Root · 1 in the Quran · 162 in 16 texts of the library
حركPer Ibn Fāris: a single root, ḥaraka, motion, the opposite of stillness. (root hrk)
الحاء والراء والكاف أصل واحد فالحركة ضد السكون ومن الباب الحاركان وهما ملتقى الكتفين لأنهما لا يزالان يتحركان وكذلك …
Ibn Fāris, Maqāyīs al-lugha · English rendering AI
The family of the root
Patterns computed · our dataThe words of ح ر ك that our sources attest: the root's letters in green, the added letters in gold.
21 words3 verbs4 verbal nouns4 participles2 places and instruments1 intensive or elative4 other nouns3 plurals
- حَرَكَةmotion
- حَرَكاتplural of motion
- حَرَّكَhe moved
- مُتَحَرِّكmoving; mobile
- تَحْرِيكmaking move; stimulating
The whole family7 groups, by pattern; tap a pattern to see what it does
Verbs3حَرُكَ · حَرَّكَ · تَحَرَّكَ
The root as an action: the bare Form I, and the Forms made by adding letters before, inside or after the root.grammar →
Form I vowels: فَعُلَ يَفْعُلُ (u – u; the imperfect from Lane's “aor.”)
- حَرُكَit, or he, movedLaneForm ILane
- حَرَّكَhe movedLaneForm IIQurʾān ×1library ×6Lane
- تَحَرَّكَmove; get movingautoForm Vlibrary ×5Lane
Verbal nouns4تَحْرِيك · تَحَرُّك · حَرَك
The action itself, named as a noun (maṣdar).grammar →
- تَحْرِيكmaking move; stimulatingautoForm II · Lane: inf. n.library ×7Lane
- تَحَرُّكmovement; motionautoForm Vlibrary ×3
- حَرَكForm I · Lane: inf. n.Lane
- حَرْكForm I · Lane: inf. n.Lane
Participles4مُتَحَرِّك · مُحَرِّك · حَارِك
The one who does it, and the one it is done to.grammar →
- مُتَحَرِّكmoving; mobileautoactive, Form Vlibrary ×8
- مُحَرِّكthe Turner or Mover of heartsLaneactive, Form IVlibrary ×4Lane
- حَارِكactive, Form ILane
- مُحْتَرِكactive, Form VIIILane
Place, time and instrument2مَحْرَك · مِحْرَاك
Where or when it happens, and what it is done with: the m- nouns.grammar →
Intensives, qualities and the elative1حَرِيك
The quality carried far, held as a trait, or compared.grammar →
- حَرِيكincapable of coitionLanequality (faʿīl)Lane
Other nouns4حَرَكَة · حَرَاك · حَرْكَكَة
Nouns on other patterns; their meaning is learned word by word.grammar →
- حَرَكَةmotionLanenounlibrary ×53LaneIbn Fāris
- حَرَاكmovement; motionautonounlibrary ×1Lane
- حَرْكَكَةnounLaneIbn Fāris
- حُرْكُوكnounLane
Plurals3حَرَكات · حَرَاكِيك · حَرَاكِك
Broken plurals rebuild the word on a new pattern; sound plurals add an ending.grammar →
- حَرَكاتplural of motionfrom the singularsound plural of حَرَكَةlibrary ×28
- حَرَاكِيكbroken plural of حَرْكَكَةLaneIbn Fāris
- حَرَاكِكbroken plural of حَرْكَكَةLane
Reference
Why this shape?What each of the 13 patterns does
What each pattern does. The pattern gives a tendency, not a rule: many words have drifted into meanings of their own.
The pattern machinePour the root into a pattern; see whether the word exists
Choose a pattern; the root's letters pour into it. Then see whether the word exists in our sources. The machine makes shapes; only usage makes words.
Not in our sources. A possible shape, not a word we can show: the Quran, the library and Lane do not have it for this root.
