Quranic root
سجو
s · j · w
An underlying state of stillness joined with covering or enclosure.
From stillness and covering: night settles into quiet and may spread darkness over what it contains; related derivatives extend to calm or unruffled states and to covering a body.
- Maqāyīs · row 2367
- Mufradāt · row 665
- 1
- Quran-attested forms
- 2
- 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.
سَجَا
sajā
- Part of speech
- Verb · Form I
- Form
- I
- 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.
To become still, quiet, or calm.
In the Quranic expression وَاللَّيْلِ إِذَا سَجَا, said of the night; the reading may also convey that its people have become silent or that its darkness is at rest.
- Lane · entry 40341
- Mufradāt · row 665
Selected Quran examples
Quran 93:2word 3
“it covers with darkness”
Of the night, to become dark, for its darkness to spread, or to cover and conceal with darkness.
This is an alternate Quran-attested interpretation of وَاللَّيْلِ إِذَا سَجَا, describing the extension or enveloping effect of the night’s darkness.
- Lane · entry 40341
Selected Quran examples
Quran 93:2word 3
“it covers with darkness”
Occurrences in the Quran
Every place this root appears, in Quran order. The first few are shown here.
- 93:2سَجَىٰit covers with darkness
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 11 Classical meanings
سَجَا
To become still, quiet, or calm, especially said of the sea or wind.
Classical applications include a sea whose waves have become calm and a wind that has become still.
- Lane · entry 40341
سَجَا
Of a she-camel, to prolong her cry of yearning toward her young.
- Lane · entry 40341
سَجَّى
To cover something; especially, to cover or shroud a dead person with a garment or piece of cloth.
This is the Form II covering construction, including the conventional use for covering the dead.
- Lane · entry 40342
سَاجَى
To touch something, including, in the recorded food expression, to partake of it.
The construction takes an object; the food example uses the verb for touching or eating from what was brought.
- Lane · entry 40343
سَاجَى
To work or labor upon something.
Also used of working at or cultivating a landed estate; the precise role of others in that cultivation is left uncertain in the evidence.
- Lane · entry 40343
أَسْجَوَ
Of a she-camel, to have much milk.
Recorded in the Form IV entry in connection with the expression اسجت الناقةُ.
- Lane · entry 40344
سَجِيٌّ
A sincere companion or friend.
- Lane · entry 40345
سَجِيَّةٌ
A natural or innate disposition, temperament, or firmly rooted quality of character.
The plural is سَجَايَا.
- Lane · entry 40346
سَجْوَاءُ
Still, quiet, or unruffled: said of a she-camel while being milked, smooth fur or wool, or a gentle wind.
These are recorded applications of the feminine adjective to a camel, animal covering, and wind respectively.
- Lane · entry 40347
سَجْوَاءُ
A languid or languishing gaze.
In the recorded expression, it describes a woman’s eye or glance as an accessory to beauty.
- Lane · entry 40347
سَاجٍ
Still, calm, or motionless; applied to the sea, a calm night, or an eye.
A calm night is described as having still wind and clouds and little darkness; an eye may likewise be motionless or have a languid look.
- Lane · entry 40348
Cautions
Points that affect how this root should be read.
The single Quran occurrence supports both a stillness reading and a darkness or covering reading; these are distinct attested interpretations of the same construction, not separate occurrences.
The Form IV Lane entry places the milk-related statement under أَسْجَوَ while its subentry text prints اسجت الناقةُ; the lexical statement is clear, but the exact displayed inflection is not normalized beyond the entry heading.