The Qur’anic Root DH R R

Early Arabic evidence: smallness and the rising sun

A concrete image attested in an early text must be distinguished from a reconstructed common meaning. In the evidence below, ذَرّ appears in the image of a tiny ant, and ذَرَّتِ الشمس describes the rising sun. These two witnesses do not by themselves establish a historical development from scattering to descendants.

The following line occurs in the collected poetry of Ḥassān ibn Thābit, who lived through the pre-Islamic period and the age of revelation. It describes the beloved’s delicate skin. The source consulted does not establish when this particular line was composed; it is therefore evidence attributed to a poet of that period, not a securely dated pre-revelation document.

لَوْ يَدِبُّ الحَوْلِيُّ مِنْ وَلَدِ الذَّرِّ عَلَيْهَا لَأَنْدَبَتْهَا الكُلُومُ

“If a young ant crawled over her, the wounds would leave marks on her skin.”

The tiny creature’s crawling serves an exaggeration of bodily delicacy. The line supports that concrete image, not a historical derivation of dhurriyyah from dharrah.

In al-Aʿshā’s poem beginning “يوم قفّت حمولهم,” a gazelle grazing among arāk trees is described as follows:

فِي أَرَاكٍ مَرْدٍ يَكَادُ إِذَا مَا
ذَرَّتِ الشَّمْسُ سَاعَةً يُهْرَاقُ

“Among fruit-laden arāk trees, whose [fruit] almost spills down when the sun has risen for a while.”

ذَرَّتِ الشمس identifies the time when the sun rises. The line attests this use of the verb for sunrise; it does not establish that “the diffusion of light” was the original meaning of every form of the root. Its attribution to al-Aʿshā places it in the pre-Islamic poetic tradition, but the exact date of this line’s composition is not known.

Perceptible smallness provides a clear image for dharrah; dharrati al-shams describes the rising sun. Reducing both uses to one historical origin requires further evidence.

The present search found no reliable pre-Qur’anic witness in poetry, expressions, proverbs, or social usage that settles the precise derivation of ذُرِّيَّة. This limitation does not mean the word did not exist then. Undated examples of sprinkling salt or medicine cannot replace such evidence.

Dharrah in the Qur’an: something very small, not a scientific atom

All six Qur’anic occurrences of ذَرَّة appear with mithqāl. The case ending of mithqāl changes with its grammatical role. One form is:

مِثْقَالَ ذَرَّةٍ

The weight, or equivalent weight, of a very small speck.

For example:

إِنَّ اللَّهَ لَا يَظْلِمُ مِثْقَالَ ذَرَّةٍ وَإِنْ تَكُ حَسَنَةً يُضَاعِفْهَا وَيُؤْتِ مِنْ لَدُنْهُ أَجْرًا عَظِيمًا

“The God does not wrong anyone by the weight of a tiny speck; if there is a good deed, He multiplies it and grants a great reward from Himself.”

An-Nisa 4:40

And:

وَمَا يَعْزُبُ عَنْ رَبِّكَ مِنْ مِثْقَالِ ذَرَّةٍ فِي الْأَرْضِ وَلَا فِي السَّمَاءِ وَلَا أَصْغَرَ مِنْ ذَٰلِكَ وَلَا أَكْبَرَ إِلَّا فِي كِتَابٍ مُبِينٍ

“Nothing of the weight of a speck on earth or in heaven escapes your Lord, nor anything smaller or greater, except that it is in a clear record.”

Yunus 10:61

At the end of Az-Zalzalah:

فَمَنْ يَعْمَلْ مِثْقَالَ ذَرَّةٍ خَيْرًا يَرَهُ ۝ وَمَنْ يَعْمَلْ مِثْقَالَ ذَرَّةٍ شَرًّا يَرَهُ

“Whoever does a speck’s weight of good will see it, and whoever does a speck’s weight of evil will see it.”

Az-Zalzalah 99:7, 99:8

In Ḥassān’s poetic image, ذَرّ is a creature so small that its crawling is used to exaggerate the delicacy of skin. In the verses, ذَرَّة is a measure of extremely small weight. These witnesses support perceptible smallness, but the verses are not concerned with a zoological or physical definition of the object.