Place noun with -a. The place noun with the feminine -a. Sometimes it is only a variant of mafʿal; often it names the place where a thing is found in abundance (maʾsada, 'a place full of lions'). So maktab is the place of writing, and maktaba, where writings are gathered: a library, a bookshop. Our summary AI
But: maktaba is not in our classical dictionaries for k-t-b: Lane and al-Jawharī give maktab ('a school'), none gives maktaba. Its sense of 'library, bookshop' fits the pattern of abundance, but that is our reading of the pattern, not a classical entry. Many mafʿala words are single items of usage (maqbara 'cemetery'), which the grammarians call heard, not formed by rule.
The grammarians on this pattern (4)
ما يكون مفعلة لازمة لها الهاء والفتحة … وذلك إذا أردت أن تكثر الشيء بالمكان، وذلك قولك: أرض مسبعة، ومأسدة
Chapter on what is mafʿala, with the -a and the a-vowel always: that is when you mean that a thing abounds in a place, as you say 'a land of many beasts of prey (masbaʿa), of many lions (maʾsada)' AI
Sībawayh (d. c. 180/796), al-Kitāb, ed. ʿAbd al-Salām Hārūn, 3rd ed. (Cairo: al-Khānjī, 1988), 4:94 · OpenITI line 21027–21028 ↗ · on this site · OpenITI RELEASE v2025.1.9, CC BY-NC-SA 4.0
و نحو المظنة و المقبرة فتحا و ضما ليس بقياس
and words like maẓinna and maqbara (with a or u) are not by rule AI
Ibn al-Ḥājib (d. 646/1249), al-Shāfiya fī ʿilm al-taṣrīf, ed. Ḥasan Aḥmad al-ʿUthmān (Mecca: al-Maktaba al-Makkiyya, 1995), 1:30 · OpenITI line 223 ↗ · on this site · OpenITI RELEASE v2025.1.9, CC BY-NC-SA 4.0
- “designate the place where the object signified by the noun from which they are formed, is found in large numbers or quantities” Wright, Grammar I, §247, p. 148 ↗ · on nouns of abundance, maf'ala · 3rd ed. (Cambridge, 1896) · public domain
- “Nouns of time and place not unfrequently take the feminine form” Wright, Grammar I, §225, p. 128 ↗ · on maf'ala as a variant of maf'al · 3rd ed. (Cambridge, 1896) · public domain
About thisWhat “attested” means here; the sources
Attested means found in our data: the Quranic Arabic Corpus (lemmas, verb Forms, participles, verbal nouns, plurals), the library's words (automatic analysis), Lane's Lexicon (his headwords, the Forms he numbers, the verbal nouns and plurals he names) and Ibn Fāris's entry. Nothing is generated for this list. Meanings are Lane's first gloss in his entry, or else the analyser's gloss (“auto”). Vowelling follows the corpus, then Lane, then the analyser; verbs are given in the regular perfect. Lane's Lexicon thins out after qāf, and a few of his entries cover several roots at once: those roots show no Lane. The patterns, written with ف ع ل, are computed by us.
The dictionaries
English: AI translation AIal-Khalīl · 170Ḥaraka (حرك) the thing, yaḥruku (يحرك), ḥarakan (حركا) and ḥarakah (حركة);
al-Khalīl b. Aḥmad (d. c. 170/786), Kitāb al-ʿAyn. The first Arabic dictionary, arranged by permutations of the root letters.
AI AI translation of the Arabic belowal-Jawharī · 393Al-ḥarakah (الحركة) is the opposite of sukūn (السكون) 'stillness.' You say ḥarraktuhu (حركته), 'I moved it,' fa-taḥarraka (فتحرك), 'and it moved.' It is said: mā bihi ḥarāk (ما به حراك), i.e., ḥarakah (حركة) — 'there is
al-Jawharī (d. c. 393/1003), al-Ṣiḥāḥ. Admits only usage he judged sound.
