Qur’anic Root A N M
Created beings and inhabitants of the earth: from the broad meaning of al-anām to the place of humans, jinn, and other living beings in creation
Qur’anic and lexical forms
لِلْأَنَامِ
(li-l-anāmi)
The sole Qur’anic form: li- and the definite article with the genitive noun; Al-Raḥmān 55:10
أَنَام
(anām)
Collective designation of created beings; broad or narrower scope according to context
أَنِيم
(anīm)
Recorded poetic variant; not Qur’anic and not an established ordinary singular of anām
آنام
(ānām)
Recorded form with an initial long vowel, treated as a variant or in one report a plural; not Qur’anic
Arabic أَنَام (anām) names created beings, especially those living on earth. In its broad use, it can include humans and other living beings. In some uses it is restricted to humans, or applied to humans and jinn.
The Qur’an uses this root only once, in Al-Raḥmān 55:10: وَالْأَرْضَ وَضَعَهَا لِلْأَنَامِ. Here the earth has been set in place for al-anām. Fruit, date palms, grain, and plants are mentioned immediately afterward.
The central question is whom or what al-anām includes. Does it mean humans alone? Does the designation include jinn? Or does it refer to a broader range of the earth’s created beings?
Reports in the Arabic lexical tradition show that al-anām is not restricted to humans, although in some literary uses it can mean people. The context of Al-Raḥmān also involves direct address to humans and jinn, which has led some to identify these two groups as the verse’s intended referents.
A precise understanding distinguishes the word’s broad meaning, the referents emphasized by context, and conclusions concerning created beings’ benefit from the earth.
1. The Qur’anic form and word structure
The root A N M occurs only once in the Qur’an, in one nominal form:
لِلْأَنَامِ (li-l-anāmi) — Al-Raḥmān 55:10
The form consists of the preposition لِـ (li-), the definite article الـ (al-), and the noun أَنَام.
In this use, anām is a collective designation: it refers to a range of created beings without a commonly used singular of the same wording for each individual. This description of usage should not be confused with a definitive claim about the word’s historical pattern or every proposed derivation.
This feature should not be confused with an ordinary broken plural.
For example, رِجَال (rijāl) is the plural of رَجُل (rajul), while أَشْجَار (ashjār) denotes trees, whose singular is شَجَرَة (shajarah). In its familiar use, however, anām collectively names created beings, without a commonly recognized independent singular regularly formed from the same structure.
Lexical sources record أَنِيم (anīm) as a poetic variant of أَنَام. They also transmit آنام (ānām), with an initial long vowel: some reports treat it as another form of the word, while one records it as a plural.
The existence of anīm does not by itself make it the certain, ordinary singular of anām. The lexical report presents a poetic variant, rather than necessarily a regular singular–plural relationship.
The Qur’an contains neither anīm nor a verb belonging to the entry A N M.
Unlike many other roots, this entry therefore cannot supply a broad set of Qur’anic basic and derived verbs, active participles, and passive participles.
Its Qur’anic form is a collective noun denoting created beings.
Is أَنَام derived from a particular verb?
There is no clear agreement about the derivational origin of anām.
Many lexical sources introduce the word through its meaning. Tāj al-ʿArūs nevertheless records proposals including an original hamzah and a development from وَنام (wanām), from W N M, concerning making a sound. These proposals do not establish a certain, agreed historical derivation.
We should therefore avoid inventing an unattested verb and deriving the meaning “created beings” from it.
Nor does the similarity between the noun أَنَام and the verb أَنَامَ (anāma), “to put to sleep,” establish a common root.
The verb anāma, “to put to sleep,” belongs to N W M and Form IV. The noun anām, however, is listed under A N M in many lexical indexes and the Qur’anic corpus. That classification does not by itself resolve disagreement about the noun’s historical origin.
Some sources also transmit a definition such as “everyone subject to sleep.” This should not be equated with proof of derivation from N W M, or with “those currently asleep.” For this verse, “created beings” preserves a broader, more appropriate meaning.
The recorded and defensible meaning is created beings.
2. Al-anām in early Arabic: all created beings or people?
مَا ظَهَرَ عَلَى الْأَرْضِ مِنَ الْخَلْقِ
One familiar definition in the Arabic lexical tradition, found in Lisān al-ʿArab, reads:
الْأَنَامُ: مَا ظَهَرَ عَلَى الْأَرْضِ مِنْ جَمِيعِ الْخَلْقِ.
al-anāmu: mā ẓahara ʿalā al-arḍi min jamīʿi al-khalqi
That is: “Al-anām are the created beings that appear upon the earth.”
