The Qur’anic Root A B Q
Ibāq: fleeing and leaving a position or commitment, from an enslaved person’s flight from their master to Jonah’s departure toward the ship
Qur’anic and lexical forms
أَبَقَ
(abaqa)
The only Qur’anic form: Form I past verb, third-person masculine singular; Al-Ṣāffāt 37:140
يَأْبِقُ / يَأْبُقُ
(yaʾbiqu / yaʾbuqu)
Two lexical imperfect vocalizations; absent from the Qur’anic text
أَبْق / إِبَاق
(abq / ibāq)
Lexical verbal nouns: fleeing, especially from a master
آبِق
(ābiq)
Lexical active participle: a fugitive
أُبَّاق
(ubbāq)
Lexical plural of ābiq; absent from the Qur’anic text
أَبَّاق / أَبُوق
(abbāq / abūq)
Lexical descriptive forms for one who flees
تَأَبَّقَ / تَأَبُّق
(taʾabbaqa / taʾabbuq)
Lexical Form V verb and verbal noun: hiding, withdrawal, or holding back, depending on context
أَبَق
(abaq)
Non-Qur’anic material noun: hemp, its bark, or cord
1. Introducing the root and its Qur’anic form
The Arabic root أ ب ق is known for fleeing and moving away. Its prominent, familiar use concerned an enslaved person who left their master and fled. Such a person was called آبِق (ābiq), and the action إِبَاق (ibāq).
This differs from ordinary departure. Someone may leave a place to travel, trade, or visit relatives without that departure itself being ibāq. In the word’s primary usage, flight concerns a relationship in which someone is under another’s authority or has a recognized duty.
Yet the root’s meaning should not be restricted to every legal detail of slavery. Arabic also records forms of this family for hiding, moving away, and withdrawing from reach.
The root occurs only once in the Qur’an:
Al-Ṣāffāt, 37:140
إِذْ أَبَقَ إِلَى الْفُلْكِ الْمَشْحُونِ
idh abaqa ilā al-fulki al-mashḥūn
“When he fled toward the laden ship.”
The subject of أَبَقَ (abaqa) is Jonah, named in the preceding verse.
The choice of verb matters. The Qur’an does not describe Jonah’s departure merely through a neutral verb such as “went,” but chooses a word carrying the sense of flight and leaving one’s position or responsibility in Arabic.
Yet this one word cannot supply every detail of Jonah’s decision, his ultimate destination, or the circumstances preceding his departure. Those matters require examination of the relevant verses together.
Morphological forms
The Qur’anic أَبَقَ (abaqa) is a Form I past verb, third-person masculine singular.
Recognized Arabic forms of the family include:
- أَبَقَ (abaqa): fled, especially of an enslaved person leaving their master.
- يَأْبِقُ، يَأْبُقُ (yaʾbiqu, yaʾbuqu): two recognized vocalizations of the imperfect verb.
- أَبْق، إِبَاق (abq, ibāq): verbal nouns for fleeing.
- آبِق (ābiq): a fugitive; in the primary usage, a runaway enslaved person.
- أُبَّاق (ubbāq): a plural of ābiq.
- أَبَّاق، أَبُوق (abbāq, abūq): descriptive forms known for someone associated with fleeing.
- تَأَبَّقَ (taʾabbaqa): hid, withdrew, or moved away, depending on usage.
- التَّأَبُّق (al-taʾabbuq): hiding or withdrawing.
Lexical sources also record الأَبَق (al-abaq), with fatḥah on bāʾ, for hemp, its bark, or cord made from it. This material usage differs from ibāq, “flight,” and no certain historical relationship between them has been established.
أ ب ق should also be distinguished from ب ق ي, concerning remaining, and ع ب ق, concerning the spreading of fragrance.
2. The meaning of ibāq in early Arabic
An enslaved person fleeing their master
Arabic lexical sources explain ibāq as an enslaved person’s flight from their master.
In Lisān al-ʿArab, Ibn Manẓūr transmits earlier lexicographers’ definition of ābiq as an enslaved person who has fled their master.
In Al-Ṣiḥāḥ, al-Jawharī likewise explains أَبَقَ الْعَبْدُ (abaqa al-ʿabdu) as “the enslaved person fled.”
This usage has a specific social setting. In a society where slavery existed, an enslaved person stood in a relationship of ownership and service. Leaving the master or place of service without consent had a particular designation in that society’s language and law.
Reporting a word’s meaning must nevertheless be distinguished from morally or legally endorsing the institution within which the word arose.
