Quranic root
نسب
n · s · b
The root centers on connection or attachment between one thing and another, especially connection through lineage or relationship.
This notion extends from kinship and tracing origins to attribution, proportion, correspondence, and a continuous or connected path; poetic nasīb is understood as speech connected to the beloved.
- Maqāyīs · row 4616
- Mufradāt · row 1434
- 1
- Quran-attested forms
- 1
- Quran senses
- 3
- Quran occurrences
Forms in the Quran
The forms this root actually takes in the Quran. Select one to jump to its senses and examples.
نَسَبٌ
nasabun
- 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.
Kinship or blood relationship through one or both parents; lineage or family connection.
The Quranic usage covers both vertical lineage through ancestors and descendants and lateral kinship between related families. In the construction نَسَبًا وَصِهْرًا, it denotes kinship by parentage as distinct from affinity by marriage; the plural surface form أَنسَابَ denotes such relationships collectively.
- Mufradāt · row 1434
- Lane · entry 43610
- Lane · entry 43613
Selected Quran examples
Quran 23:101word 6
“(there) will be relationship”
Quran 25:54word 8
“blood relationship”
Quran 37:158word 5
“a relationship”
Occurrences in the Quran
Every place this root appears, in Quran order. The first few are shown here.
- 23:101أَنسَابَ(there) will be relationship
- 25:54نَسَبًۭاblood relationship
- 37:158نَسَبًۭا ۚa relationship
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 25 Classical meanings
نَسَبَ
To state, identify, or trace a person's relationship, lineage, or affiliation.
May identify descent from an ancestor or affiliation with a tribe, city, district, craft, or profession; it may also be used to ask someone to state his lineage.
- Lane · entry 43601
نَسَبَ
To refer the origin, derivation, or name of a person or thing to a source; to attribute or ascribe it to someone or something.
Used with an explicit object of attribution and may concern the origin of a name, an object, or an idea.
- Lane · entry 43601
نَسَبَ
To impute, charge, or accuse someone of a fault or other act.
A conventional accusatory use, distinct from simply identifying lineage or origin.
- Lane · entry 43601
نَسَبَ بِالْمَرْأَةِ
To mention a woman in amatory language or describe her in the opening of a poem.
A poetic construction used for the amatory prelude before the poem turns to its main subject; it includes descriptions of beauty, youth, affection, or related themes.
- Lane · entry 43601
نَاسَبَ
To share a relationship with someone or be related to him.
The Form III construction expresses reciprocal or shared relationship.
- Lane · entry 43602
نَاسَبَ
To correspond to, resemble, suit, or befit someone or something.
Used for resemblance, analogy, conformity, correspondence, or suitability rather than genealogical kinship.
- Lane · entry 43602
أَنْسَبَ
Of the wind, to become violent and drive dust and pebbles along.
Attested in the specific construction describing a violent wind.
- Lane · entry 43603
تَنَسَّبَ
To claim or assert that one is a relation or kinsman of another.
The claim may be made toward a specified person and need not itself establish that the relationship is genuine.
- Lane · entry 43604
تَنَاسَبَ
To be mutually related, similar, corresponding, or suitable to one another.
Describes reciprocal relation, resemblance, analogy, conformity, or fitness between two or more things.
- Lane · entry 43605
تَنَاسَبَ
To be proportionate, symmetrical, or uniform in one's parts.
Used when the components of something are suitably related in size, arrangement, or structure.
- Lane · entry 43605
اِنْتَسَبَ
To assert or claim relationship or descent from someone.
Especially used of claiming relationship to one's father, whether truthfully or falsely.
- Lane · entry 43606
اِنْتَسَبَ
To be attributed or ascribed to someone.
Attested for a voice or utterance whose source is assigned to a person.
- Lane · entry 43606
اِسْتَنْسَبَ
To state or disclose one's own relationship, lineage, or genealogy.
Used in a request that a person identify his lineage so that others may know him.
- Lane · entry 43607
نَيْسَبَ
To go back and forth between two parties spreading malicious misrepresentations, calumnies, or slanders.
A specialized quadriliteral usage describing the transmission of hostile allegations between two people.
- Lane · entry 43608
نَسِيبٌ
A relative, kinsman, or person sharing a relationship, including one related through marriage.
The noun can designate a male or female relation and a person who becomes related by marriage; an old commentary citation associates this kinship interpretation with Quranic discussion, but no modern verse location is asserted here.
- Lane · entry 43613
نَسِيبٌ
A person of rank, quality, or distinction who is also of notable family or lineage.
Combines social standing or quality with family or lineage.
- Lane · entry 43613
نَسِيبٌ
An elegant amatory mention of a woman or women at the beginning of a poem.
The poetic genre or passage of nasīb concerns love, longing, and description of the beloved.
- Lane · entry 43613
نَسَّابٌ
A highly skilled genealogist or a person exceptionally knowledgeable in genealogies.
An intensive professional or laudatory description.
- Lane · entry 43614
نَيْسَبٌ
A straight, direct, conspicuous, or narrow road or track; by extension, an uninterrupted line or trail.
Applied to a road, the traces of a road, a continuous procession of ants, or the tracks of a serpent or wild asses going to water.
- Lane · entry 43617
أَنْسَبُ
More or most elegant in the style of poetic nasīb.
A comparative or superlative expression applied to poetry judged especially effective in its amatory prelude.
- Lane · entry 43619
مَنْسُوبٌ
Regular or standardized in form, especially of handwriting.
The term is explained as properly named or characterized in relation to an author or established rule.
- Lane · entry 43620
مَنْسُوبٌ
A poem containing a nasīb, or amatory passage.
Refers to the poetic composition rather than to a person's lineage or attribution.
- Lane · entry 43620
نِسْبَةٌ
A relation, proportion, or comparison between quantities or measures.
Used for the proportional relation of one quantity to another, including expressions such as the proportion of ten to a hundred.
- Lane · entry 43611
نِسْبَةٌ
A name or designation of relation to a parent, tribe, place, district, craft, or profession.
Includes relational adjectives ending in ـِيّ, such as a designation connecting someone with a tribe, town, or occupation.
- Lane · entry 43611
نِسْبَةٌ
Resemblance, similarity, conformity, analogy, correspondence, or suitability between things.
Used of the relation between two things when they resemble, correspond to, or suit one another.
- Lane · entry 43611
Cautions
Points that affect how this root should be read.
The Quranic group combines the plural surface أَنسَابَ with the singular accusative نَسَبًا; the public headword is normalized to نَسَبٌ.
A historical commentary citation attached to the نَسِيبٌ entry is retained as lexical context for kinship, but its printed notation is not converted into a modern verse location.
Unassigned or ambiguous evidence
The citation “Jel, xxv. 56” in the نَسِيبٌ discussion does not securely identify a supplied QAC occurrence and may reflect historical citation or transcription conventions; its kinship interpretation is represented without assigning a modern verse key.