The Qur’anic Root Ḥ D Q

1. Forms and derivatives

Ḥ D Q consists of the letters ḥāʾ, dāl, and qāf and is a sound, non-geminate Arabic root.

Important forms in this family include:

• حَدَقَ ـ يَحْدِقُ: Stood around or surrounded something; in another use, looked at something.
• أَحْدَقَ ـ يُحْدِقُ: Surrounded, encompassed from different sides, or enclosed something.
• إِحْدَاق: Encircling and standing around something.
• حَدَّقَ ـ يُحَدِّقُ: Focused the gaze on something and looked attentively or intensely.
• تَحْدِيق: Staring and a focused gaze.
• حَدِيقَة: A garden, especially land containing trees and plants within bounds distinct from its surroundings.
• حَدَائِق: Plural of حَدِيقَة: gardens.
• حَدَقَة: The round dark part of the eye; in some uses, its central part, to which looking is attributed.
• حَدَق، حِدَاق، أَحْدَاق: Recorded plurals of حَدَقَةُ الْعَيْنِ.
• مُحْدِق: Surrounding, or something that encompasses on different sides.
• مُحْدَق بِهِ: What is surrounded from different sides.
• حَدِيقُ الرَّوْضِ: The lush, densely growing part of a vegetated place.
• حَنْدِيقَة: An alternative form of حَدَقَةُ الْعَيْنِ in some lexical sources.

Not all these forms occur in the Qur’an.

The forms actually found in the Qur’an are:

• حَدَائِقَ in Al-Naml 27:60;
• حَدَائِقَ in Al-Nabaʾ 78:32;
• وَحَدَائِقَ in ʿAbasa 80:30.

These are not three separate derivatives. Each occurrence uses the same plural noun; the third differs only through the addition of the conjunction وَ, “and.”

Morphologically, حَدَائِق is the broken plural of حَدِيقَة on the pattern فَعَائِل. It belongs to the plurals that do not take nunation when indefinite, and in all three occurrences it appears in the accusative form حَدَائِقَ.

The verbs حَدَقَ, أَحْدَقَ, and حَدَّقَ, and the noun حَدَقَة referring to part of the eye, do not occur in the Qur’an.

Quranic Arabic Corpus: three occurrences of the plural ḥadāʾiq

2. The semantic core and early Arabic usage

Encircling and standing around something

In Maqāyīs al-Lughah, Ibn Fāris explains the semantic basis of Ḥ D Q as follows:

أَصْلٌ وَاحِدٌ ... يُحِيطُ بِشَيْءٍ

aṣlun wāḥidun … yuḥīṭu bi-shayʾin

That is, this family denotes something that surrounds another thing.

He then gives حَدَقَ الْقَوْمُ بِالرَّجُلِ and أَحْدَقُوا بِهِ as examples: a group stood around a man.

This use makes the root’s central image clear: something stands in the middle, while people or things surround it from different sides.

Lisān al-ʿArab likewise records that أَحْدَقَ can describe anything that stands around and surrounds something else.

For example, أَحْدَقَ بِهَا بَيَاضٌ is recorded of a dark mark surrounded by the whiteness of the skin.

Here, surrounding does not mean blocking a way or imprisoning. The whiteness surrounds the dark mark.

The root’s semantic core can therefore be expressed as surrounding something from different sides and forming a defined boundary around it.

Such enclosure may involve a wall or physical barrier, or it may arise simply from the shape and arrangement of things.

Maqāyīs al-Lughah, Al-ʿAyn, and Lisān al-ʿArab: surrounding, gardens, and the eye

Surrounding and being besieged

In Arabic, أَحْدَقَ الْقَوْمُ بِالرَّجُلِ can describe a group gathering around a person.

That gathering may be friendly, protective, or hostile.

In a description of battle, for instance, a group may surround someone on different sides. Elsewhere, people may gather around someone to hear that person speak.

Iḥdāq itself therefore does not necessarily mean hostility or harm.

The image is one of surrounding; context establishes its purpose and outcome.

Figuratively, difficulties or dangers may also be said to surround someone. No visible physical ring exists in this case, but the person faces pressure from several directions.