AI AI translation of the Arabic belowIbn Fāris · 395Ḥāʾ, rāʾ, and kāf form a single root: ḥarakah (الحركة) 'motion' is the opposite of sukūn (السكون) 'stillness/rest.' From this same [root] are al-ḥārikān (الحاركان), which are the meeting-point of the two shoulders, becau
Ibn Fāris (d. 395/1004), Maqāyīs al-Lugha. Seeks each root's original sense (aṣl).
AI AI translation of the Arabic belowal-Rāghib · 502God, Exalted, said: 'Move not your tongue with it' (lā tuḥarrik bihi lisānaka, لا تحرك به لسانك) [Qurʾān, al-Qiyāmah 75:16].
al-Rāghib al-Iṣfahānī (d. c. 502/1108), al-Mufradāt. Quranic vocabulary, from core sense to Quranic usage.
AI AI translation of the Arabic belowLisān · 711Al-ḥarakah (الحركة) is the opposite of sukūn (السكون).
Ibn Manẓūr (d. 711/1311), Lisān al-ʿArab. The great compendium of the earlier dictionaries (entry shortened).
AI AI translation of the Arabic below
Technical definitions8 · Ibn ʿArabī’s Iṣṭilāḥ, al-Jurjānī’s Taʿrīfāt
الحركة
الخروج من القوة إلى الفعل على سبيل التدريج، قيد ب التدريج ليخرج الكون عن الحركة، وقيل: هي شغل حيز بعد أن كان في حيز آخر، وقيل: الحركة: كونان في آنين في مكانين، كما أن السكون: كونان في آنين في مكان واحد.
Al-ḥarakah (الحركة) 'motion' is the emergence from potentiality (al-quwwah) to actuality (al-fiʿl) in a gradual manner. The qualification 'gradual' (bi-t-tadrīj) is added to exclude [instantaneous] coming-into-being (al-kawn) from [being classified as] motion. It is also said: it is the occupying of a spatial locus (ḥayyiz) after having been in another locus. It is also said: motion is two states of being (kawnān) at two instants (ānayn) in two places, just as rest (sukūn) is two states of being at two instants in one place. AI
الحركة في الكم
هي انتقال الجسم من كمية إلى أخرى، كالنمو والذبول.
Motion in quantity (al-kamm): is the transition of a body from one quantity to another, such as growth and withering. AI
الحركة في الكيف
هي انتقال الجسم من كيفية إلى أخرى، كتسخن الماء وتبرده، وتسمى هذه الحركة: استحالة.
Motion in quality (al-kayf): is the transition of a body from one quality to another, such as the heating and cooling of water; this motion is called istiḥālah (استحالة) 'alteration/transformation.' AI
الحركة في الكيف
هي الكيفية الحاصلة للمتحرك، ما دام متوسطا بين المبدأ والمنتهى، وهو أمر موجود في الخارج.
Motion in quality: is the quality occurring in the moving thing (al-mutaḥarrik) as long as it is intermediate between the starting point (al-mabdaʾ) and the end point (al-muntahā); it is a thing existing externally (in extramental reality). AI
الحركة في الأين
هي حركة الجسم من مكان إلى مكان آخر، وتسمى نقلة.
Motion in place (al-ayn): is the motion of a body from one place to another; it is called naqlah (نقلة) 'translation/local motion.' AI
الحركة في الوضع
هي الحركة المستديرة المنتقل بها الجسم من وضع إلى آخر، فإن المتحرك على الاستدارة إنما تتبدل نسبة أجزائه إلى أجزاء مكانه ملازما لمكانه غير خارج عنه قطعا، كما في حجر الرحا.
Motion in position (al-waḍʿ): is the circular motion by which a body is transferred from one position to another; for that which moves circularly only has the relation of its parts to the parts of its place changed, while remaining fixed in its place, never leaving it at all — as in [the case of] the millstone. AI
الحركة في الوضع
قيل هي التي لها هوية اتصالية على الزمان لا يتصور حصولها إلا في الزمان.
الحركة العرضية
ما يكون عروضها للجسم بواسطة عروضها لشيء آخر بالحقيقة، كمجالس السفينة.
