Root · 35 in the Quran · 14 in 9 texts of the library
ورثfor a thing to belong to one party and then pass to another, by kinship or by cause (root wrth)
الواو والراء والثاء : كلمة واحدة هي الورث والميراث اصله الواو وهو أن يكون الشيء لقوم ثم يصير إلى آخرين بنسب أو سبب قال …
Ibn Fāris, Maqāyīs al-lugha · English rendering AI
The family of the root
Patterns computed · our dataThe words of و ر ث that our sources attest: the root's letters in green, the added letters in gold.
16 words4 verbs3 verbal nouns3 participles1 place or instrument2 other nouns3 plurals
- وَرِثَhe inherited
- أَوْرَثَhe made him to inherit the thing
- وَارِثheir
- وَارِثُونheirs
- مِيرَاث—
The whole family6 groups, by pattern; tap a pattern to see what it does
Verbs4وَرِثَ · أَوْرَثَ · وَرَّثَ
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: فَعِلَ يَفْعِلُ (i – i; the imperfect from Lane's “aor.”)
- وَرِثَhe inheritedLaneForm IQurʾān ×13library ×3LaneIbn Fāris
- أَوْرَثَhe made him to inherit the thingLaneForm IVQurʾān ×12library ×5Lane
- وَرَّثَhe included him among the heirs of his propertyLaneForm IILaneIbn Fāris
- تَوَارَثَthey inherited it by degrees, one great in dignity and nobility from another …LaneForm VILane
Verbal nouns3وِرْث · إِرْث · تَوْرِيث
The action itself, named as a noun (maṣdar).grammar →
Participles3وَارِث · مَوْرُوث · مُتَوَارَث
The one who does it, and the one it is done to.grammar →
- وَارِثheirLaneactive, Form IQurʾān ×7library ×2Lane
- مَوْرُوثproperty inheritedLanepassive, Form Ilibrary ×1Lane
- مُتَوَارَثglory is inherited among themLanepassive, Form VILane
Place, time and instrument1مِيرَاث
Where or when it happens, and what it is done with: the m- nouns.grammar →
Other nouns2وَرْث · وَرْثَة
Nouns on other patterns; their meaning is learned word by word.grammar →
Plurals3وَارِثُون · وَرَثَة · وُرَّاث
Broken plurals rebuild the word on a new pattern; sound plurals add an ending.grammar →
- وَارِثُونheirsfrom the singularsound plural of وَارِثQurʾān ×2
- وَرَثَةheirsfrom the singularbroken plural of وَارِثQurʾān ×1library ×1Lane
- وُرَّاثheirsfrom the singularbroken plural of وَارِثLane
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
This root has a weak or doubled letter, so real words change shape (qāla → qāʾil, not qāwil); the machine pours the letters in as they are, and matches attested words by their regular pattern.
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 · 170Al-īrāth (الإيراث): the leaving-behind of a thing...
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-mīrāth (الميراث): its origin is mawrāth (موراث);
al-Jawharī (d. c. 393/1003), al-Ṣiḥāḥ. Admits only usage he judged sound.
AI AI translation of the Arabic belowIbn Fāris · 395Wāw, rāʾ, and thāʾ: one word, which is al-warth (الورث) and al-mīrāth (الميراث).
Ibn Fāris (d. 395/1004), Maqāyīs al-Lugha. Seeks each root's original sense (aṣl).
AI AI translation of the Arabic belowal-Rāghib · 502Al-wirāthah (الوراثة) and al-irth (الإرث): the passing of a possession to you from someone else without a contract, nor anything functioning like a contract;
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-Wārith (الوارث): one of the attributes of God, exalted and glorified — the Everlasting, Abiding One who outlives (yarithu) His creatures and remains after their perishing.
Ibn Manẓūr (d. 711/1311), Lisān al-ʿArab. The great compendium of the earlier dictionaries (entry shortened).
AI AI translation of the Arabic below
The same letters, turned
The same three letters in all six orders. Choose one.
