Quranic root
سرع
s · r · ʿ
The root denotes speed and quickness, in opposition to slowness.
Its semantic range develops from rapid movement or action to hastening toward a goal, striving to get ahead, precedence, and idioms expressing exceptional immediacy.
- Maqāyīs · row 2412
- Mufradāt · row 684
- 4
- Quran-attested forms
- 6
- Quran senses
- 23
- Quran occurrences
Forms in the Quran
The forms this root actually takes in the Quran. Select one to jump to its senses and examples.
سَارَعَ
sāraʿa
- Part of speech
- Verb · Form III
- Form
- III
- 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.
To hasten toward or into something; to make haste to reach or undertake it.
With إِلَى, the construction expresses hastening toward a goal. With فِي, it can express rushing into a course or condition, including good works, unbelief, or wrongdoing.
- Lane · entry 40950
- Mufradāt · row 684
Selected Quran examples
Quran 3:114word 10
“and they hasten”
Quran 5:62word 4
“hastening”
To vie with another or others in hastening, striving to arrive first or get ahead.
This is the competitive or reciprocal use of Form III; the goal of the striving may be expressed with إِلَى.
- Lane · entry 40950
Selected Quran examples
Quran 3:133word 1
“And hasten”
سَرِيعٌ
sarīʿun
- Part of speech
- Adjective
- Quran occurrences
- 10 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.
Swift, quick, or rapid.
The Quranic form occurs in predicates describing the speed or promptness of an action, especially in expressions concerning reckoning and punishment.
- Lane · entry 40962
Selected Quran examples
Quran 13:41word 15
“(is) Swift”
Prompt and not delayed in reckoning or punishment.
In the predicates سَرِيعُ الْحِسَابِ and سَرِيعُ الْعِقَابِ, the adjective conveys the immediate and inevitable execution of divine reckoning or punishment, rather than physical speed.
- Lane · entry 40962
- Mufradāt · row 684
Selected Quran examples
Quran 5:4word 30
“is swift”
Quran 6:165word 17
“(is) swift”
أَسْرَعُ
ʾasraʿu
- Part of speech
- Adjective · comparative/superlative
- 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.
Swifter, quickest, or most rapid.
This elative adjective expresses comparison or superlative degree; in the Quran it is used of the one quickest in reckoning and of something more swift in response or outcome.
- Lane · entry 40963
Selected Quran examples
Quran 6:62word 11
“(is) swiftest”
Quran 10:21word 16
“(is) more swift”
سِرَاعٌ
sirāʿun
- Part of speech
- Verbal noun
- 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.
Hastening; rapid movement, used adverbially as “swiftly” or “rapidly.”
The Quranic occurrences are accusative adverbial expressions describing coming forth or emerging with haste.
- Mufradāt · row 684
Selected Quran examples
Quran 50:44word 5
“hurrying”
Quran 70:43word 5
“rapidly”
Occurrences in the Quran
Every place this root appears, in Quran order. The first few are shown here.
- 2:202سَرِيعُ(is) swift
- 3:19سَرِيعُ(is) swift
- 3:114وَيُسَـٰرِعُونَand they hasten
- 3:133۞ وَسَارِعُوٓا۟And hasten
- 3:176يُسَـٰرِعُونَhasten
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 12 Classical meanings
سَرُعَ
To be quick, expeditious, hasty, speedy, rapid, swift, or fleet; to be quick in speech or action, or for an affair or event to occur quickly.
The expression سَرُعَ مَا فَعَلْتَ and its contracted forms can be an exclamation meaning “how quickly you did that!” or expressing remarkable quickness.
- Lane · entry 40948
أَسْرَعَ
To quicken or hasten oneself, one's pace, movement, or going; to make haste or speed; to hasten to a person, thing, or affair.
The verb may be used elliptically or with a particle. أَسْرَعَ بِالأَمْرِ means to hasten to carry out an affair; of riding beasts, أَسْرَعُوا means that they became swift. In a reported idiom, أَسْرَعَ إِلَيْهِ can mean being quick in anger, blame, or reviling toward him. The exclamation مَا أَسْرَعَ مَا صَنَعْتَ means “how quickly you did that!”
- Lane · entry 40951
سُرْعَةٌ
Quickness, speed, rapidity, or haste; the act or state of hastening.
It may describe the speed of a course, tendency, action, speech, or other occurrence.
- Lane · entry 40957
سَرْعَانَ
An idiomatic exclamation of sudden or remarkable quickness: “how quickly ...!”
It occurs especially in expressions such as سَرْعَانَ مَا followed by an event or action, and has dialectal variants.
- Lane · entry 40958
سَرَعَانُ النَّاسِ
The foremost people or horsemen, those striving with one another to be first to do or reach something.
The expression is applied to people or horsemen who are at the front through their haste or competitive precedence.
- Lane · entry 40959
سِرَاعٌ
Swift ones or those hastening; a plural of سَرِيعٌ.
The same plural sense is also expressed by سُرْعَانٌ in Classical Arabic.
- Lane · entry 40962
سَرِيعٌ
Quick or prompt to do good or evil, or quick in affairs.
This is a Classical Arabic specialization describing an agent's readiness or speed in undertaking an action, rather than the Quranic divine predicates of reckoning or punishment.
- Lane · entry 40962
سَرِيعٌ
A particular kind of gait or pace.
A technical usage occurring in a collocation with سُنْبُكٌ, which denotes another kind of pace.
- Lane · entry 40962
السَّرِيعُ
The ninth metre of Arabic prosody.
This is a technical prosodic designation.
- Lane · entry 40962
أَبُو سَرِيعٍ
The plant called عَرْفَج, or the fire contained in it.
This is a lexicalized plant or fire-name.
- Lane · entry 40962
سَرِيعٌ
A shoot or twig that falls from the بشام tree.
Its reported plurals include سِرْعَانٌ and سُرْعَانٌ.
- Lane · entry 40962
مِسْرَاعٌ
Very quick or hasty, especially one quick to do good or evil or quick in affairs.
This is an intensive descriptive form applied to a person or other subject characterized by exceptional haste.
- Lane · entry 40966
Cautions
Points that affect how this root should be read.
A Lane citation rendered in historical form such as “iii. 170” has not been converted into a modern verse key; Quran examples use only QAC-secure locations.
The Quranic سِرَاعٌ group is classified in the supplied QAC morphology as a verbal noun, while Classical evidence also attests سِرَاعٌ as a plural of سَرِيعٌ; these uses are kept distinct.