The Qur’anic Root D L L

Pre-Qur’anic Arabic: guides and directions

In poetry transmitted from pre-Islamic Arabs, a dalīl can be a person who knows and indicates a route or the location of a group.

The following verse by the pre-Islamic poet Ḥājiz al-Azdī is transmitted in Kitāb al-Aghānī:

وَإِنِّي دَلِيلٌ غَيْرُ مُخْفٍ دَلَالَتِي
عَلَى أَلْفِ بَيْتٍ جَدُّهُمْ غَيْرُ خَاشِعِ

“I am a guide who does not conceal his guidance, towards a thousand households of people whose standing is not brought low.”

Ḥājiz calls himself a dalīl and specifies the destination of his guidance with على ألف بيت. The verse is transmitted in a context of threats and tribal confrontation. Showing or introducing a destination is therefore not necessarily benevolent in this example either.

A verse attributed to Taʾabbaṭa Sharran, transmitted in al-Sharīf al-Murtaḍā’s Amālī, reads:

تَعَسَّفْتُهُ بِاللَّيْلِ لَمْ يَهْدِنِي لَهُ
دَلِيلٌ وَلَمْ يُحْسِنْ لَهُ النَّعْتَ خَابِرُ

“I made my way through it by night; no guide led me to it, and no knowledgeable person described it well.”

The combination of دليل and يهدني preserves the image of a guide showing a route. However, the verse is transmitted as part of a metaphorical description of a beloved’s mouth; it should not be treated as a literal account of a night journey through the desert. The relevant evidence is the role of dalīl within that image of guidance.

These usages connect a guide with knowing a destination. They do not by themselves establish the historical sequence in which all the family’s meanings developed.

Five “hal adullu…” questions: offering to point something out

Of the six clear verbal occurrences, five use closely related interrogative constructions:

هل أدلكم / هل أدلك / هل ندلكم

These five occurrences belong to four narrative or rhetorical situations, since the story of Moses’ sister is told in both Ṭā Hā and al-Qaṣaṣ.

Ṭā Hā states:

إِذْ تَمْشِي أُخْتُكَ فَتَقُولُ هَلْ أَدُلُّكُمْ عَلَىٰ مَنْ يَكْفُلُهُ ۖ فَرَجَعْنَاكَ إِلَىٰ أُمِّكَ كَيْ تَقَرَّ عَيْنُهَا وَلَا تَحْزَنَ ۚ وَقَتَلْتَ نَفْسًا فَنَجَّيْنَاكَ مِنَ الْغَمِّ وَفَتَنَّاكَ فُتُونًا ۚ فَلَبِثْتَ سِنِينَ فِي أَهْلِ مَدْيَنَ ثُمَّ جِئْتَ عَلَىٰ قَدَرٍ يَا مُوسَىٰ

“When your sister walked along and said: Shall I direct you to someone who will care for him? So We returned you to your mother, that her eyes might be comforted and she might not grieve. You killed a person, and We rescued you from distress and tested you with trials. Then you remained for years among the people of Midian, and you came at the appointed time, O Moses.”

Ṭā Hā 20:40

Al-Qaṣaṣ describes the same event:

وَحَرَّمْنَا عَلَيْهِ الْمَرَاضِعَ مِنْ قَبْلُ فَقَالَتْ هَلْ أَدُلُّكُمْ عَلَىٰ أَهْلِ بَيْتٍ يَكْفُلُونَهُ لَكُمْ وَهُمْ لَهُ نَاصِحُونَ

“We had previously kept him from the nursing women, so she said: Shall I direct you to a household who will care for him for you and be sincere in their concern for him?”

Al-Qaṣaṣ 28:12

In both verses, the act of directing introduces a solution. The people need someone to care for the child, and Moses’ sister points them towards someone who can do so.

Here هل أدلكم does not mean “Shall I reveal a secret to you?” She knows something that her audience does not and offers to direct them to it.

The same construction occurs in three very different situations.

The same verb spoken by Satan

Ṭā Hā states:

فَوَسْوَسَ إِلَيْهِ الشَّيْطَانُ قَالَ يَا آدَمُ هَلْ أَدُلُّكَ عَلَىٰ شَجَرَةِ الْخُلْدِ وَمُلْكٍ لَا يَبْلَىٰ

“Then Satan whispered to him, saying: O Adam, shall I direct you to the tree of lasting life and a dominion that does not wear away?”

