Quranic root
قبض
q · b · ḍ
Taking hold and gathering something into a grasp or concentrated state.
The root develops from taking or collecting into possession and control, contraction and withholding, and rapid movement understood as gathering the body's limbs together.
- Maqāyīs · row 3702
- 4
- Quran-attested forms
- 9
- Quran senses
- 9
- Quran occurrences
Forms in the Quran
The forms this root actually takes in the Quran. Select one to jump to its senses and examples.
قَبَضَ
qabaḍa
- Part of speech
- Verb · Form I
- Form
- I
- Quran occurrences
- 5 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 take, grasp, seize, or receive by taking hold of something.
The direct physical sense of taking hold, including grasping an object with the hand; it may also extend to taking possession.
- Lane · entry 7733
- Mufradāt · row 1155
Selected Quran examples
Quran 20:96word 7
“so I took”
To withdraw, remove, or take away, especially a shadow.
Used for the taking away of a visible extension such as a shadow, including its gradual withdrawal.
- Mufradāt · row 1155
Selected Quran examples
Quran 25:46word 2
“We withdraw it”
To withhold, restrict, or make scant the means of subsistence.
Used in contrast with بسط, especially of God withholding or limiting provision.
- Lane · entry 7733
- Mufradāt · row 1155
Selected Quran examples
Quran 2:245word 13
“withholds”
To draw back the hands and refrain from giving or spending.
The Quranic construction يَقْبِضُونَ أَيْدِيَهُمْ describes withholding expenditure, including obligatory alms.
- Lane · entry 7733
- Mufradāt · row 1155
Selected Quran examples
Quran 9:67word 11
“and they close”
To contract or fold the wings, and thereby move swiftly in flight.
Used of birds whose wings or bodily extensions are gathered in during flight; the lexical interpretation emphasizes rapid movement through contraction.
- Lane · entry 7733
Selected Quran examples
Quran 67:19word 7
“and folding”
مَقْبُوضٌ
maqbūḍun
- Part of speech
- Passive 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.
Held, grasped, or received into possession.
A passive participle describing something that has been taken into hand or possession; the Quranic occurrence presents it as held in hand.
- Lane · entry 7755
Selected Quran examples
Quran 2:283word 9
“in hand”
قَبْضٌ
qabḍun
- Part of speech
- Verbal 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.
Withdrawal or taking away, especially the gradual removal of a shadow.
The Quranic verbal noun refers to the withdrawal of the shadow after its extension.
- Mufradāt · row 1155
Selected Quran examples
Quran 25:46word 4
“a withdrawal”
قَبْضَةٌ
qabḍahun
- 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.
A handful: an amount taken or grasped by the hand.
A measure defined by what can be taken in one grasp; used of the handful of dust taken in the Quranic narrative.
- Lane · entry 7744
- Mufradāt · row 1155
Selected Quran examples
Quran 20:96word 8
“a handful”
Sole possession, control, or disposal of something.
A metaphorical use in which something is entirely within the possessor's control, as the earth is described in the Quranic expression.
- Lane · entry 7744
- Mufradāt · row 1155
Selected Quran examples
Quran 39:67word 8
“(will be) in His Grip”
Occurrences in the Quran
Every place this root appears, in Quran order. The first few are shown here.
- 2:245يَقْبِضُwithholds
- 2:283مَّقْبُوضَةٌۭ ۖin hand
- 9:67وَيَقْبِضُونَand they close
- 20:96فَقَبَضْتُso I took
- 20:96قَبْضَةًۭa handful
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 29 Classical meanings
قَبَضَ
To possess or control a thing, taking it into one's own possession and having power to dispose of it.
A metaphorical extension from physical grasping; also used of taking something for oneself.
- Lane · entry 7733
- Lane · entry 7740
قَبَضَ
To seize or arrest a debtor.
A conventional transitive use with a person as the object.
- Lane · entry 7733
قَبَضَ
To take a soul and thereby cause death; in the passive, to die or be at the point of death.
A figurative use of taking or removing the soul; the passive may describe a dead person or one in death agony.
- Lane · entry 7733
- Lane · entry 7755
قَبَضَ
To remove someone from a matter or affair.
Used with عن to express removal from participation or involvement.
- Lane · entry 7733
قَبَضَ / تَقَبَّضَ
To draw together, contract, shrink, or wrinkle something, or to become gathered and contracted.
Used of limbs, the face, skin, and other substances; the Form V may describe the subject becoming contracted or gathered.
- Lane · entry 7733
- Lane · entry 7737
قَبْضٌ / تَقَبَّضَ
To leap or spring toward something.
A specialized movement use, including the Form V construction with إلى.
- Lane · entry 7733
- Lane · entry 7737
قَبَضَ
To collect and drive a herd together, often rapidly or forcefully.
