Qur’anic Root Ḥ W Y (ح و ي)
Ḥawā: gathering and containing, the coiling of the intestines, and dark coloration
Qur’anic forms
1. The root and its Qur’anic forms
The Arabic root Ḥ W Y (ح و ي) has two important branches. The first concerns gathering, containing, and placing something within a particular space. This family includes حَوَى (ḥawā), “gathered” or “held within”; اِحْتَوَى (iḥtawā), “contained”; and حَوَايَا (ḥawāyā), used for the intestines and coiled parts inside the abdomen.
The second branch concerns color. Arabic أَحْوَى (aḥwā) describes a dark color that may be a very deep green tending toward black, or, in some applications, a reddish or brownish color mixed with darkness. This description is recorded for plants, human hair, lips, and the coats of certain animals.
Although the usual classification places both branches within Ḥ W Y, their historical relationship is unclear. Shared radicals alone do not establish that dark coloration developed from gathering and containing.
In the Qur’an, this root occurs only twice, in two forms:
- الْحَوَايَا (al-ḥawāyā): in Al-Anʿām 6:146, the intestines and coiled parts inside the abdomen.
- أَحْوَىٰ (aḥwā): in Al-Aʿlā 87:5, a color description meaning dark or tending toward black.
Other forms of this family are known in Arabic but do not occur in the Qur’an. The most important include:
- حَوَى، يَحْوِي (ḥawā, yaḥwī): gathered, contained, held within, or acquired.
- اِحْتَوَى (iḥtawā): contained something or held it within.
- حَوِيَّة (ḥawiyyah): something gathered or coiled; among its applications are certain parts inside the abdomen and an implement placed around a camel’s hump.
- حَاوِيَة، حَاوِيَاء (ḥāwiyah, ḥāwiyāʾ): recorded singulars of ḥawāyā in its sense of coiled abdominal parts.
- حِوَاء (ḥiwāʾ): a place or assemblage that gathers things within it; also a group of tents pitched close together.
- مُحْتَوَى (muḥtawā): what is contained; lexical accounts also record muḥtawan for the gathering place of a community’s dwellings.
- حَوِيَ، يَحْوَى (ḥawiya, yaḥwā): became dark in color; a verb of the color branch, distinct from ḥawā, yaḥwī in the gathering sense.
- حُوَّة (ḥuwwah): dark coloration, including blackness tinged with green or red.
- أَحْوَى (aḥwā): dark in color; in some uses very dark green, in others tending toward black.
- حَوَّاء (ḥawwāʾ): the feminine of aḥwā as a color adjective.
When examining this family, genuinely Qur’anic forms must be distinguished from forms recorded only in the wider language. In particular, حَيَّة (ḥayyah), “snake,” should not be assigned to this root merely because a snake coils its body. The usual morphological classification places it under Ḥ Y Y (ح ي ي), although some early lexicographers proposed a connection with coiling.
2. Gathering and containing: the familiar meaning of ḥawā
From gathering to possession
Arabic حَوَيْتُ الشَّيْءَ (ḥawaytu al-shayʾa) is used to mean “I gathered the thing” or “I took possession of it.”
This may concern scattered objects brought together in one place, or something a person acquires and brings into their possession.
اِحْتَوَى عَلَى الشَّيْءِ (iḥtawā ʿalā al-shayʾi) is likewise recorded for containing something, acquiring it, or encompassing it.
A vessel, for example, contains what is placed inside it. An assortment of objects may also gather in one place without all being of the same shape or material.
Gathering and being contained are closely related in this branch, but they should not always be equated with complete enclosure.
Something may collect within an area without being closed in on every side. Nor does ḥawā, when used for possession or ownership, necessarily mean physically enclosing something with walls or a covering.
This distinction shows that the root extends from concrete applications to broader uses.
Ḥiwāʾ: tents and a gathering place
In early Arabic, حِواء (ḥiwāʾ) is used for a place that gathers something within it. The word is also recorded for a group of tents pitched close together.
The lives of many Arab nomadic communities were connected with tents and temporary settlements. When several tents stood together, their assemblage could be known by a word from this family.