Lexical study shows that Arabs called this kind of flight ibāq. That linguistic fact does not establish that every person fleeing captivity or oppressive conditions has acted wrongly.
This distinction also matters when studying the Qur’anic expression about Jonah.
Must ibāq mean fleeing without fear?
Some early sources give ibāq a narrower definition: an enslaved person fleeing their master without fear or severe labor being the cause.
This distinguishes a person fleeing without such an excuse from one fleeing fear or unbearable work.
Yet this boundary also served legal discussions, for example in identifying a defect that might be raised in transactions involving enslaved people.
All these legal details should therefore not become essential parts of the verb abaqa in every context.
The clearer, broader sense is fleeing a master or position to which someone stands in a relationship of service and dependence.
By using this verb, the Qur’an describes Jonah’s departure as a kind of flight. Yet the word itself cannot establish with certainty that he experienced no fear or anxiety.
That conclusion would require contextual examination and independent evidence.
Hiding and withdrawing
Arabic also records تَأَبَّقَ (taʾabbaqa) for hiding and then moving away.
Its connection with flight is intelligible: someone wishing to leave a position and escape reach may hide or withdraw from view.
Yet hiding is not always necessary to flight.
A person may flee a place openly. Someone may also hide without leaving their town or home.
Fleeing and hiding can therefore accompany one event without having the same meaning.
Al-Ṣāffāt 37:140 uses abaqa rather than taʾabbaqa. Jonah’s movement should therefore not be considered certainly secret on morphological grounds alone.
3. Early Arabic witnesses and other branches of the root
A witness from Arabic rajaz
In Maqāyīs al-Lughah, Ibn Fāris cites a rajaz passage for ibāq in which the speaker calls themselves ābiq:
أَمْسِكْ بَنِيكَ عَمْرُو إِنِّي آبِقٌ
بَرْقٌ عَلَى أَرْضِ السَّعَالِي آلِقٌ
amsik banīka ʿamru innī ābiqun / barqun ʿalā arḍi al-saʿālī āliq
“Keep your children, ʿAmr; I am fleeing. Lightning flashes over the land of the saʿālī.”
Here ābiq occurs in a construction in which the speaker announces departure and withdrawal.
The witness helps explain the descriptive ābiq: it shows the word being used in poetry for one who flees.
In Ibn Durayd’s Al-Ishtiqāq, this rajaz occurs in the legendary account of ʿAmr ibn Yarbūʿ and his wife, a saʿlāh or legendary female ghoul. Besides the uncertainty about the poet and precise date, its legendary narrative setting must therefore be considered; it cannot serve as certain evidence from the pre-Islamic period.
Nor should one poetic use make all the legal details of ibāq present in every figurative application.
Taʾabbuq in al-Aʿshā’s poetry
Poetry attributed to al-Aʿshā reads:
فَذَاكَ وَلَمْ يُعْجِزْ مِنَ الْمَوْتِ رَبَّهُ
وَلَكِنْ أَتَاهُ الْمَوْتُ لَا يَتَأَبَّقُ
fa-dhāka wa-lam yuʿjiz mina al-mawti rabbahu / wa-lākin atāhu al-mawtu lā yataʾabbaq
“Such it was, yet it did not save its owner from death; death came to him without holding back.”
Lexical sources transmit this verse as a witness for taʾabbuq.
Lexical sources give both istatara, “hid,” and iḥtabasa, “held back,” for taʾabbaqa. In this verse, death proceeding without delay or holding back is consistent with iḥtabasa; its meaning should therefore not be restricted to hiding alone.
This witness matters because it shows that أ ب ق was not confined to the legal expression for a runaway enslaved person.
Yet this use does not make hiding from death the Qur’anic abaqa’s primary meaning.
In Al-Ṣāffāt 37:140, Jonah heads toward a ship, and the verb describes his movement as flight.
Abaq as hemp
Lexical sources record الأَبَق (al-abaq) for hemp, its bark, or cord made from it.
Zuhayr ibn Abī Sulmā says:
الْقَائِدَ الْخَيْلَ مَنْكُوبًا دَوَابِرُهَا
قَدْ أُحْكِمَتْ حَكَمَاتِ الْقِدِّ وَالْأَبَقَا
al-qāʾida al-khayla mankūban dawābiruhā / qad uḥkimat ḥakamāti al-qiddi wa-al-abaqā
“Leading horses whose rear hooves are injured, their bridle straps of hide and hemp made firm.”
Here abaq accompanies hide and parts of a horse’s equipment. It denotes material used to make or secure that equipment.
This witness concerns the material branch, rather than fleeing a master or leaving a responsibility.
It shows why not every word with أ ب ق should be explained as flight.
