Quranic root
رقب
r · q · b
An upright attentiveness directed toward something: standing watch, observing, guarding, or awaiting what is expected.
The root develops from attentive watching and waiting into meanings for a watcher or guardian, a lookout, and related terms for the neck or elevated observation. Several conventional and figurative usages arise from the idea of watching for an event or maintaining regard for something.
- Maqāyīs · row 2109
- 6
- Quran-attested forms
- 8
- Quran senses
- 24
- Quran occurrences
Forms in the Quran
The forms this root actually takes in the Quran. Select one to jump to its senses and examples.
رَقَبَ
raqaba
- Part of speech
- Verb · Form I
- Form
- I
- 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 look for, watch for, await, or expect someone or something.
The object may be a person, thing, event, or anticipated statement; the Quranic form is imperfect and active.
- Lane · entry 24114
Selected Quran examples
Quran 20:94word 17
“you respect”
To regard, observe, or honor an inviolable tie, due, or obligation.
Used with a covenantal, social, or protected right; this construction explains translations such as respecting or observing a bond.
- Lane · entry 24114
- Mufradāt · row 572
Selected Quran examples
Quran 9:10word 2
“they respect (the ties)”
تَرَقَّبَ
taraqqaba
- Part of speech
- Verb · Form V
- Form
- V
- 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.
To remain watchful and alert while anticipating what may occur.
The Form V reflexive/intensive sense can include guarding oneself or staying on guard in expectation of danger or an approaching event.
- Lane · entry 24118
- Mufradāt · row 572
Selected Quran examples
Quran 28:18word 5
“(and) was vigilant”
Quran 28:21word 4
“(and) vigilant”
اِرْتَقَبَ
āirtaqaba
- 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 watch for, await, or keep watch for an expected event or person.
The Quranic occurrences are imperatives directing someone to maintain watch or await the outcome.
- Mufradāt · row 572
Selected Quran examples
Quran 44:10word 1
“Then watch”
Quran 54:27word 6
“so watch them”
مُرْتَقِب
murtaqib
- Part of speech
- Active 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.
One who remains watchful or awaits what is expected.
Active participle of اِرْتَقَبَ; the Quranic plural refers to people who are also watching or waiting.
- Lane · entry 24118
- Mufradāt · row 572
Selected Quran examples
Quran 44:59word 3
“(too are) watching”
رَقَبَة
raqabah
- Part of speech
- Noun
- Quran occurrences
- 9 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.
The neck, especially the upper or rear base of the neck.
This is the anatomical sense; in some Quranic constructions the same word is used metonymically for a person or slave.
- Lane · entry 24123
- Mufradāt · row 572
Selected Quran examples
Quran 47:4word 6
“the necks”
A slave or captive, expressed metonymically as a “neck.”
The Quranic usage occurs especially in emancipation, compensation, and alms contexts, including slaves under an emancipation contract.
- Lane · entry 24123
- Mufradāt · row 572
Selected Quran examples
Quran 4:92word 32
“(of) a believing slave”
Quran 2:177word 31
“freeing the necks (slaves)”
Quran 90:13word 2
“a neck”
رَقِيب
raqīb
- Part of speech
- Noun
- 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.
A watcher, observer, guard, or guardian.
The Quranic noun can describe an observing human or a divine guardian from whom nothing is hidden; these are contextual applications of the same watching-and-guarding sense.
- Lane · entry 24128
- Mufradāt · row 572
Selected Quran examples
Occurrences in the Quran
Every place this root appears, in Quran order. The first few are shown here.
- 2:177ٱلرِّقَابِfreeing the necks (slaves)
- 4:1رَقِيبًۭاEver-Watchful
- 4:92رَقَبَةٍۢ(of) a slave
- 4:92رَقَبَةٍۢ(of) a believing slave
- 4:92رَقَبَةٍۢ(of) a slave
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 28 Classical meanings
رَقَبَ
To guard, keep, preserve, take care of, or remain mindful of a thing.
A transitive Classical use distinct from merely awaiting or observing.
- Lane · entry 24114
رَقَبَ
To fear someone or fear a punishment; hence, to guard oneself or remain wary.
This is an extended use explained through expecting the punishment of the feared person or power.
- Lane · entry 24114
رَقَبَ
To watch a star or asterism while awaiting its setting or a desired time of departure.
A figurative or specialized application to celestial observation and eager waiting.
- Lane · entry 24114
رَقَبَ
To put a rope upon someone’s neck.
A concrete transitive use with رَقَبَة as the object or body part involved.