In such usage, ḥiwāʾ refers to more than a covering or wall: it denotes a place in which people or tents have gathered.
This usage does not authorize extracting “tribe,” “state,” “city,” or “social system” from the root Ḥ W Y itself. These may relate to places where people gather, but they are not part of the root’s lexical definition.
Ḥawā and rounded or coiled shapes
Another use of this family concerns things that become rounded or are arranged around something else.
Arabic also uses words from this family for wrapping cloth around a camel’s hump. حَوِيَّة (ḥawiyyah) may denote a cloth or implement placed around the hump and prepared for riding or carrying a load.
Here, gathering is connected with the arrangement of an object’s components. The cloth is gathered and arranged around the hump instead of being left spread out.
تَحَوَّى (taḥawwā) is also recorded for something becoming rounded or coiling.
This meaning matters for understanding ḥawāyā, since internal abdominal parts may likewise be coiled, gathered, and interwoven.
This image does not mean that every rounded or coiled thing in Arabic is called ḥawiyyah. Each word’s actual use depends on linguistic convention and its recognized referents.
3. Evidence for ḥawā in early Arabic
Ḥawāyā in the equipment used with camels
A poem attributed to Imruʾ al-Qays includes:
رَفَعْنَ حَوَايَا وَاقْتَعَدْنَ قَعَائِدَا
وَحَفَّفْنَ مِنْ حَوْكِ الْعِرَاقِ الْمُنَمَّقِ
The verse means: “They set up the pads around the camels’ humps, sat upon woven seats, and surrounded [the litters] with patterned Iraqi fabrics.”
Ḥawāyā here does not refer to an animal’s intestines, but to equipment prepared for riding a camel.
This usage shows that early Arabic ḥawāyā could name something gathered or wrapped and placed in a particular position.
The verse has variant wordings: its opening also occurs with جعلن (jaʿalna) instead of رفعن (rafaʿna), and the second half is transmitted with خففن (khaffafna) as well as حففن (ḥaffafna). In the latter wording, the action is surrounding the litter with decorative fabrics, which is different from taking lighter fabrics.
Despite these variants, lexical sources clearly record ḥawāyā for an implement used with camels.
This evidence matters because gathering and wrapping are not merely explanations devised for the Qur’anic verse; they also occur in the names of familiar objects in Arab life.
Uses concerning the retention of water
In some dry regions, rainwater and floodwater collect in hollows and depressions. Arabic records ḥawāyā and related forms for certain winding depressions and places that retain water.
Such hollows might be dug in hard ground, or earth and stones could be arranged around them to keep water within a defined area.
Here, the ground’s basinlike form or depression is connected with its ability to hold water.
This naming shows that the family Ḥ W Y can refer to things whose structure enables something to collect or be held within them.
It does not establish that animal intestines were named after water basins, or the reverse. These applications do not prove such a historical sequence.
We can say only that coiling, containing, and gathering within an area form a recognizable relationship in both cases.
4. Al-ḥawāyā: the intestines and coiled parts inside the abdomen
Al-Anʿām 6:146
وَعَلَى الَّذِينَ هَادُوا حَرَّمْنَا كُلَّ ذِي ظُفُرٍ ۖ وَمِنَ الْبَقَرِ وَالْغَنَمِ حَرَّمْنَا عَلَيْهِمْ شُحُومَهُمَا إِلَّا مَا حَمَلَتْ ظُهُورُهُمَا أَوِ الْحَوَايَا أَوْ مَا اخْتَلَطَ بِعَظْمٍ ۚ ذَٰلِكَ جَزَيْنَاهُمْ بِبَغْيِهِمْ ۖ وَإِنَّا لَصَادِقُونَ
“For those who became Jews, We prohibited every animal with claws or an undivided hoof; and of cattle, sheep, and goats, We prohibited their fats to them, except what their backs bear, or what their intestines and coiled abdominal parts bear, or what is mixed with bone. Thus We recompensed them for their wrongdoing; indeed, We are truthful.”
In this verse, al-ḥawāyā concerns internal parts of an animal’s abdomen.
