Quranic root
زرع
z · r · ʿ
The root centers on bringing something into growth or development, concretely through sowing and the emergence of cultivated produce.
Its semantic field extends from casting seed and the crop that results to cultivation, growers, offspring, and figurative harvests, while these developments are not automatically meanings of every derived form.
- Maqāyīs · row 2237
- Mufradāt · row 617
- 3
- Quran-attested forms
- 5
- Quran senses
- 14
- Quran occurrences
Forms in the Quran
The forms this root actually takes in the Quran. Select one to jump to its senses and examples.
زَرَعَ
zaraʿa
- Part of speech
- Verb · Form I
- Form
- I
- 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.
To sow or plant by casting seed.
The Quranic use describes human sowing or planting, including the sowing of a crop; the form may also be transitive with the plant or produce concerned.
- Lane · entry 31086
Selected Quran examples
Quran 12:47word 2
“You will sow”
To cause seed-produce to grow, vegetate, or germinate.
In the Quranic construction, human beings are associated with sowing as a means, while the actual causing of growth is attributed to God.
- Lane · entry 31086
- Mufradāt · row 617
Selected Quran examples
Quran 56:64word 2
“cause it to grow”
زَرْعٌ
zarʿun
- Part of speech
- Noun
- 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.
Sown produce or crops; cultivated growth, whether standing or reaped, and often the sown field itself.
The term predominantly applies to grain such as wheat and barley but can also denote plants or herbage raised by sowing. Quranic contexts include crops, cultivation, and cultivated fields.
- Lane · entry 31092
- Mufradāt · row 617
Selected Quran examples
Quran 14:37word 9
“cultivation”
Quran 32:27word 11
“crops”
Quran 26:148word 1
“And cornfields”
Quran 48:29word 32
“(is) like a seed”
زَارِعٌ
zāriʿun
- Part of speech
- Active participle
- 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.
A sower or cultivator; figuratively, one who cultivates and advances a cause.
In the Quranic plural زُرَّاعٌ in 48:29, the expression refers figuratively to Muhammad and his Companions as inviters to Islam.
- Lane · entry 31103
Selected Quran examples
Quran 48:29word 41
“the sowers”
One who causes seed-produce to grow, or serves as the human agent or means of its growth.
The Quranic plural in 56:64 occurs in a contrast between human sowing and the ultimate causing of growth.
- Lane · entry 31103
- Mufradāt · row 617
Selected Quran examples
Quran 56:64word 5
“the Ones Who grow”
Occurrences in the Quran
Every place this root appears, in Quran order. The first few are shown here.
- 6:141وَٱلزَّرْعَand the crops
- 12:47تَزْرَعُونَYou will sow
- 13:4وَزَرْعٌۭand crops
- 14:37زَرْعٍcultivation
- 16:11ٱلزَّرْعَthe crops
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 26 Classical meanings
زَرَعَ
To plough up, till, or cultivate land in preparation for sowing.
This is the land-preparation and cultivation use of the Form I verb, distinct from simply casting seed.
- Lane · entry 31086
زَرَعَ
To implant or engender something figuratively, especially love in hearts.
A figurative extension of sowing, as when generosity and good character are said to sow love in people's hearts.
- Lane · entry 31086
زَرَعَ
To cause a child or offspring to grow sound and strong, or to grow up for goodness.
Used in a supplication or blessing with God as the causer of the child's healthy or virtuous growth.
- Lane · entry 31086
زُرِعَ
To obtain an increase or property after adversity or want.
An idiomatic passive-like use describing improvement or acquisition after hardship.
- Lane · entry 31086
مُزَارَعَةٌ
A contract to till and sow land in return for a specified share of its produce.
The seed is supplied by the landowner; the term denotes the mutual agricultural arrangement and its associated bargain.
- Lane · entry 31087
أَزْرَعَ
Of a plant or seed-produce, to grow from its seed, become tall or leafy, and reach the time for reaping.
