Quranic root
سقم
s · q · m
The root centers on sickness or disorder, primarily bodily illness, with extensions to spiritual or inward unsoundness and to causing illness.
The evidence attests the state or experience of becoming ill, the noun for illness, causative forms meaning to make ill, and derived descriptions of persistent or frequent illness. Figurative extensions apply the notion of illness to religion, inner faculties, speech, emotional rancour, and dangerous places.
- Maqāyīs · row 2454
- Mufradāt · row 705
- Lane · entry 41523
- Lane · entry 41526
- Lane · entry 41530
- Lane · entry 41525
- 1
- Quran-attested forms
- 2
- Quran senses
- 2
- Quran occurrences
Forms in the Quran
The forms this root actually takes in the Quran. Select one to jump to its senses and examples.
سَقِيم
saqīm
- Part of speech
- Adjective
- 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.
Physically sick, diseased, or ill.
In إِنِّي سَقِيمٌ, the statement may allude to a past illness, a future illness, or a slight illness presently affecting the speaker; a reading involving pestilence is also reported.
- Lane · entry 41530
- Mufradāt · row 705
Selected Quran examples
Quran 37:89word 3
“sick”
Quran 37:145word 4
“(was) ill”
Figuratively sickened by or averse to the worship of what is not God.
This is a reported figurative interpretation of إِنِّي سَقِيمٌ, distinct from the bodily-illness reading.
- Lane · entry 41530
Selected Quran examples
Quran 37:89word 3
“sick”
Occurrences in the Quran
Every place this root appears, in Quran order. The first few are shown here.
View all 2 occurrencesBroader 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
سَقِمَ، سَقُمَ
To be or become diseased, disordered, distempered, sick, or ill.
The lexical evidence also records the sense of being ill for a prolonged period.
- Lane · entry 41523
سُقْم
Disease, disorder, distemper, malady, or illness.
Used primarily of bodily illness, with a figurative extension to disorder in religion.
- Lane · entry 41526
سُقْم
Languidness and slowness in the movement of the eyelids.
A specialized usage in the expression concerning the eyelids.
- Lane · entry 41526
أَسْقَمَ
To cause someone or something to become diseased, disordered, sick, or ill.
It can also describe a man's family becoming affected by disease, with the disease subsequently coming upon him.
- Lane · entry 41525
سَقِيم
Figuratively unsound, faulty, or weak, said of the heart, understanding, or speech.
This is a Classical Arabic figurative application of the adjective beyond the Quranic bodily-illness usage.
- Lane · entry 41530
سَقِيم
Affected by rancour, malevolence, malice, or spite against another.
Used in the construction describing a person as inwardly affected against someone.
- Lane · entry 41530
سَقِيم
Dangerous or unsafe, of a place.
A place is called سَقِيم when it contains fear or danger.
- Mufradāt · row 705
سَوْقَم
A tree resembling the khilāf or a large fig-kind tree, bearing a sweet, fragrant fruit.
This is a distinct plant name formed with the root letters.
- Lane · entry 41531
مُسْقِم
A man who is diseased and whose family are also diseased.
A derived adjectival description of the person and his household.
- Lane · entry 41532
مَسْقَمَة
A cause of disease.
A noun of the pattern مَفْعَلَة denoting a cause or circumstance producing illness.
- Lane · entry 41533
مِسْقَام
One who is much or often diseased.
The term is also recorded as an epithet applied to a female, without implying a restriction of the illness sense to females.
- Lane · entry 41534
Cautions
Points that affect how this root should be read.
إِنِّي سَقِيمٌ has both bodily and figurative interpretations in the supplied lexical evidence; the 37:89 identification follows the independently supplied QAC location and the Mufradat citation, rather than converting Lane's printed citation mechanically.