Ṭā Hā 20:120

The verb used by Moses’ sister to introduce a solution also appears in Satan’s speech.

This establishes an important limit: pointing something out does not necessarily mean guiding someone to truth.

Someone may point another person towards something while making a false claim about it. Dalla describes the relationship between the one pointing, the audience and the destination; it does not certify every statement made about that destination.

This use does not make benevolence a necessary part of dalla’s meaning. The value of such guidance depends on its destination, the accompanying claim and the speaker’s intention.

A mocking introduction is still an introduction

Sabaʾ states:

وَقَالَ الَّذِينَ كَفَرُوا هَلْ نَدُلُّكُمْ عَلَىٰ رَجُلٍ يُنَبِّئُكُمْ إِذَا مُزِّقْتُمْ كُلَّ مُمَزَّقٍ إِنَّكُمْ لَفِي خَلْقٍ جَدِيدٍ

“Those who disbelieved said: Shall we point out to you a man who tells you that, when you have been utterly torn apart, you will indeed be in a new creation?”

Sabaʾ 34:7

Here too, هل ندلكم على رجل introduces a person.

The mocking tone becomes clearer in the continuation of their speech in Sabaʾ 34:8, but nadullukum still performs the act of introduction. The verb need not imply that the audience had never previously known the person.

This verse again shows that the act of pointing out does not itself guarantee acceptance or rejection of its object.

Introducing a way to deliverance

Al-Ṣaff states:

يَا أَيُّهَا الَّذِينَ آمَنُوا هَلْ أَدُلُّكُمْ عَلَىٰ تِجَارَةٍ تُنْجِيكُمْ مِنْ عَذَابٍ أَلِيمٍ

“O you who have believed, shall I direct you to a trade that will deliver you from a painful punishment?”

Al-Ṣaff 61:10

Again, the construction is هَلْ أَدُلُّكُمْ عَلَىٰ....

This time the object introduced is neither a person nor a place, but a course of action with a particular outcome.

The five questions share a clear pattern: the speaker offers to introduce a person, thing or course of action, or to direct the audience towards it.

The object may answer a need, embody a deceptive promise, be a person subjected to mockery, or offer a way to deliverance.

Their common feature can be stated as follows:

An offer to introduce something or show how to reach it, without the verb necessarily implying that the audience knows nothing about it.

When indication occurs without speech

The sixth occurrence of dalla has a different construction:

فَلَمَّا قَضَيْنَا عَلَيْهِ الْمَوْتَ مَا دَلَّهُمْ عَلَىٰ مَوْتِهِ إِلَّا دَابَّةُ الْأَرْضِ تَأْكُلُ مِنْسَأَتَهُ ۖ فَلَمَّا خَرَّ تَبَيَّنَتِ الْجِنُّ أَنْ لَوْ كَانُوا يَعْلَمُونَ الْغَيْبَ مَا لَبِثُوا فِي الْعَذَابِ الْمُهِينِ

“When We decreed death for him, nothing indicated his death to them except a creature of the earth eating his staff. When he fell, it became clear to the jinn that, had they known the unseen, they would not have remained in the humiliating punishment.”

Sabaʾ 34:14

Nobody says hal adullukum here. An event becomes a sign.

The Qur’an calls the creature دابة الأرض and states that it was eating the staff. The verse does not name its species. “A creature of the earth” retains the information given by the text itself.

The eating of the staff and Solomon’s subsequent fall reveal his death to the jinn.

The verse itself explicitly mentions the unseen. Through the outcome, they learn that, had they known the unseen, they would already have known of Solomon’s death.

In this verse, indication does indeed make something previously unknown known through a sign.

That single passage does not establish “bringing the unseen into the seen” as the root’s meaning in every occurrence. The unseen belongs to this context, rather than to the lexical definition of D L L.

The sun as a dalīl for the shadow

The Qur’an’s sole occurrence of the noun dalīl is in al-Furqān:

أَلَمْ تَرَ إِلَىٰ رَبِّكَ كَيْفَ مَدَّ الظِّلَّ وَلَوْ شَاءَ لَجَعَلَهُ سَاكِنًا ثُمَّ جَعَلْنَا الشَّمْسَ عَلَيْهِ دَلِيلًا

“Have you not considered your Lord, how He extended the shadow? Had He willed, He could have made it still. Then We appointed the sun as an indicator for it.”

Al-Furqān 25:45

The sun is a dalīl in this verse.

