Quranic root
ثوب
th · w · b
The root centers on return: something comes back to a former place, condition, or intended state.
From return and recurrence develop meanings of gathering, restoration, recompense as what returns to a person, a place of repeated return, and a garment repeatedly worn.
- Maqāyīs · row 1054
- Mufradāt · row 213
- 6
- Quran-attested forms
- 7
- Quran senses
- 28
- Quran occurrences
Forms in the Quran
The forms this root actually takes in the Quran. Select one to jump to its senses and examples.
ثَوَّبَ
thawwaba
- Part of speech
- Verb · Form II
- Form
- II
- 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 recompense or requite someone for what they have done.
The Quranic occurrence is passive: the unbelievers are described as being recompensed for their deeds. The recompense need not be favorable.
- Lane · entry 27632
- Mufradāt · row 213
Selected Quran examples
Quran 83:36word 2
“been rewarded”
أَثَابَ
ʾathāba
- Part of speech
- Verb · Form IV
- Form
- IV
- Quran occurrences
- 3 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 recompense, requite, or reward someone for an act.
In Quranic usage the recompense may be favorable, as a reward for good, or adverse, as requital for hardship or suffering. The construction takes the person receiving the recompense as its object.
- Lane · entry 27632
- Mufradāt · row 213
Selected Quran examples
Quran 5:85word 1
“So rewarded them”
Quran 3:153word 11
“So (He) repaid you”
Quran 48:18word 17
“and rewarded them”
مَثَابَة
mathābah
- Part of speech
- 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.
A place to which people return repeatedly and gather.
In the Quranic description of the Sacred House, the word also admits the interpretation of a place associated with attaining the reward of pilgrimage; the central image remains repeated return and assembly.
- Lane · entry 27648
- Mufradāt · row 213
Selected Quran examples
Quran 2:125word 4
“a place of return”
مَثُوبَة
mathūbah
- 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.
Recompense, requital, or reward returned to a person for an act.
The Quran uses the word both for a favorable reward and, by an adverse extension, for a bad recompense or requital.
- Lane · entry 27632
- Lane · entry 27640
- Mufradāt · row 213
Selected Quran examples
Quran 2:103word 5
“surely (the) reward”
Quran 5:60word 7
“(as) recompense”
ثَوَاب
thawāb
- Part of speech
- Noun
- Quran occurrences
- 13 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.
Recompense or reward returned for an act, especially a good act.
The term can apply to good or evil recompense, but Quranic usage most often presents it as a favorable reward, including reward from God in this world or the next.
- Lane · entry 27640
- Mufradāt · row 213
Selected Quran examples
ثَوْب
thawb
- Part of speech
- Noun
- Quran occurrences
- 8 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 garment or item of clothing worn on the body.
The Quranic plural ثِيَاب refers to garments or clothing, including clothing worn, changed, or provided in ordinary contexts.
- Lane · entry 27636
- Mufradāt · row 213
Selected Quran examples
Quran 18:31word 16
“garments”
Quran 24:60word 13
“their (outer) garments”
To purify one's garments, and by extension one's personal or moral state, in the expression وَثِيَابَكَ فَطَهِّرْ.
The Quranic construction is interpreted literally as purifying or shortening garments and figuratively as purifying oneself, the heart, conduct, or moral condition. These are interpretations of the same garment-purification construction, not a restriction to any particular type of clothing.
- Lane · entry 27636
- Mufradāt · row 213
Selected Quran examples
Quran 74:4word 1
“And your clothing”
Occurrences in the Quran
Every place this root appears, in Quran order. The first few are shown here.
- 2:103لَمَثُوبَةٌۭsurely (the) reward
- 2:125مَثَابَةًۭa place of return
- 3:145ثَوَابَreward
- 3:145ثَوَابَreward
- 3:148ثَوَابَreward
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 46 Classical meanings
ثَابَ
To return to a place or to a former condition; to come back after departing.
The same return construction extends to repentance, renewed attentiveness, restored health, and the return of reason or forbearance.
- Lane · entry 27629
ثَابَ
Of water, to return or collect again after being drawn or diminished.