Rendering Qur’anic ذَرَّة as “atom” is therefore misleading.

“Atom” is now a scientific term with a specific meaning in physics and chemistry. These verses are not discussing the structure of matter, nuclei, electrons, or the smallest chemical unit. Yunus 10:61 itself follows mithqāl dharrah with:

وَلَا أَصْغَرَ مِنْ ذَٰلِكَ

“Nor anything smaller than that.”

Dharrah functions here as a measure of something extremely small, not as an assertion that it is the smallest indivisible component of the universe.

Modern technical uses of “atom” or “particle” should not be read back into the verses. “Speck” or “tiny particle” can convey the ordinary image without assigning it a modern scientific definition.

Why does the Qur’an say mithqāl dharrah?

In all six occurrences, the expression is not simply dharrah, but mithqāl dharrah.

The emphasis is on weight and quantity.

In An-Nisa 4:40, even this negligible amount is not excluded from justice.

In Yunus 10:61 and Saba 34:3, nothing of this slight weight is concealed from divine knowledge.

In Saba 34:22, the alleged deities do not possess even this much.

In Az-Zalzalah 99:7, 99:8, good and evil will be seen even on this tiny scale.

The Qur’anic function of ذَرَّة is thus to express extreme smallness, rather than to offer a scientific definition of an object.

Dhurriyyah in the Qur’an: offspring and descent through generations

Of the 38 occurrences classified under ذ ر ر, 32 belong to ذُرِّيَّة / ذُرِّيَّات. Their meaning emerges from the Qur’anic contexts: offspring, descendants, and those who continue the line of a person or group.

Abraham says:

قَالَ وَمِنْ ذُرِّيَّتِي قَالَ لَا يَنَالُ عَهْدِي الظَّالِمِينَ

“He said, ‘And from my descendants?’ He said, ‘My covenant does not extend to the wrongdoers.’”

Al-Baqarah 2:124

Abraham and Ishmael pray:

رَبَّنَا وَاجْعَلْنَا مُسْلِمَيْنِ لَكَ وَمِنْ ذُرِّيَّتِنَا أُمَّةً مُسْلِمَةً لَكَ

“Our Lord, make us both submit to You, and from our descendants make a community submitting to You.”

Al-Baqarah 2:128

Zechariah says:

رَبِّ هَبْ لِي مِنْ لَدُنْكَ ذُرِّيَّةً طَيِّبَةً إِنَّكَ سَمِيعُ الدُّعَاءِ

“My Lord, grant me good offspring from Yourself; You are the hearer of prayer.”

Aal ‘Imran 3:38

The same word also refers to more distant generations:

وَمِنْ ذُرِّيَّتِهِ دَاوُودَ وَسُلَيْمَانَ وَأَيُّوبَ وَيُوسُفَ وَمُوسَىٰ وَهَارُونَ

“And from his descendants, David, Solomon, Job, Joseph, Moses, and Aaron…”

Al-An‘am 6:84

Dhurriyyah therefore does not mean only a young child or an immediate child. It can follow a line of descent across several generations.

In other contexts, the reference is to children closer at hand:

وَلْيَخْشَ الَّذِينَ لَوْ تَرَكُوا مِنْ خَلْفِهِمْ ذُرِّيَّةً ضِعَافًا خَافُوا عَلَيْهِمْ

“Let those fear who, if they left weak offspring behind them, would be afraid for them.”

An-Nisa 4:9

The best rendering depends on context. “Children” is sometimes more natural; elsewhere “descendants” or “offspring and descendants” better conveys the range.

A singular form with collective reference

The Qur’an generally uses the singular form ذُرِّيَّة, but it can refer to a group of offspring or descendants. The plural ذُرِّيَّات also occurs four times.

For example:

And:

The distinction between singular and plural does not justify a theory about the number of generations or family branches. Dhurriyyah itself can have collective reference, while its plural is also used.

Not limited to human offspring

Al-Kahf 18:50 says of Iblis:

أَفَتَتَّخِذُونَهُ وَذُرِّيَّتَهُ أَوْلِيَاءَ مِنْ دُونِي وَهُمْ لَكُمْ عَدُوٌّ

“Will you take him and his offspring as allies instead of Me, while they are your enemy?”

