Root · 123 in the Quran · 27 in 10 texts of the library
رزقa giving appointed for a time, later extended to unbounded giving (root rzq)
الراء والزاء والقاف أصيل واحد يدل على عطاء لوقت ثم يحمل عليه غير الموقوت فالرزق عطاء الله جل ثناؤه ويقال رزقه الله رزقا …
Ibn Fāris, Maqāyīs al-lugha · English rendering AI
The family of the root
Patterns computed · our dataThe words of ر ز ق that our sources attest: the root's letters in green, the added letters in gold.
17 words3 verbs2 verbal nouns3 participles1 intensive or elative3 other nouns3 plurals2 relatives and abstracts
- رَزَقَthe verb is doubly trans
- رِزْقthing whereby one profits, or from which one derives advantage
- رَازِقِين—
- رَزَّاقmaintainer
- اِرْتَزَقَmake a living; gain a livelihood
The whole family7 groups, by pattern; tap a pattern to see what it does
Verbs3رَزَقَ · اِرْتَزَقَ · اِسْتَرْزَقَ
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: فَعَلَ يَفْعُلُ (a – u; the imperfect from Lane's “aor.”)
- رَزَقَthe verb is doubly transLaneForm IQurʾān ×61library ×1LaneIbn Fāris
- اِرْتَزَقَmake a living; gain a livelihoodautoForm VIIIlibrary ×1Lane
- اِسْتَرْزَقَForm XLane
Verbal nouns2رِزْق · رَزْق
The action itself, named as a noun (maṣdar).grammar →
- رِزْقthing whereby one profits, or from which one derives advantageLaneForm I · Lane: inf. n.Qurʾān ×55library ×7LaneIbn Fāris
- رَزْقForm I · Lane: inf. n.LaneIbn Fāris
Participles3مَرْزُوق · رَازِق · مُرْتَزَق
The one who does it, and the one it is done to.grammar →
- مَرْزُوقman possessed of good fortune, or of good worldly fortuneLanepassive, Form Ilibrary ×1Lane
- رَازِقactive, Form ILane
- مُرْتَزَقpassive, Form VIIILane
Intensives, qualities and the elative1رَزَّاق
The quality carried far, held as a trait, or compared.grammar →
- رَزَّاقmaintainerautointensive (faʿʿāl)Qurʾān ×1library ×2Lane
Other nouns3رَزْقَة · رِزْقَة · مُرْتَزِقَة
Nouns on other patterns; their meaning is learned word by word.grammar →
Plurals3رَازِقِين · أَرْزَاق · مَرْزُوقات
Broken plurals rebuild the word on a new pattern; sound plurals add an ending.grammar →
- رَازِقِينsound plural of رَازِقQurʾān ×6
- أَرْزَاقbroken plural of رِزْقLane
- مَرْزُوقاتsound plural of مَرْزُوقlibrary ×1
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 · 170Razaqa Allāhu (رزق الله) - God provides (yarzuqu) His servants with rizq (رزقا) which they rely upon;
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-rizq (الرزق) (1): that which is benefited from;
al-Jawharī (d. c. 393/1003), al-Ṣiḥāḥ. Admits only usage he judged sound.
AI AI translation of the Arabic belowIbn Fāris · 395Rā', zāy, and qāf: a single original root that indicates a giving at a [particular] time, and then what is not time-bound is carried upon it [by extension].
Ibn Fāris (d. 395/1004), Maqāyīs al-Lugha. Seeks each root's original sense (aṣl).
AI AI translation of the Arabic belowal-Rāghib · 502Al-rizq (الرزق) is used sometimes for a continuous giving, whether worldly or otherworldly, sometimes for a portion/share, and sometimes for what reaches the belly and by which one is nourished.
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-rāziq (الرازق) and al-razzāq (الرزاق) are among the names/attributes of God, exalted be He, because He provides for all creation;
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 definitions2 · Ibn ʿArabī’s Iṣṭilāḥ, al-Jurjānī’s Taʿrīfāt
الرزق
اسم لما يسوقه الله إلى الحيوان فيأكله، فيكون متناولا للحلال والحرام. وعند المعتزلة: عبارة عن مملوك يأكله المالك، فعلى هذا لا يكون الحرام رزقا.
Al-rizq (الرزق): a name for that which God drives/sends to the living creature, which it then eats; thus it encompasses both the lawful (ḥalāl) and the unlawful (ḥarām). According to the Mu'tazilah, it is an expression for owned property which its owner eats; on this basis, the unlawful cannot be rizq. AI
الرزق الحسن
هو ما يصل إلى صاحبه بلا كد في طلبه. وقيل: ما وجد غير مرتقب، ولا محتسب، ولا مكتسب.