This definition gives the word a scope broader than humans.
It concerns the earth’s created beings, rather than a single people, nation, or social group.
Yet “all created beings” should be understood together with the qualification “upon the earth.”
It does not necessarily mean every being in all the heavens, the unseen world, or every unknown level of creation. The definition places created beings in relation to the earth.
Nor should “appear upon the earth” be converted, without examination, into a claim that only beings visible to human eyes fall within the word’s scope.
Some exegetical uses include jinn among the referents of al-anām, although the Qur’an presents their visibility and presence as differing from those of humans.
The lexical expression thus primarily identifies beings associated with the earth; it is not a scientific definition based on visibility to the eye.
Does al-anām also include plants?
Under the broad definition “what appears upon the earth of created beings,” plants may also be discussed as things created.
Other explanations, however, restrict al-anām to animate beings or moving creatures.
One older explanation, for example, defines it as “everything having a spirit.” Another speaks of “everything that moves upon the earth.”
These differences show that the word’s precise scope is not governed by one undisputed definition.
If al-anām means all earthly created beings, plants can also enter the discussion of its scope.
If the intended referents are moving creatures or groups benefiting from the earth, however, plants feature more prominently among the provisions and phenomena that the earth nurtures.
Al-Raḥmān 55:11 and Al-Raḥmān 55:12 name plants and the earth’s produce immediately after al-anām.
This sequence supports a reading focused on those benefiting from the earth. By itself, however, it does not establish that no plant could fall within the broader meaning “created beings.”
It is therefore better not to impose an artificial, definitive boundary here.
An early example: al-anām in poetry attributed to Labīd
The collected poetry of Labīd ibn Rabīʿah contains:
فَإِنْ تَسْأَلِينَا فِيمَ نَحْنُ فَإِنَّنَا
عَصَافِيرُ مِنْ هَذَا الْأَنَامِ الْمُسَحَّرِ
fa-in tasʾalīnā fīma naḥnu fa-innanā / ʿaṣāfīru min hādhā al-anāmi al-musaḥḥari
“If you ask us what we are, we are sparrows among these created beings dependent on food and drink.”
Here al-anām designates the range of beings among whom the poet places himself and his companions.
The sparrow comparison can convey human smallness and weakness. This literary interpretation should not by itself be treated as proof that al-anām includes every form of life.
The example places humans within a group called al-anām. The line alone, however, does not decide whether that group here means people alone or includes other created beings.
Care is nevertheless needed when using this line.
First, comparing humans to sparrows does not by itself prove that sparrows are literal referents of al-anām in this particular line. The poet may simply be using an image to describe humans.
The final word also has variant readings, including الْمُسَحَّر (al-musaḥḥar) and الْمُسَخَّر (al-musakhkhar). This consonantal difference should remain distinct from differing interpretations of al-musaḥḥar itself.
Explanations of al-musaḥḥar include being dependent on food and drink, possessing a saḥr, meaning a lung, and being deceived. The translation above selects the food-and-drink interpretation without categorically rejecting the other analyses.
The disagreement concerns the line’s final word and does not erase the core meaning of al-anām.
The line occurs in Labīd’s collected poetry, but some literary reports also attribute it to Umayyah ibn Abī Al-Ṣalt.
Labīd lived across the pre-Islamic and Islamic periods. Even accepting his authorship, the line cannot be securely dated to before the Qur’an without independent evidence.
With these qualifications, the line is an example transmitted in the older literary and exegetical tradition. The transmission alone does not establish a precise date, an exclusive attribution, or a final determination of its referents.
Al-anām meaning humans in literary usage
In later periods of Arabic, al-anām is also frequently used for people and humans.
For example, Abū Al-Ṭayyib Al-Mutanabbī says:
إِنْ كُنْتَ عَنْ خَيْرِ الْأَنَامِ سَائِلًا
فَخَيْرُهُمْ أَكْثَرُهُمْ فَضَائِلَا
in kunta ʿan khayri al-anāmi sāʾilan / fa-khayruhum aktharuhum faḍāʾilā
“If you ask about the best among people, the best of them is the one with the most virtues.”
Here al-anām refers to humans, since the line compares people on the basis of human virtues.
The use shows that a context can restrict the word to people.
Al-Mutanabbī, however, is an Abbasid-era poet. His poetry attests later Arabic usage; it does not by itself establish that al-anām always and exclusively meant humans when the Qur’an was revealed.