Used of well water or water in a trough that regains its former level or collects again.
- Lane · entry 27629
ثَابَ
Of people, to gather and come, often company after company.
This collective use is applied to a group rather than a solitary person.
- Lane · entry 27629
ثَابَ
To become abundant through gathering or accumulation.
Applied classically to property that becomes plentiful.
- Lane · entry 27629
ثَابَ
Of dust, to rise, spread, or become abundant.
A figurative extension describing dispersed matter that gathers or increases.
- Lane · entry 27629
ثَابَ
Of a watering-trough or tank, to become full or nearly full.
The image is of water returning until the receptacle is replenished.
- Lane · entry 27629
ثَوَّبَ
To restore someone or something to a former or better condition.
Classical applications include restoring richness after poverty, bodily soundness after leanness, or an upright condition after decline.
- Lane · entry 27630
- Lane · entry 27632
ثَوَّبَ
To call or summon repeatedly, especially by making a second call.
The term is used for repeated summonses and for the repeated call associated with the adhan.
- Lane · entry 27630
ثَوَّبَ
To repeat or add a prayer call, and in later usage to perform prayer after the prescribed prayer.
The prayer-call usage includes the iqāmah and other repeated announcements; the supererogatory-prayer usage is identified as post-classical.
- Lane · entry 27630
ثَيَّبَ
To become one termed ثَيِّب, a person who has previously entered the marriage state.
The cited derived-verb usage is feminine and describes becoming ثَيِّب.
- Lane · entry 27630
ثَاوَبَ
To return repeatedly to someone as a suitor.
The cited construction describes suitors coming back to the woman time after time.
- Lane · entry 27631
أَثَابَ
To cause water to return after it has stopped or diminished.
Applied to a valley or well whose water supply returns.
- Lane · entry 27632
أَثَابَ
To restore a person or thing to bodily soundness, richness, or an upright condition.
The cited applications include restoring the body after leanness and setting an inclined or disordered matter upright again.
- Lane · entry 27632
أَثَابَ
To give something in exchange for, or as compensation for, another thing or a gift.
This is the substitution or compensation construction, distinct from simply rewarding a person.
- Lane · entry 27632
أَثَابَ
To sew a garment or piece of cloth a second time.
The verb describes the second, more complete sewing after an initial light or running stitch.
- Lane · entry 27632
أَثَابَ
To fill or nearly fill a watering-trough or tank.
A causative counterpart to the use of ثَابَ for a receptacle becoming full.
- Lane · entry 27632
تَثَوَّبَ
To gain or earn a recompense.
This usage is reported as post-classical.
- Lane · entry 27633
اِسْتَثَابَ
To restore or repossess property that had gone away.
The construction may describe recovering wealth through something given or obtained in exchange.
- Lane · entry 27635
اِسْتَثَابَ
To ask someone to recompense, compensate, requite, or reward him.
This is the causative-seeking sense of requesting recompense.
- Lane · entry 27635
ثَوْب
A thing that veils, covers, or protects.
This is a metonymic use of a garment and can include a protective means or covering such as curtains in an idiomatic expression.
- Lane · entry 27636
ثِيَاب
Weapons, viewed figuratively as protective equipment.
A tropical plural use derived from the protective function of garments.
- Lane · entry 27636
ثَوْب
The wearer's body, self, or what garments enfold; by extension, one's state or works.
This metonymy appears in expressions about a person's body, the state in which one dies, or the works accompanying one's life.
- Lane · entry 27636
ثَوْب
In idioms, excellence or a good deed, responsibility, or separation from another person.
These are conventional figurative expressions based on the garment as something associated with a person or resting upon him.
- Lane · entry 27636
ثَوْب
Moral character, conduct, or reputation, described as pure or soiled clothing.
Expressions such as pure or dirty garments characterize freedom from fault, vice, perfidy, or an evil reputation.
- Lane · entry 27636
ثَوْبُ المَاءِ
The fetal or birth membrane surrounding what is delivered.
A specialized anatomical expression for the membrane called السَّلَى or الغِرْس.
- Lane · entry 27636
ثُبَة
The place where water collects in a valley or low ground, or the part of a trough to which water returns.
