Qur’anic Root أ س س
Founding and laying a foundation: from a building’s base to taqwā and the outcome of an unstable structure
Qur’anic and lexical forms
أُسِّسَ
(ussisa)
Qur’anic Form II passive perfect: was founded, Al-Tawbah 9:108
أَسَّسَ
(assasa)
Qur’anic Form II active perfect: twice in Al-Tawbah 9:109
أُسّ
(uss)
Lexical noun: base, foundation or origin; this form is absent from the Qur’an
أَسَاس
(asās)
Lexical noun for a building’s foundation; not Qur’anic
أُسُس
(usus)
Lexical plural of asās; absent from the Qur’an
أَسَّ
(assa)
Lexical Form I verb for founding; this form is not Qur’anic
تَأْسِيس
(taʾsīs)
Lexical Form II verbal noun: founding; not Qur’anic
أَسَّاس
(assās)
Lexical description of a malicious talebearer; a distinct, non-Qur’anic branch
The Arabic root أ س س concerns a base, foundation and the beginning of constructing something. أُسّ and أَسَاس denote the foundation upon which a building rises; أَسَّسَ means to lay a foundation or establish. Just as a building’s stability depends on its foundations, broader Arabic usage can speak of the basis and foundation of an undertaking.
The Qur’an uses this root only in Al-Tawbah, while comparing two mosques and two ways of founding. One mosque was founded on taqwā from the first day; the other building was established for harm, disbelief, division and support for hostility toward The God and His Messenger. The Qur’an presents this contrast vividly: a structure founded on taqwā and The God’s approval stands against one founded on the edge of an unstable, crumbling bank.
In these verses, the act of founding is not in itself good or bad. Both sides have built something and given it a foundation. The central distinction lies in what supports the building and the purpose for which it was established.
1. Qur’anic forms and the root’s semantic core
The root أ س س occurs three times in two Qur’anic verses:
أُسِّسَ in Al-Tawbah 9:108 is a Form II passive perfect verb, meaning “was founded” or “had its foundation laid.”
أَسَّسَ in Al-Tawbah 9:109 is the active perfect of the same form. It occurs twice in the verse, meaning “founded” or “laid a foundation.”
All Qur’anic occurrences thus belong to the verb أَسَّسَ. Although Arabic has the nouns أُسّ, أَسَاس and أُسُس, these forms do not occur in the Qur’anic text.
Arabic also records the following forms within this family:
أُسّ means the base, foundation or origin of something; أَسَاس denotes a building’s foundation; أُسُس is a plural of أَسَاس; أَسَّ and أَسَّسَ concern founding and laying a foundation; تَأْسِيس denotes the act of founding.
Beginning and founding are related within this family, but are not identical. Every undertaking may have a beginning; in construction, taʾsīs emphasizes laying a foundation upon which the building’s continuation rests.
The root’s semantic core can be expressed as:
Laying a base or foundation upon which something’s construction or continuation rests; and, more broadly, beginning and establishing an undertaking on a particular basis.
This meaning does not itself guarantee actual stability or future endurance. A foundation may be laid on firm ground or on an unstable site. The Qur’an describes both with the same verb.
2. Early Arabic usage: a building’s foundation and the origin of things
أُسّ and أَسَاس: the foundation from which a building begins
In early Arabic, أُسُّ الْبِنَاءِ denotes a building’s base and beginning: the place from which it rises and upon which the higher parts rest.
أَسَاس belongs to the same semantic field. In construction, the foundation is not detached from the building; it is the fundamental part on which the other parts’ erection and stability depend.
Early sources record أَسَّسْتُ دَارًا for laying a house’s foundation and raising it from its base. Explanations mention marking out the building’s boundaries and raising it from its foundations.
This use shows that taʾsīs is more than placing the first stone. Founding may encompass the work that takes a building from marking out and laying foundations to its erection.
Its principal meaning nevertheless remains the foundation and beginning of construction, rather than every stage of completion, decoration and use.
أَسَاس in nonmaterial use
Arabic has also extended أُسّ to the origin and beginning of nonmaterial things.
For example, أُسُّ الْمَجْدِ denotes the foundation of glory and standing. Ibn Durayd tentatively attributes the following verse to Kadhdhāb Banī Al-Ḥirmāz, using the qualification “I think”:
وَأُسُّ مَجْدٍ ثَابِتٌ وَطِيدُ
نَالَ السَّمَاءَ فَرْعُهُ الْمَدِيدُ
wa-ussu majdin thābitun waṭīdu / nāla al-samāʾa farʿuhu al-madīdu
“And a foundation of glory, firm and secure: its long branch has reached the sky.”