The same letters, turned
The same three letters in all six orders. Choose one.
ح ر ك
الحاء والراء والكاف أصل واحد فالحركة ضد السكون ومن الباب الحاركان وهما ملتقى الكتفين لأنهما لا يزالان يتحركان وكذلك الحراكيك وهي الحراقف واحدتها حرككة
ḥ-r-k is one root. "al-ḥaraka" (movement) is the opposite of "al-sukūn" (stillness). From this chapter are "al-ḥārikān," which are the two points where the shoulders meet, because they do not stop moving; likewise "al-ḥarākīk," which are "al-ḥarāqif" (hip bones), singular "ḥarakka." AI
an entry in Ibn Fārislater sources onlyin none of them
Do these six share one core meaning?
Reference
About thisal-Khalīl, Ibn Jinnī, Ibn Fāris; the counts across the dictionary
al-Khalīl (d. c. 170/786), Kitāb al-ʿAyn, as transmitted by al-Layth: a two-letter word “turns in two ways”, a three-letter word “in six ways” (masdūsa), four letters in 24, five in 120; “its used forms are written down and its unused ones dropped” (line 975 ↗). The dictionary is built on this: each chapter takes a set of letters and names which orders are used (mustaʿmal) and which unused (muhmal). The ring shows that verdict, from the chapter heading as edited (documented in the text; how much of the book is al-Khalīl's own is disputed).
A reported total. al-Suyūṭī transmits, from Ḥamza al-Iṣfahānī, that al-Khalīl put the possible forms, used and unused, of two to five letters at 12,305,412 (al-Muzhir, line 1347 ↗). It is reported, not found in the ʿAyn. It equals exactly the arrangements of 2 to 5 different letters out of 28 (756 + 19,656 + 491,400 + 11,793,600); the breakdown printed beside it is corrupt, and al-Zubaydī's count, given next, differs (6,659,400).
Ibn Jinnī (d. 392/1002), al-Khaṣāʾiṣ, names the greater derivation (al-ishtiqāq al-akbar): bind a three-letter root and its six orders to one meaning, and bring stray members back “by the subtlety of the craft and interpretation” (line 7536 ↗). He says himself that it does not hold for every root (line 167 ↗; line 7603 ↗).
Ibn Fāris (d. 395/1004) gives each root its own aṣl and treats a rearranged word as maqlūb, “turned round”, and so not a root of its own: “j-b-dh is not a root, because it is a single word, turned round” (Maqāyīs, line 6147 ↗). The ring sets his aṣl for each order side by side; whether they meet is the question.
Neighbours on the ring differ by one swap of two letters.
The critique. A source quoted by al-Suyūṭī calls the greater derivation Ibn Jinnī's innovation, “not relied on in the language” (al-Muzhir, line 6159 ↗).
The other axis. The root's letters also go into patterns that keep their order and change the frame: the patterns (awzān) and the verb Forms I–X.
Across Ibn Fāris's dictionary. Of the 2,300 possible sets of three different sound letters (no hamza, w or y), 1,021 have at least one order as an entry. How many of their six orders are entries:
- 1 of 6319
- 2 of 6218
- 3 of 6164
- 4 of 6155
- 5 of 6107
- 6 of 658
- 1 of 6148
- 2 of 6108
- 3 of 6157
- 4 of 6179
- 5 of 6111
- 6 of 643
Of the orders al-Khalīl calls used, 2,097 are entries in Ibn Fāris and 267 are not; 17 that he calls unused are entries in Ibn Fāris.
Attested here means found in our digital texts (Ibn Fāris, Lisān al-ʿArab, Lane, the Quranic Arabic Corpus), with w and y kept apart and hamza spellings merged; it is our data, not a classical verdict. English beside the Arabic is AI translation. Sources and grades: docs/research/root-permutations.md.