The Form IV verb describes stages of a plant's development or its becoming ready for harvest.
- Lane · entry 31088
أَزْرَعَ
Of people, to have seed-produce available or to reach a season in which they can make use of it.
The expression concerns access to seed-produce or the agricultural season, rather than the act of sowing itself.
- Lane · entry 31088
تَزَرَّعَ
To hasten or make haste toward evil or mischief.
Used with إِلَى الشَّرِّ in the cited conventional expression.
- Lane · entry 31089
اِسْتَزْرَعَ
To ask God to bring one's offspring up in piety and to provide lawful sustenance for them.
A Form X supplicatory construction seeking divinely fostered moral growth and provision.
- Lane · entry 31091
زَرْعٌ
Offspring, children, or a child.
A figurative use treating descendants as the produce of a person.
- Lane · entry 31092
زَرْعٌ
A man's seed or seminal fluid.
An extended bodily and generative use of the noun.
- Lane · entry 31092
زَرْعٌ
The fruit or harvest of a person's conduct.
A figurative expression treats deeds as what one has sown and their consequences as the resulting harvest.
- Lane · entry 31092
زَرْعَةٌ
A place in which seed may be sown.
Used of the availability or absence of a place suitable for sowing.
- Lane · entry 31093
زَرْعَةٌ
Apparently, an ear of corn.
A reported, apparently specialized use; it is kept distinct from the ordinary place-for-sowing meaning.
- Lane · entry 31093
زُرْعَةٌ
Seed or grain intended for sowing.
The term denotes the seed supplied for planting a field.
- Lane · entry 31094
زُرْعَةٌ
The young one of a partridge.
A specialized zoological use.
- Lane · entry 31094
زَرِيعٌ
Seed-produce watered by rain.
A specialized description of rain-fed growth.
- Lane · entry 31097
زَرِيعٌ
Anything soft or tender.
A figurative comparison with tender, rain-grown produce.
- Lane · entry 31097
زِرَاعَةٌ
The business or occupation of sowing, tilling, or cultivating land.
The verbal noun denotes agriculture as an activity or occupation.
- Lane · entry 31098
زَرِيعَةٌ
A thing sown, especially grain used for sowing.
The noun refers to the seed or grain as an item intended to be planted.
- Lane · entry 31099
زَرَّاعٌ
A calumniator who sows rancour among friends.
A figurative intensive-agent use based on sowing discord in people's hearts.
- Lane · entry 31100
زِرِّيعٌ
Growth arising in land left unsown for a year or more from grain scattered during harvest.
A specialized term for self-sown or volunteer growth in fallow land.
- Lane · entry 31101
زَارِعٌ
The name of a particular dog; in the expression أَوْلَادُ زَارِعٍ, dogs.
This is a proper-name and resultant collective use, unrelated to the ordinary active-participle meaning.
- Lane · entry 31103
مَزْرَعَةٌ
A place of cultivation or a place containing sown produce; in one usage, land that is sown.
The noun denotes an agricultural place or plot rather than the crop itself.
- Lane · entry 31104
مَزْرَعَةٌ
A place in which results are produced for later harvest.
In the expression that calls the present world the cultivation-place of the Hereafter, the agricultural image is used figuratively for deeds and their consequences.
- Lane · entry 31104
مُزْدَرِعٌ
One who raises seed-produce for himself.
The Form VIII active participle carries a self-directed or personally appropriative sense of raising a crop.
- Lane · entry 31107
Cautions
Points that affect how this root should be read.
The Form I Quranic verb is displayed under the normalized perfect citation form زَرَعَ, although the supplied occurrences are imperfect second-person plural forms.
The Quranic زُرَّاعٌ group is merged into the active-participle entry زَارِعٌ because the lexical evidence explicitly identifies it as that lexeme's plural. The contextual English renderings are used only as examples, not as independent sense evidence.