A witness from Al-Akhṭal’s poetry

Al-Akhṭal, a poet of the Umayyad period, says in a verse:

الْمُنْعِمُونَ بَنُو حَرْبٍ وَقَدْ حَدَقَتْ
بِيَ الْمَنِيَّةُ وَاسْتَبْطَأْتُ أَنْصَارِي

al-munʿimūna banū ḥarbin wa-qad ḥadaqat / biya al-maniyyatu wa-stabṭaʾtu anṣārī

Meaning: “The benefactors are Banū Ḥarb, when death had surrounded me and I found my helpers slow to arrive.”

In this verse, حَدَقَتْ بِيَ الْمَنِيَّةُ describes someone surrounded by the danger of death.

Death is pictured like a group besieging someone from different sides.

This witness shows that Ḥ D Q could extend in Arabic from spatial surrounding to nonphysical encirclement and pervasive danger.

Al-Akhṭal lived after the advent of Islam. His poetry is therefore a witness to classical Arabic, rather than pre-Islamic poetry.

His usage nevertheless agrees with the meaning recorded in early lexical sources.

Tāj al-ʿArūs: Al-Akhṭal’s verse and death surrounding a person

Ḥadīqah: a garden within defined bounds

One important derivative of this root is حَدِيقَة.

In Kitāb al-ʿAyn, ḥadīqah is described as land containing fruit-bearing trees.

The same source also describes a vegetated place surrounded by a barrier or raised ground.

Lisān al-ʿArab records several explanations of ḥadīqah: land containing productive trees, a garden, a palm grove or vineyard, and a vegetated place with a wall or barrier around it.

These explanations show that in its established use, ḥadīqah concerns gardens and vegetation.

The presence of trees alone, however, does not settle the entire lexical question; enclosure and the definition of a boundary also feature in explanations of the name.

Some sources accordingly distinguish an enclosed garden from land containing trees with no enclosure.

Must a ḥadīqah have a wall?

One strand of the lexical tradition, especially Al-Farrāʾ’s explanation, states that a garden with a wall is called ḥadīqah, whereas a garden without a wall is not.

Al-Ṭabarī accepts this explanation in his commentary on Al-Naml 27:60.

Lexical sources also record broader usages, however.

In Kitāb al-ʿAyn and Lisān al-ʿArab, a ḥadīqah may be land defined by natural rises around it.

The same family is also used of vegetated places whose plants are dense and intertwined.

The principle of enclosure should therefore not be restricted without evidence to a wall built of stone or brick.

A wall may enclose a garden; trees and surrounding plants may form a defined boundary; or the natural shape of the ground may distinguish a vegetated place from its surroundings.

These uses agree with the theme of surrounding, but the kind of enclosure is not identical in every case.

Consequently, “a garden with defined bounds and vegetation” is a broader explanation than “a garden that must be walled.”

This caution matters in translating the Qur’an, since neither ḥāʾiṭ nor jidār, words for a wall, appears in any of the three verses containing حَدَائِق.

Al-Ṭabarī: the walled-garden explanation and the gardens’ beauty

A pre-Islamic witness from Ṭarafah ibn al-ʿAbd’s Muʿallaqah

Ṭarafah ibn al-ʿAbd’s Muʿallaqah includes the following:

تَرَبَّعَتِ الْقُفَّيْنِ فِي الشَّوْلِ تَرْتَعِي
حَدَائِقَ مَوْلِيِّ الْأَسِرَّةِ أَغْيَدِ

tarabbaʿati al-quffayni fī al-shawli tartaʿī / ḥadāʾiqa mawliyyi al-asirrati aghyadi

Meaning: “The she-camel spent the spring grazing at Al-Quffayn among the other she-camels, feeding on lush, tender, rain-watered growth in the fertile parts of the valley.”

Here, حَدَائِق refers to green vegetated places suitable for camels to graze.

Mawliyy concerns land watered by al-waliyy, the rain that follows the first seasonal rain; al-asirrah refers to the choice, fertile parts of a valley floor.