Letters & sound
- حḥāʾmiddle of the throat · voiceless, continuantSīb. · I. Jinnī
- رrāʾtip of the tongue, near the nūn · voiced, in betweenSīb. · I. Jinnī
- كkāfback of the tongue · voiceless, stopSīb. · I. Jinnī
How each letter is made, in brief, from Sībawayh's and Ibn Jinnī's own sentences (linked); their words are under Reference.
Sharing two of its three letters (computed; kinship of form, not of meaning)
Reference
How it is madeSībawayh and Ibn Jinnī · phonetics
English throughout: AI translation of the Arabic AI
ح
ومن أوسط الحلق مخرج العين والحاء
From the middle of the throat is the place of the ʿayn and the ḥāʾ. Sībawayh, lines 26548–26549 ↗
ومن وسط الحلق مخرج العين والحاء
From the middle of the throat is the place of the ʿayn and the ḥāʾ. Ibn Jinnī, line 970 ↗
ر
ومن مخرج النون غير أنه أدخل في ظهر اللسان قليلا لانحرافه إلى اللام مخرج الراء
From the place of the nūn, except that it goes a little further onto the back of the tongue, because it leans towards the lām, is the place of the rāʾ. Sībawayh, lines 26557–26558 ↗
ومن مخرج النون غير أنه أدخل في ظهر اللسان قليلا، لانحرافه إلى اللام، مخرج الراء
From the place of the nūn, except that it goes a little further onto the back of the tongue, because it leans towards the lām, is the place of the rāʾ. Ibn Jinnī, lines 980–981 ↗
ك
ومن أسفل من موضع القاف من اللسان قليلا ومما يليه من الحنك الأعلى مخرج الكاف
From a little lower on the tongue than the qāf's place, and the upper palate next to it, is the place of the kāf. Sībawayh, lines 26551–26552 ↗
ومن أسفل من ذلك وأدنى إلى مقدم الفم مخرج الكاف
From lower than that and nearer the front of the mouth is the place of the kāf. Ibn Jinnī, line 973 ↗
Sībawayh, al-Kitāb (ed. Hārūn) and Ibn Jinnī, Sirr ṣināʿat al-iʿrāb; OpenITI digital texts (CC BY-NC-SA 4.0). Full credits on each letter's page.
In the Breath of the All-MercifulIbn ʿArabī · metaphysics
English throughout: AI translation of the Arabic AI
ح
Level of existence: الجوهر الهبابي · the dust-like substance (spelled الهبابي in the text)
Divine Name: الآخر · al-Ākhir, the Last
Lunar mansion: الدبران · al-Dabarān
Futūḥāt ch. 198, line 62076Spheres of its simples (ch. 2): 10 line 2573 ↗
ر
Level of existence: السماء الخامسة · the fifth heaven
Divine Name: المصور · the Form-Giver (al-Muṣawwir)
Lunar mansion: الغفر · al-Ghafr
Futūḥāt ch. 198, line 64675Spheres of its simples (ch. 2): 10 line 2573 ↗
Nature (ch. 2)
المرتبة العشرية فحروفها حارة يابسة
The tenfold rank: its letters are hot and dry.
Ibn ʿArabī, al-Futūḥāt al-Makkiyya, line 2582ك
Level of existence: الكرسي والقدمين · the Footstool and the two Feet
Divine Name: الشكور · al-Shakūr, the Grateful
Lunar mansion: النثرة · al-Nathra
Futūḥāt ch. 198, line 62083Spheres of its simples (ch. 2): 10 line 2573 ↗
Nature (ch. 2)
المرتبة العشرية فحروفها حارة يابسة
The tenfold rank: its letters are hot and dry.
Ibn ʿArabī, al-Futūḥāt al-Makkiyya, line 2582Meaning by vowelal-Dabbāgh · a visionary claim about a primordial “Syriac”, not historical Syriac
English throughout: AI translation of the Arabic AI
ح
With fatḥa ـَ
فهي تدل على الإحاطة والشمول للجميع.
It denotes encompassing and inclusion of everything.