The lexical meaning of ḥawāyā
Early Arabic lexical sources use ḥawāyā for the intestines and coiled organs inside the abdomen.
Several singular forms are recorded: حَوِيَّة (ḥawiyyah), حَاوِيَة (ḥāwiyah), and حَاوِيَاء (ḥāwiyāʾ).
These singulars differ morphologically, but the sources connect all of them with the plural ḥawāyā.
Some explanations identify ḥawāyā with the intestines themselves; others refer to abdominal parts in which the intestines lie or with which they are associated.
Terms such as مَبَاعِر (mabāʿir), مَرَابِض (marābiḍ), and بَنَاتُ اللَّبَن (banātu al-laban) also occur in explanations of the word.
These names help us understand Arabic terminology for the internal organs of livestock. They should not, however, be equated precisely with a particular structure in modern anatomy without examining their history of use.
The intestines lie in the abdomen as coiled, interwoven tubes. This shape creates an intelligible semantic relationship with Ḥ W Y.
Yet ḥawāyā does not simply mean “coiled things.” In this verse, the word is a recognized name for parts of an animal’s abdomen. Their coiling matters for lexical explanation, but does not replace the word’s actual referent.
Ḥawāyā alongside fats
The main subject of the verse’s second part is the fats of baqar (cattle) and ghanam (sheep and goats).
The Qur’an says their fats had been prohibited to the named group, and then states exceptions.
The verse’s construction contains three elements:
First, what the backs of cattle, sheep, and goats bear; second, al-ḥawāyā; and third, what is mixed with bone.
This combination matters for understanding the role of ḥawāyā. Translating it simply as “what has gathered” would leave the reader unable to identify the animal part being discussed.
In this context, ḥawāyā concerns internal abdominal organs and the fats associated with them.
“Intestines and coiled abdominal parts” is therefore an appropriate equivalent for the word itself.
“Fats associated with the intestines,” however, explains its role in the sentence rather than the word’s independent meaning.
The syntax of “aw al-ḥawāyā”
An important syntactic point arises in the verse’s Arabic construction.
إِلَّا مَا حَمَلَتْ ظُهُورُهُمَا (illā mā ḥamalat ẓuhūruhumā) concerns the fats borne by their backs. It is followed by أَوِ الْحَوَايَا (aw al-ḥawāyā).
In a strong syntactic analysis, al-ḥawāyā is coordinated with ظهورهما (ẓuhūruhumā), “their backs.” The sentence then means: except what their backs bear, or what their ḥawāyā bear.
On this analysis, ḥawāyā names a bodily part, while its role in the sentence concerns the fats located on those parts.
Another analysis coordinates al-ḥawāyā with mā ḥamalat, giving it accusative position. The ḥawāyā themselves then stand among the exceptions, rather than serving as the subject of ḥamalat, “bore.”
Coordination with شحومهما (shuḥūmahumā), “their fats,” is also reported. On this analysis, the ḥawāyā and what is mixed with bone fall within the prohibited category. This syntactic disagreement can therefore change the scope of the stated exception and restriction.
The root Ḥ W Y itself does not resolve this disagreement. Arabic usage establishes the meaning of ḥawāyā; identifying precisely which element it is coordinated with requires examining the verse’s whole construction.
For a basic translation, “what the intestines and coiled abdominal parts bear” can clarify a defensible analysis without turning ḥawāyā itself into a word for fat.
The scope of the statement in the verse
The verse begins وَعَلَى الَّذِينَ هَادُوا (wa-ʿalā alladhīna hādū) and concerns dietary restrictions relating to the named group.
The presence of ḥawāyā in this verse alone therefore does not establish that the Qur’an prohibits all people from eating intestines, fats, or every internal organ of cattle, sheep, and goats.
ذَٰلِكَ جَزَيْنَاهُمْ بِبَغْيِهِمْ (dhālika jazaynāhum bi-baghyihim) explains the reason for this restriction within the same context.
Wrongdoing, punishment, and dietary prohibition are not, however, part of the lexical meaning of ḥawāyā. They come from the verse’s construction and subject matter.
