Quranic root
قتل
q · t · l
The root centers on bringing low or causing loss of life, with related extensions to overcoming, combat, and complete apprehension.
The core movement from humbling and causing death develops into expressions for killing, mutual fighting, intensified destruction, and—by extension—knowing something fully or with certainty. Some derived expressions retain figurative or idiomatic senses of subduing and being exposed to death.
- Maqāyīs · row 3713
- 8
- Quran-attested forms
- 12
- Quran senses
- 170
- Quran occurrences
Forms in the Quran
The forms this root actually takes in the Quran. Select one to jump to its senses and examples.
قَتَلَ
qatala
- Part of speech
- Verb · Form I
- Form
- I
- Quran occurrences
- 83 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 kill; to cause the loss of life.
Includes active and passive constructions and applies to persons, animals, and other living beings. In prohibitions such as فاقتلوا أنفسكم, the ordinary reading is literal killing, including mutual killing; other reported interpretations understand the expression figuratively as removing desires. In the prohibition concerning game, قتل is broader than slaughter or ritual slaughter and denotes forfeiting life by any means.
- Mufradāt · row 1158
Selected Quran examples
Quran 5:30word 6
“so he killed him”
Quran 2:54word 14
“and kill”
To know, recognize, or apprehend something completely and with certainty.
A figurative construction such as قَتَلَهُ عِلْمًا or قَتَلَهُ خُبْرًا; in ما قتلوه يقينًا, the expression is interpreted as denying that they knew the matter with certainty.
- Lane · entry 20833
- Mufradāt · row 1158
Selected Quran examples
Quran 4:157word 3
“killed”
To suppress or remove the self’s desires.
A reported figurative interpretation of فاقتلوا أنفسكم; it is distinct from the ordinary physical-killing interpretation of the same expression.
- Mufradāt · row 1158
Selected Quran examples
Quran 2:54word 14
“and kill”
In a maledictory formula, to perish or be destroyed.
Used in formulaic passive-looking expressions such as قُتِلَ الْإِنْسَانُ and قُتِلَ الْخَرَّاصُونَ; the expression functions as an imprecation rather than a straightforward report that someone was killed.
- Mufradāt · row 1158
Selected Quran examples
Quran 51:10word 1
“Cursed be”
قَتَّلَ
qattala
- Part of speech
- Verb · Form II
- Form
- II
- 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.
To kill in an intensified or extensive manner; to put to death wholesale.
Form II gives the killing action intensified force; Quranic contexts include collective or severe killing and its passive counterpart.
- Mufradāt · row 1158
Selected Quran examples
Quran 5:33word 12
“they be killed”
Quran 7:127word 15
“We will kill”
قَاتَلَ
qātala
- Part of speech
- Verb · Form III
- Form
- III
- 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.
To fight, combat, or engage an adversary in battle.
The construction is reciprocal or adversarial: one fights against or combats another, with or without an expressed object.
- Lane · entry 20835
- Mufradāt · row 1158
Selected Quran examples
Quran 2:190word 6
“fight you”
Quran 9:14word 1
“Fight them”
In قَاتَلَهُمُ اللَّهُ, to invoke destruction or ruin upon them.
A Quranic maledictory formula whose interpretation varies between ‘may God destroy them’ and ‘may God curse them’; it is a conventional expression rather than ordinary combat with God.
- Mufradāt · row 1158
Selected Quran examples
Quran 9:30word 20
“(May) Allah destroy them”
اِقْتَتَلَ
āiqtatala
- Part of speech
- Verb · Form VIII
- Form
- VIII
- 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.
To fight one another; to engage in mutual combat.
The reciprocal construction presents the parties as fighting each other rather than one party simply acting upon another.
- Mufradāt · row 1158
Selected Quran examples
Quran 28:15word 11
“fighting each other”
Quran 49:9word 5
“fight”
قَتْل
qatl
- Part of speech
- Verbal noun
- Quran occurrences
- 10 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.
Killing; the act or occurrence of causing loss of life.
The verbal noun focuses on the killing action or its occurrence, though context may foreground the resulting death.
- Mufradāt · row 1158
Selected Quran examples
قَتْلَى
qatlā
- Part of speech
- Noun · plural
- 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.