We must therefore distinguish the broad meaning recorded in lexical evidence from restriction to humans in particular literary uses.
3. وَالْأَرْضَ وَضَعَهَا لِلْأَنَامِ: the Qur’anic use
Al-Raḥmān states:
وَالْأَرْضَ وَضَعَهَا لِلْأَنَامِ
wa-al-arḍa waḍaʿahā li-l-anāmi
“And the earth He set in place for created beings.”
Al-Raḥmān 55:10
This is the only Qur’anic occurrence of the root A N M.
The sentence has three principal components:
الْأَرْضَ (al-arḍa) identifies the earth.
وَضَعَهَا (waḍaʿahā) speaks of setting it in place.
لِلْأَنَامِ identifies those for whom the earth has been set in place.
In this construction, al-anām names created beings.
The verb expressing setting in place belongs to W Ḍ ʿ and should not be included in the meaning of A N M itself.
Likewise, li- expresses the earth’s relation to created beings. That relation is understood from the full sentence’s structure, rather than the noun anām by itself.
وَضَعَهَا alongside رَفَعَهَا
Al-Raḥmān 55:7 states:
وَالسَّمَاءَ رَفَعَهَا وَوَضَعَ الْمِيزَانَ
wa-al-samāʾa rafaʿahā wa-waḍaʿa al-mīzāna
“And the heaven He raised, and He established the balance.”
Al-Raḥmān 55:7
A few verses later, the earth is described as set in place for created beings.
Within this sequence, raising the heaven and setting the earth in place are presented in relation to one another.
Yet waḍaʿa does not have the same object in the two sentences.
In Al-Raḥmān 55:7, the balance is established.
In Al-Raḥmān 55:10, the earth is set in place for created beings.
It does not follow that the balance and the earth are identical in nature, or that both were put in place through the same physical process.
Nor should waḍaʿahā alone be used to draw a definitive conclusion about the earth’s geometrical shape.
The verb concerns setting or providing the earth within the context of creation, rather than specifying its dimensions, curvature, or astronomical structure.
The main focus is the earth’s relation to the created beings that benefit from it.
لِلْأَنَامِ: for created beings, not necessarily their private property
The lām in li-l-anām can express a relation of allocation, benefit, or purpose in setting the earth in place.
In context, “for created beings” is natural and clear.
This lām does not by itself state that the earth has become the unlimited private property of each creature.
Nor does it state that every human may consume or destroy all the earth’s resources without regard for others.
Something’s being available for created beings’ benefit is distinct from the right or wrong manner of using it.
The preceding verses of the same chapter discuss the balance and avoiding transgression in it.
Benefit from the earth is thus presented within a context that also concerns balance and justice.
Nevertheless, a complete set of rules for property, the environment, or natural-resource management should not be derived solely from li-l-anām.
Those questions require separate examination of other verses concerning justice, excess, corruption, and the rights of humans and other living beings.
4. The scope of al-anām: humans, jinn, or earthly created beings generally?
Three principal readings identify the referents of al-anām in Al-Raḥmān 55:10.
The first reading: humans
One older reading explains al-anām as humans.
This is understandable because Al-Raḥmān opens with teaching the Qur’an and creating the human being.
Al-Raḥmān 55:3 and Al-Raḥmān 55:4 concern the creation of the human being and teaching him expression.
Many of the earth’s provisions mentioned afterward, including fruit and grain, are familiar and useful to humans.
Humans can accordingly be identified as a principal audience for the reminder of these provisions.
That evidence alone, however, does not establish that al-anām is lexically restricted to humans.
The chapter itself discusses other beings, and the subsequent address extends to humans and jinn.
“People” is therefore a possible meaning here, but claiming it as the exclusive meaning requires further grounds.
The second reading: humans and jinn
Another reading understands al-anām as humans and jinn.
Its principal support is the context of Al-Raḥmān.
Al-Raḥmān 55:13 states:
فَبِأَيِّ آلَاءِ رَبِّكُمَا تُكَذِّبَانِ
fa-bi-ayyi ālāʾi rabbikumā tukadhdhibāni
“Then which of your Lord’s blessings do you two groups deny?”
Al-Raḥmān 55:13
The pronoun kumā and the verb tukadhdhibān are dual forms.
Al-Raḥmān 55:14 and Al-Raḥmān 55:15 also mention the creation of the human being and the jinn separately.
Al-Raḥmān 55:33 directly addresses مَعْشَرَ الْجِنِّ وَالْإِنْسِ, “company of jinn and humans.”