This use shows that dhurriyyah is not lexically restricted to human children: it also refers to the offspring of Iblis.

Its central reference is offspring and the continuation of a line from an origin, rather than membership in the human species.

Descent does not itself confer virtue

The word does not attach any guaranteed moral value to family descent.

In Abraham’s exchange concerning his descendants, the answer is:

لَا يَنَالُ عَهْدِي الظَّالِمِينَ

Of the descendants of Abraham and Isaac, it is said:

وَبَارَكْنَا عَلَيْهِ وَعَلَىٰ إِسْحَاقَ وَمِنْ ذُرِّيَّتِهِمَا مُحْسِنٌ وَظَالِمٌ لِنَفْسِهِ مُبِينٌ

“We blessed him and Isaac; among their descendants are those who do good and those who plainly wrong themselves.”

As-Saffat 37:113

A single line of descendants can include both those who do good and wrongdoers. Descent itself guarantees neither justice nor religious standing.

This matters for the lexical meaning: dhurriyyah describes a relationship of descent, not the moral rank of those who share it.

Is dhurriyyah derived from dharr?

The Qur’anic contexts show the meaning “descendants,” but do not narrate how the form dhurriyyah developed. Placing it alongside dharr is therefore not yet a complete historical explanation.

A semantic connection between scattering and the spread of descendants can be imagined. Until the word’s formal development and early attestations are established, however, this remains a possibility.

The meaning “bringing into being” in ذَرَأَ can also be compared with the emergence of offspring. That comparison merits examination, but semantic proximity does not establish how or when a form containing hamzah could have developed into the attested word.

The claim that “dhurriyyah derives from tiny particles scattered from the father” is therefore not established by the evidence examined here.

Such an image may be appealing, but it does not prove a history of derivation.

Comparison with DH R ʾ

This caution matters especially because the Qur’an separately uses ذ ر أ six times, all as verbs.

For example:

وَهُوَ الَّذِي ذَرَأَكُمْ فِي الْأَرْضِ وَإِلَيْهِ تُحْشَرُونَ

“It is He who brought you into being on earth, and to Him you will be gathered.”

Al-Mu’minun 23:79

And:

قُلْ هُوَ الَّذِي ذَرَأَكُمْ فِي الْأَرْضِ وَإِلَيْهِ تُحْشَرُونَ

“Say: It is He who brought you into being on earth, and to Him you will be gathered.”

Al-Mulk 67:24

In these two verses, ذَرَأَكُمْ concerns bringing human beings into being, and فِي الْأَرْضِ specifies the location. Adding “and scattered” to the translation turns an interpretive explanation into a separate verbal action; the comparison with dhurriyyah does not require that addition.

Semantic proximity alone does not establish historical derivation.

Three matters should therefore remain distinct:

ذ ر ر: in the Qur’anic form ذَرَّة, smallness and negligible quantity.

ذ ر أ: a separate verb with six Qur’anic occurrences; in the verses cited, bringing human beings into being on earth.

ذُرِّيَّة: offspring and descendants, a meaning recoverable from the Qur’an without claiming certainty about the historical origin of the form.

Ya-Sin 36:41: can dhurriyyah refer to ancestors?

The Qur’an says:

وَآيَةٌ لَهُمْ أَنَّا حَمَلْنَا ذُرِّيَّتَهُمْ فِي الْفُلْكِ الْمَشْحُونِ

“A sign for them is that We carried their descendants in the laden ship.”

Ya-Sin 36:41

Noah is not named in this verse. Identifying the ship and determining whom “them” refers to are different questions from defining dhurriyyah. If the ship and the people are identified in advance, and the word’s meaning is then changed to fit that assumption, the reasoning becomes circular.

Identifying the ship and the pronoun’s referent requires a connected reading of the context. This expression alone cannot establish “fathers and ancestors” as an independent lexical meaning.

The central point is that one difficult verse should not by itself reverse a word’s otherwise established meaning.

In many other occurrences, dhurriyyah clearly refers to those who descend from a person or group. Without independent linguistic evidence, “fathers and ancestors” should not be made another basic meaning of the word.

