidence supports fatigue for نَصَبٌ and distress or affliction for نُصْبٌ.
نُصُبٌ has both an altar or pagan-sacrificial-stone sense and a Quranic marker-or-goal interpretation in 70:43; both are retained rather than reduced to the contextual English gloss alone.
The QAC verb group is normalized to نَصَبَ while preserving separate Quranic senses for being set upright and for exerting oneself.