The Qur’anic Root H L L (halla, ihlāl and hilāl)

1. Introducing the root and its Qur’anic forms

H L L includes Arabic words concerning raised voices, the appearing crescent, the beginning of a month and verbal declarations. Religious language also knows ihlāl and tahlīl, but these uses do not all have the same meaning.

The root occurs five times in five verses across four surahs: four times as the verb uhilla and once as the noun al-ahillah. The Qur’anic forms are:

• أُهِلَّ (uhilla): Al-Baqarah 2:173, Al-Māʾidah 5:3, Al-Anʿām 6:145 and Al-Naḥl 16:115.
• الْأَهِلَّةِ (al-ahillati): Al-Baqarah 2:189.

The first is a form IV passive perfect verb, occurring in dietary prohibitions. The second is the plural of hilāl, in a passage about determining times and pilgrimage. Neither singular hilāl nor the verbal noun tahlīl occurs in the Qur’an.

The branches require separate attention. Hilāl names the visible crescent at the beginning of a lunar month, while ihlāl in the dietary passages concerns an act directed to other than The God. Lexical sources discuss their historical and semantic relationship, but this does not make all five passages express precisely the same meaning.

H L L is also distinct from A H L, concerning family or people, and Ḥ L L, concerning untying, alighting and becoming permissible. The written resemblance of uhilla and ahl, or the sound of hilāl and ḥalāl, does not establish identical roots.

2. The semantic core in earlier Arabic

Raised voices and making something apparent

In Maqāyīs al-Lughah, Ibn Fāris proposes rafʿu ṣawt, raising a voice, as the family’s central meaning. He then relates other usages to it through semantic extension or comparison.

In that account, ahalla describes someone raising his voice; istahalla al-ṣabiyyu describes a newborn crying at birth; and ahalla bi-l-ḥajj concerns raising the voice in announcing the pilgrimage rites.

For hilāl, Ibn Fāris explains that people would cry out on seeing the new moon, informing one another of its appearance. He connects the name with this public announcement and vocal response.

This explanation usefully connects voice, announcement and crescent sighting. A semantic account nevertheless differs from proof of historical origin. Ibn Fāris’s proposal does not independently establish that every derivative arose from raised voices at the earliest linguistic stage.

The lexicons also independently record the crescent’s appearance and visibility. The evidence should therefore be considered as a whole, rather than making one proposed image obligatory in every derivative.

A pre-Islamic poetic witness

A poem attributed to al-Nābighah al-Dhubyānī, a well-known pre-Islamic poet, describes a precious pearl:

أَوْ دُرَّةٍ صَدَفِيَّةٍ غَوَّاصُهَا

aw durratin ṣadafiyyatin ghawwāṣuhā

بَهِجٌ مَتَى يَرَهَا يُهِلُّ وَيَسْجُدُ

bahijun matā yarahā yuhillu wa-yasjudu

Translation: “Or a pearl of the shell, whose diver is delighted: whenever he sees it, he raises a cry and prostrates.”

Yuhillu describes the diver finding a valuable pearl. The poet pictures his joy through a raised voice and prostration.

Neither animal slaughter nor pilgrimage is the subject. Yuhillu witnesses a familiar earlier meaning of raising a voice and expressing a response. The line is transmitted both in al-Nābighah’s collected poetry and in lexicons including Lisān al-ʿArab.

This matters to the dietary passages: ihlāl does not inherently mean killing, cutting an animal’s throat or sacrificing. Such a setting becomes relevant when the word appears in a context of slaughter and food.

Other lexical branches

Lisān al-ʿArab and other early lexicons record further branches of the family.

Istihlāl describes a newborn’s first cry. Inhilāl can describe heavy rain or tears pouring down. Tahallul can denote the appearance of light or shining. Some forms also describe turning away from an encounter or retreating.

These should not all be forced into one invented image. Rainfall, a human cry and retreat from battle have separate attestations and constructions. Lexicographers may connect some of them, but that does not necessarily establish the actual history of every meaning.

