Quranic root
سجد
s · j · d
The root centers on lowering oneself with humility and submission, especially by bending down or prostrating.
The basic notion of lowering and humbling develops into physical prostration, voluntary worshipful submission, compelled subjection to divine ordering, and related figurative uses of bending or lowered gaze.
- Maqāyīs · row 2360
- Mufradāt · row 661
- 4
- Quran-attested forms
- 9
- Quran senses
- 92
- Quran occurrences
Forms in the Quran
The forms this root actually takes in the Quran. Select one to jump to its senses and examples.
سَجَدَ
sajada
- Part of speech
- Verb · Form I
- Form
- I
- Quran occurrences
- 35 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 prostrate oneself: to lower or bend oneself and place the forehead on the ground in worship.
Used of voluntary human prostration, including commands and acts of worship; the physical act may also express submission to God or to a commanded object.
- Lane · entry 40237
- Mufradāt · row 661
Selected Quran examples
Quran 53:62word 1
“So prostrate”
To submit humbly or be subjected in obedience to God’s ordering.
Used of voluntary human submission and of the involuntary subjection of angels, celestial bodies, plants, shadows, animals, and other created things; it need not denote a voluntary ritual act in nonhuman subjects.
- Lane · entry 40237
- Mufradāt · row 661
Selected Quran examples
Quran 13:15word 2
“prostrates”
Quran 55:6word 3
“both prostrate”
مَسْجِد
masjid
- Part of speech
- Noun
- Quran occurrences
- 28 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 place of prostration, prayer, or worship; especially a mosque or house of prayer.
The term can denote a particular mosque or any place used for worship; in a Quranic interpretation of al-masājid, it may extend to the earth as a whole as a place made available for worship.
- Lane · entry 40248
- Mufradāt · row 661
Selected Quran examples
Quran 18:21word 32
“a place of worship”
Quran 72:18word 2
“the masjids”
A bodily part or point used in prostration; in the plural, the bodily prostration-points.
This is a reported Quranic interpretation of al-masājid, with variant enumerations including the forehead, nose, hands, knees, and feet.
- Lane · entry 40247
- Lane · entry 40248
- Mufradāt · row 661
Selected Quran examples
Quran 72:18word 2
“the masjids”
سَاجِد
sājid
- Part of speech
- Active participle
- Quran occurrences
- 23 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.
Prostrating or bending low in submission; one who performs the act of prostration.
An active participle used of people who prostrate in worship and, in the expression for entering the gate, of people who enter with their heads bowed.
- Lane · entry 40244
- Mufradāt · row 661
Selected Quran examples
Quran 12:100word 7
“prostrate”
Quran 7:161word 15
“prostrating”
Humbly or subserviently subject to God’s command; prostrating in the non-voluntary sense.
Used of shadows, plants, and other nonhuman or cosmic entities whose subjection is imposed by their created nature or by divine ordering rather than chosen as human worship.
- Lane · entry 40244
- Lane · entry 40237
- Mufradāt · row 661
Selected Quran examples
Quran 16:48word 14
“prostrating”
سُجُود
sujūd
- Part of speech
- Verbal noun / adjective
- Quran occurrences
- 6 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.
Prostration: the act or state of lowering oneself before God in worship.
As a verbal noun, it denotes the recognized prostration of prayer or a comparable act of worship.
- Lane · entry 40237
- Mufradāt · row 661
Selected Quran examples
Quran 68:42word 7
“prostrate”
Prayer itself, by extension from its characteristic prostration.
This extended use occurs in the expression adبار السجود, understood as the period after prayer.
- Mufradāt · row 661
Selected Quran examples
Quran 50:40word 5
“the prostration”
Those who prostrate; a plural active-participle use of the form.
In the Quranic collocation with those who bow, the form functions adjectivally or nominally rather than as the ordinary verbal noun.