The chapter’s twofold audience can therefore be identified as humans and jinn.
When Al-Raḥmān 55:10 describes the earth as set in place for al-anām, humans and jinn can accordingly be recognized as prominent referents within the chapter’s context.
This argument alone still does not establish that other living beings fall outside the word’s meaning.
Addressing two groups does not necessarily restrict all created beings to those two groups.
The chapter may directly address groups capable of receiving and answering that address, while the earth’s provisions benefit a broader range of beings.
The third reading: earthly created beings in a broad sense
On the broader reading, al-anām encompasses the earth’s created beings.
Humans are then one group benefiting from the earth, rather than the only group for whom it has been set in place.
Other living beings also inhabit the earth and benefit from its water, food, and conditions.
This agrees with the broad definition of al-anām in the older Arabic tradition.
Other Qur’anic verses likewise show that benefit from the earth is not exclusive to humans.
ʿAbasa 80:32 states:
مَتَاعًا لَكُمْ وَلِأَنْعَامِكُمْ
matāʿan lakum wa-li-anʿāmikum
“As provision for you and your livestock.”
ʿAbasa 80:32
Humans and livestock are presented together as beneficiaries of the earth’s provisions.
Al-Anʿām 6:38 also states:
وَمَا مِنْ دَابَّةٍ فِي الْأَرْضِ وَلَا طَائِرٍ يَطِيرُ بِجَنَاحَيْهِ إِلَّا أُمَمٌ أَمْثَالُكُمْ مَا فَرَّطْنَا فِي الْكِتَابِ مِنْ شَيْءٍ ثُمَّ إِلَىٰ رَبِّهِمْ يُحْشَرُونَ
wa-mā min dābbatin fī al-arḍi wa-lā ṭāʾirin yaṭīru bi-janāḥayhi illā umamun amthālukum mā farraṭnā fī al-kitābi min shayʾin thumma ilā rabbihim yuḥsharūna
“There is no creature moving upon the earth, nor any bird flying on its two wings, but they are communities like you. We have neglected nothing in the Book; then to their Lord they will be gathered.”
Al-Anʿām 6:38
The verse presents animals as communities like humans.
Within the Qur’an’s network of meanings, nonhuman beings are therefore not simply insignificant objects or outside divine attention.
Yet it does not follow that every human moral, legal, and religious provision applies identically to all animals.
The resemblance between communities in Al-Anʿām 6:38 does not mean that all their characteristics and responsibilities are identical.
Which reading is most suitable for translation?
Given the recorded Arabic meaning, “created beings” is a broad and defensible equivalent for al-anām.
It includes humans while leaving room for other living beings.
Readers should also understand that humans and jinn occupy a prominent place in Al-Raḥmān’s context.
The preferable method is therefore to use “created beings” in the base translation and explain that the lexical and exegetical traditions identify both broad and narrower ranges of referents.
This method avoids two errors.
First, it does not restrict the word’s broad meaning to humans without sufficient grounds.
Second, the broad wording “created beings” is not taken to mean that the verse explicitly names every being at every level of the universe.
The verse concerns the earth and beings related to it.
5. Created beings and the earth’s provisions in Al-Raḥmān
Al-Raḥmān 55:11 states:
فِيهَا فَاكِهَةٌ وَالنَّخْلُ ذَاتُ الْأَكْمَامِ
fīhā fākihatun wa-al-nakhlu dhātu al-akmāmi
“In it are fruit and date palms with sheathed clusters.”
Al-Raḥmān 55:11
The next verse states:
وَالْحَبُّ ذُو الْعَصْفِ وَالرَّيْحَانُ
wa-al-ḥabbu dhū al-ʿaṣfi wa-al-rayḥānu
“And grain with husks, and fragrant plants.”
Al-Raḥmān 55:12
The two verses describe some of the earth’s provisions.
Fruit, date palms, and grain are familiar sources of food and sustenance.
On the “fragrant plants” reading, beauty and enjoyment of the earth extend beyond essential food; on the “sustenance” reading, the emphasis remains on food and the means of life.
There are differing explanations of al-rayḥān here, including fragrant plants and sustenance.
That disagreement concerns R Y Ḥ and should not be transferred into the meaning of al-anām.
For this study, what matters is the clear connection between the earth and what it contains for life and benefit.
Was the earth created only for humans?
If al-anām broadly means earthly created beings, the verse is incompatible with the idea that the earth was set in place for only one particular group of humans.