أُسّ here does not refer to a physical building’s foundation. The subject is a foundation supporting glory and standing.
The pairing of أُسّ with فَرْع also matters. The foundation is below, while the branch or upper part rises from it. This contrast shows how Arabic uses the image of a base and what grows or rests upon it to explain nonmaterial concepts.
The attribution and date of this verse are nevertheless insufficiently clear to make it a secure pre-Qur’anic witness. Its value here is to illustrate the recorded use of أُسّ for a nonmaterial foundation. This investigation likewise did not establish an independent witness securely datable before the Qur’an.
أُسّ and the beginning of time
Arabic also records عَلَى أُسِّ الدَّهْرِ for antiquity and the beginning of time.
Here the word extends from a structural foundation to a temporal beginning or origin.
The relationship is intelligible: just as a building begins from its foundation, a period or process can be described in terms of its beginning and basis.
This does not make أ س س directly mean “the very first moment” in every use. In the Qur’an, founding being associated with the undertaking’s beginning emerges from the verb together with مِنْ أَوَّلِ يَوْمٍ; the verb alone does not specify the precise starting time.
Other lexical branches
Some Arabic sources also record أَسَّ بَيْنَ النَّاسِ for spreading corruption and carrying malicious tales among people, and أَسَّاس for a malicious talebearer who causes discord.
This differs clearly from founding. Its presence under the same lexical entry does not by itself prove that causing corruption developed from a building’s foundation, or the reverse.
In prosody, أَلِفُ التَّأْسِيسِ is also a technical term for a particular alif in a rhyme’s structure. The name relates to its structural position and role; that prosodic term should not be imported into the Qur’anic verb’s direct meaning.
For أَسَّسَ in Al-Tawbah, founding and laying a foundation therefore have clear, direct support. Other less common meanings need not be transferred into these verses.
3. أُسِّسَ عَلَى التَّقْوَىٰ: a mosque founded on taqwā from the beginning
Understanding the root’s first Qur’anic occurrence requires attention to the preceding verse.
Al-Tawbah 9:107 states:
وَالَّذِينَ اتَّخَذُوا مَسْجِدًا ضِرَارًا وَكُفْرًا وَتَفْرِيقًا بَيْنَ الْمُؤْمِنِينَ وَإِرْصَادًا لِمَنْ حَارَبَ اللَّهَ وَرَسُولَهُ مِنْ قَبْلُ وَلَيَحْلِفُنَّ إِنْ أَرَدْنَا إِلَّا الْحُسْنَىٰ وَاللَّهُ يَشْهَدُ إِنَّهُمْ لَكَاذِبُونَ
wa-alladhīna ittakhadhū masjidan ḍirāran wa-kufran wa-tafrīqan bayna al-muʾminīna wa-irṣādan li-man ḥāraba allāha wa-rasūlahu min qablu wa-la-yaḥlifunna in aradnā illā al-ḥusnā wa-allāhu yashhadu innahum la-kādhibūn
“And those who established a mosque for harm, disbelief, division among the believers and as a base for someone who had previously fought The God and His Messenger: they will surely swear that they intended nothing but good, yet The God bears witness that they are liars.”
Al-Tawbah 9:107
The subject is an actual building: a mosque established by a group. The Qur’an nevertheless describes more than its outward form or its name as a mosque.
Four purposes are stated: harm, disbelief, division among believers and providing a base for hostility toward The God and His Messenger.
Building a mosque does not in itself establish the rightness of its builders’ purpose. A structure may have the name and appearance of a place of worship while serving a purpose contrary to that role.
The verse also reports the builders’ claim that they intended only good, and rejects it within the same verse. Declared and actual intention are thus distinguished in this context.
The next verse states:
لَا تَقُمْ فِيهِ أَبَدًا لَمَسْجِدٌ أُسِّسَ عَلَى التَّقْوَىٰ مِنْ أَوَّلِ يَوْمٍ أَحَقُّ أَنْ تَقُومَ فِيهِ فِيهِ رِجَالٌ يُحِبُّونَ أَنْ يَتَطَهَّرُوا وَاللَّهُ يُحِبُّ الْمُطَّهِّرِينَ
lā taqum fīhi abadan la-masjidun ussisa ʿalā al-taqwā min awwali yawmin aḥaqqu an taqūma fīhi fīhi rijālun yuḥibbūna an yataṭahharū wa-allāhu yuḥibbu al-muṭṭahhirīn
“Never stand in it. A mosque founded on taqwā from the first day is more worthy of your standing in it. In it are men who love to purify themselves; and The God loves those who seek purification.”