Nor does a resemblance in consonants establish a common derivational history for the usages.
In Maqāyīs al-Lughah, Ibn Fāris mentions an enslaved person’s flight and strictness or severity in a matter when explaining the family. Yet that lexical report alone does not establish that hemp and flight originated in one initial image.
A Qur’anic article should record these branches while determining the verse’s meaning through the familiar use of abaqa.
4. إِذْ أَبَقَ إِلَى الْفُلْكِ الْمَشْحُونِ: Jonah’s departure toward the ship
Al-Ṣāffāt, 37:139
وَإِنَّ يُونُسَ لَمِنَ الْمُرْسَلِينَ
wa-inna yūnusa la-mina al-mursalīn
“And indeed Jonah was among the Messengers.”
Al-Ṣāffāt, 37:140
إِذْ أَبَقَ إِلَى الْفُلْكِ الْمَشْحُونِ
idh abaqa ilā al-fulki al-mashḥūn
“When he fled toward the laden ship.”
The first verse identifies Jonah as a Messenger; the second describes his flight toward the ship.
This sequence matters for understanding abaqa.
The choice of abaqa rather than dhahaba or kharaja
Arabic ذَهَبَ (dhahaba) can denote going, and خَرَجَ (kharaja) leaving a place.
Yet in its primary usage, abaqa is not an ordinary, neutral departure.
It associates movement with fleeing and withdrawing from a position involving a relationship of service or dependence.
This distinction is especially important in Jonah’s account, since the Qur’an identifies him as a Messenger immediately beforehand.
The choice of abaqa can therefore highlight his departure in relation to the responsibility of his mission.
On this reading, flight pictures leaving a position in which Jonah had a duty.
The limits of the argument must nevertheless remain clear.
Verse 37:140 itself reports no command issued before the departure, nor explicitly states whether Jonah had sought permission to leave.
“Fleeing without permission” may therefore follow from an interpretation of the whole account, but should not be presented as abaqa’s entire lexical meaning.
Is Jonah presented as a runaway enslaved person?
In its principal early Arabic usage, ibāq concerns an enslaved person leaving their master.
Here the same verb describes Jonah, whom the Qur’an identifies as a Messenger of The God.
It can accordingly be understood as a transfer from a social and legal field to a Messenger’s relationship with a Divine mission.
The image compares Jonah’s flight with that of someone leaving their position of service.
Yet it does not transfer every legal feature of a runaway enslaved person to Jonah.
For example, the word does not establish that Jonah was another human being’s property in the legal sense familiar to a slaveholding society.
Nor should the lexical image justify demeaning descriptions of Jonah’s character, worth, or entire life.
The Qur’an itself calls him a Messenger and later speaks of his prayer, rescue, mercy, and being chosen.
Abaqa therefore concerns a particular behavior in the account rather than defining Jonah’s entire standing.
The role of إِلَى الْفُلْكِ الْمَشْحُونِ
إِلَى (ilā) expresses the direction of movement.
الْفُلْكِ (al-fulki) denotes the ship, while الْمَشْحُونِ (al-mashḥūni) describes it as full or laden.
The destination directly named is therefore the ship.
The expression alone does not tell us the city or country Jonah ultimately intended to reach.
Nor does the verse specify the port where the ship lay when he reached it, its passenger count, or the quantity of cargo aboard.
Those details should not be extracted from أ ب ق itself.
The verb conveys flight; ilā its direction; and mashḥūn the ship’s condition.
What happens after the flight
Al-Ṣāffāt, 37:141
فَسَاهَمَ فَكَانَ مِنَ الْمُدْحَضِينَ
fa-sāhama fa-kāna mina al-mudḥaḍīn
“He then participated in drawing lots and was among those against whom the lot fell.”
Al-Ṣāffāt, 37:142
فَالْتَقَمَهُ الْحُوتُ وَهُوَ مُلِيمٌ
fa-altaqamahu al-ḥūtu wa-huwa mulīm
“Then the great fish swallowed him, while he had done something deserving blame.”
These verses describe what follows.
After Jonah heads toward the ship, the drawing of lots is mentioned, followed by the great fish swallowing him.
مُلِيم (mulīm) also shows that this is more than a report of a traveler’s movement: it contains a critical judgment about Jonah’s conduct.
Yet mulīm does not belong to أ ب ق. It comes from another family and concerns deserving blame.
Abaqa should therefore not be defined lexically as “sinned” or “became deserving of blame.”
Verse 140 describes flight; verse 142 expresses the blameworthiness of the conduct.
They are contextually related but do not have one meaning.
