Quranic root
نهر
n · h · r
The root centers on opening or making a passage, especially by splitting something so that what is contained is released. From this develop the ideas of flowing water, channels, spaciousness, and the opening of darkness into daylight.
Opening or cleaving produces a watercourse and the flow through it; forceful release of blood and widening are related developments. The word نهار extends the idea to the spreading of light between dawn and sunset.
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- 3
- Quran-attested forms
- 4
- Quran senses
- 113
- Quran occurrences
Forms in the Quran
The forms this root actually takes in the Quran. Select one to jump to its senses and examples.
نَهَرَ
nahara
- 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 rebuke or harshly check and restrain someone.
The Quranic transitive construction prohibits addressing a beggar or one's parents with rough, chiding speech; it can consequently be rendered as repelling or turning someone away.
- Lane · entry 44626
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Selected Quran examples
Quran 17:23word 21
“repel them”
Quran 93:10word 4
“repel”
نَهْرٌ
nahrun
- Part of speech
- Noun
- Quran occurrences
- 54 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 river or watercourse carrying running water; in the plural, rivers.
The noun may refer to the running water and to the course that carries it. The Quran uses both the singular نَهَر and the plural أَنْهَار for watercourses, including those associated with gardens.
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Selected Quran examples
Spaciousness or abundance, by comparison with the ample flow of a river.
This is an alternative lexical interpretation of فِي جَنَّاتٍ وَنَهَرٍ in 54:54; the same expression is also understood in the ordinary sense of gardens and rivers.
- Lane · entry 44631
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Selected Quran examples
Quran 54:54word 5
“and river”
نَهَارٌ
nahārun
- Part of speech
- Noun
- Quran occurrences
- 57 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.
Daytime; the period in which light is manifest, in contrast with night.
The Quran uses the word for the daytime as a temporal counterpart to الليل and in adverbial expressions meaning by day. Classical descriptions place its ordinary interval between dawn and sunset, while some describe the original interval as sunrise to sunset.
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Selected Quran examples
Occurrences in the Quran
Every place this root appears, in Quran order. The first few are shown here.
- 2:25ٱلْأَنْهَـٰرُ ۖthe rivers
- 2:74ٱلْأَنْهَـٰرُ ۚ[the] rivers
- 2:164وَٱلنَّهَارِand the day
- 2:249بِنَهَرٍۢwith a river
- 2:266ٱلْأَنْهَـٰرُthe rivers
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 15 Classical meanings
نَهَرَ
To run or flow; of water or another copious substance, and of blood to flow forcefully.
Also said of the belly when it becomes loose or discharges; flowing water may run along the ground and make a channel.
- Lane · entry 44626
نَهَرَ
To dig a watercourse or make a river run.
A transitive use concerning the making or opening of a channel and the setting of water in motion.
- Lane · entry 44626
نَهَرَ
To raid or make an incursion into enemy territory by day.
The daytime restriction belongs to this conventional military use.
- Lane · entry 44626
أَنْهَرَ
To make blood flow, cause it to issue forth, or pour it out copiously.
Used of blood released from a wound or place of slaughter; the flow is compared with water running in a river.
- Lane · entry 44627
أَنْهَرَ
To make wide, especially a wound or a channel.
This is a derived, figurative extension of opening or widening and is distinct from causing blood to flow.
- Lane · entry 44627
أَنْهَرَ
To enter daytime or become in daytime.
A temporal use derived from نهار.
- Lane · entry 44627
اِسْتَنْهَرَ
For a river to take a settled place or course as its channel.
Describes the establishment of a river's bed or channel.
- Lane · entry 44629
اِسْتَنْهَرَ
For a thing to become wide.
An intransitive use of widening, distinct from the river's taking a channel.
- Lane · entry 44629
نَهْرٌ
A trench or cut serving as a channel through which water runs.
A secondary application of the watercourse term, emphasizing the excavated or hollowed channel rather than the flowing water itself.
- Lane · entry 44630
نَهِرٌ
Abundant in water; wide and water-rich, said of a river or watercourse.
An adjectival description of plentiful water and a broad watercourse.
- Lane · entry 44632
نَهِرٌ
A person active by day, especially one who raids or works in daytime.
Contrasted with a person associated with nighttime; the term can describe daytime activity generally or daytime incursions.
- Lane · entry 44632
نَهَارِيٌّ
Food eaten at the beginning of the day.
A specialized adjectival or substantival use relating to the early daytime.
- Lane · entry 44635
مَنْهَرٌ
A place where a river is or where water hollows out a river channel.
Refers to a river site, a water-carved hollow, or a place associated with the course of a river.
- Lane · entry 44637
مَنْهَرٌ
A cleft or opening in a fortress through which water runs or enters.
A specialized architectural or hydraulic use; the plural is مَنَاهِرُ.
- Lane · entry 44637
نَهَارٌ
A reported, disputed term for a bustard chick.
This use is recorded in the lexical discussion but explicitly dismissed there as lacking a reliable meaning; it is not a Quranic sense.
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Cautions
Points that affect how this root should be read.
The expression فِي جَنَّاتٍ وَنَهَرٍ in 54:54 has more than one lexical interpretation: rivers, or spaciousness/abundance. Both are represented under the river form.
Classical descriptions differ on whether the daytime interval begins at dawn or sunrise.
The reported use of نَهَارٌ for a bustard chick is retained only as a disputed classical report; the supplied root discussion rejects it as lacking a reliable meaning.