This matters because the dalīl is neither a speaking person nor a verbal argument. One natural phenomenon serves as an indicator in relation to another.

The next verse, al-Furqān 25:46, speaks of drawing the shadow towards the speaker: ثُمَّ قَبَضْنَاهُ إِلَيْنَا قَبْضًا يَسِيرًا. The relation between sun and shadow thus appears in a context of extending and drawing in the shadow.

The following can be inferred from that context:

The sun is an indicator in relation to the shadow, through which its condition and changes are known.

The shadow is not an imperceptible object here. There is no need to claim that the sun brings something beyond the senses into the sensory world: both phenomena are observable.

Nor does dalīl itself specify that the sun indicates the shadow’s size. Such an explanation might draw on observation of nature, but the word establishes the relationship of indication.

Two kinds of Qur’anic use: verbal and nonverbal

The seven clear usages can usefully be grouped into two kinds, without treating them as unrelated meanings.

In five cases, indication takes the form of speech. Moses’ sister, Satan, the Prophet’s opponents and the Qur’anic address to believers offer an introduction or directions.

In the other two, the relationship is nonverbal. A creature of the earth leads to recognition of Solomon’s death, and the sun is appointed a dalīl for the shadow.

This distinction shows that human intention and language are not necessary components of D L L.

Both groups retain a relationship in which something is known through something else, or the way to reach it is shown.

This is what brings the human guide and the nonhuman sign into the same semantic field.

Dalīl: a guide and a means of knowing

In early Arabic, a dalīl could be a human guide. The Qur’an’s only occurrence of the noun refers to a natural phenomenon: the sun.

The apparent difference is not large. In both cases, something mediates knowledge.

A desert guide tells a traveller which route leads to the destination. A sign likewise leads a person from something perceived to knowledge of something else.

In الشمس عليه دليلا, the sun serves as an indicator; this use does not in itself concern a verbal argument.

“Fa-dallāhumā bi-ghurūr”: distinguishing the forms

Al-Aʿrāf states:

فَدَلَّاهُمَا بِغُرُورٍ ۚ فَلَمَّا ذَاقَا الشَّجَرَةَ بَدَتْ لَهُمَا سَوْآتُهُمَا وَطَفِقَا يَخْصِفَانِ عَلَيْهِمَا مِنْ وَرَقِ الْجَنَّةِ ۖ وَنَادَاهُمَا رَبُّهُمَا أَلَمْ أَنْهَكُمَا عَنْ تِلْكُمَا الشَّجَرَةِ وَأَقُلْ لَكُمَا إِنَّ الشَّيْطَانَ لَكُمَا عَدُوٌّ مُبِينٌ

“So he drew them down through deception. When they tasted the tree, their nakedness became apparent to them, and they began attaching leaves of the garden over themselves. Their Lord called to them: Did I not forbid you that tree and tell you that Satan is an evident enemy to you?”

Al-Aʿrāf 7:22

The Quranic Arabic Corpus places this form under D L L and consequently counts eight occurrences for the root.

Structurally, دَلَّاهُمَا differs from دَلَّهُمْ in Sabaʾ 34:14. Adding humā to dalla produces دَلَّهُمَا, not دَلَّاهُمَا. The alif cannot be ignored in analysing the form. The D L W family is also present in the Qur’an in فَأَدْلَىٰ دَلْوَهُ, “he lowered his bucket,” in Yūsuf 12:19. Nevertheless, resemblance between these forms alone cannot establish every detail of the derivation and meaning in al-Aʿrāf.

This study bases its semantic analysis on seven instances of showing or making known, considering al-Aʿrāf 7:22 separately. Seven counts those particular usages; eight counts the entries in the cited concordance. These counts should not be used interchangeably without explaining their different bases.

D L L and H D Y: pointing out and guiding

Dalla and hadā are close in meaning and can even occur together in an early poetic line:

لم يهدني له دليل

“No guide led me to it.”

Their combination shows that there is no impermeable boundary between them.

The Qur’anic uses nevertheless suggest a difference in emphasis.

With D L L, the focus is often on a sign, introduction or intermediary that makes the destination known. Someone asks whether to point out a person, household, tree or trade to the audience.

Even the sun and a creature of the earth can stand in this relationship, since something else is known through them.

The Qur’an also uses H D Y for showing the way: إِنَّا هَدَيْنَاهُ السَّبِيلَ in al-Insān 76:3, “We showed him the way.” This usage makes the overlap with pointing out a route clear.