The verse thus depicts natural green growth, rather than necessarily gardens that people have enclosed with constructed walls.

This witness is particularly significant because Ṭarafah is a recognized pre-Islamic poet, and the verse is recorded in his Muʿallaqah.

The use of ḥadāʾiq for a collection of green vegetated places therefore has support in pre-Islamic poetry.

This one verse does not establish that enclosure and walls were absent from the uses of ḥadīqah.

It shows only that the word’s range in early Arabic was broader than the image of a formal, walled garden familiar today.

Sharḥ al-Muʿallaqāt al-Sabʿ: Ṭarafah’s verse, successive rain, and valley vegetation

Ḥadīqah, palm grove, and vineyard

Some lexicographers associate ḥadīqah with a garden of palms and vines.

This connection is understandable given the importance of palms and vines in Arab life and agriculture.

A palm grove or vineyard with defined bounds for tending and harvesting its produce can be a clear example of a ḥadīqah.

This usage does not mean, however, that a ḥadīqah is exclusively a date-palm garden or vineyard and excludes other trees and plants.

In Al-Naml 27:60, the Qur’an mentions شَجَرَهَا, “their trees,” without naming the kinds of all the trees.

ʿAbasa 80:30 also mentions gardens with dense, stout trees.

Restricting ḥadāʾiq to one or two crops therefore lacks sufficient support in Qur’anic usage as well.

Ḥadīq al-rawḍ: dense vegetation

In Lisān al-ʿArab, حَدِيقُ الرَّوْضِ denotes the part of a vegetated place where plants have grown and intertwined.

Another explanation records that when the plants of a rawḍah grow well and become dense, the Ḥ D Q family can be used of it.

Here, enclosure does not involve only an external wall; dense plant cover is also part of the image.

This meaning helps explain حَدَائِقَ غُلْبًا in ʿAbasa 80:30.

Yet غُلْبًا is itself an independent description, making the sense of thick, densely growing trees more explicit.

The entire meaning of ghulb should therefore not be merged into the root Ḥ D Q itself.

3. Ḥadaqat al-ʿayn and the meaning of looking

The round dark part of the eye

Another important derivative in this family is حَدَقَةُ الْعَيْنِ.

Arabic dictionaries describe ḥadaqah as the round dark part of the eye.

Some sources call it the large dark area of the eye, while others describe it as the dark central part.

In Maqāyīs al-Lughah, Ibn Fāris explains the name through the shape of encirclement.

In the image, parts of the eye lie around the central portion, forming a distinct circular shape.

Early anatomical descriptions should not, however, be equated uncritically with the precise classifications of modern medicine.

Modern knowledge distinguishes the iris, pupil, and other parts of the eye. Early lexical sources do not always use ḥadaqah with these same anatomical boundaries.

For a root study, “the round dark part of the eye” is therefore more appropriate than assuming that ḥadaqah necessarily denotes one narrowly defined anatomical structure in every early text.

A witness from Abū Dhuʾayb al-Hudhalī’s poetry

Abū Dhuʾayb al-Hudhalī, a poet who lived across the pre-Islamic and Islamic periods, says in an elegy:

فَالْعَيْنُ بَعْدَهُمُ كَأَنَّ حِدَاقَهَا
سُمِلَتْ بِشَوْكٍ فَهْيَ عُورٌ تَدْمَعُ

fa-al-ʿaynu baʿdahumu ka-anna ḥidāqahā / sumilat bi-shawkin fa-hiya ʿūrun tadmaʿu

Meaning: “After them, the eye is as though its dark parts had been put out with thorns—sightless and streaming with tears.”

In this verse, حِدَاق is a plural of حَدَقَة.

The poet uses the word to describe the sensitive dark parts of the eye.

Al-Ṣiḥāḥ and Lisān al-ʿArab, S M L: putting out the eye

This witness illustrates the eye-related branch of the family in early Arabic.

Abū Dhuʾayb lived through both the pre-Islamic and Islamic periods; without independent evidence, the precise date of this elegy should not be assumed to precede the Qur’an.

For Qur’anic research, the usage matters for understanding the linguistic family, but ḥadaqah itself does not occur in the Qur’an.