Al-Tawbah 9:108
أُسِّسَ describes the mosque founded on taqwā from the first day.
The verb is passive: the sentence directs attention to the mosque and its foundation, rather than naming the person or people who built it.
The quality of the mosque’s founding is what matters.
The meaning of عَلَى التَّقْوَىٰ
In physical construction, a building stands on a foundation or ground capable of supporting it.
Here, however, what the mosque is founded “upon” is taqwā.
Taqwā is not stone, earth or building material. أُسِّسَ عَلَى التَّقْوَىٰ therefore uses construction language to express an undertaking’s ethical and practical foundation.
The building itself is real, but the stated criterion of its foundation’s rightness is not a construction material.
Taʾsīs retains its meaning of laying a foundation, while the foundation is understood at the level of the builders’ purpose, direction and conduct.
Founding on taqwā therefore does not mean building on ground with a special physical property. It means making taqwā the basis of the mosque’s establishment.
The importance of مِنْ أَوَّلِ يَوْمٍ
مِنْ أَوَّلِ يَوْمٍ adds a significant element to the meaning of founding.
The Qur’an does not merely associate this mosque with taqwā during one period of its activity; it connects its foundation with taqwā from the first day.
Taqwā here is therefore neither an embellishment nor a label subsequently attached to the building. The Qur’anic description associates it with the mosque’s establishment from the outset.
This does not establish that every structure with a sound beginning remains right and worthy forever, regardless of its later conduct and condition. The verse concerns this particular mosque’s foundation and then describes the people present in it.
The presence of men who love purification shows that the description extends beyond an initial intention. The conduct and qualities of the people associated with the mosque also help characterize it.
Is this the mosque of Qubāʾ or another mosque?
Historical and exegetical reports offer different identifications of the mosque founded on taqwā from the first day, including Qubāʾ and the Prophet’s mosque in Medina.
Al-Tawbah 9:108 itself, however, names neither mosque.
A conclusive identification is therefore unnecessary for understanding أ س س. The verse clearly states the character of its foundation: a mosque founded on taqwā from the beginning, more worthy of the Prophet’s standing in it.
Historical investigation of its identity is a separate matter and should not replace the word’s direct meaning.
4. أَسَّسَ بُنْيَانَهُ: one verb for two different foundations
Al-Tawbah 9:109 uses أَسَّسَ twice in the active voice:
أَفَمَنْ أَسَّسَ بُنْيَانَهُ عَلَىٰ تَقْوَىٰ مِنَ اللَّهِ وَرِضْوَانٍ خَيْرٌ أَمْ مَنْ أَسَّسَ بُنْيَانَهُ عَلَىٰ شَفَا جُرُفٍ هَارٍ فَانْهَارَ بِهِ فِي نَارِ جَهَنَّمَ وَاللَّهُ لَا يَهْدِي الْقَوْمَ الظَّالِمِينَ
a-fa-man assasa bunyānahu ʿalā taqwā mina allāhi wa-riḍwānin khayrun am man assasa bunyānahu ʿalā shafā jurufin hārin fa-inhāra bihi fī nāri jahannama wa-allāhu lā yahdī al-qawma al-ẓālimīn
“Is someone who founded his building on taqwā toward The God and the seeking of His approval better, or someone who founded his building on the edge of an unstable, crumbling bank, which collapsed with him into the fire of Hell? The God does not guide the wrongdoing people.”
Al-Tawbah 9:109
This verse provides especially clear evidence for the meaning of أ س س.
The Qur’an uses the same verb on both sides of the comparison: أَسَّسَ.
One person founds his building on taqwā and The God’s approval. The other founds his building on the edge of a crumbling bank.
The difference is therefore not whether they perform the act of founding. Both have constructed a building and given it a foundation.
The difference lies in what supports their buildings.
This contrast shows that أَسَّسَ has no inherently positive evaluative meaning. Founding may be sound or unsound, just as a building may stand on a firm or unstable site.
The root alone does not establish an action’s value. Here taqwā and approval on one side, and the crumbling bank on the other, clarify the direction and outcome of founding.
بُنْيَانَهُ: the actual building and its broader significance
بُنْيَان belongs to ب ن ي and concerns construction, a building and what has been built.
Here بُنْيَانَهُ is the object of أَسَّسَ: someone has founded his building.