A study of the root must distinguish the word itself from the legal and historical statement in which it appears.
5. Aḥwā: dark coloration in Arabic
The second branch of this root’s Qur’anic usage is أَحْوَى (aḥwā).
It is a color adjective used in Arabic for dark shades that, depending on the referent, are mixed with green, red, or brown.
Ḥuwwah: blackness mixed with color
In familiar Arabic usage, حُوَّة (ḥuwwah) denotes a dark coloration that may approach very deep green or a reddish shade tending toward black.
Vegetation that is very green and dense, for example, may look dark because of the intensity of its green.
Arabic records aḥwā as a description of such vegetation.
The colors of some horses and camels were also described this way. In these applications, aḥwā is not necessarily pure black: the animal’s underlying color may be mixed with darkness.
Human lips can also receive this description, particularly when their redness is tinged with darkness.
These applications show that aḥwā does not name one color with precisely defined boundaries in modern color terminology. Its range extends from very dark green to certain shades approaching black.
Its translation must therefore take account of what it describes.
Pre-Islamic evidence: aḥwā in Ṭarafah’s Muʿallaqah
The Muʿallaqah attributed to Ṭarafah ibn al-ʿAbd includes:
وَفِي الْحَيِّ أَحْوَى يَنْفُضُ الْمَرْدَ شَادِنٌ
مُظَاهِرُ سِمْطَيْ لُؤْلُؤٍ وَزَبَرْجَدِ
“Among the tribe is [a beloved like] a dark-hued young gazelle shaking down the arāk fruit, wearing two necklaces together, one of pearls and the other of peridot.”
In this image, aḥwā relates to the gazelle and the beloved likened to it; dark eyes and the color of the lips figure in its explanation. The pearl and peridot necklaces make clear that the gazelle image describes a human being. This pre-Islamic example illustrates the word’s color use independently of Al-Aʿlā, but does not by itself decide whether aḥwā in that verse describes debris or the vegetation’s condition while growing.
Umayyad evidence: lip coloration in Dhū al-Rummah’s poetry
Dhū al-Rummah, a poet of the Umayyad period, describes a woman’s beautiful face and lips:
لَمْيَاءُ فِي شَفَتَيْهَا حُوَّةٌ لَعَسٌ
وَفِي اللِّثَاتِ وَفِي أَنْيَابِهَا شَنَبُ
“She has lips of an attractive dark hue; and in her gums and teeth there are clarity, delicacy, and freshness.”
In this verse, ḥuwwah concerns the color of the lips.
Its association with لَعَس (laʿas) indicates darkness mixed with the lips’ natural color, rather than an unqualified, uniform black.
This evidence matters for the root’s color branch because it shows ḥuwwah in actual Arabic poetry.
Dhū al-Rummah, however, lived in the Islamic period. His verse is not direct evidence from the pre-Islamic era and should not be presented as conclusive proof of pre-Qur’anic usage.
Lexical sources also record aḥwā for plant and animal colors. These attestations show its association with dark colors in Arabic, but do not by themselves establish the precise date when each use arose. This Umayyad example illustrates usage after the Qur’an’s revelation and does not replace pre-Islamic evidence.
Did aḥwā develop from ḥawā, “to contain”?
A natural relationship can be perceived between dense vegetation and its dark appearance. Very thick vegetation may cast more shade and look darker from a distance.
This relationship does not establish that aḥwā originally meant something that had gathered color within itself.
Nor does ḥawā meaning “contain” establish that aḥwā must describe something encompassed by blackness.
Such explanations may be devised as literary images, but they do not prove the word’s historical origin.
In familiar Arabic usage, aḥwā is a color description. This meaning should guide its translation.
6. “Ghuthāʾan aḥwā”: darkness after deterioration, or green beforehand?
Al-Aʿlā 87:4
وَالَّذِي أَخْرَجَ الْمَرْعَىٰ
“And the One who brought forth pasture vegetation,”
Al-Aʿlā 87:5
فَجَعَلَهُ غُثَاءً أَحْوَىٰ
“Then made it dark, weathered debris.”