Tāj al-ʿArūs and Lisān al-ʿArab: ḥadaqah and Abū Dhuʾayb’s witness

Taḥdīq: staring and a focused gaze

Taḥdīq in Arabic concerns the intensity and concentration of the gaze.

حَدَّقَ إِلَيْهِ means that someone looked at something attentively and with concentration.

This usage can be explained with reference to the eye’s attention concentrating on an object.

It should not be claimed, however, that the verb of looking necessarily arose after the naming of the eye’s dark part.

The lexical sources record the existence of both uses within one family.

Taḥdīq remains familiar in present-day Arabic for staring and a prolonged or concentrated gaze.

The Qur’anic meaning of حَدَائِق does not concern staring, however.

Gardens in Qur’anic verses should therefore not be interpreted as “places for looking” or “things at which people stare.”

4. Qur’anic uses of the root

Al-Naml 27:60: gardens possessing beauty and freshness

Verse text:

أَمَّنْ خَلَقَ السَّمَاوَاتِ وَالْأَرْضَ وَأَنْزَلَ لَكُمْ مِنَ السَّمَاءِ مَاءً فَأَنْبَتْنَا بِهِ حَدَائِقَ ذَاتَ بَهْجَةٍ مَا كَانَ لَكُمْ أَنْ تُنْبِتُوا شَجَرَهَا أَإِلَٰهٌ مَعَ اللَّهِ بَلْ هُمْ قَوْمٌ يَعْدِلُونَ

amman khalaqa al-samāwāti wa-al-arḍa wa-anzala lakum mina al-samāʾi māʾan fa-anbatnā bihi ḥadāʾiqa dhāta bahjatin mā kāna lakum an tunbitū shajarahā a-ilāhun maʿa Allāhi bal hum qawmun yaʿdilūna

Proposed Persian translation, rendered here in English:

“Or the One who created the heavens and the earth and sent down water for you from the sky, through which We caused gardens possessing beauty and freshness to grow, whose trees you had no power to grow? Is there a deity alongside The God? Rather, they are a people who set up equals.”

In this verse, حَدَائِقَ is the object of أَنْبَتْنَا, “We caused to grow.”

أَنْبَتْنَا بِهِ refers to causing growth by means of water.

The verse thus speaks of gardens and trees coming into being in connection with water.

Ḥadāʾiq here concerns gardens and collections of trees, rather than the eye, looking, or people surrounding something.

The role of ذَاتَ بَهْجَةٍ

حَدَائِقَ is followed by ذَاتَ بَهْجَةٍ.

بَهْجَة belongs to the independent root B H J and concerns beauty, freshness, and an appearance that brings joy and pleasure.

Study of B H J

Beauty and freshness in this verse are therefore expressed by the description ذَاتَ بَهْجَةٍ.

Ḥadāʾiq itself denotes gardens.

This distinction matters: translating ḥadāʾiq alone as “very beautiful and delightful gardens” would transfer the meaning of the following description into the word in advance.

In direct translation, it is better to recognize “gardens” for ḥadāʾiq and “possessing beauty and freshness” for dhāta bahjah separately.

In Arabic grammar, ذَاتَ is feminine singular although حَدَائِق is plural. A nonhuman plural can take a feminine singular description; here, the collection of gardens is described as possessing beauty.

Dhāt therefore need not be taken to mean a single garden.

شَجَرَهَا and the gardens’ characteristics

The verse continues:

“مَا كَانَ لَكُمْ أَنْ تُنْبِتُوا شَجَرَهَا,” “you had no power to grow their trees.”

شَجَرَهَا refers to the trees of those gardens.

This expression shows that trees are present in the picture of these ḥadāʾiq.

It does not establish that every tree in the gardens belongs to one species, or that every ḥadīqah must contain only fruit trees.

Some lexical examples concern palms and vines, but the word shajar in the verse does not specify a single kind.

Another issue is the relationship between human work and the growth of trees.

People can sow seeds, plant saplings, irrigate the ground, and work to support plant growth.

The verse, however, concerns the origin of creation, water, and the power to produce growth, attributing these to God.

