Quranic root
رهق
r · h · q
The root centers on one thing coming over, overtaking, or covering another, with a related branch involving haste, postponement, and the imposition of difficulty.
The covering or overtaking principle extends to things befalling a person, causing hardship, and approaching or nearly catching up. A related usage concerns hastening or delaying until another time approaches.
- Maqāyīs · row 2172
- Mufradāt · row 592
- 3
- Quran-attested forms
- 5
- Quran senses
- 10
- Quran occurrences
Forms in the Quran
The forms this root actually takes in the Quran. Select one to jump to its senses and examples.
رَهِقَ
rahiqa
- 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 come upon, overtake, or overspread; to cover.
In the Quran, the subject is an affliction, darkness, humiliation, or comparable condition that overtakes and covers its object, especially the face or faces.
- Lane · entry 24722
- Mufradāt · row 592
Selected Quran examples
Quran 10:26word 6
“(will) cover”
Quran 68:43word 3
“will cover them”
أَرْهَقَ
ʾarhaqa
- Part of speech
- Verb · Form IV
- Form
- IV
- 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.
To cause a condition to come upon, overtake, or befall someone; to inflict it upon them.
The Quran uses this causative construction for bringing excessive disobedience and disbelief upon people or causing those conditions to accompany them.
- Lane · entry 24725
- Mufradāt · row 592
Selected Quran examples
Quran 18:80word 8
“he would overburden them”
To impose a difficult or arduous thing on someone; to burden or overburden them.
The construction may describe making a person bear hardship or difficulty, including an arduous task or a demand that is hard to endure.
- Lane · entry 24725
- Mufradāt · row 592
Selected Quran examples
Quran 18:73word 7
“be hard (upon) me”
Quran 74:17word 1
“Soon I will cover Him”
رَهَقٌ
rahaqun
- 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.
Wrongdoing, injustice, or oppressive conduct; the doing of what is forbidden.
This is the directly attested moral reading of the Quranic noun, particularly in the expression concerning neither loss nor wrongdoing. Related interpretive explanations include sin, error, bad conduct, or pride.
- Lane · entry 24726
Selected Quran examples
Quran 72:13word 14
“any burden”
An affliction or burdensome harm that overtakes someone.
The supplied contextual rendering of one Quranic occurrence is “burden.” The lexical evidence supports an overtaking or affliction branch, but does not settle every exegetical nuance; related reported interpretations include weakness, lowness, or ruin.
- Lane · entry 24726
Selected Quran examples
Quran 72:6word 11
“(in) burden”
Occurrences in the Quran
Every place this root appears, in Quran order. The first few are shown here.
- 10:26يَرْهَقُ(will) cover
- 10:27وَتَرْهَقُهُمْand (will) cover them
- 18:73تُرْهِقْنِىbe hard (upon) me
- 18:80يُرْهِقَهُمَاhe would overburden them
- 68:43تَرْهَقُهُمْwill cover them
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 23 Classical meanings
رَهِقَهُ
To approach, come near, reach, or overtake a person or thing; to come upon an event, debt, or appointed time.
The object may be reached without necessarily being seized; the expression can also describe following until one is nearly caught.
- Lane · entry 24722
رَهِقَهُ بِمَا يَكْرَهُ
To inflict on someone something disliked or hateful.
- Lane · entry 24722
رُهِّقَ
To be regarded as affected by rahq; to be suspected of evil conduct or religious impropriety.
This is a passive characterization of a person, including being considered ignorant or morally suspect.
- Lane · entry 24723
راهق
To approach puberty or virility; to nearly attain a specified age.
Used of a boy approaching sexual maturity and also of nearly reaching an age such as twenty.
- Lane · entry 24724
أَرْهَقَ
To cause pursuers or riders to catch up with, overtake, or nearly overtake someone.
Used causatively of making horsemen or another pursuer come up with the pursued party.
- Lane · entry 24725
أَرْهَقَ
To urge or incite someone to do what is beyond his ability to bear.
This is a broader causative use involving an excessive or unmanageable demand.
- Lane · entry 24725
أَرْهَقَ الصَّلَاةَ
To delay a prayer until the time of the next prayer approaches.
A conventional temporal expression; the delay may be described as continuing until the next appointed time is near.
- Lane · entry 24725
أَرْهَقَهُ أَنْ يُصَلِّيَ
To hurry someone in a way that prevents or deters him from praying.
This is a specialized causative construction concerning being hurried away from prayer.
- Lane · entry 24725
رَهَقٌ
Rashness, haste, levity, foolishness, or ignorance.
These characterize a person’s conduct or disposition rather than the Quranic noun’s directly attested moral construction.
- Lane · entry 24726
رَهَقٌ
Ill nature, lying, or a proud and self-conceited disposition.
- Lane · entry 24726
رَهِقٌ / رَهِقَةٌ
A person characterized by quickness to evil, moral recklessness, or haughtiness; رَهِقَةٌ can refer to a vicious or adulterous woman.
The feminine form has the explicitly reported application to a woman of vicious or adulterous conduct.
- Lane · entry 24727
الرَّهَقَى
To run so fast that one’s pursuer must attempt something difficult or beyond his power, or so that the pursued person is nearly overtaken.
A conventional expression describing extreme speed in pursuit.
- Lane · entry 24729
رُهَاقُ مِائَةٍ / رِهَاقُ مِائَةٍ
As many as a hundred, especially a company of people or a group of camels.
An idiomatic quantity expression.
- Lane · entry 24731
رَهُوقٌ
A wide-stepping, swift, or excellent she-camel that nearly treads on the person leading her.
- Lane · entry 24732
رَاهِقٌ / رَاهِقَةٌ
A boy or girl from approximately ten to eleven years of age.
The masculine and feminine forms are applied respectively to a boy and a girl.
- Lane · entry 24734
رَيْهُقَانٌ
Saffron.
- Lane · entry 24735
مُرْهَقٌ
Reached or overtaken, especially to the point of being caught and slain.
This is a passive participial description of one who has been caught by a pursuer.
- Lane · entry 24736
مُرْهَقٌ
Straitened or placed under oppressive difficulty.
- Lane · entry 24736
المُرْهِقَةِ
The time at which the afternoon prayer is drawing near.
A tropical temporal expression referring to the approach of prayer time.
- Lane · entry 24737
مُرَهَّقٌ
A person to whom people frequently come and at whose abode guests alight.
The word can describe a hospitable person whose dwelling is often visited.
- Lane · entry 24738
مُرَهَّقٌ
A person suspected of evil, ignorance, corrupt conduct, or religious impropriety.
This is the passive characterization of one to whom rahq is attributed.
- Lane · entry 24738
مُرَاهِقٌ
Near to attaining puberty; an adolescent approaching sexual maturity.
Applied to a boy, with the feminine form used for a girl.
- Lane · entry 24739
مُرَاهِقًا
Nearly at the end of an appointed or proper time, so that the opportunity is almost missed.
Used of entering a place nearly too late for the relevant pilgrimage rite or performing a prayer nearly after its proper time.
- Lane · entry 24739
Cautions
Points that affect how this root should be read.
The noun رَهَقٌ has several reported interpretive readings in the Quranic material, including wrongdoing, affliction, suspicion, weakness, and ruin; the supplied evidence does not assign each alternative to a distinct modern verse location.
Lane’s historical Quran citation notation has not been converted into modern verse locations; Quran examples use only independently supplied QAC locations.
Unassigned or ambiguous evidence
For رَهَقًا at 72:6, the contextual gloss “burden” is compatible with the lexical affliction/overtaking branch, but the supplied Lane and Mufradat material does not resolve the full exegetical interpretation.