3. Hilāl and al-ahillah: the crescent and determining times

Hilāl commonly names the thin, visible moon at the beginning of a lunar month; its plural is ahillah. Lexicons differ about how many nights it retains the name: some give the first two, others three. The central early-month use remains the appearing crescent. Some reports also apply hilāl to the thin moon late in the month; a disputed number of nights must therefore not become one fixed temporal definition for every Arabic usage.

In al-Mufradāt, al-Rāghib al-Iṣfahānī describes hilāl as the moon of the first nights and notes comparisons with other curved objects. Arabic also applies the name to certain crescent-shaped tools and objects.

The Qur’anic use of the crescent

Al-Baqarah 2:189

يَسْأَلُونَكَ عَنِ الْأَهِلَّةِ ۖ قُلْ هِيَ مَوَاقِيتُ لِلنَّاسِ وَالْحَجِّ ۗ وَلَيْسَ الْبِرُّ بِأَنْ تَأْتُوا الْبُيُوتَ مِنْ ظُهُورِهَا وَلَٰكِنَّ الْبِرَّ مَنِ اتَّقَىٰ ۗ وَأْتُوا الْبُيُوتَ مِنْ أَبْوَابِهَا ۚ وَاتَّقُوا اللَّهَ لَعَلَّكُمْ تُفْلِحُونَ

yasʾalūnaka ʿani al-ahillati qul hiya mawāqītu li-l-nāsi wa-l-ḥajji wa-laysa al-birru bi-an taʾtū al-buyūta min ẓuhūrihā wa-lākinna al-birra mani ittaqā wa-ʾtū al-buyūta min abwābihā wa-ttaqū llāha laʿallakum tufliḥūna

Translation: “They ask you about the crescents. Say: ‘They are markers of time for people and pilgrimage.’ Righteousness is not that you enter houses from their backs; rather, righteousness belongs to one who is mindful. Enter houses through their doors, and be mindful of The God, so that you may prosper.”

Al-ahillati is the plural of hilāl, following the preposition ʿan. The question concerns the moon’s crescents.

The response emphasizes their role in determining times: mawāqītu li-l-nāsi wa-l-ḥajj.

Mawāqīt belongs to W Q T and concerns appointed times or markers determining time. That is not extracted from H L L itself: the following statement explains the crescents’ function.

A crescent appears at the start of each lunar month; the moon’s changing visible shape helps people recognize the passage of time. The moon and its visible stages can thus guide the organization of human life.

Li-l-nās also matters. The passage does not restrict the crescents to one people or pilgrimage alone. It first identifies their general use for people, then specifies pilgrimage.

Lunar timekeeping therefore serves public life as well as religious observances. Hilāl alone does not establish that every human activity must follow a lunar calendar exclusively or invalidate every other way of measuring time.

The passage does not explain the moon’s orbit, reflected sunlight or the astronomical mechanism producing the crescent. Those belong to natural inquiry. Its response identifies the crescents’ familiar timekeeping function.

Was hilāl named after people’s cries?

Ibn Fāris and al-Rāghib connect hilāl with people raising their voices on seeing it.

In their account, people cried out upon seeing the new moon, announcing its appearance to one another. Hilāl was consequently related to ihlāl.

The account is historically and socially intelligible: the new moon mattered to timekeeping, and informing others was natural.

It still requires qualification. Al-Baqarah 2:189 itself does not mention raised voices at crescent sighting; it identifies the crescents as time markers. The vocal connection is a lexical explanation of a possible origin, rather than the verse’s direct meaning.

The moon’s visible appearance must also remain in view. What functions as a time marker is the crescent itself, rather than a person’s cry or announcement about it.

4. Ihlāl in Arabic: raised voices and declared affiliation

Lexical sources connect ahalla and ihlāl with raising a voice and announcing something.

Ahalla can describe a person loudly announcing a religious act. In ritual language, ahalla bi-l-ḥajj concerns declaring and beginning pilgrimage with the talbiyah.