The expression should therefore not be understood to deny any human role in gardening and agriculture.

The verse itself distinguishes human ability and management from the ultimate source of growth within creation.

The gardens’ role in the verse’s question about divine oneness

The verse begins by asking about the Creator of the heavens and the earth; after mentioning water and gardens, it asks:

“أَإِلَٰهٌ مَعَ اللَّهِ,” “Is there a deity alongside The God?”

The gardens thus appear among a set of signs of creation.

Water, the growth of trees, and the beauty of gardens are recalled together for the audience.

The root Ḥ D Q itself does not mean creation or divine oneness.

Ḥadāʾiq identifies the gardens; the question about the One God arises from the verse’s overall structure.

This distinction must be preserved in a root study.

Al-Nabaʾ 78:32: gardens and vineyards

Verse text:

حَدَائِقَ وَأَعْنَابًا

ḥadāʾiqa wa-aʿnāban

Proposed Persian translation, rendered here in English:

“Gardens and vineyards.”

In this verse, حَدَائِقَ appears alongside أَعْنَابًا.

أَعْنَاب is the plural of عِنَب, from the root ʿ N B, and concerns grapes.

In context, the expression refers to gardens and vineyards or grapevines.

The pairing of ḥadāʾiq and aʿnāb does not mean that no ḥadīqah can contain vines.

Arabic coordination of two terms can highlight a particular kind or blessing even when the referents overlap.

The coordination should therefore not be taken to mean that the ḥadāʾiq here are exclusively gardens without grapes.

The relationship between حَدَائِقَ and مَفَازًا

The preceding verse, Al-Nabaʾ 78:31, states that the reverent will have مَفَازًا, a place or outcome of success.

Al-Nabaʾ 78:32 then mentions gardens and grapes.

Syntactically, حَدَائِقَ can be an explanation of, or apposition to, مَفَازًا.

The gardens thus form part of the picture of success and enjoyment described for the reverent.

Here too, ḥadāʾiq means gardens.

The difference from Al-Naml 27:60 lies in subject matter and context.

In Al-Naml, gardens in the natural world feature in an argument concerning creation.

In Al-Nabaʾ, gardens appear in the description of blessings awaiting the reverent.

Ḥadāʾiq is therefore not intrinsically a name only for earthly gardens or only for gardens of Paradise.

Context identifies the kind of garden and its setting.

Iʿrāb al-Qurʾān wa-Bayānuh: ḥadāʾiq in explanation of mafāz

ʿAbasa 80:30: gardens with dense, stout trees

Verse text:

وَحَدَائِقَ غُلْبًا

wa-ḥadāʾiqa ghulban

Proposed Persian translation, rendered here in English:

“And gardens with dense, stout trees.”

In this verse, حَدَائِقَ again refers to gardens.

Its description differs, however, from that in Al-Naml 27:60.

In Al-Naml, the gardens are ذَاتَ بَهْجَةٍ, “possessing beauty.”

In ʿAbasa, they are described as غُلْبًا.

غُلْب belongs to the root GH L B and in this construction is the plural of أَغْلَب and غَلْبَاء.

As applied to trees, the description concerns their thickness, stoutness, and density.

Early lexicographers and commentators offer closely related explanations of its precise referent: some mention thick trees, others stout palms, and others tall, intertwined trees.

These differences do not fundamentally change the description of lush gardens containing strong trees.

Does غُلْبًا mean that the gardens dominate?

In other Arabic uses, the GH L B family can concern prevailing and dominance.

In حَدَائِقَ غُلْبًا, however, the appropriate sense comes from the descriptive use of ghalbāʾ for thick, stout trees.

“Victorious gardens” or “gardens that dominate others” would therefore be inconsistent with the verse’s context.

This example shows how morphological pattern and subject matter matter when selecting the correct meaning.

The density of the trees is also clarified by غُلْبًا; ḥadāʾiq need not necessarily mean gardens with very thick trees in every occurrence.

Al-Ṭabarī: ghulb describing the thickness of garden trees

The verse in the context of food and growth from the earth

ʿAbasa 80:24 asks people to consider their food.