Al-rizq al-ḥasan (الرزق الحسن) [the good provision]: that which reaches its owner without toil in seeking it. It is also said: that which is found unexpectedly, neither anticipated, nor reckoned upon, nor [actively] earned. AI
The same letters, turned
The same three letters in all six orders. Choose one.
ر ز ق
الراء والزاء والقاف أصيل واحد يدل على عطاء لوقت ثم يحمل عليه غير الموقوت فالرزق عطاء الله جل ثناؤه ويقال رزقه الله رزقا والاسم الرزق والرزق بلغة أزدشنوءة الشكر من قوله جل ثناؤه : ﴿ وتجعلون رزقكم ﴾ الواقعة82 وفعلت ذلك لما …
r-z-q is a single root indicating a provision given for a time, and then what is not time-bound is applied by analogy to it: al-rizq is the provision of God, exalted be His praise; one says razaqahu Allāhu rizqan, and the noun is al-rizq. Al-rizq in the dialect of Azd Shanūʾa means gratitude, from His saying, exalted be His praise: "wa-tajʿalūna rizqakum" (Q56:82). And I did that when… AI
Ibn Fāris ↗Lisān ↗Lane ↗Quran ×123
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
- رrāʾtip of the tongue, near the nūn · voiced, in betweenSīb. · I. Jinnī
- زzāytongue-tip, by the front teeth · voiced, continuantSīb. · I. Jinnī
- قqāffar back of the tongue · voiced, 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
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 ↗
ز
ومما بين طرف اللسان وفويق الثنايا مخرج الزاي، والسين، والصاد
From between the tip of the tongue and just above the front teeth is the place of the zāy, the sīn and the ṣād. Sībawayh, line 26560 ↗
ومما بين الثنايا وطرف اللسان، مخرج الصاد والزاي والسين
From between the front teeth and the tip of the tongue is the place of the ṣād, the zāy and the sīn. Ibn Jinnī, line 983 ↗
ق
ومن أقصى اللسان وما فوقه من الحنك الأعلى مخرج القاف
From the furthest part of the tongue and the upper palate above it is the place of the qāf. Sībawayh, line 26550 ↗
ومما فوق ذلك من أقصى اللسان، مخرج القاف
From above that, at the furthest part of the tongue, is the place of the qāf. Ibn Jinnī, line 972 ↗
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
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 2582ز
Level of existence: ما يظهر في ركن الهواء · what appears in the pillar (element) of air
Divine Name: الحي · the Living (al-Ḥayy)
Lunar mansion: الشولة · al-Shawla
Futūḥāt ch. 198, line 64951Spheres of its simples (ch. 2): 7 line 2570 ↗
Nature (ch. 2)
منها دون الألف فطبعها الحرارة واليبوسة
[Zāy and lām] of it, excluding alif: their nature is heat and dryness.
Ibn ʿArabī, al-Futūḥāt al-Makkiyya, line 2577ق
Spheres 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
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.
ز
With fatḥa ـَ
فهي اسم للشيء الذي إذا دخل على الشيء ضره، وقال مرة: اسم للشيء وما يتحرز منه.
It is a name for the thing that harms another thing when it enters upon it. On one occasion he said: a name for the thing and what one guards against.
With ḍamma ـُ
فهي إشارة إلى القبيح الذي فيه ضرر كالكبائر.
It is an indication of the ugly thing that contains harm, such as the major sins.
With kasra ـِ
فهي إشارة إلى القبيح الذي لا ضرر فيه كالصغائر والشبهات والنجاسة.
It is an indication of the ugly thing that contains no harm, such as minor sins, doubtful matters and ritual impurity.
ق
With fatḥa ـَ
فهي إشارة إلى حيازة الخيرات أو إلى جميع الأنوار.
It is an indication of the acquisition of goods, or of all lights.
With ḍamma ـُ
فهي إشارة إلى النشأة الأصلية أو العلم القديم وما أشبه ذلك.
It is an indication of the original creation, or eternal knowledge, and the like.
With kasra ـِ
فهي إشارة إلى الذل.
It is an indication of abasement.