Is every act of fleeing blameworthy?
No. Leaving and fleeing are not always censured in Qur’anic language.
A person may flee danger or oppression, and that movement can be defensible in its circumstances.
What matters in Jonah’s account is more than physical movement: it is the movement’s relationship with his mission and the account’s critical context.
The use of abaqa for Jonah therefore does not mean that everyone leaving a city, a ruler, or difficult conditions has acted as Jonah did.
The reason, responsibility, circumstances, and outcome of each movement need separate examination.
5. Comparing the verses concerning Jonah
أ ب ق occurs only in Al-Ṣāffāt 37:140, but two other sūrahs also discuss the event.
These verses help establish context, although their words are not derivatives of أ ب ق.
إِذْ ذَهَبَ مُغَاضِبًا
Al-Anbiyāʾ, 21:87
وَذَا النُّونِ إِذْ ذَهَبَ مُغَاضِبًا فَظَنَّ أَنْ لَنْ نَقْدِرَ عَلَيْهِ فَنَادَىٰ فِي الظُّلُمَاتِ أَنْ لَا إِلَٰهَ إِلَّا أَنْتَ سُبْحَانَكَ إِنِّي كُنْتُ مِنَ الظَّالِمِينَ
wa-dhā al-nūni idh dhahaba mughāḍiban fa-ẓanna an lan naqdira ʿalayhi fa-nādā fī al-ẓulumāti an lā ilāha illā anta subḥānaka innī kuntu mina al-ẓālimīn
“And remember the companion of the fish, when he went away angry and thought We would not constrain him. Then he called out in the darknesses: There is no god but You; You are free of imperfection; I have been among the wrongdoers.”
Here the same Jonah is described through ذَهَبَ (dhahaba).
مُغَاضِبًا (mughāḍiban), however, expresses his state when leaving.
The two verses complement one another.
Al-Ṣāffāt describes his movement with abaqa: he fled.
Al-Anbiyāʾ uses dhahaba, with mughāḍiban expressing anger at the time of departure.
Together, they indicate that Jonah’s flight occurred in a state of anger.
Yet anger should not become part of أ ب ق’s lexical meaning.
Nor does mughāḍiban itself explicitly name the object of Jonah’s anger. In light of his call to his people, anger toward them is a familiar reading; identifying its referent nevertheless requires contextual study.
Did Jonah intend to escape The God’s power?
Al-Anbiyāʾ 21:87 contains فَظَنَّ أَنْ لَنْ نَقْدِرَ عَلَيْهِ (fa-ẓanna an lan naqdira ʿalayhi).
Naqdira ʿalayhi has received different explanations. One important reading understands it as constraining or placing someone in difficulty.
On that reading, the verse concerns Jonah’s supposition that he would not be constrained, rather than a belief that The God lacked power.
The precise meaning requires a separate examination of ق د ر and the complete context.
For the present root study, however, the point is clear: abaqa itself does not mean believing in The God’s inability.
Jonah’s flight concerns a particular action and decision. It should not yield a theory about his belief that the word itself does not express.
Jonah’s acknowledgment and rescue
Later in Al-Anbiyāʾ 21:87, Jonah says:
“إِنِّي كُنْتُ مِنَ الظَّالِمِينَ (innī kuntu mina al-ẓālimīn).”
This acknowledgment shows that Jonah himself accepted the wrongness of his conduct in that situation.
Al-Anbiyāʾ 21:88 speaks of The God answering him and rescuing him from distress.
The account therefore does not end with flight and affliction.
His rescue should nevertheless not make the initial departure entirely unproblematic, just as the blameworthiness of his conduct should not erase the subsequent mercy and choosing of him.
Both aspects occur in the Qur’an.
وَلَا تَكُنْ كَصَاحِبِ الْحُوتِ
Al-Qalam, 68:48
فَاصْبِرْ لِحُكْمِ رَبِّكَ وَلَا تَكُنْ كَصَاحِبِ الْحُوتِ إِذْ نَادَىٰ وَهُوَ مَكْظُومٌ
fa-iṣbir li-ḥukmi rabbika wa-lā takun ka-ṣāḥibi al-ḥūti idh nādā wa-huwa makẓūm
“Remain steadfast for your Lord’s judgment, and do not be like the companion of the fish when he called out, overcome with grief and inward pressure.”
Addressed to Muḥammad, this verse recalls the companion of the fish in connection with patience and adherence to the Lord’s judgment.
This association indicates that Jonah’s experience in the Qur’an concerned more than a private journey.
Persevering in responsibility and avoiding haste amid difficulty become important to reading the account.