The immediate context concerns two mosques and how they were established. The building image therefore begins from a concrete reality and should not be made wholly abstract from the outset.
The Qur’an nevertheless uses this image in verse 109 to express the distinction between two ethical paths as well.
A building founded on taqwā and The God’s approval stands against one resting on an unstable basis.
A broader principle can be understood from this contrast: human action is assessed through more than appearance and name; the basis and direction upon which it rests also matter.
This conclusion extends the image contextually. The lexical meaning of أَسَّسَ remains founding.
شَفَا جُرُفٍ هَارٍ: a foundation on the edge of collapse
In the verse’s second part, the unsound building rests on شَفَا جُرُفٍ هَارٍ.
شَفَا denotes an edge or rim. جُرُف can name a bank of ground whose stability has been undermined by erosion or the removal of its lower portion. هَارٍ describes its instability and liability to collapse.
Study of J R F (Not yet published)
The upper surface may initially appear suitable for building, while the ground supporting the structure lacks the strength to hold it.
This image serves the comparison between the two mosques.
The outward structure may stand and look like a building, while its foundation lacks a sound and firm purpose.
The image does not establish that the condemned mosque was literally engineered on a natural precipice. This part of the verse is an analogy using the familiar experience of a building collapsing to explain an unsound undertaking’s outcome.
فَانْهَارَ بِهِ: the outcome of an unstable building
The analogy’s continuation connects the collapse of that support, the building and its owner with the outcome of fire. Grammatical explanations differ over the subject of inhāra and the pronoun in bihi: they include the bank collapsing with the building, or the building collapsing with its builder. These differences do not change the basic meaning of أَسَّسَ.
فَانْهَارَ belongs to ه و ر and concerns collapse and falling down, rather than أ س س.
Study of H W R (Not yet published)
This distinction matters for the present root study.
أَسَّسَ expresses laying the foundation; فَانْهَارَ reports collapse.
Collapse is not the meaning of أ س س itself. Here it is the consequence of a structure founded on an unstable site.
Likewise, firmness and a good reward are not the lexical meaning of founding. They relate to the foundation’s quality and the action’s direction.
Al-Tawbah 9:110 again mentions the building constructed by the same group, remaining a cause of doubt and unease in their hearts. This continuation keeps the building and its consequences within the same context.
The analogy in verse 109 is thus connected with the actual two mosques, while also extending beyond an engineering description. The Qur’an begins with a real building and uses the image of a firm foundation and crumbling bank to disclose its ethical criterion and outcome.
5. Morphology and syntax in understanding the verses
Active and passive voice
أُسِّسَ in Al-Tawbah 9:108 is passive: the mosque was founded, and the founder is not named within the verb itself.
أَسَّسَ in Al-Tawbah 9:109 is active, while مَنْ refers to the person who founded his building.
This difference redirects the sentence’s attention.
In the first verse, the mosque and its foundation are central. In the second, two founders are compared.
In the readings of Nāfiʿ and Ibn ʿĀmir, both verbs in verse 109 are read as passive أُسِّسَ, with nominative بُنْيَانُهُ as the passive subject. In this reading the building becomes the passive verb’s subject rather than its object, and the founding agent is not named within the verb. The contrast between the foundations remains.
The root’s basic meaning is therefore preserved in both voices: founding and laying a foundation.
Form II
The Qur’anic verb أَسَّسَ is Form II.
In this pattern the verb expresses performing the act of founding. Morphologically, the basic verb أَسَّ and Form II أَسَّسَ have distinct structures.
Form II alone does not establish that founding was necessarily gradual, repeated, expensive or especially laborious. Such features may occur in a building project, but the morphological pattern alone does not prove them.
The repeated verb in Al-Tawbah 9:109 likewise presents two instances of founding in a comparison, rather than making repetition of the action a necessary root meaning.
The role of عَلَى
عَلَى accompanies the verb in all three Qur’anic occurrences.
In verse 108, the mosque is founded on taqwā.
In verse 109, one building rests on taqwā and approval; the other on the edge of a crumbling bank.
عَلَى expresses something resting or being established upon a base. When its complement is material, the relationship may be spatial and physical. When the complement is taqwā and approval, the foundation and support operate at an ethical and conceptual level.
A substantial part of the foundational image thus emerges from أَسَّسَ together with عَلَى and its complement.
The root without this construction does not contain the entire meaning of an ethical foundation.