- Lane · entry 24114
رَقِبَ
To be or become thick in the neck.
This is a verbal bodily description, distinct from the noun for thickness and the adjective for a thick neck.
- Lane · entry 24114
رَقَّبَ
To make a pit or trap for catching a leopard.
A Form II specialized usage connected with the noun رُقْبَة in its trap sense.
- Lane · entry 24115
رُقْبَة
A pit or trap made to catch a leopard.
The trap is described as the equivalent, for a leopard, of a lion-trap or pit.
- Lane · entry 24121
أَرْقَبَ
To assign a house, land, or similar property to someone for use, with its later disposition conditioned by survival or succession.
The grant may provide that the property belongs to whichever of the two parties survives, or passes to the grantor’s heirs or the recipient’s successors according to the stated arrangement.
- Lane · entry 24117
رَقَب
Thickness of the neck.
A nominal bodily description.
- Lane · entry 24120
رِقْبَة
Distant relations or ancestors, especially in expressions about inheriting property or distinction from them.
A figurative plural usage referring to remoter rather than immediate lineage.
- Lane · entry 24122
رَقَبَة
A whole human person or self, by synecdoche from the neck.
Used in expressions placing a sin, obligation, or possession upon someone personally.
- Lane · entry 24123
رِقَابُ الْمَزَاوِدِ
A nickname for the Persians or foreigners generally.
A figurative expression explained by reference to the color or thickness of their necks.
- Lane · entry 24123
رُقْبَى
A conditional lifetime gift of a house, land, or similar property, whose final disposition depends on which party dies first.
The term is associated with mutual watching for the other party’s death; Classical legal authorities differed over its legal classification and effect.
- Lane · entry 24124
رَقُوب
A person whose children do not survive, or who has suffered the loss of children.
The term is explained through watching anxiously over children and their survival; it is applied to both women and men in the cited lexical evidence.
- Lane · entry 24127
رَقُوب
A woman who awaits the death of her husband in order to inherit his property.
A specialized conventional use focused on expected inheritance.
- Lane · entry 24127
رَقُوب
An old or poor person unable to earn and waiting for a benefaction or gratuity.
A figurative use based on awaiting support.
- Lane · entry 24127
رَقُوب
A she-camel that waits for other camels to finish drinking before approaching the water.
A specialized animal term for waiting until the crowd at the watering place has dispersed.
- Lane · entry 24127
أُمُّ الرَّقُوبِ
Calamity or misfortune.
An idiomatic expression.
- Lane · entry 24127
رَقِيب
The person entrusted with supervising the arrow-shuffler or players in the game of maysir.
A specialized gaming term for a supervisor or trusted official.
- Lane · entry 24128
رَقِيب
The third gaming arrow in maysir, the one allotted three notches and three portions.
A technical term of the pre-Islamic game of arrows.
- Lane · entry 24128
رَقِيب
A star or asterism that watches or accompanies another, especially one that rises as the other sets.
Used for corresponding stars or lunar mansions, including traditional identifications among named stars.
- Lane · entry 24128
رَقِيب
A successor from a person’s offspring or near kin.
A figurative extension from one who follows or watches after an earlier person.
- Lane · entry 24128
رَقِيب
The son of a paternal uncle.
A specialized kinship usage, explained in relation to rivalry or mutual watching.
- Lane · entry 24128
رَقِيب
A species of malignant serpent.
A figurative designation explained as though the serpent watched out of hostility.
- Lane · entry 24128
رَقَّابَة
A low-status servant or slave who guards a people’s equipment and baggage while they are absent.
A specialized occupational designation; the source explicitly includes the social-status nuance.
- Lane · entry 24129
أَرْقَب
Thick-necked or large-necked; also an epithet for a lion.
The feminine form is attested for a female slave and is not applied to a free woman in the cited usage.
- Lane · entry 24130
مَرْقَب
An elevated place from which a watcher or spy observes at a distance.
It may be a hill, elevated ground, mountain-top, fortress-top, or comparable lookout.
- Lane · entry 24131
مُرَقَّب
A skin or hide stripped from the part next to the head and neck.
A specialized term for the manner or portion from which the hide is removed.
- Lane · entry 24133
Cautions
Points that affect how this root should be read.
The Quranic noun رَقَبَة alternates between the anatomical sense “neck” and the metonymic sense “slave or captive”; construction and context determine which is intended.
Form I رَقَبَ may be rendered as watching or awaiting, or as regarding a tie or obligation, depending on its object and construction.