Yet ibāq should not be defined lexically as “impatience.”
Patience belongs to ص ب ر and appears here as a separate command.
Ibāq describes the act of flight, while the command to be patient in Al-Qalam clarifies the direction of its evaluation.
Jonah being chosen
Al-Qalam, 68:50
فَاجْتَبَاهُ رَبُّهُ فَجَعَلَهُ مِنَ الصَّالِحِينَ
fa-ijtabāhu rabbuhu fa-jaʿalahu mina al-ṣāliḥīn
“Then his Lord chose him and placed him among the righteous.”
Here the Qur’an speaks of Jonah being chosen and placed among the righteous.
This prevents his entire character and standing from being confined to abaqa.
Flight forms part of one event in his life.
Within the same account, the Qur’an also describes his being a Messenger, his mistake, prayer, Divine response, rescue, and choosing.
Lexical study should therefore preserve أ ب ق’s strong meaning without turning it into an absolute judgment of Jonah’s entire life and character.
7. Translation proposals for Forqan
Three English equivalents merit consideration in Al-Ṣāffāt 37:140.
“Went” conveys movement but removes flight, making it unsuitable for a precise translation.
“Ran away” preserves flight but does not itself express the familiar distinction between ibāq and flight in general.
“Fled” is natural and conveys the word’s force well. Leaving a position or responsibility can be explained in the root article.
Proposed translation of the verse
Al-Ṣāffāt, 37:140
إِذْ أَبَقَ إِلَى الْفُلْكِ الْمَشْحُونِ
idh abaqa ilā al-fulki al-mashḥūn
“When he fled toward the laden ship.”
This translates abaqa through “fled” and the direction through “toward the ship.”
“Laden” also preserves the description mashḥūn.
Where interpretation requires it, an explanation can note that the Qur’an’s chosen verb pictures Jonah’s departure, in relation to his mission, as flight from a position of service.
Yet the translation itself should not add “without permission, he fled the command of The God”: “without permission” is not stated in the verse and requires separate contextual argument.
“He fled from The God” is likewise imprecise, since the verse says he fled إِلَى الْفُلْكِ (ilā al-fulki): toward the ship.
Flight from a mission may be discussed contextually, but should not appear without explanation as the verb’s direct object in the verse’s wording.
A brief meaning for the word-by-word box
أَبَقَ (abaqa): fled; in familiar Arabic usage, like an enslaved person leaving their master. Here it describes Jonah’s departure toward the ship.
Where a shorter definition is needed:
“أَبَقَ (abaqa): fled and moved away from his position.”
This brief definition introduces the word suitably; the study itself should clarify how ibāq differs from ordinary departure and general flight.
8. Conclusion
The Arabic root أ ب ق is known for fleeing.
Its prominent use is ibāq al-ʿabd: an enslaved person fleeing their master. The same family also supplies ābiq for a fugitive and taʾabbuq for hiding or withdrawing.
Some sources define ibāq through particular legal conditions, such as flight without fear or labor pressure. Those legal qualifications should not become necessary components of the verb in every Arabic usage.
Another branch, أَبَق (abaq), is recorded for hemp or cord made from it. That material use should not be linked to flight without evidence.
The root occurs only once in the Qur’an: Al-Ṣāffāt 37:140.
There, after being identified as a Messenger, Jonah is described through abaqa: he fled toward the laden ship.
The choice matters: the Qur’an describes more than an ordinary change of location, placing his departure in the field of flight.
In parallel verses, Jonah leaves while mughāḍib, calls to The God in the darknesses, and acknowledges the wrongness of his conduct. Al-Qalam also links his account with patience and steadfastness before the Lord’s judgment.
These witnesses reinforce the connection of his flight with responsibility and decision.
Yet ibāq itself cannot yield all the event’s details. The verb alone does not state the specific command Jonah received or when, from whom he sought or failed to seek permission, or the country he intended to reach after boarding the ship.
Nor does it define Jonah’s character through a single mistake. Alongside flight and blameworthy conduct, the Qur’an describes his being a Messenger, his prayer, The God’s response, and his being chosen.
For Forqan, the family’s basic definition is this: Ibāq is fleeing and moving away from a position or relationship to which a person is bound by dependence or responsibility. In primary Arabic usage, it described an enslaved person’s flight from their master; in Al-Ṣāffāt 37:140, the verb describes Jonah’s departure toward the ship.
“Fled” is the most suitable brief equivalent in the verse. The study should clarify how this flight differs from ordinary departure, while understanding its cause, responsibility, and outcome through the account’s verses together, rather than أ ب ق alone.