و ر ث
الواو والراء والثاء : كلمة واحدة هي الورث والميراث اصله الواو وهو أن يكون الشيء لقوم ثم يصير إلى آخرين بنسب أو سبب
w-r-th: a single word, which is al-warth and al-mīrāth; its origin is the wāw, and it is that a thing belongs to a people then passes to others by kinship or cause. 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
- وwāwbetween the lips · voiced, in betweenSīb. · I. Jinnī
- رrāʾtip of the tongue, near the nūn · voiced, in betweenSīb. · I. Jinnī
- ثthāʾtongue-tip, edges of the teeth · voiceless, continuantSīb. · 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
و
ومما بين الشفتين مخرج الباء، والميم، والواو
From between the two lips is the place of the bāʾ, the mīm and the wāw. Sībawayh, line 26563 ↗
ومما بين الشفتين مخرج الباء والميم والواو
From between the two lips is the place of the bāʾ, the mīm and the wāw. Ibn Jinnī, line 986 ↗
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 ↗
ث
ومما بين طرف اللسان وأطراف الثنايا مخرج الظاء والذال، والثاء
From between the tip of the tongue and the edges of the front teeth is the place of the ẓāʾ, the dhāl and the thāʾ. Sībawayh, line 26561 ↗
ومما بين طرف اللسان وأطراف الثنايا، مخرج الظاء والذال والثاء
From between the tip of the tongue and the edges of the front teeth is the place of the ẓāʾ, the dhāl and the thāʾ. Ibn Jinnī, line 984 ↗
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
و
Level of existence: تعيين الرتب والمقامات والمنازل · the determination of ranks, stations and waystations
Divine Name: رفيع الدرجات · Rafīʿ al-Darajāt, Exalted in Degrees
Lunar mansion: الرشا · al-Rashāʾ
Futūḥāt ch. 198, line 62121Spheres 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 2582ر
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 2582ث
Level of existence: النبات · plants
Divine Name: الرزاق · al-Razzāq, the Provider
Lunar mansion: بلع · Balaʿ
Futūḥāt ch. 198, line 62114Spheres 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
و
With fatḥa ـَ
فهي الأشياء المشتبكة في الإنسان مثل العروق والأصابع وما أشبه ذلك.
It is the intertwined things in the human being, such as veins, fingers and the like.
With ḍamma ـُ
فهي الأشياء المباينة لبني آدم مثل الأفلاك والجبال وما أشبه ذلك
It is things distinct from the children of Adam, such as the celestial spheres, mountains and the like.
With kasra ـِ
فهي الأشياء المشتبكة المستقذرة أو المبغوضة كالأمعاء ونحوها.
It is intertwined things that are filthy or detested, such as the intestines 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.
ث
With fatḥa ـَ
فهي إشارة إلى النور أو الظلام.
It is an indication of light or darkness.
With ḍamma ـُ
فهي إشارة إلى زوال الشيء من الشيء.
It is an indication of a thing's departing from a thing.
With kasra ـِ
فهي إشارة إلى جعل الشيء على الشيء.
It is an indication of placing a thing upon a thing.