It then mentions the pouring down of water, the splitting of the earth, the growing of grain, grapes, plants, olives, palms, dense gardens, fruit, and pasture.

Ḥadāʾiqa ghulban thus forms part of a collection of blessings and growth from the earth.

The following verse, ʿAbasa 80:31, also mentions فَاكِهَةً وَأَبًّا, “fruit and pasture.”

In this context, the dense gardens therefore concern food and the enjoyment of humans and other living beings.

Ḥadāʾiq itself does not name a particular food.

A garden can be a place where food grows and is produced, but its meaning is not identical to the names of fruit or grain.

5. Distinctions from related roots and words

Ḥ D Q (ḥadīqah) and J N N (jannah): a garden with bounds and a garden covered in vegetation

Study of J N N

Jannah in Arabic concerns a garden; the lexical background of J N N includes covering and concealing.

A garden whose trees and plants cover the ground may be called jannah.

Ḥadīqah also means a garden, but enclosure, defined bounds, and a concentration of vegetation matter in its lexical explanation.

The two words can therefore refer to the same garden while presenting different lexical images.

For jannah, the ground being covered with plants is one established explanation.

For ḥadīqah, enclosure and the garden’s position within defined bounds are prominent.

An absolute distinction should not be invented whereby every jannah lacks a wall and every ḥadīqah necessarily has one.

The Qur’an also uses jannah of gardens both in this world and in the Hereafter. Ḥadāʾiq likewise appears in Al-Nabaʾ 78:32 in the context of the reverent’s final outcome.

These terms are therefore not distinguished solely by the location or world to which they refer.

Ḥ D Q (ḥadīqah) and R W Ḍ (rawḍah): a garden and a green vegetated place

Rawḍah concerns green land with vegetation.

Lexical sources can use rawḍah for a natural place where grass and plants grow.

A ḥadīqah may likewise be a green vegetated place, but its established uses concern enclosure, bounds, or a collection of trees.

Lisān al-ʿArab mentions حَدِيقُ الرَّوْضِ: the part of a vegetated place where plants grow densely and intertwine.

This use shows that ḥadīqah and rawḍah can overlap in their referents.

The identity of some referents does not mean that all the meanings of the two words are equivalent.

Ḥ D Q (ḥadīqah) and bustān: a garden and a collection of trees

Bustān denotes a garden in both Arabic and Persian.

Dictionaries repeatedly explain حَدِيقَة using bustān.

The two words can be synonymous in general usage.

Ḥadīqah, however, belongs to the Arabic family Ḥ D Q, with enclosure and bounds present in its semantic explanation.

Bustān here is a suitable Persian equivalent for translating “garden,” rather than necessarily evidence for the derivation of Ḥ D Q.

Using “garden” in Qur’anic translation is natural and sufficient, but a root study should also explain the established characteristics of ḥadīqah.

Ḥ D Q (ḥadīqah) and Ḥ W Ṭ (ḥāʾiṭ): garden and enclosure

Study of Ḥ W Ṭ

Ḥāʾiṭ belongs to the Ḥ W Ṭ family and refers to something that stands around a place or another thing.

In Arabic, ḥāʾiṭ may mean a wall and, in some uses, an enclosed garden.

Lexical sources sometimes describe a ḥadīqah as a garden with a ḥāʾiṭ around it.

The semantic proximity is clear.

Not every ḥāʾiṭ is a garden, however. A wall may surround a house or another place.

Conversely, early attestations of ḥadīqah do not necessarily mention a constructed wall in every instance.

Ḥāʾiṭ and ḥadīqah should therefore not be treated as completely synonymous in every case.

Ḥ D Q (ḥadīqah) and SH J R (shajar): garden and tree

Study of SH J R

Shajar in Arabic concerns trees and, in some uses, kinds of plant growth.

A ḥadīqah is a place that may contain a collection of trees and plants.

Al-Naml 27:60 contains both concepts in one verse: حَدَائِق and شَجَرَهَا.

Garden and tree are therefore not identical.

A tree may be part of a garden, whereas a garden names a collection or an area of growth.