These examples allow the following difference of emphasis, without creating an absolute boundary:

Indication places greater emphasis on pointing out a destination, route or sign that leads to knowledge; guidance places greater emphasis on showing the way and orientation along a path.

The two may coincide in a particular instance.

D L L and B R H N: not every indication is a demonstration

The Qur’anic uses of D L L and burhān are not identical.

Burhān occurs in support of a claim, for example هَاتُوا بُرْهَانَكُمْ, “Bring your proof,” in al-Baqarah 2:111. In al-Qaṣaṣ 28:32, Moses’ two signs are called بُرْهَانَانِ مِنْ رَبِّكَ, “two demonstrations from your Lord.”

By contrast, dalla does not in itself guarantee the truth of the claim accompanying the guidance.

Satan says هل أدلك على شجرة الخلد. He points Adam towards something, but the accompanying claim is not necessarily true.

The fact that something indicates or points towards something else does not mean we have conclusive proof.

Burhān is not confined to verbal reasoning in these verses either. The description of Moses’ signs as burhānān shows that an observable sign can perform this function.

The difference of emphasis can be expressed as follows:

Indication is the relationship of showing and making known; a burhān serves to demonstrate or support the truth of a claim.

Translation choices

In the verses about Moses’ sister, هل أدلكم can be rendered “Shall I point someone out to you?” or “Shall I direct you to someone?”

For هل أدلك على شجرة الخلد, “Shall I show you the tree of lasting life?” is a natural rendering.

For هل ندلكم على رجل, “Shall we point out a man to you?” or “Shall we introduce you to a man?” fits the construction.

For هل أدلكم على تجارة, “Shall I direct you to a trade?” conveys the sense naturally.

For ما دلهم على موته إلا دابة الأرض, “Nothing made his death known to them except a creature of the earth” or “Nothing revealed his death to them except…” is more natural than a rigid word-for-word rendering.

For جعلنا الشمس عليه دليلا, “We appointed the sun as an indicator for it” or “We made the sun a sign of it” conveys the relationship. Dalīl here means something that indicates; it need not denote a verbal argument.

Conclusion

The Qur’anic uses of D L L concern showing and making something known through a guide, introduction or sign.

In transmitted pre-Islamic poetry, Ḥājiz al-Azdī calls himself a dalīl and identifies a group as the destination of his guidance. The verse attributed to Taʾabbaṭa Sharran also uses the image of a guide, although its context is metaphorical rather than a literal travel account.

Five of the six clear verbal occurrences use questions of the form هل أدل... / هل ندل.... Two tell the same episode involving Moses’ sister; the other three occur in Satan’s speech, the Prophet’s opponents’ speech and an address to believers.

This recurring pattern expresses an offer to introduce something or show the way. The object need not be a secret, and the verb itself guarantees neither the audience’s complete unfamiliarity nor the speaker’s benevolence or truthfulness.

Sabaʾ 34:14 extends the word’s range beyond speech. A creature of the earth, through an event leading to Solomon’s fall, reveals his death to the jinn. The verse explicitly mentions their lack of knowledge of the unseen, but that belongs to this particular context; “bringing the unseen into the seen” should not become the root’s lexical definition.

Al-Furqān 25:45 calls the sun a dalīl for the shadow. Both phenomena are observable, so indication need not mean revealing something imperceptible. Here the sun is connected with knowing the shadow’s condition.

Indication may consequently be verbal and intentional or nonverbal. A person may introduce a destination, or a phenomenon may serve as a sign of something else without speech.

The form فدلاهما in al-Aʿrāf 7:22 was considered separately. The Quranic Arabic Corpus includes it under D L L and counts eight occurrences, but its structure is not identical to dalla followed by the pronoun humā. This article bases its analysis on seven particular uses of showing and making known, without silently adding the al-Aʿrāf form to them.

Compared with H D Y, indication places greater emphasis on pointing something out and making a destination or object known, while guidance covers a broader field of showing and finding the way. Nor is every indication a burhān: indication establishes a relationship of showing, whereas a burhān functions to demonstrate or support a claim.

D L L: showing, introducing or making something known through a sign or guide. A dalīl is a person, sign or phenomenon through which something else is known. The relationship may be verbal or nonverbal; it does not itself guarantee the truth of an accompanying claim, a speaker’s benevolence or the conscious intention of a human agent.