Two-letter nucleus14 roots in Ibn Fāris’s chapterو 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 34157 ↗
- ورسالواو والراء والسين : كلمة واحدة هي الورس : نبت وأورس المكان : أنبته وهو وارس وهو نادر وملحفة وريس : صبغت بالورس . ( ورش ) الواو والراء والشين كلمتان L34159
- ورطالواو والراء والطاء : كلمة تدل على شيء كالبلية والوقوع فيما لا مخلص منه وتورط في البلية وأصله الورطة من الأرض وهي التي لا طريق فيهاL34166
- ورعالواو والراء والعين : أصل صحيح يدل على الكف والانقباض منه الورع : العفة وهي الكف عما لا ينبغي ؛ ورجل ورع والورع : الورع : الرجل الجبان وورع يورع ورعا L34171
- ورفالواو والراء والفاء : أصل يدل على رقة ونضرة ونبات وارف ورف وريفا إذا رأيت له من ريه بهجة وظل وارف : ممدود وما رق من نواحي الكبد : الورف ويقال إن الرفةL34178
- ورقالواو والراء والقاف : أصلان يدل أحدهما على خير ومال وأصله ورق الشجر والآخر على لون من الألوان .Q 4 · L34182
- وركالواو والراء والكاف كلمة واحدة هي الورك : ما فوق الفخذ من مؤخر الإنسان وجلس متوركا : ألصق وركه بالأرض وتورك على الدابة في ذلك المعنى وهذه نعل موركة إذL34202
- ورلالواو والراء واللام : ليس إلا ورل وهو شيء من الدواب .L34211
- ورمالواو والراء والميم : كلمة واحدة هي الورم أن ينفر اللحمL34213
- ورهالواو والراء والهاء : كلمة تدل على اضطراب وخرق . فالورهاء : المرأة الحمقاء والوره : الخرق : وريح ورهاء في هبوبها خرق وعجرفة وسحاب وره : لا يمسك ماءه وL34216
- ورىالواو والراء والحرف المعتل : بناء على غير قياس وكلمة أفراد فالورى : داء يداخل الجسمQ 32 · L34221
- وربالواو والراء والباء : كلمتان : إحداهما الورب وهو الفتر والثانية الورب : الفسادL34232
- ورثالواو والراء والثاء : كلمة واحدة هي الورث والميراث اصله الواو وهو أن يكون الشيء لقوم ثم يصير إلى آخرين بنسب أو سببQ 35 · L34235
- ورخالواو والراء والخاء : كلمة واحدةL34239
- وردالواو والراء والدال : أصلان أحدهما الموافاة إلى الشيء والثاني لون من الألوان .Q 11 · L34243
In the sister scriptsHebrew ו ר שSyriac ܘ ܪ ܬ
| Arabic | و ر ث |
| Hebrew | ו ר ש |
| Syriac | ܘ ܪ ܬ |
| Ancient South Arabian (musnad) | 𐩥 𐩧 𐩻 |
| Phoenician | 𐤅 𐤓 𐤔 |
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 glosses al-īrāth simply as al-ibqāʾ lil-shayʾ, 'the retention/leaving-behind of a thing', and treats turāth as a phonological variant of mīrāth that does not pluralize the same way;well attested
The lexicographers in chronological order, from al-Khalīl to Lane.
Al-Khalīl glosses al-īrāth simply as al-ibqāʾ lil-shayʾ, 'the retention/leaving-behind of a thing', and treats turāth as a phonological variant of mīrāth that does not pluralize the same way; he also notes the extended use, as in 'love bequeathed him grief'. Al-Jawharī works out the morphology: mīrāth is from mawrāth (wāw > yāʾ after kasra), turāth likewise has an original wāw, and he catalogues the paradigm waratha/yarithu/wirātha/wirth/irth, explaining the loss of the wāw in the imperfect by analogy with waṭiʾa/yaṭaʾu. Ibn Fāris states the core sense concisely: a thing belongs to a group and then passes to others by kinship (nasab) or by cause (sabab), citing a line of verse on inheriting glory from fathers and passing it to sons. Al-Rāghib sharpens this into the legal-technical register: wirātha/irth is the transfer of a possession to you from another without a contract or anything functioning as one — hence what passes from the deceased is called mīrāth/irth, and he traces turāth back to wirāth (w>t). Ibn Manẓūr extends the root into theology: al-Wārith becomes a divine name, 'the Enduring who inherits creation and outlasts their annihilation, so that what was owned by His servants reverts to Him alone', alongside the ordinary sense waratha mālahu wa-majdahu, 'he inherited his father's wealth and glory'.
Draws on: cayn · sihah · Ibn Fāris · mufradat · lisan
- Ibn Fāris, Maqāyīs al-Lugha, s.v. w-r-th
- Ibn Manẓūr, Lisān al-ʿArab, s.v. w-r-th
Letters & soundAl-Dabbāgh reads rāʾ as an indication of goods, outward and inward, which sits naturally with irth as transferred property;speculative
What the theorists of sound symbolism would say of these letters. Speculative by nature.