7. Does Qur’anic founding concern intention alone?
Al-Tawbah 9:108 and Al-Tawbah 9:109 connect the foundations of the two buildings with taqwā, approval and the builders’ wrongful purposes.
One might conclude that founding here concerns only inward intention. The context does not support such a restriction.
In Al-Tawbah 9:107, the builders’ wrongful purposes involve specific conduct and consequences: harm, division and preparing support for hostility.
These are more than hidden feelings or thoughts. They concern social action and its effects.
The mosque founded on taqwā, meanwhile, is characterized in Al-Tawbah 9:108 by the presence of people who love purification.
The Qur’an is therefore comparing more than two concealed intentions: it presents two acts of founding with different purposes, conduct and directions.
This matters particularly for religious buildings. The name “mosque” alone does not exempt a mosque from ethical assessment. If a place built for worship becomes an instrument of harm or division, its name and appearance cannot replace a sound foundation.
These verses likewise do not justify conclusive judgments about the hidden intentions of every mosque or religious institution in other times without independent examination. In Al-Tawbah 9:107, the Qur’an testifies to the builders’ actual purposes. Suspicion or doctrinal disagreement alone cannot give us such certain knowledge of other people’s intentions.
The principle that can be drawn is that a building’s or institution’s rightness is not guaranteed by its name, appearance or declared benevolence. Its actual foundation and function also require assessment by clear criteria.
8. Translation proposals for Forqan
The principal English equivalents of أَسَّسَ are “found,” “establish on a foundation” and “lay the foundation of.”
These are natural English expressions; the sentence’s construction determines which is preferable.
For أُسِّسَ عَلَى التَّقْوَىٰ in Al-Tawbah 9:108, the proposed rendering is:
“Was founded on taqwā.”
This preserves the passive voice and makes clear the mosque’s founding on taqwā.
“From the first day” suits مِنْ أَوَّلِ يَوْمٍ, emphasizing taqwā accompanying the beginning of the founding.
A natural rendering of the phrase is therefore:
“A mosque founded on taqwā from the first day.”
For أَسَّسَ بُنْيَانَهُ in Al-Tawbah 9:109, “founded his building” or “laid his building’s foundation” is suitable.
In the first part of the verse:
“Someone who founded his building on taqwā and the approval of The God.”
In the second part:
“Someone who founded his building on the edge of an unstable, crumbling bank.”
Keeping a similar equivalent on both sides matters, since the Qur’an deliberately repeats one verb for two different foundations.
One should not render أَسَّسَ in the first part as “made firm,” then the same verb in the second as “built unsoundly.” That would move the ethical distinction and contextual outcome into the root itself, rather than its complement.
“Founded” is therefore a suitable equivalent that can be maintained for both sides.
For the non-Qur’anic nouns أُسّ and أَسَاس, “base,” “foundation,” “groundwork” and, in some contexts, “origin” are suitable.
تَأْسِيس denotes founding or establishment. In translating the building passages, “founding” or “laying a foundation” makes that construction image clear.
In nonmaterial uses, such as establishing an institution or beginning an undertaking, the same idea of creating a foundation remains. This does not transfer all the physical features of a building into such uses.
9. Conclusion
The Arabic root أ س س concerns a base, foundation and the beginning of establishing something. أُسّ and أَسَاس are the base upon which a building rests; أَسَّسَ expresses laying its foundation and founding it.
The root occurs three times in two verses of Al-Tawbah. All concern founding within a comparison between two mosques.
Al-Tawbah 9:108 presents a mosque founded on taqwā from the first day. Al-Tawbah 9:109 compares two acts of founding: one on taqwā and The God’s approval, the other on the edge of a crumbling bank.
The repeated أَسَّسَ on both sides shows that founding itself has no fixed ethical value. The basis and direction upon which a structure rests determine its worth and outcome.
The Qur’an begins with the reality of building a mosque, then uses construction imagery to show the difference between sound and unsound foundations. It neither denies the material building nor confines its worth to stone and walls.
Taʾsīs is also semantically related to bināʾ, qawāʿid, aṣl and thabāt, but is identical to none of them. Taʾsīs emphasizes founding; building emphasizes bringing the structure into being; qawāʿid names its foundations; and thabāt concerns remaining firm.
Forqan’s final definition of the root أ س س:
“The base and foundation of something; and, in verbal use, laying a foundation and founding a building or undertaking upon a particular basis. The foundation may be material or, in broader use, concern an action’s purpose and direction. The root itself guarantees neither final stability nor a fixed ethical value: the foundation’s quality, the action’s direction and the context clarify its soundness or instability.”