This distinction must be preserved in translation.

Ḥ D Q (ḥadīqah) and Z R ʿ (zarʿ): garden and cultivated field

Study of Z R ʿ

Zarʿ in Arabic concerns planting and growing crops.

A ḥadīqah may likewise be a place where plants grow, but its established uses more often concern a collection of trees and defined vegetation.

Cultivation may take place within a garden, and a cultivated field may be separate from a garden.

Ḥadīqah should therefore not simply be translated as “a grain field” in every verse.

The mention of trees in Al-Naml 27:60, and of gardens with stout trees in ʿAbasa 80:30, supports the garden sense.

Ḥ D Q (ḥadaqah) and B Ṣ R (baṣar): part of the eye and the ability to see

Study of B Ṣ R

Ḥadaqah concerns part of the eye’s structure.

Baṣar in the Qur’an refers to seeing and sight, and in other contexts may also concern perception.

These two families are distinct.

Ḥadaqah is part of the eye, but seeing itself cannot be defined solely through the name of an anatomical part.

Staring and concentrating the gaze in taḥdīq also does not mean possessing more accurate vision or sounder judgment on every subject.

These eye-related uses of Ḥ D Q do not occur in the Qur’an.

Ḥ D Q (ḥadaqa) and Ḥ D J (ḥadaja): surrounding and looking

In Maqāyīs al-Lughah, Ibn Fāris treats certain uses of Ḥ D J as close to Ḥ D Q.

In Arabic, تَحْدِيجُ النَّظَر can concern a sharp or concentrated look and may overlap with taḥdīq.

The roots nevertheless differ in their third letter.

Semantic proximity in looking does not by itself establish a definite historical relationship.

Qur’anic ḥadāʾiq belongs to Ḥ D Q and should not be reassigned to Ḥ D J.

6. Challenges of interpretation and semantic development

Is a ḥadīqah always an artificial garden?

No. Early evidence does not establish this restriction for every use.

Some dictionaries emphasize a garden with a wall.

Other usages are also recorded for natural vegetated places, land containing trees, and green areas bounded by raised ground or plants.

Ṭarafah ibn al-ʿAbd’s witness also shows that ḥadāʾiq can describe natural growth suitable for grazing.

A ḥadīqah should therefore not be understood exclusively as a garden made or walled by people.

Must the Qur’anic ḥadāʾiq have walls?

None of the three verses specifies the material or construction of a garden enclosure.

Al-Naml 27:60 concerns water, growth, and the beauty of the gardens.

In Al-Nabaʾ 78:32, gardens form part of the blessings of the reverent.

ʿAbasa 80:30 highlights dense, stout trees.

Enclosure can therefore remain part of the lexical explanation, but adding “stone walls,” “a constructed enclosure,” or “completely enclosed gardens” to the direct translation lacks explicit support in the wording of these verses.

Does ḥadāʾiq mean only fruit gardens?

Gardens containing fruit-bearing trees are among the most important lexical examples of a ḥadīqah.

The Qur’an does not, however, specify the fruit or crops of all the ḥadāʾiq.

In Al-Nabaʾ 78:32, grapes appear alongside ḥadāʾiq.

In ʿAbasa 80:30, ghulban emphasizes the size and density of the trees, rather than a particular kind of fruit.

“Fruit gardens” may therefore fit some contexts, but “gardens” is better retained as the basic equivalent of ḥadāʾiq.

Does ḥadāʾiq mean very beautiful gardens?

In Al-Naml 27:60, beauty is expressed by ذَاتَ بَهْجَةٍ.

ʿAbasa 80:30 uses a different description, غُلْبًا.

Although a garden may be beautiful, the word ḥadāʾiq alone does not include all these descriptions.

Direct translation should not add other qualities from the verse to the root’s meaning without justification.

Enclosed gardens and gardens of Paradise

In present-day language, a garden is usually a defined place where plants grow.

Descriptions of Paradise, however, may present gardens and blessings with qualities beyond ordinary human experience in this world.

In Al-Nabaʾ 78:32, ḥadāʾiq appears in the context of blessings in the Hereafter.