The noun is explained through the return of water to that place.
- Lane · entry 27638
ثُبَة
A company, distinct body, or troop of people.
In the Quranic expression فَانْفِرُوا ثُبَاتٍ, it denotes going forth in separate groups or troops.
- Lane · entry 27638
ثَوَاب
Honey.
A figurative designation based on bees returning to it and on its being the good produced by bees.
- Lane · entry 27640
ثَوَاب
Rain, viewed as the good resulting from the winds.
A tropical extension of recompense or returning benefit.
- Lane · entry 27640
ثَوَاب
Bees.
A metonymic plural use based on their returning to the hive.
- Lane · entry 27640
ثَيِّب
A person who has previously entered the marriage state; especially a woman who is no longer a virgin or has separated from a husband.
The term is also applied to a man, though predominantly to a woman. Classical explanations include a previously married person, one whose spouse has died or divorced her, and one who has had sexual intercourse; a broader extension may apply it to a woman who has reached puberty even if still a virgin.
- Lane · entry 27641
- Mufradāt · row 213
ثِيَابِي
A person who takes care of clothes in a bathhouse.
This is identified as a post-classical occupational term.
- Lane · entry 27644
ثَوَّاب
One who repents or returns from disobedience to obedience frequently.
A synonymic intensive designation derived from repeated return.
- Lane · entry 27645
ثَوَّاب
A seller or possessor of garments or pieces of cloth.
This occupational or descriptive noun is distinct from the intensive term for one who repents.
- Lane · entry 27645
ثَائِب
Water that returns after being drawn away or after the ebb.
Applied to the returning supply of a well and to seawater flowing after ebbing.
- Lane · entry 27646
ثَائِب
Fresh, sappy herbage.
A figurative use comparing fresh growth to the returning water of the sea.
- Lane · entry 27646
ثَائِب
A people or group arriving company after company.
The expression describes successive arrivals rather than one solitary person.
- Lane · entry 27646
ثَائِب
A violent wind that blows at the beginning of rain.
A specialized weather term derived from the return or arrival of rain-bearing conditions.
- Lane · entry 27646
مَثَاب
The place from which water returns to supply a well after some has been drawn.
This is the returning-water location associated with a well.
- Lane · entry 27647
مَثَاب
The station or brink of a well where the water-drawer stands.
It may denote the middle or brink of the well and the structures on which the water-drawer stands.
- Lane · entry 27647
مَثَاب
The successive stone casing or interior construction of a well.
The meaning concerns the stones or walling arranged from the top to the bottom of the well.
- Lane · entry 27647
مَثَابَة
The place where a hunter or fowler sets a snare.
A place understood as one to which the hunted creature returns or is brought.
- Lane · entry 27648
مَثَابَة
The place where well water collects after returning from being drawn.
This is a specialized well-related use distinct from the Quranic place of human return.
- Lane · entry 27648
مَثَابَة
The projecting stones or interior walling around a well.
The term may denote the stones on which a person stands or the place where the well is walled within.
- Lane · entry 27648
مَثَابَات
The foundations of a house.
A plural specialized use associated with the structural base of a dwelling.
- Lane · entry 27648
مُسْتَثَابَاتُ الرِّيَاحِ
Winds attended by prosperity or blessing and expected to produce good results, especially rain.
A specialized expression for winds from which benefit is hoped.
- Lane · entry 27652
Cautions
Points that affect how this root should be read.
The Quranic form ثَوْب is displayed under the normalized singular citation form ثَوْب while its supplied QAC group consists of the plural ثِيَاب occurrences.
The construction وَثِيَابَكَ فَطَهِّرْ has several explicitly reported literal and figurative interpretations; these are retained together under its own Quranic constructional sense.
A reported alternative reading concerning a camel in the Form II entry is not assigned because the source itself identifies it as probably a transcription error.
Unassigned or ambiguous evidence
lane-unit:vwb:27630:g2:sub2 reports that ثَيَّبَتْ may have an alternative camel-related reading, but the passage itself regards this as a likely mistranscription; the issue is therefore left unassigned.