Quranic root
سوع
s · w · ʿ
The root centers on something continuing, passing onward, or progressing through time.
This orientation appears in the temporal noun سَاعَة, in hourly hiring, and in uses for leaving camels to proceed on their own; the latter develops into meanings of neglect, loss, and related derived descriptions.
- Maqāyīs · row 2525
- Mufradāt · row 644
- 2
- Quran-attested forms
- 4
- Quran senses
- 49
- Quran occurrences
Forms in the Quran
The forms this root actually takes in the Quran. Select one to jump to its senses and examples.
سَاعَة
sāʿah
- Part of speech
- Noun
- Quran occurrences
- 48 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 portion or period of time: an hour, a short while, or another brief interval.
Used for ordinary temporal duration, including expressions meaning for or during an hour or a little while; this is distinct from the eschatological use of السَّاعَة.
- Lane · entry 42714
- Mufradāt · row 644
Selected Quran examples
Quran 10:45word 7
“an hour”
The Hour: the Resurrection and the raising of humanity for reckoning, or the time of its occurrence.
Especially used in the definite form السَّاعَةُ; the Quranic usage may refer to the resurrection itself or to the time when it will occur.
- Lane · entry 42714
- Mufradāt · row 644
Selected Quran examples
Quran 22:1word 7
“(of) the Hour”
An individual’s death, understood as that person’s appointed “hour” at the end of worldly life.
A figurative “small Hour” reading, explicitly applied to the sudden coming of the hour in the Quranic discussion of those who deny meeting God.
- Lane · entry 42714
- Mufradāt · row 644
Selected Quran examples
Quran 6:31word 10
“the Hour”
سُوَاع
suwāʿ
- Part of speech
- Proper 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.
Suwaʿ, the name of an idol worshipped by the people of Noah.
A proper name occurring in the Quranic enumeration of idols.
- Lane · entry 42716
- Mufradāt · row 644
Selected Quran examples
Quran 71:23word 9
“Suwa”
Occurrences in the Quran
Every place this root appears, in Quran order. The first few are shown here.
- 6:31ٱلسَّاعَةُthe Hour
- 6:40ٱلسَّاعَةُthe Hour
- 7:34سَاعَةًۭ ۖan hour
- 7:187ٱلسَّاعَةِthe Hour
- 9:117سَاعَةِ(the) hour
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
سَاعَ
To be left to oneself or without a herder, and so to proceed without supervision.
Attested particularly of camels in the cited lexical usage.
- Lane · entry 42709
مُسَاوَعَة
Hourly hiring or bargaining: to engage someone for work by the hour.
A conventional form modeled on hiring by the day or by another fixed period.
- Lane · entry 42710
أَسَاعَ
To leave someone or something unattended or neglected, with the result that it is lost or destroyed.
The lexical use includes abandoning livestock and neglecting a dependent creature.
- Lane · entry 42711
أَسْوَعَ / أَسَاعَ
To pass from hour to hour, or to remain behind, be held back, or be delayed for a period.
A time-related use distinct from the Form IV meaning of neglecting or losing something.
- Lane · entry 42711
سَوْع
A period or portion of the night, especially a quiet interval after the night has become still; also an hour or short period.
Used in the expression for coming after a period of the night has elapsed.
- Lane · entry 42713
سَاعَة
A formally measured division of day or night, including the astronomical hour; by extension, the present time or the moment at hand.
These are broader Classical Arabic temporal and deictic uses beyond the Quranic senses listed under the public Quranic form.
- Lane · entry 42714
السَّاعَةُ الوُسْطَى
The death of a generation or the passing away of the people of an age.
A conventional figurative designation distinguishing the death of a generation from the universal Resurrection and from an individual’s death.
- Lane · entry 42714
السَّاعَة
Difficulty, distress, or affliction.
A figurative extension of the temporal noun attested in Classical Arabic.
- Lane · entry 42714
السَّاعَة
Distance or remoteness.
A figurative Classical Arabic extension.
- Lane · entry 42714
سَاعَةٌ سَوْعَاءُ
A severe, grievous, or distressing hour or period.
A conventional descriptive expression for an especially difficult time.
- Lane · entry 42715
سَائِع
Left to oneself, neglected, or abandoned; in a plural usage, perishing, being destroyed, or dying.
The first use describes neglect, while the plural-like use describes a resulting state of perdition or destruction.
- Lane · entry 42717
مِسْيَاع
A habitual abandoner: a she-camel that leaves its young or wanders away in pasture; also a person who neglects or loses livestock or property.
The lexical descriptions include both the animal use and the corresponding description of a person who neglects valuables or livestock.
- Lane · entry 42719
Cautions
Points that affect how this root should be read.
The Resurrection, an individual's death, and the ordinary temporal duration are distinct uses of سَاعَة; the individual-death reading is a figurative “small Hour” interpretation of the cited Quranic passage.
The temporal-tagged Quran occurrence is merged with the nominal form because it is the same lexical headword, while broader Classical figurative extensions remain separate.