This usage shows that the familiar word “garden” is also used to describe future enjoyment.

The word alone does not establish the exact physical form of the Hereafter’s gardens, their enclosure, the size of their grounds, or how their trees grow.

What the text states directly is the presence of gardens among the blessings described.

7. Translation proposals for Forqan

The most suitable basic equivalent of حَدَائِقَ in all three verses is “gardens.”

The corresponding Persian word, bāgh-hā, is natural and conveys the principal referent of ḥadāʾiq.

For the full expression حَدَائِقَ ذَاتَ بَهْجَةٍ in Al-Naml 27:60, the proposed rendering is:

“Gardens possessing beauty and freshness.”

This rendering keeps the meaning of ḥadāʾiq separate from the description bahjah.

In Al-Nabaʾ 78:32, حَدَائِقَ وَأَعْنَابًا may be rendered “gardens and vineyards.”

The contextual explanation should make clear that mentioning grapes separately does not mean that all the gardens lack vines.

For وَحَدَائِقَ غُلْبًا in ʿAbasa 80:30, the rendering is:

“And gardens with dense, stout trees.”

Here, density and stoutness come from the description ghulban.

For non-Qur’anic derivatives, أَحْدَقَ بِهِ can be rendered “surrounded it on different sides,” حَدَقَةُ الْعَيْنِ “the round dark part of the eye,” and تَحْدِيق “staring and a focused gaze.”

Forqan’s word boxes should also preserve two distinct components.

Brief root meaning: “Encircling and surrounding from different sides; the formation of defined bounds.”

Meaning in Al-Naml 27:60: “Gardens and collections of trees made to grow through water and possessing beauty.”

Meaning in Al-Nabaʾ 78:32: “Gardens, alongside vineyards, among the blessings described for the reverent.”

Meaning in ʿAbasa 80:30: “Gardens and vegetated places with dense, stout trees.”

These contextual explanations must remain distinct from the brief root meaning.

Direct translation also need not replace every ḥadāʾiq with a long expression such as “gardens enclosed and surrounded by trees.”

The root’s meaning is explained in lexical study; the verse translation should remain natural, concise, and faithful to the expression itself.

8. Conclusion

The Arabic root Ḥ D Q concerns encircling, standing around something, and surrounding it from different sides.

Within this family, أَحْدَقَ concerns surrounding; حَدِيقَة a garden or vegetated place with defined bounds; حَدَقَة the round dark part of the eye; and تَحْدِيق a focused gaze.

Ibn Fāris treats surrounding as the root’s semantic basis. Other sources preserve the same theme in explaining gardens, the eye’s dark part, and people gathering around something.

Explanations differ, however, over the kind of enclosure involved in ḥadīqah. Some lexicographers require a wall, while other attestations describe enclosure by raised ground, trees, or vegetation.

Ṭarafah ibn al-ʿAbd’s poetry also attests ḥadāʾiq in descriptions of natural green growth.

In the Qur’an, this root occurs only three times, always in the form حَدَائِق.

In Al-Naml 27:60, the gardens possess beauty and freshness, and their growth is connected with water.

In Al-Nabaʾ 78:32, gardens appear alongside grapes among the blessings of the reverent.

In ʿAbasa 80:30, the gardens are described as غُلْبًا, concerning dense, stout trees.

Thus, the clear meaning of حَدَائِق in the Qur’an is gardens and vegetated places containing a collection of plants and trees; enclosure and defined bounds explain its connection to the root’s basic meaning.

This enclosure should not be restricted to constructed walls in every verse. Equally, particular trees, beauty, or a specific density should not be treated as fixed components of the root’s meaning without considering each verse’s description.

“Gardens” is consequently a suitable, natural equivalent of ḥadāʾiq in Forqan’s translation.

Further qualities come from accompanying words: beauty from بَهْجَة, density and stoutness from غُلْب, and the kind of produce from names such as أَعْنَاب.

This distinction preserves the connection between ḥadāʾiq and surrounding while preventing lexical explanations, contextual descriptions, or the image of modern gardens from being added without justification to the Qur’an’s direct translation.