Two-letter nucleus5 roots in Ibn Fāris’s chapterر ز
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 11267 ↗
- رزغالراء والزاء والغين أصيل يدل على لثق وطينL11268
- رزفالراء والزاء والفاء كلمتان تدل إحداهما على الإسراع والأخرى على الهزال فأما الأولى فالإرزاف الإسراع كذا حدثنا به علي بن إبراهيم عن ابن عبد العزيز عن أبL11273
- رزمالراء والزاء والميم أصلان متقاربان أحدهما جمع الشيء وضم بعضه إلى بعض تباعا والآخر صوت يتابع فلذلك قلنا إنهما متقاربان يقول العرب رزمت الشيء جمعته ومن L11284
- رزأالراء والزاء والهمزة أصل واحد يدل على إصابة الشيء والذهاب به ما رزأته شيئا أي لم أصب منه خيرا والرزء المصيبة والجمع الأرزاءL11304
- رزبالراء والزاء والباء إن كان صحيحا فهو يدل على قصر وضخم فالإرزب الرجل القصير الضخم والمرزبة معروفة وركب إرزب عظيمL11308
In the sister scriptsHebrew ר ז קSyriac ܪ ܙ ܩ
| Arabic | ر ز ق |
| Hebrew | ר ז ק |
| Syriac | ܪ ܙ ܩ |
| Ancient South Arabian (musnad) | 𐩧 𐩸 𐩤 |
| Phoenician | 𐤓 𐤆 𐤒 |
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 (al-ʿAyn) defines rizq as God's giving to His servants, that on which they depend, and extends it to soldiers' stipends (arzāq al-jund), drawn as irtazaqa.well attested
The lexicographers in chronological order, from al-Khalīl to Lane.
al-Khalīl (al-ʿAyn) defines rizq as God's giving to His servants, that on which they depend, and extends it to soldiers' stipends (arzāq al-jund), drawn as irtazaqa. al-Jawharī (al-Ṣiḥāḥ) glosses rizq as whatever is benefited from and as ʿaṭāʾ generally, reads 56:82 'you make your rizq that you deny' as 'your gratitude for what you were given' (comparing it to the widening seen in 'ask the town' for 'ask its people'), and notes rizq extended to rain (45:5, 51:22). Ibn Fāris (Maqāyīs) reduces the root to one sense, a giving appointed for a time then extended to unbounded giving, and records that in the dialect of Azd Shanūʾa rizq itself meant 'thanks' (shukr), citing 56:82. al-Rāghib (al-Mufradāt) broadens rizq to any ongoing gift, worldly or otherworldly, to one's portion (naṣīb), and to nourishment reaching the body, reading 51:22 'in heaven is your rizq' as possibly the rain that sustains life. Ibn Manẓūr (Lisān) consolidates al-Rāziq/al-Razzāq as divine names, the One who created the arzāq and delivers them, distinguishing outward arzāq (food, bodily sustenance) from inward arzāq (knowledge, sustenance of hearts), citing 11:6 and 51:57–58.
Draws on: al-ʿAyn · al-Ṣiḥāḥ · Maqāyīs al-Lugha · al-Mufradāt · Lisān al-ʿArab
Letters & soundIn the akbarian correspondence tables given, rāʾ is assigned to the fifth heaven and, per al-Dabbāgh, indicates all goods, outward and inward;speculative
What the theorists of sound symbolism would say of these letters. Speculative by nature.
In the akbarian correspondence tables given, rāʾ is assigned to the fifth heaven and, per al-Dabbāgh, indicates all goods, outward and inward; zāy is assigned to what appears in the element of air, and al-Dabbāgh reads it as the thing that harms upon entering, or that against which one guards; qāf has no heavenly assignment here, but al-Dabbāgh reads it as indicating acquisition of goods or of all lights. A symbolic reading might trace ر-ز-ق as an arc from 'goods' (ر) through something entering that must be guarded against (ز) to their 'acquisition' (ق) — suggestive of rizq as a good that arrives and must be received rightly. This is speculative sound-symbolism in the akbarian/Dabbāghian tradition; mainstream historical linguistics treats such letter-meaning correspondences as hermeneutic devices, not evidence of etymological derivation.
Draws on: akbari letter-heaven table · al-Dabbāgh letter meanings
Root structureIbn Fāris places ر-ز among nucleus-siblings رزغ (mud, wet clay), رزف (haste, or leanness), رزم (binding together, or a repeated sound), رزأ (to strike and carry off, whence rizʾ 'calamity'), and رزب (stoutness, thickness) — none of which shares an evident sense with 'giving,' so the ر-ز pairing gives رزق little semantic ballast beyond bare phonetic kinship.uncertain
The two-letter nucleus (Ibn Fāris's own chapters) and the permutations of the letters (Ibn Jinnī).