Al-Dabbāgh reads rāʾ as an indication of goods, outward and inward, which sits naturally with irth as transferred property; Ibn ʿArabī's letter-cosmology assigns wāw to the fixing of ranks, stations and waystations (rutab, maqāmāt, manāzil) — apt for a root whose central sense is the passing of a station or possession from one holder to the next. Thāʾ is linked by Ibn ʿArabī to plants (al-nabāt) and by al-Dabbāgh to light or darkness; a plant that is harvested and yet reseeds itself offers an loose image of what 'remains' after the original owner is gone. None of this is more than a mnemonic reading of the three letters together; mainstream linguistics has no mechanism by which individual root-letters carry stable meanings, and this lens should be taken as suggestive at most.
Draws on: akbari198 · dabbagh_fatha
Root structureIn Ibn Fāris's wā-rā chapter, ورث sits beside ورق (leaf/wealth), ورى (a hidden, smoldering fire or disease), and ورع (restraint) — several of these turn on something held back, covered, or persisting beneath a surface before it appears or passes on, a family resemblance with wirātha as the passing-on of what was held.uncertain
The two-letter nucleus (Ibn Fāris's own chapters) and the permutations of the letters (Ibn Jinnī).
In Ibn Fāris's wā-rā chapter, ورث sits beside ورق (leaf/wealth), ورى (a hidden, smoldering fire or disease), and ورع (restraint) — several of these turn on something held back, covered, or persisting beneath a surface before it appears or passes on, a family resemblance with wirātha as the passing-on of what was held. Among the anagram permutations, ثور (to stir up, raise, provoke) is itself well attested in the Qurʾān, and وثر denotes a settled, cushioned base (wathīr); one could juxtapose the 'raising up' sense of ث-و-ر against the transfer-in-place sense of و-ر-ث, but Ibn Fāris records no explicit connection, and this is offered only as a resonance, not a derivation. روث (dung, the tip of the nose) and رثو are unrelated in attested sense.
Draws on: nucleusSiblings · permutations
- Ibn Fāris, Maqāyīs, chapter wā-rā
Semitic kin & loanwordsArabic w-r-th has a solid Semitic pedigree.well attested
Cognates in the sister languages, and whether the word was borrowed.
Arabic w-r-th has a solid Semitic pedigree. Hebrew יָרַשׁ (yāraš), 'to inherit, take possession, dispossess', is the regular cognate: Proto-Semitic initial *w regularly surfaces as Hebrew y in this verb class (compare Arabic walada / Hebrew yālad), so Arabic waratha and Hebrew yāraš are the same root under the normal w/y correspondence. Aramaic/Syriac ירת (yrt), 'to inherit', shows the identical shift and the identical sense. Geʿez warasa, 'to inherit', wärs 'heir', preserves the original wāw and confirms the root is inherited Semitic vocabulary, not a later borrowing in Arabic. No confident cognate has been identified in Akkadian.
Draws on: cognate-comparison
- Brown–Driver–Briggs, s.v. ירש
- CAL, s.v. yrt (V) ↗
Quranic exegesisAt 15:23, 'We give life and death, and We are the Inheritors' (al-wārithūn), al-Ṭabarī and al-Zamakhsharī read wārith as the continuation of God's eternal life-attribute: when all created possessors perish, ownership of everything reverts to God alone, who alone remains.well attested
How the classical exegetes read the word in the Quran.
At 15:23, 'We give life and death, and We are the Inheritors' (al-wārithūn), al-Ṭabarī and al-Zamakhsharī read wārith as the continuation of God's eternal life-attribute: when all created possessors perish, ownership of everything reverts to God alone, who alone remains. At 2:233, exegetes debate the referent of 'and upon the heir (al-wārith) the like of that' in the nursing-cost verse — al-Ṭabarī and al-Rāzī survey opinions on whether this means the father's paternal relatives or the child's heirs generally, since the term is used loosely rather than in its strict legal sense. The lengthy inheritance-share verses 4:11–12 are the object of extensive juristic and exegetical elaboration by al-Ṭabarī and al-Rāzī, working out the fractional shares (farāʾiḍ) for each class of heir. At 7:128, Moses tells his people that 'the earth belongs to God; He gives it as inheritance (yūrithuhā) to whomever He wills among His servants' — read by the exegetes as a promise that dominion over the land will pass from Pharaoh's people to the righteous.
Draws on: Q15:23 · Q2:233 · Q4:11-12 · Q7:128
Reference