With ḍamma ـُ
فهي العدد الكثير الخارج عن بني آدم كالنجوم.
It is a great number external to the children of Adam, such as the stars.
With kasra ـِ
فهي العدد الداخل في الذات أو للذات عليه ولاية كملكية العبيد والدنانير والدراهم وغير ذلك.
It is a number contained within the self, or over which the self has authority, such as ownership of slaves, dinars, dirhams and the like.
ر
With fatḥa ـَ
فهي إشارة إلى جميع الخيرات الظاهرة والباطنة.
It is an indication of all goods, outward and inward.
With ḍamma ـُ
فهي إشارة إلى الواحد في نفسه وهو ظاهر.
It is an indication of the one in itself, and it is manifest.
With kasra ـِ
فهي إشارة إلى الشيء الذي فيه الروح وليس من بني آدم، أو إشارة إلى الروح نفسها.
It is an indication of a thing that has spirit in it but is not of the children of Adam, or an indication of the spirit itself.
ك
With fatḥa ـَ
فهي إشارة إلى حقيقة العبودية الكاملة.
It is an indication of the reality of perfect servanthood.
With ḍamma ـُ
فهي العبد الأسود أو القبيح.
It is the black or ugly slave/servant.
With kasra ـِ
فهي إشارة إلى إضافة العبودية إليك، وقال مرة أخرى: فهي إشارة منك إليك بالعبودية.
It is an indication of attributing servanthood to you. On another occasion he said: it is an indication from you to yourself of servanthood.
Two-letter nucleus14 roots in Ibn Fāris’s chapterح ر
Ibn Fāris groups his roots under two-letter chapters (“the X and the Y and what makes them three”). These are the roots of this root's chapter with the core sense he gives each. Setting them side by side is our juxtaposition; he does not himself draw a shared meaning. His chapter heading, line 6733 ↗
- حرزالحاء والراء والزاء أصل واحد وهو من الحفظ والتحفظL6734
- حرسالحاء والراء والسين أصلان أحدهما الحفظ والآخر زمانQ 1 · L6737
- حرشالحاء والراء والشين أصل واحد يرجع إليه فروع الباب وهو الأثر والتحزيز فالحرش الأثر ومنه سمي الرجل حراشا ولذلك يسمون الدينار أحرش لأن فيه خشونة ويسمون اL6744
- حرصالحاء والراء والصاد أصلان أحدهما الشق والآخر الجشعQ 5 · L6760
- حرضالحاء والراء والضاد أصلان أحدهما نبت والآخر دليل الذهاب والتلف والهلاك والضعف وشبه ذلك فأما الأول فالحرض الأشنان ومعالجه الحراض والإحريض العصفرQ 3 · L6767
- حرفالحاء والراء والفاء ثلاثة أصول حد الشيء والعدول وتقدير الشيء فأما الحد فحرف كل شيء حده كالسيف وغيره ومنه الحرف وهو الوجه تقول هو من أمره على حرف واحد Q 6 · L6780
- حرقالحاء والراء والقاف أصلان أحدهما حك الشيء بالشيء مع حرارة والتهاب وإليه يرجع فروع كثيرة والآخر شيء من البدنQ 9 · L6802
- حركالحاء والراء والكاف أصل واحد فالحركة ضد السكون ومن الباب الحاركان وهما ملتقى الكتفين لأنهما لا يزالان يتحركان وكذلك الحراكيك وهي الحراقف واحدتها حرككةQ 1 · L6817
- حرمالحاء والراء والميم أصل واحد وهو المنع والتشديد فالحرام ضد الحلالQ 83 · L6820
- حرنالحاء والراء والنون أصل واحد وهو لزوم الشيء للشيء لا يكاد يفارقه فالحران في الدابة معروفL6844
- حروىالحاء والراء وما بعدها معتل أصول ثلاثةL6849
- حربالحاء والراء والباء أصول ثلاثة أحدها السلب والآخر دويبة والثالث بعض المجالسQ 11 · L6862
- حرجالحاء والراء والجيم أصل واحد وهو معظم الباب وإليه مرجع فروعه وذلك تجمع الشيء وضيقه فمنه الحرج جمع حرجة وهي مجتمع شجر ويقال في الجمع حرجاتQ 15 · L6883
- حرذالحاء والراء والذال ليس أصلا وليست فيه عربية صحيحة وقدL6913
In the sister scriptsHebrew ח ר כSyriac ܚ ܪ ܟ
| Arabic | ح ر ك |
| Hebrew | ח ר כ |
| Syriac | ܚ ܪ ܟ |
| Ancient South Arabian (musnad) | 𐩢 𐩧 𐩫 |
| Phoenician | 𐤇 𐤓 𐤊 |
Letter for letter, by the regular sound correspondences of the Semitic languages (Arabic keeps several sounds the others merged). This shows how the root would be spelled; whether a related word exists is a separate question, answered in the Semitic lens. Where an Arabic sibilant (s, sh) continues two older sounds, both spellings are shown.