This verse contains the Qur’an’s only occurrence of aḥwā.
Its color meaning is clear here, but the precise stage of the vegetation’s condition to which the description belongs requires examination. The two possibilities discussed here are syntactic and semantic analyses of the same wording, rather than two different recitations of the verse.
First interpretation: describing weathered debris
In the sentence’s direct interpretation, aḥwā describes غُثَاءً (ghuthāʾan). On this analysis, it is an accusative adjective modifying ghuthāʾan, with the accusative ending understood on its final alif rather than pronounced.
Ghuthāʾ denotes debris and dry, weathered plant remains. On this interpretation, aḥwā describes the darkness of those remains.
The Qur’an thus first speaks of bringing forth pasture vegetation and then of making it dark debris.
This interpretation fits the verse’s surface order, since aḥwā immediately follows ghuthāʾ.
Arabic aḥwā can also refer to darkness tending toward black. Describing weathered vegetation with this word is therefore lexically possible.
It does not follow that every dry plant must turn black.
Depending on the plant and environmental conditions, leaves and stalks may become yellow, brown, gray, or dark. On this interpretation, the verse gives a particular description rather than a universal rule about plant coloration.
Nor does the verse itself describe burning in fire. Ghuthāʾan aḥwā should therefore not be translated as “black ash” without independent evidence for that meaning.
Second interpretation: very dark green before drying
Early lexical and syntactic explanations also offer another interpretation.
Here, aḥwā refers to the vegetation’s condition while growing, rather than to the debris after deterioration.
While growing, vegetation is green and fresh. If its green is particularly intense, it may be described as aḥwā.
The verses are consequently understood to mean: The God brought forth pasture vegetation of a very deep, dark green and then made it debris.
This interpretation rests on the recognized use of aḥwā for richly green vegetation.
It requires a fuller syntactic explanation, however, because aḥwā follows ghuthāʾ in the text.
On this analysis, despite standing at the phrase’s end, aḥwā is a circumstantial description, or ḥāl, of المرعى (al-marʿā) in the preceding verse, describing its color while growing.
The second interpretation therefore cannot be established solely from the word’s color meaning. The sentence’s syntax must also support it.
Which interpretation is preferable?
Both interpretations have lexical support.
The first fits the direct order of غثاء أحوى (ghuthāʾan aḥwā) more closely, with aḥwā describing dark debris.
The second draws on the recognized meaning of aḥwā as very deep green vegetation and foregrounds the contrast between initial freshness and eventual deterioration.
The attractiveness of that contrast should not, without evidence, give it priority over the direct interpretation.
Conversely, the first interpretation should not be treated as so certain that the second’s syntactic and lexical possibility disappears.
For Forqan’s basic translation, “Then made it dark, weathered debris” is a direct, defensible rendering.
The explanation should note that Arabic aḥwā also describes very dark green vegetation and that some have taken it to describe the earlier growing stage.
This care preserves the distinction between a chosen translation and another valid possibility; it does not prevent translation.
The difference between ghuthāʾ and aḥwā
This phrase contains two words from different roots.
غثاء (ghuthāʾ) belongs to GH TH W (غ ث و) and denotes debris and weathered remains.
Aḥwā belongs to the family examined here and describes color in this passage.
Dryness and deterioration therefore come from ghuthāʾ, while darkness comes from aḥwā.
Translating both with a vague equivalent such as “destroyed vegetation” would erase their semantic distinction.
Nor should aḥwā be taken here to mean gathering debris. That meaning does not adequately fit the color adjective’s recognized use or the sentence’s construction.
7. The relationship between the two Qur’anic branches of Ḥ W Y
In Al-Anʿām 6:146, al-ḥawāyā concerns coiled, gathered parts inside the abdomen.
In Al-Aʿlā 87:5, aḥwā describes color.
This distinction clearly illustrates the limits of treating every derivative of a root as having the same meaning.
Ḥawāyā: structure and shape
The connection with gathering and coiling is recognizable in ḥawāyā.
The intestines and some other abdominal parts lie coiled and interwoven. This feature fits the semantic field of ḥawā as containing and gathering.
