Quranic root
رتق
r · t · q
The root centers on closing, joining, and sealing: bringing a breach, seam, or opening into a closed state.
The basic idea of physical closure extends to repairing rents, joining cloth, closed bodily openings, coalescing clouds, inaccessibility, figurative reconciliation, and authority described as opening and closing. In the Quran, the noun denotes a joined or closed state attributed to the heavens and earth before their separation.
- Lane · entry 22395
- Lane · entry 22396
- Lane · entry 22401
- Lane · entry 22402
- Lane · entry 22403
- Lane · entry 22406
- Mufradāt · row 528
- 1
- Quran-attested forms
- 1
- Quran senses
- 1
- Quran occurrences
Forms in the Quran
The forms this root actually takes in the Quran. Select one to jump to its senses and examples.
رَتْقٌ
ratqun
- 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 joined or closed state, without separation or an opening.
In 21:30, describes the heavens and earth before they were parted. The closure is explained as their being joined without an interstice, and also in terms of heaven being closed to rain and earth being closed by the absence of fissures.
- Lane · entry 22397
- Mufradāt · row 528
Selected Quran examples
Quran 21:30word 9
“a joined entity”
Occurrences in the Quran
Every place this root appears, in Quran order. The first few are shown here.
- 21:30رَتْقًۭاa joined entity
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
رَتَقَ
To close up or repair a rent; to sew or join its edges together.
Form I verb for physically sealing or repairing a tear or opening.
- Lane · entry 22395
رَتَقَ فَتْقَهُمْ
To close a breach between people; to reconcile them or reform their circumstances.
Figurative construction referring to the repair of a rupture in relationships or circumstances.
- Lane · entry 22395
رَتِقَ
To be or become closed in the bodily opening, making intercourse impossible or difficult.
Said of a woman or girl, and also of a she-camel; the condition is called رَتْقَاءُ.
- Lane · entry 22395
اِرْتَتَقَ
To become closed up, repaired, or sewn together.
Form VIII; said of a rent and also of the vulva.
- Lane · entry 22396
رَتْقٌ
Closure or repair of a rent; a state of being closed up.
A nominal or infinitival use applied to a rent, contrasted with فَتْقٌ, the opening or splitting of it.
- Lane · entry 22397
رَتَقٌ
A rare collective or plural designation for the spaces between the fingers.
The lexical evidence records variant readings and an uncertain morphological relation to رَتَبَةٌ, ‘the space between two fingers.’
- Lane · entry 22398
رَتْقَاءُ
A woman, girl, or she-camel whose vaginal opening is closed or nearly impassable.
Describes imperviousness to intercourse; descriptions include having no aperture except the urinary meatus or having an opening too constricted for penetration.
- Lane · entry 22400
رِتَاقٌ
A garment made of two pieces of cloth sewn together along their edges.
Concrete noun for a joined or seamed garment.
- Lane · entry 22401
رُتُوقٌ
Inaccessibility or unapproachableness; by extension, might or elevated rank.
An abstract or plural form describing someone or something difficult to approach, and consequently powerful or high-ranking.
- Lane · entry 22402
رَاتِقٌ
Closing up or coalescing, said of clouds.
Used in the expression سَحَابٌ رَاتِقٌ for clouds joining or gathering together.
- Lane · entry 22403
الفَاتِقُ الرَّاتِقُ
One who has authority to open and close, constrict and expand.
Figurative idiom for a possessor of command or rule.
- Lane · entry 22403
فَرْجٌ أَرْتَقُ
A vulva whose sides stick together.
An adjectival description of a closed or adherent bodily opening.
- Lane · entry 22404
مَرْتَتِقٌ
Herbage whose blossoms have not yet emerged from their calyxes.
A descriptive term for unopened blossoms.
- Lane · entry 22406
Cautions
Points that affect how this root should be read.
The Quranic occurrence is the accusative رَتْقًا; the public headword is normalized to the citation form رَتْقٌ.
The supplied lexical discussion gives several contextual explanations of the closure in 21:30; these are treated as interpretations of one Quranic lexical sense rather than separate senses.
The bodily-opening meanings are Classical Arabic evidence and are not Quranic senses for the supplied form group.
No Maqayis entry was supplied for this root; the root orientation is based on the matched lexical evidence from Lane and Mufradat.
Unassigned or ambiguous evidence
Lane entry 22398, unit g2, preserves a rare sense connected with the spaces between the fingers but reports variant readings and an uncertain underlying morphological relation; it is represented provisionally under رَتَقٌ.