Lenses
AIClassical lexiconAl-Khalīl's ʿAyn gives the verb (ḥaraka/yaḥruku, ḥarraka/taḥarraka) and two anatomical extensions: al-muḥarrak, the base of the neck where it joins the head, and al-ḥārik, the top of the withers/kāhil, cited in poetry, plus al-ḥarākīk = al-ḥarāqif, the hip-joints.well attested
The lexicographers in chronological order, from al-Khalīl to Lane.
Al-Khalīl's ʿAyn gives the verb (ḥaraka/yaḥruku, ḥarraka/taḥarraka) and two anatomical extensions: al-muḥarrak, the base of the neck where it joins the head, and al-ḥārik, the top of the withers/kāhil, cited in poetry, plus al-ḥarākīk = al-ḥarāqif, the hip-joints. Al-Jawharī's Ṣiḥāḥ states ḥaraka simply as the opposite of sukūn, records the idiom 'mā bihi ḥarāk,' he has no movement left (exhausted), the tool-noun al-miḥrāk, a fire-poker, and extends the root to temperament in ghulām ḥarik, a lively, quick-witted boy. Ibn Fāris's Maqāyīs reduces the root to a single aṣl, ḥaraka as opposite of sukūn, explaining al-ḥārikān (the shoulder-joints) and al-ḥarākīk (the hip-joints) as so named because they never stop moving. Al-Rāghib's Mufradāt anchors the root in Q75:16, defining ḥaraka strictly as a property of bodies (jism) — a body's transfer from place to place — while noting the metaphorical use of 'taḥarraka' for any change of state, increase, or diminution in a thing's parts. Ibn Manẓūr's Lisān consolidates these, including the description of a good-natured man as maymūn al-ʿarīka wa-l-ḥarīka; Lane's entry was not supplied for this note.
Draws on: cayn · sihah · Ibn Fāris · mufradat · lisan
Letters & soundAl-Dabbāgh reads ḥ as encompassing/inclusion and r as the totality of goods outward and inward;speculative
What the theorists of sound symbolism would say of these letters. Speculative by nature.
Al-Dabbāgh reads ḥ as encompassing/inclusion and r as the totality of goods outward and inward; al-Akbarī's correspondence gives k as the Footstool (al-Kursī) and the Two Feet, and al-Dabbāgh reads it as an indication of the reality of perfect servanthood. The association of k with the Feet offers a speculative resonance with ḥaraka, since feet are the paradigm organs of bodily motion and servanthood is classically enacted through the body's motions in worship. This is a suggestive alignment at most; comparative and historical linguistics finds no causal link between a letter's phonetic value and the meanings assigned in such systems.
Draws on: dabbagh · akbari198
Root structureIbn Fāris places ḥrk among the same ḥ-r siblings as ḥrf, several of which turn on restraint or fixity — ḥrz, ḥrs, ḥrm — against which ḥrk's single aṣl of 'motion, opposite of stillness' stands somewhat apart in valence, though it shares the cluster's general concern with the state of a body.plausible
The two-letter nucleus (Ibn Fāris's own chapters) and the permutations of the letters (Ibn Jinnī).