Even if humans and jinn are taken as the principal addressees in context, it still does not follow that other living beings have no place in creation or in benefiting from the earth.
Other Qur’anic verses, including Al-Anʿām 6:38 and ʿAbasa 80:32, explicitly discuss nonhuman beings.
The principal audience of a verse should therefore remain distinct from the full range of beings living in the world.
Nor should li-l-anām be turned into a claim about dividing legal ownership of the earth among all living species.
The verse speaks of setting the earth in place for created beings. The word itself does not explain how ownership, resource use, or responsibility for protecting habitats is to be determined.
The earth’s provision and the balance
Al-Raḥmān 55:8 and Al-Raḥmān 55:9 discuss avoiding transgression in the balance and establishing weight with equity.
Within the chapter’s structure, the provisions of creation thus stand alongside a warning against transgression and injustice.
This connection can direct human attention to how the earth’s provisions are treated.
Benefiting from a provision is not the same as excess, corruption, or depriving others of their rights.
The limits of the argument must nevertheless remain clear.
Al-anām itself does not mean environmental law or the rights of all living beings.
The word names created beings. Ethical conclusions about benefiting from the earth arise from considering it together with other Qur’anic commands concerning justice, excess, corruption, and respecting rights.
The verse can therefore contribute to reflection on human responsibility toward the earth. A complete legal and environmental system should not, however, be presented as the lexical meaning of al-anām.
7. Translation proposal and conclusion
Three English equivalents for al-anām in Al-Raḥmān 55:10 merit consideration.
“People” conveys a reading restricted to humans.
“Humans and jinn” agrees with the chapter’s prominent addressees, but directly substitutes two referents for the general word.
“Created beings” better retains the broad Arabic meaning and leaves discussion of the precise scope to the explanation.
The third is therefore preferable for Forqan’s base translation.
Proposed translation
وَالْأَرْضَ وَضَعَهَا لِلْأَنَامِ
wa-al-arḍa waḍaʿahā li-l-anāmi
“And the earth He set in place for created beings.”
Al-Raḥmān 55:10
Where explanatory prose needs to clarify these beings’ relation to the earth, one could say:
“And He made the earth available for the beings that live upon it.”
This is explanatory wording: it makes habitation and benefit more explicit than the verse’s direct words.
Retaining “created beings” is preferable in the base translation.
“He gave the earth exclusively to humans” is imprecise, adding both exclusivity and the granting of exclusive ownership.
“He created the earth for every being in the entire universe” also exceeds the wording: the verse speaks of setting the earth in place, and al-anām in language and context concerns beings associated with it.
Conclusion
Arabic anām collectively names created beings.
In its broad use, earthly beings are intended. Some literary uses restrict it to humans, while some Qur’anic explanations identify humans and jinn as principal referents.
No agreed historical derivational chain or extensive set of Qur’anic derivatives is established for this noun. Proposals concerning an original hamzah or a connection with W N M are recorded. Anīm is a poetic variant, and ānām another transmitted form. These reports should not be used to manufacture an ordinary singular for each individual included in anām.
The line attributed to Labīd shows al-anām used for a range of beings in older literary language, although its reading and attribution have variants.
The root occurs only once in the Qur’an.
In Al-Raḥmān 55:10, the earth is set in place for al-anām, and subsequent verses introduce its provisions and produce.
The context of Al-Raḥmān, especially its dual address, directs attention to humans and jinn. This alone, however, is insufficient grounds to remove all other living beings from the word’s lexical field.
Conversely, the broad meaning should not be turned into a definitive claim that the word includes every unseen or heavenly being.
The verse concerns the earth and beings related to it.
Li-l-anām concerns created beings benefiting from the earth, rather than declaring their unlimited private ownership of all its resources.
The verse can be considered alongside others concerning living beings’ sustenance, justice, the balance, and avoiding corruption. Such conclusions should be presented as contextual reflection, rather than the direct meaning of the word itself.
Forqan’s final definition of the root A N M:
“Anām collectively names created beings, especially those living on or associated with the earth. The older Arabic tradition records a broad meaning of created beings and narrower uses for humans or humans and jinn. The Qur’an contains only li-l-anāmi in Al-Raḥmān 55:10, referring to the beings for whom the earth has been set in place. ‘Created beings’ preserves the word’s lexical scope, while its precise range, especially the inclusion of nonhuman living beings or a contextual focus on humans and jinn, should be examined in light of linguistic evidence and the chapter’s verses.”