- Lane · entry 40244
Selected Quran examples
Quran 2:125word 22
“and those who prostrate”
Occurrences in the Quran
Every place this root appears, in Quran order. The first few are shown here.
- 2:34ٱسْجُدُوا۟Prostrate
- 2:34فَسَجَدُوٓا۟[so] they prostrated
- 2:58سُجَّدًۭاprostrating
- 2:114مَسَـٰجِدَ(the) masajid
- 2:125ٱلسُّجُودِand those who prostrate
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 16 Classical meanings
سَجَدَ
Of a camel, to lower its head for a rider or when being ridden.
A specialized, figurative application of lowering the head to a rider or in readiness to be mounted.
- Lane · entry 40237
سَجَدَ
To lower oneself or yield in an archery context, conceding to the shooter or correcting the direction of an arrow.
An idiomatic account of lowering the head or bending in response to an arrow passing beyond, or being aimed too high above, the target.
- Lane · entry 40237
سُجُود
Salutation, respectful obeisance, or honoring someone.
A figurative use associated with the bodily bending that may accompany a greeting or expression of respect.
- Lane · entry 40237
سَجَدَ
To bend or incline under an external cause, as a palm bent by its fruit or a ship moved by the wind.
Used figuratively of plants, trees, palms, ships, and similar things that bend or incline; this is distinct from their Quranic compelled submission as a theological use.
- Lane · entry 40237
- Lane · entry 40244
سَجَدَ
To stand erect.
A dialectal usage attributed to the Tayy speech variety.
- Lane · entry 40237
سَجِدَ
For a leg to become inflated or swollen.
A figurative or specialized lexical use distinct from prostration and lowering.
- Lane · entry 40237
أَسْجَدَ
To look steadily while lowering the eyelids in a languid or languishing manner.
The gaze may convey amorous confidence, coyness, or presumptuousness; the related causative construction means to lower the eye.
- Lane · entry 40238
سَجْدَة
A single act of prostration.
The noun denotes one prostration, including one performed in prayer or a comparable act; its plural is سَجَدَات.
- Lane · entry 40239
سِجْدَة
A kind, form, or manner of prostration.
Distinct from سَجْدَة as a single act, this noun can describe a particular style or extended kind of prostration.
- Lane · entry 40240
سَجَّاد
A person who prostrates frequently or often in prayer.
An intensive descriptive noun or adjective for habitual performance of prostration.
- Lane · entry 40241
سَجَّادَة
A small mat or carpet on which one stands, sits, and prostrates in prayer.
A prayer mat, including the small oblong mat called a خُمْرَة.
- Lane · entry 40242
سَجَّادَة
The mark of prostration on the forehead.
The mark is understood as dust or a visible trace adhering to the forehead through prostration.
- Lane · entry 40242
سَاجِد
Bending or inclining, said of a tree, palm, or other plant.
Used of a tree or palm bent by fruit or otherwise inclined; this physical botanical specialization is broader Classical Arabic usage, not a separate Quranic sense.
- Lane · entry 40244
سَاجِد
Languid or languishing, said of an eye.
A figurative description of an eye with a lowered, languid gaze.
- Lane · entry 40244
أَسْجَد
Having an inflated or swollen leg.
A specialized adjective applied to a man.
- Lane · entry 40245
الأَسْجَاد
In the expression dirhāhim al-isjād, coins bearing royal images before which people bowed.
The expression also has reported interpretations referring to the jizya or to Jews and Christians; these are variant explanations of the idiom, not a single settled sense.
- Lane · entry 40246
Cautions
Points that affect how this root should be read.
The plural al-masājid in 72:18 has both the ordinary place-of-worship interpretation and a reported interpretation as bodily prostration-points; both are retained.
The QAC sujūd group combines verbal-noun uses with adjectival or plural active-participle uses, so these functions are separated as senses under one normalized headword.
Several Lane Quran references use historical citation conventions; the modern verse locations shown here come only from the supplied QAC occurrence data.