Quranic root
رصد
r · ṣ · d
The root centers on preparing to watch or intercept something along its route, and extends to watching, guarding, a station of observation, and things prepared to lie in wait.
From watchful readiness, the lexicon develops meanings of setting something in readiness or in another's path, watching or guarding, places and agents of surveillance, and specialized terms for ambushes, predators, rain, and herbage.
- Maqāyīs · row 2043
- Lane · entry 23413
- Lane · entry 23419
- 4
- Quran-attested forms
- 5
- Quran senses
- 6
- Quran occurrences
Forms in the Quran
The forms this root actually takes in the Quran. Select one to jump to its senses and examples.
إِرْصَاد
ʾirṣād
- 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.
Preparing or setting up a station for watchful opposition or surveillance.
In the Quranic occurrence, the verbal noun denotes establishing something as a place or means of watchful readiness, rather than generic preparation alone.
- Lane · entry 23415
- Mufradāt · row 555
Selected Quran examples
Quran 9:107word 9
“and (as) a station”
مَرْصَد
marṣad
- Part of speech
- 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.
A place, position, or route where one watches or lies in wait; an ambush post.
The Quranic construction can refer to every route or way used as a position for watching or interception.
- Lane · entry 23419
- Mufradāt · row 555
Selected Quran examples
Quran 9:5word 14
“place of ambush”
مِرْصَاد
mirṣād
- 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 station or position specially designated for watching or lying in wait.
In the Quran it is applied figuratively to Hell as a station lying in wait for those who pass through, and to the Lord's watchful position from which no person's deeds escape.
- Lane · entry 23419
- Mufradāt · row 555
Selected Quran examples
Quran 78:21word 4
“lying in wait”
Quran 89:14word 3
“(is) surely Ever Watchful”
رَصَد
raṣad
- Part of speech
- Noun / adjective
- 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 watcher or guard, whether an individual or a group, stationed to observe, protect, or lie in wait.
The Quranic contexts use the form for guards or watchers, including those stationed before and behind a bearer of revelation; the form may function as a noun or an adjectival description.
- Lane · entry 23428
- Mufradāt · row 555
Selected Quran examples
Quran 72:9word 13
“waiting”
Quran 72:27word 13
“a guard”
A person or thing kept under watch; a watched or guarded party.
The Quran-focused lexical discussion allows رَصَد to refer to the watched party or object, singular or plural, as well as to the watcher; the supplied Quranic contexts are commonly understood as referring to guards.
- Mufradāt · row 555
Occurrences in the Quran
Every place this root appears, in Quran order. The first few are shown here.
- 9:5مَرْصَدٍۢ ۚplace of ambush
- 9:107وَإِرْصَادًۭاand (as) a station
- 72:9رَّصَدًۭاwaiting
- 72:27رَصَدًۭاa guard
- 78:21مِرْصَادًۭاlying in wait
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 17 Classical meanings
رَصَدَ
To watch, wait for, or lie in wait for someone or something.
It may describe waiting on a road, watching for a thing, or awaiting an opportunity to spring; the object may be construed with لَهُ.
- Lane · entry 23413
رَصَد
A small quantity or early fall of rain.
Reported applications vary: it may be the first rain, rain following or awaited after other rain, or a shower falling at once; رَصْدَةٌ is also reported as a name for such rain.
- Lane · entry 23413
- Lane · entry 23419
رَصَد
A small quantity of herbage in land awaiting the season's rain.
This is a specialized agricultural use associated with land in which seasonal rain is hoped for.
- Lane · entry 23419
أَرْصَدَ
To charge someone with watching or guarding a thing.
The construction takes the person charged with surveillance and the thing to be watched or guarded.
- Lane · entry 23415
أَرْصَدَ
To prepare or make ready a person or thing for someone; to set it in his way.
The prepared object may be an army, a mount, property, money, punishment, good, or evil; these examples illustrate the construction rather than an object-class restriction.
- Lane · entry 23415
أَرْصَدَ
To requite or recompense someone with good or evil.
This is an extended application of preparing something for a person as a consequence awaiting him.
- Lane · entry 23415
أَرْصَدَ
To show, cast up, or produce a reckoning.
A reported extended or technical usage concerning the presentation of an account or calculation.
- Lane · entry 23415
رَصْدَة
A watching or waiting; in an idiom, an act of watching for good or evil understood as requital.
The idiom presents repeated or individual watchings as consequences that will not miss the person concerned.
- Lane · entry 23420
رُصْدَة
A pitfall or pit prepared for a lion.
This is a specialized hunting term, synonymous with زُبْيَة.
- Lane · entry 23421
رُصْدَة
A brass or silver ring in the straps or cords by which a sword is suspended.
A technical object-term distinct from the ambush meaning.
- Lane · entry 23421
رَصَدِيّ
One who lies in wait for people on a road in order to take their property unjustly.
The term denotes a person characterized by predatory roadside ambush.
- Lane · entry 23423
رَصُود
A she-camel that waits until other camels have drunk and then drinks herself.
The meaning is a conventional animal description of delayed drinking behavior.
- Lane · entry 23424
رَصِيد
A beast of prey, wolf, or serpent that lies in wait to spring or bite.
The term is applied to predatory creatures waiting for an opportunity to attack, including a serpent waiting for passers-by.
- Lane · entry 23425
رَصَائِد
Snares or traps prepared for catching beasts of prey.
This plural denotes prepared catching devices and is synonymous with وَصَائِد in the cited usage.
- Lane · entry 23426
رَاصِد
An appellation of the lion.
This is a conventional designation derived from the lion's watchful or waiting posture.
- Lane · entry 23428
مُرْصِد
One who watches or waits, especially one awaiting an opportunity to requite beneficence.
The term is explicitly related to رَاصِد and is used in a construction where waiting culminates in recompense.
- Lane · entry 23430
أَرْضٌ مُرْصَدَة
Land rained upon by a rain termed رَصْد or رَصْدَة, or land expected to produce herbage after such rain; also land containing a small amount of that herbage.
The expression is used of land whose rainfall or incipient herbage gives hope of further growth; variant forms are reported in the lexical discussion.
- Lane · entry 23430
Cautions
Points that affect how this root should be read.
رَصَد is Quranically tagged as both noun and adjective. The Quran-focused lexical discussion permits it to denote either watcher(s) or the watched or guarded party, although the supplied contextual readings favor the watcher/guard sense.