Quranic root
نهي
n · h · y
The root centers on reaching a limit or endpoint, and by extension on stopping an act or restraining someone from it.
The endpoint notion develops into causing or observing cessation: نَهَى means to prohibit or restrain, اِنْتَهَى means to desist or reach completion, and نِهَايَةٌ and مُنْتَهًى denote an ultimate point. The sources also record extensions involving conveyed information, reason that restrains wrongdoing, physical termini, and idiomatic sufficiency.
- Maqāyīs · row 4781
- Mufradāt · row 1493
- 7
- Quran-attested forms
- 7
- Quran senses
- 56
- Quran occurrences
Forms in the Quran
The forms this root actually takes in the Quran. Select one to jump to its senses and examples.
نَهَى
nahā
- Part of speech
- Verb · Form I
- Form
- I
- Quran occurrences
- 32 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 forbid, prohibit, or restrain someone from an act or thing.
The prohibition may be expressed by speech or by conduct, including forbidding wrongdoing and restraining oneself from an impulse. The Quranic constructions include directing the prohibition toward a person or thing and using عَنْ for what is prohibited.
- Lane · entry 32440
- Mufradāt · row 1493
Selected Quran examples
تَنَاهَى
tanāhā
- Part of speech
- Verb · Form VI
- Form
- VI
- 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 forbid one another or mutually restrain one another.
The Form VI reciprocal construction presents the parties as mutually prohibiting or restraining one another, especially from wrongdoing.
- Mufradāt · row 1493
Selected Quran examples
Quran 5:79word 3
“forbidding each other”
اِنْتَهَى
āintahā
- Part of speech
- Verb · Form VIII
- Form
- VIII
- Quran occurrences
- 16 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 desist, refrain, or cease from an action, bringing the course of action to its end.
The Quranic use commonly concerns stopping a prohibited or admonished course and is often construed with عَنْ. It describes the subject's cessation, rather than causing another person to stop.
- Lane · entry 32442
- Mufradāt · row 1493
Selected Quran examples
مُنْتَهًى
muntahan
- Part of speech
- Passive participle
- 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.
The ultimate boundary, endpoint, or final goal.
Used substantively for the point, place, or state at which a course culminates; the Quranic occurrences present it as an ultimate point of access, a final goal, or an affair's finality.
- Lane · entry 32447
Selected Quran examples
Quran 53:14word 3
“(of) the utmost boundary”
Quran 53:42word 4
“(is) the final goal”
Quran 79:44word 3
“(is) its finality”
مُنْتَهٍ
muntahin
- 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 desists or abstains.
The Quranic form is masculine plural and denotes people who stop abstaining from, or cease engaging in, the prohibited matter under discussion.
- Mufradāt · row 1493
Selected Quran examples
Quran 5:91word 20
“(be) the ones who abstain”
نَاهٍ
nāhin
- 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 forbids or restrains others from wrongdoing.
The Quranic form is masculine plural and occurs in a description of those who forbid what is wrong.
- Lane · entry 32440
- Mufradāt · row 1493
Selected Quran examples
Quran 9:112word 9
“and those who forbid”
نُهْيَةٌ
nuhyahun
- Part of speech
- Noun
- 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.
Intelligence or reason that restrains from reprehensible action.
The Quranic occurrences use the plural form نُهَىٰ in the expression for people possessing sound intelligence or reason.
- Mufradāt · row 1493
Selected Quran examples
Quran 20:54word 9
“(of) intelligence”
Quran 20:128word 17
“(of) intelligence”
Occurrences in the Quran
Every place this root appears, in Quran order. The first few are shown here.
- 2:192ٱنتَهَوْا۟they cease
- 2:193ٱنتَهَوْا۟they cease
- 2:275فَٱنتَهَىٰand he refrained
- 3:104وَيَنْهَوْنَand forbidding
- 3:110وَتَنْهَوْنَand forbidding
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 11 Classical meanings
اِنْتَهَى
To reach or extend ultimately to a person, thing, authority, item of information, or place.
Includes information reaching someone, authority or a matter pertaining to someone, and a person ultimately arriving at a place.
- Lane · entry 32442
اِنْتَهَى
To attain an utmost point or degree, come to completion, or cease pursuing a matter.
May describe an affair or thing reaching its maximum or ending, including fruit reaching full growth; a person may also leave off pursuing a need whether or not it has been obtained.
- Lane · entry 32442
- Mufradāt · row 1493
رَكِبَ النَّهْيَ
To do what one has been forbidden to do.
A conventional idiom for committing the prohibited act.
- Lane · entry 32443
نِهَايَةٌ
The utmost possible point or degree, or the ultimate point to which a thing can be reduced or resolved.
In expressions such as نِهَايَةٌ فِي السَّخَاءِ, it denotes an extreme degree of a quality.
- Lane · entry 32445
نَاهِيكَ
Sufficient or enough; something that makes seeking anything beyond it unnecessary.
In نَاهِيكَ بِـ..., the preposition باء introduces an emphatic expression of praise or sufficiency.
- Lane · entry 32446
- Mufradāt · row 1493
أَنْهَى
To convey or report information to someone.
The reported development is from delivering a prohibition to conveying any information to its recipient.
- Mufradāt · row 1493
نَهِيَّةٌ
A she-camel that has reached the utmost of fatness.
A specialized Classical Arabic description of an animal that has reached its maximum state of development.
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نَهْيٌ / نِهْيٌ
A pool or pond to which water comes.
The term is explained through the water reaching and collecting at that place.
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تَنْهِيَةُ الْوَادِي
The place in a valley where runoff comes to an end.
Refers to the terminal point reached by the valley's flowing water.
- Maqāyīs · row 4781
نَهَاءُ النَّهَارِ
The height or utmost rise of the day.
This usage is reported conditionally as a possible extension of the endpoint notion.
- Maqāyīs · row 4781
نُهَاءٌ
Glass vessels.
A reported divergent usage whose validity is explicitly questioned by the lexical discussion.
- Maqāyīs · row 4781
Cautions
Points that affect how this root should be read.
مُنْتَهًى is treated as a substantive endpoint or goal in the Quranic occurrences despite its supplied passive-participle analysis.
The Quranic form نُهَىٰ is displayed under the singular lexical citation form نُهْيَةٌ; the supplied occurrences are plural.
The reported glass-vessel meaning نُهَاءٌ is retained as a disputed Classical usage rather than treated as established without qualification.