Ibn Fāris places ر-ز among nucleus-siblings رزغ (mud, wet clay), رزف (haste, or leanness), رزم (binding together, or a repeated sound), رزأ (to strike and carry off, whence rizʾ 'calamity'), and رزب (stoutness, thickness) — none of which shares an evident sense with 'giving,' so the ر-ز pairing gives رزق little semantic ballast beyond bare phonetic kinship. Of the six permutations of ر-ز-ق, only رزق itself (123 Quranic occurrences) and زرق (1 occurrence, azraq 'blue, piercing of glance') are attested; رقز, زقر, قرز, قزر are unattested or near so. An Ibn-Jinnī-style greater derivation might pair رزق with زرق on shared radicals, provisionally linking 'sustenance received' to the sharp glance of azraq, but this is only a possible resonance across the permutation set, not an established etymology, and Ibn Fāris keeps the roots semantically separate.
Draws on: Ibn Fāris nucleus · permutation table · Ibn Jinnī al-taṣrīf al-akbar
Semitic kin & loanwordsQuranic loanword scholarship (Jeffery) judges rizq to derive ultimately from Middle Persian rōzīg 'daily bread, sustenance' (from rōz 'day'), entering Arabic via Aramaic rizqā;plausible
Cognates in the sister languages, and whether the word was borrowed.
Quranic loanword scholarship (Jeffery) judges rizq to derive ultimately from Middle Persian rōzīg 'daily bread, sustenance' (from rōz 'day'), entering Arabic via Aramaic rizqā; the Aramaic form is itself treated as a Persian loan rather than a native Semitic root. No confident native Common Semitic cognate root ر-ز-ق with the sense 'to provide sustenance' is attested in Hebrew, Ugaritic, or Akkadian. Ibn Fāris's own note that in the dialect of Azd Shanūʾa (a South Arabian tribe) rizq meant 'thanks' rather than 'provision' is independent internal evidence of semantic instability at the edge of the Peninsula, consistent with a foreign term later stabilized in the Ḥijāzī sense.
Draws on: Jeffery Foreign Vocabulary · Ibn Fāris Azd Shanūʾa note
- Jeffery, Foreign Vocabulary of the Qur'an, s.v. rizq
Quranic exegesisAt 2:3 and 2:172, al-Ṭabarī and al-Rāghib read rizq as the wealth, capacity, and knowledge God has given, from which believers are enjoined to spend and eat.well attested
How the classical exegetes read the word in the Quran.
At 2:3 and 2:172, al-Ṭabarī and al-Rāghib read rizq as the wealth, capacity, and knowledge God has given, from which believers are enjoined to spend and eat. At 51:22 'in heaven is your rizq,' exegetes split between a literal reading as rain and a broader reading (favored by al-Rāzī) that what is decreed for each creature is 'written' in the heavens, since rain itself falls to earth rather than remaining there. At 56:82 'you make your rizq that you deny,' al-Zamakhsharī and al-Rāghib, echoing the dialectal note that rizq can mean shukr, read the verse as 'you turn your portion of blessing into denial' rather than gratitude. At 51:58 'Allāh is al-Razzāq, dhū al-quwwa al-matīn,' exegetes take this as asserting God as sole ultimate Provider, with 51:57 ('I do not want from them any rizq') read as denying that God needs sustenance from His creatures.
Draws on: al-Ṭabarī · al-Zamakhsharī · al-Rāzī · al-Rāghib
Philosophy & kalāmIn kalām, rizq becomes a contested technical term in the Muʿtazilī–Ashʿarī dispute over divine justice: the Muʿtazila generally hold that rizq denotes only what one comes to possess lawfully (ḥalāl), since God cannot be said to 'give' what is forbidden, tying rizq to their doctrine of human acquisition (kasb) and responsibility.plausible
The word as a technical term in falsafa and theology.
In kalām, rizq becomes a contested technical term in the Muʿtazilī–Ashʿarī dispute over divine justice: the Muʿtazila generally hold that rizq denotes only what one comes to possess lawfully (ḥalāl), since God cannot be said to 'give' what is forbidden, tying rizq to their doctrine of human acquisition (kasb) and responsibility. The Ashʿariyya, following the sense of al-Razzāq as sole Creator of all sustenance, extend rizq to whatever a person actually derives benefit from, lawful or unlawful, since God creates all things including what is unlawfully seized. This debate bears directly on how far divine providence (rizq) is compatible with human moral responsibility for its acquisition.
Draws on: kalām debate on rizq and lawful acquisition
Reference