The translation therefore retains “their descendants,” while leaving their precise identification open. Uncertainty about the referent should not become certainty about an opposite lexical meaning.

Dharrah and dhurriyyah: one root or two different histories?

In the Qur’anic morphological index, both are listed under ذ ر ر.

The most accurate conclusion is neither that they must be unrelated nor that they certainly developed from a single image.

A more cautious conclusion is:

Dharrah is a measure of negligible quantity in the Qur’an. Dhurriyyah appears under the same morphological heading, but its references to descent do not by themselves prove derivation from dharrah. Each word’s Qur’anic meaning must be established from the sentences in which it occurs.

This distinction leaves etymological inquiry open while preventing an unproven hypothesis from determining the meaning of the verses.

Dhurriyyah and related terms

Dhurriyyah and walad

Walad directly highlights birth and the relationship of being a child. Dhurriyyah can have a wider generational range, including descendants several generations after a person.

Al-An‘am 6:84 lists several prophets under ذُرِّيَّتِهِ. Maryam 19:58 speaks of descendants of Adam, of those carried with Noah, and of the descendants of Abraham and Israel.

This distinction should not become an absolute rule: in some contexts dhurriyyah also refers to immediate children.

Dhurriyyah and nasl

Nasl also overlaps with the continuation of offspring. Al-Baqarah 2:205 mentions الْحَرْثَ وَالنَّسْلَ, and As-Sajdah 32:8 uses نَسْلَهُ. These two uses do not establish a fixed boundary between nasl and dhurriyyah in every context.

What matters here is that dhurriyyah cannot always be translated simply as “children.” Its range extends from immediate offspring to later generations.

Dharrah and a mustard seed

The Qur’an does not use dharrah alone to express smallness. Al-Anbiya 21:47 and Luqman 31:16 also use حَبَّةٍ مِنْ خَرْدَلٍ, a mustard seed.

Comparing these usages shows that the images of smallness are tangible: a tiny speck or a very small seed.

These expressions should not be turned into fixed scientific units or a theory of matter. In their contexts, they express extreme smallness and the precision of the account.

Translation proposals for Forqan

For ذَرَّة, “atom” is not an appropriate modern rendering.

For مِثْقَالَ ذَرَّةٍ, possible renderings include “the weight of a tiny speck” or “as much as a minute particle weighs.”

“Speck” conveys ordinary smallness without a technical definition. “Particle” can also work if used in its general sense; it should not imply a specific entity in modern physics.

Dhurriyyah does not need one fixed English equivalent in every verse.

In contexts spanning a wider line of descent, “descendants” is natural.

Where immediate children are in view, “children” may read more naturally.

Where both ranges matter, “offspring and descendants” can be useful in explanation, without making every translation unnecessarily heavy.

ذُرِّيَّةَ إِبْلِيس is best conveyed as “the offspring of Iblis,” without an expression that restricts the word to humans.

Conclusion

In the evidence examined, ذَرّ refers to a very small creature and ذَرَّتِ الشمس to the sun’s rising. These concrete usages can be recorded; a single historical principle such as “smallness and diffusion” should not be imposed on every word in the entry without sufficient evidence.

The Qur’anic form ذَرَّة fits the branch of smallness. All six occurrences appear with mithqāl and make something very small a measure of quantity and weight. Dharrah is not a scientific “atom” in these verses, nor does the Qur’an identify it as matter’s smallest indivisible component.

The meaning of ذُرِّيَّة is clearer than its derivational history. In the Qur’an it refers to offspring and descendants, from immediate children to later generations, and is even used of the offspring of Iblis. This relationship of descent guarantees neither moral worth nor religious standing.

The Qur’anic uses do not prove a historical derivation of dhurriyyah from dharrah. Its semantic closeness to dharaʾa, “to bring into being,” does not by itself prove derivation either. The image of “tiny particles scattered from the father” therefore cannot be introduced into the verses as the word’s established origin.

DH R R: dharrah is something very small and, in mithqāl dharrah, a measure of negligible quantity. Dhurriyyah refers to offspring and descendants. Its meaning should be established through the Qur’anic contexts of descent, without deriving its form from dharr on insufficient evidence. Listing the two under one root does not replace historical evidence for their relationship.