Ibn Fāris places ḥrk among the same ḥ-r siblings as ḥrf, several of which turn on restraint or fixity — ḥrz, ḥrs, ḥrm — against which ḥrk's single aṣl of 'motion, opposite of stillness' stands somewhat apart in valence, though it shares the cluster's general concern with the state of a body. Of the permutations of ḥ-r-k, ḥrk itself denotes motion; ḥkr is attested in the sense of ḥukra, hoarding — withholding grain from circulation to await a higher price, or water gathered and stagnant — a notion of withholding that sits in suggestive inversion to ḥrk's motion; rḥk is not a real root; a permutation glossed under rkḥ is marked attested though the gloss supplied describes a different triliteral ('turning toward and returning to a thing'), so it is reported here without confidence; kḥr is unattested and krḥ is marked real but without a recorded gloss. Ibn Jinnī's greater derivation would juxtapose ḥrk (motion) and ḥkr (withholding from circulation) as a semantically inverted pair sharing the same three letters — a juxtaposition only, not an asserted derivation.
Draws on: maqayis-nucleus · maqayis-permutations
Semitic kin & loanwordsNo confident Semitic cognate is available for Arabic ḥ-r-k in the sense of 'motion': formally similar Semitic roots such as Hebrew ḥrq ('to gnash') are semantically unconnected, and no clear Aramaic, Akkadian, Geʿez, or South Arabian reflex of 'motion, opposite of stillness' under this triliteral is attested.uncertain
Cognates in the sister languages, and whether the word was borrowed.
No confident Semitic cognate is available for Arabic ḥ-r-k in the sense of 'motion': formally similar Semitic roots such as Hebrew ḥrq ('to gnash') are semantically unconnected, and no clear Aramaic, Akkadian, Geʿez, or South Arabian reflex of 'motion, opposite of stillness' under this triliteral is attested. The root appears to be a specifically Arabic development rather than an inherited Semitic term or a loanword.
Draws on: no-cognate
Quranic exegesisThe root's sole Qurʾānic occurrence is Q75:16, 'lā tuḥarrik bihi lisānaka li-taʿjala bihi' (Do not move your tongue with it, to hasten with it).well attested
How the classical exegetes read the word in the Quran.
The root's sole Qurʾānic occurrence is Q75:16, 'lā tuḥarrik bihi lisānaka li-taʿjala bihi' (Do not move your tongue with it, to hasten with it). Al-Ṭabarī transmits that the Prophet, anxious not to forget the revelation, would move his lips along with Gabriel's recitation before it was complete, and God here instructs him to stop, promising in the following verses that God would guarantee its collection and recitation. Al-Zamakhsharī and al-Rāzī read the verse the same way, as an instruction specific to the mechanics of revelation-reception rather than a general statement about speech; al-Rāghib cites exactly this verse to fix his definition of ḥaraka as a property belonging only to bodies, tongue-movement being his paradigm case.
Draws on: tabari · zamakhshari · razi · raghib
Philosophy & kalāmḤaraka (motion) is a major technical term inherited from Aristotelian physics into both falsafa and kalām.well attested
The word as a technical term in falsafa and theology.
Ḥaraka (motion) is a major technical term inherited from Aristotelian physics into both falsafa and kalām. Avicenna treats it as the actualization of what is in potency insofar as it is in potency, distinguishing types of motion (local, qualitative, quantitative) and linking it to time as its measure; al-Ghazālī engages this theory critically in the Tahāfut al-Falāsifa. The mutakallimūn, especially the Ashʿarites, instead treat ḥaraka and its opposite sukūn as accidents (aʿrāḍ) inhering momentarily in atomic substances and continuously re-created by God — the occasionalist alternative to the philosophers' continuous, self-sustaining motion.
Draws on: falsafa-physics · kalam-atomism
Reference