In Al-Anʿām 6:146, however, the word names bodily parts, rather than an action in which something is gathered.
Aḥwā: a color description
Aḥwā concerns dark coloration.
It may describe vegetation, human lips, or an animal’s color. Its meaning is therefore understood from its descriptive use and the particular thing described.
There is no lexical need to incorporate gathering or coiling into its definition.
Do both branches have one common core?
Morphological classification places both under Ḥ W Y. A shared index entry, however, does not prove that every use arose from one original image.
The language’s distant history may have connected certain forms, but that possibility should not be stated as historical fact without independent evidence.
For this family, the more precise approach preserves two clear branches: gathering and containing on one side, and dark coloration on the other.
This allows each Qur’anic use to be understood without imposing the other’s meaning upon it.
9. Translation proposals for Forqan
For the gathering branch, the principal equivalents are “gather,” “contain,” “hold within,” and, in some applications, “acquire.” The choice depends on the verb and its object.
Since these verbs do not occur in the Qur’an, however, they should not replace the two attested Qur’anic forms.
Al-ḥawāyā, Al-Anʿām 6:146
For the word itself, “intestines and coiled abdominal parts” is proposed.
In a word box, the shorter “intestines” is sufficient. A contextual explanation can add that Arabic ḥawāyā names the intestines and associated coiled structures.
The full verse translation should also clarify their relationship to the excepted fats.
Proposed translation of the relevant phrase:
“…except what their backs bear, or what their intestines and coiled abdominal parts bear, or what is mixed with bone.”
This translation follows the analysis that understands ḥawāyā in relation to the fats associated with them.
If a separate syntactic examination chooses another analysis, the sentence must be translated accordingly; the meaning of ḥawāyā itself nevertheless remains connected with internal abdominal organs.
Aḥwā, Al-Aʿlā 87:5
For this form, the basic equivalent “dark” or “tending toward black” is suitable.
If aḥwā describes ghuthāʾ, the translation is:
“Then made it dark, weathered debris.”
If aḥwā describes the earlier stage of the marʿā, the explanation is:
“He brought forth pasture vegetation green and very deep in color, then made it debris.”
These interpretations should not be stitched together with “and” in one translation, since they assign the description to two different stages.
For Forqan’s main text, the first interpretation is proposed because of the direct word order. The second remains part of the fuller explanation.
A word box could read:
“Aḥwā: dark, tending toward black; a color description here, with two interpretations concerning whether it describes the debris or the vegetation’s green stage.”
None of these uses provides adequate support for translations such as “gatherer of color,” “containing blackness,” “wrapped in darkness,” or “possessing hidden content.”
10. Conclusion
The root Ḥ W Y has two important, recognized branches in Arabic.
The first concerns gathering, containing, and placing things within an area. This field includes names for coiled or gathered things, such as certain camel equipment, depressions that retain water, and animal intestines.
In the Qur’an, al-ḥawāyā in Al-Anʿām 6:146 concerns the coiled internal organs of cattle, sheep, and goats. The context concerns fats and exceptions to a dietary restriction; ḥawāyā itself names those bodily parts, rather than prohibition, recompense, or fat alone.
The second branch concerns color. Arabic aḥwā denotes dark shades that may be mixed with green or red. It describes vegetation, human lips, and the colors of certain animals.
In Al-Aʿlā 87:5, aḥwā stands alongside ghuthāʾ. The direct sentence order supports reading it as a description of dark debris; another syntactic analysis relates it to the vegetation’s very dark green before deterioration.
The chief care required in studying this root is to avoid turning the branches’ shared morphological classification into proof of a common historical origin. Gathering and dark coloration are both recorded in Arabic, but neither can be derived historically from the other without sufficient evidence.
For Forqan, the family’s basic definition should retain two branches: in its gathering uses, ḥawā concerns collecting and containing, while ḥawāyā names coiled parts inside the abdomen; in the color branch, aḥwā describes darkness and a color tending toward black, in some applications indicating very deep green.
This definition clarifies both Qur’anic uses without reducing one to the other or inventing an unsupported derivational history for them.