Those killed; the slain or murdered.
A plural designation for persons whose lives have been taken, especially in the context of legal retaliation.
- Mufradāt · row 1158
Selected Quran examples
Quran 2:178word 8
“(the matter of) the murdered”
قِتَال
qitāl
- Part of speech
- Verbal noun
- Quran occurrences
- 13 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.
Fighting, combat, or battle.
The verbal noun of mutual combat; it can denote fighting generally, a particular battle, or warfare.
- Mufradāt · row 1158
Selected Quran examples
تَقْتِيل
taqtīl
- 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.
Intensive or wholesale killing; massacre.
The verbal noun of Form II and its intensified killing action.
- Mufradāt · row 1158
Selected Quran examples
Quran 33:61word 6
“and massacred completely”
Occurrences in the Quran
Every place this root appears, in Quran order. The first few are shown here.
- 2:54فَٱقْتُلُوٓا۟and kill
- 2:61وَيَقْتُلُونَand kill
- 2:72قَتَلْتُمْyou killed
- 2:85تَقْتُلُونَ(who) kill
- 2:87تَقْتُلُونَyou kill(ed)
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 13 Classical meanings
قَتَلَ
To subdue, humble, or bring someone under control.
A broader Classical Arabic extension distinct from the Quranic physical-killing sense.
- Mufradāt · row 1158
قَتَلَ
To mix wine with water, thereby weakening or ‘killing’ it.
A figurative idiom for dilution by mixing.
- Mufradāt · row 1158
أَقْتَلَ
To expose or subject someone to being killed.
Causative Form IV usage.
- Mufradāt · row 1158
قَتَّلَ
To subdue or humble forcefully; figuratively, to overwhelm the heart through love.
Includes the Classical expression of a heart overcome by passion; this is not assigned to the Quranic intensive-killing sense.
- Mufradāt · row 1158
تَقَتَّلَ
To humble or submit oneself, especially in a manner intended to win affection.
The cited construction is تَقَتَّلَتْ لَهُ and describes submission continuing until he falls in love.
- Lane · entry 20836
اِسْتَقْتَلَ
To court or seek slaughter; to resign oneself to death and show no concern for dying.
A courage-related Form X usage.
- Lane · entry 20837
قِتْلَة
A manner or state in which someone is killed; also a single act or occurrence of killing.
The two related nominal uses describe the manner of killing and one instance of it.
- Maqāyīs · row 3713
قِتْل
An enemy, adversary, or equal opponent; by extension, one of two matching equals.
Includes the expressions قِتْلٌ for an adversary or peer and هُمَا قِتْلَانِ for two equals.
- Mufradāt · row 1158
اِقْتَتَلَ
To be overcome or afflicted by love or by jinn.
A restricted Classical Arabic specialization explicitly associated with love or jinn, not with ordinary human mutual combat.
- Mufradāt · row 1158
قَتَّال
Murderous, slaughterous, or very deadly.
An intensive adjective applied to something exceptionally lethal.
- Lane · entry 20839
قَاتِل
Deadly or poisonous.
An adjectival use applied to a lethal tree or poison.
- Lane · entry 20840
مَقْتَل
A vital place where a wound causes death.
May refer to a fatal spot in a person or animal; plural مَقَاتِل.
- Lane · entry 20841
مَقَاتِلَكَ
In the expression وَلِنِّي مَقَاتِلَكَ: turn your face toward me.
A fixed idiomatic expression, not the ordinary plural noun for vital places.
- Lane · entry 20842
Cautions
Points that affect how this root should be read.
قُتِلَ الْإِنْسَانُ and related expressions can function as conventional imprecations (‘perish’, ‘be destroyed’) rather than ordinary passive reports of killing; قَاتَلَهُمُ اللَّهُ is likewise an idiomatic malediction with varying translations.
A Maqayis discussion reports a disputed use of قِتَال for bodily strength or compactness in a she-camel, while also deriving it from an alternative كتل; it is therefore not assigned as a Quranic meaning of قِتَال.
Unassigned or ambiguous evidence
The disputed Classical use of قِتَال for a strong or compact she-camel is preserved as an ambiguity because the source itself offers an alternative derivation from كتل.