Used especially of driving camels or other livestock so that they remain gathered under the driver's control.
- Lane · entry 7733
قَبَضَ / قَابِضٌ
To have an astringent or constipating effect.
Used of medicine, food, or taste.
- Lane · entry 7733
- Lane · entry 7750
قَبَضَ
To abridge or restrict someone's liberty.
Used in contrast with extending or enlarging a person's freedom of action.
- Lane · entry 7733
قَبَضَ
To distress, grieve, annoy, or anger someone.
A figurative use in which the heart is contracted rather than opened into ease and joy.
- Lane · entry 7733
تَقَبَّضَ
To shrink away, withdraw, or retire from people or an affair.
Used with عن for withdrawal accompanied by aversion or reluctance.
- Lane · entry 7733
- Lane · entry 7737
قَبَضَ
To make someone close-fisted, tenacious, or niggardly.
A causative figurative use describing a disposition toward withholding wealth.
- Lane · entry 7733
قَبَّضَ
To give property or goods into another person's grasp or possession; to transfer them to the recipient.
The Form II construction is causative and takes the property or commodity as its object and the recipient as the beneficiary.
- Lane · entry 7734
قَابَضَ / تَقَابَضَ
To barter or exchange commodities with another party.
The Form III and Form VI constructions describe reciprocal exchange in a transaction.
- Lane · entry 7735
- Lane · entry 7738
أَقْبَضَ / مَقْبِضٌ
To fit an object with a handle; a handle or part grasped by the hand.
Used of a knife, sword, bow, whip, spear, or similar implement; the nominal forms designate the grasping part.
- Lane · entry 7736
- Lane · entry 7752
تَقَبَّضَ
To pause or wait at a matter or affair.
A conventional Form V use synonymous with stopping or holding back before proceeding.
- Lane · entry 7737
اِنْقَبَضَ
To become taken, grasped, or received.
The Form VII construction presents the thing as entering the state of being held or received.
- Lane · entry 7739
قَبْضٌ
The act of taking, grasping, seizing, receiving, or taking possession.
A verbal noun covering the act and, by extension, its result as possession.
- Lane · entry 7741
قَبَضٌ
Property collected or taken as spoils before it is divided.
A specialized noun for acquired property or spoils held together prior to distribution.
- Lane · entry 7742
قَبْضَةٌ
A measure equal to the breadth of a person's fist, traditionally four fingerbreadths.
A conventional unit of length distinct from the ordinary handful sense.
- Lane · entry 7743
قُبَضَةٌ رُفَضَةٌ
A person who lays hold of something and then lets it go without delay.
An idiomatic descriptive expression for inconsistent or momentary grasping.
- Lane · entry 7745
قُبَضَةٌ
A shepherd who keeps his sheep, goats, or other livestock gathered and manages their movement well.
The term describes a shepherd who gathers the animals, then lets them spread when suitable pasture is found.
- Lane · entry 7745
قَابِضٌ
One who takes, grasps, seizes, or collects.
The active participle may be used literally of taking by hand or more generally of collecting everything.
- Lane · entry 7750
قَابِضُ الأَرْوَاحِ / القَابِضُ
The taker of souls; a title for the Angel of Death and a divine name associated with taking souls or withholding provision.
A conventional theological and honorific use of the active participle.
- Lane · entry 7750
قَابِضٌ
Quick or active in flight, movement, or pace.
Used of a bird, horse, other animal, or person who moves rapidly; the sense is associated with gathering the limbs.
- Lane · entry 7750
قَابِضٌ
An intelligent or capable person who adheres to and manages his craft or work.
A specialized figurative description of competence and steadiness in one's occupation.
- Lane · entry 7750
قَبَّاضَةٌ / قَابِضٌ
A quick or forceful driver, especially of camels or other animals.
Used of a camel-driver who drives rapidly or vehemently; intensive forms strengthen the description.
- Lane · entry 7750
مَقْبِضٌ / مَقْبَضٌ
A place of taking, grasping, or receiving.
A noun of place; the variant مَقْبَضٌ is reported as an exceptional formation alongside the more regular form.
- Lane · entry 7751
مُنْقَبِّضٌ
Drawn together and prepared to spring, especially describing a lion or another poised creature.
An adjective for a subject gathered into a compact posture before leaping.
- Lane · entry 7757
Cautions
Points that affect how this root should be read.
Modern verse keys and word locations in the examples are taken from QAC; historical bracketed citations in the lexical evidence are not converted into modern locations.
Lane records vocalic variants around قَبْضَةٌ and قُبْضَةٌ; the public Quranic form follows the QAC identity قَبْضَةٌ.
The bird passage at 67:19 combines the notions of contracting the wings and rapid flight; translations may foreground either aspect.