Ahalla does not itself mean performing every pilgrimage rite. It concerns the act’s vocal declaration; pilgrimage is identified by the accompanying bāʾ and ḥajj.

Likewise, in ahalla bi-dhikri llāh, the subject of the utterance is remembrance of The God. The God’s name is not an inseparable component of the verb’s meaning.

The modern Cairo Arabic Academy dictionary also distinguishes these uses, explaining ahalla through raising a voice, crying out, declaring rites and verbal expression at slaughter.

Tahlīl and saying lā ilāha illā llāh

In religious terminology, tahlīl denotes saying لا إله إلا الله (lā ilāha illā llāh).

Discussing ihlāl and tahallul, al-Rāghib also reports saying لا إله إلا الله as one explanation, comparing it with formula names such as basmalah for saying بسم الله الرحمن الرحيم. This report must be distinguished from the morphological analysis of tahlīl as the form II verbal noun.

In this usage, tahlīl names a particular invocation. Its technical meaning must not be projected back onto every Qur’anic form of the root.

Especially in the dietary passages, uhilla cannot mean “lā ilāha illā llāh was said”: those passages explicitly concern an act directed to other than The God.

Ahalla can concern remembrance of The God in one setting and a declaration directed elsewhere in another. The act’s religious value follows from its object and direction; the root is not inherently restricted to divine remembrance.

5. Uhilla li-ghayri llāhi bihi in the dietary passages

This is the root’s principal Qur’anic verbal use.

Uhilla occurs in four lists of forbidden foods. The verb’s form remains the same, although the order of two accompanying phrases differs.

Al-Baqarah 2:173 has bihi li-ghayri llāh, while Al-Māʾidah 5:3, Al-Anʿām 6:145 and Al-Naḥl 16:115 have li-ghayri llāhi bihi.

The changed order does not alter the basic verb. Both relationships remain: the thing concerning which ihlāl occurs, and the direction for which it is performed.

The morphology and grammar of uhilla

Uhilla is a form IV passive perfect. Its active form is ahalla and its verbal noun ihlāl.

The construction does not name the agent. It describes an act concerning something and specifies its direction.

The bāʾ in bihi attaches to the verb and relates ihlāl to that thing. The pronoun refers to the subject matter already identified in the sentence.

Li-ghayri llāh, by contrast, gives the direction or attribution: the ihlāl is for other than The God.

Distinguish the act of ihlāl, the thing concerning which it occurs, and the person or object to whom the declaration is directed.

Does uhilla mean “slaughtered”?

Lexically, uhilla is not a synonym of dhubiḥa.

Dhabḥ concerns cutting an animal’s throat and killing it by slaughter. Ihlāl in this construction concerns verbal expression or declaration.

Earlier Arabic supports the distinction. The pearl diver in al-Nābighah’s poem yuhillu without slaughtering anything. A pilgrim can also perform ihlāl without the verb itself meaning killing an animal.

The dietary verses place ihlāl within food and related acts. Many lexicographers and commentators consequently explain it as invoking an object of worship’s name at slaughter.

Lisān al-ʿArab explains ihlāl for other than The God through the custom of naming objects of worship at slaughter. Al-Ṭabarī likewise describes that setting in his commentary on Al-Māʾidah 5:3.

This historical and exegetical explanation identifies the passage’s referent, but distinguish two claims: a ritual involved naming an object of worship at slaughter, and uhilla independently means “was slaughtered.”

The first can hold without establishing the second.

If a translation adds “slaughter,” make clear that it comes from identifying the referent and dietary setting rather than the verb’s independent meaning.

Does uhilla mean “offered” or “presented”?

Some translations explain the expression through dedication, presentation or offering.

These may communicate the result or purpose of a ritual act, but they do not all give the verb’s direct meaning.

The Arabic expression mā uhilla bihi itself contains neither an independent word meaning “offering” nor a noun such as “gift” or “sacrifice.”

Mā refers to something whose identity is constrained by the dietary setting. A translator should nevertheless not replace what the Qur’an actually says with an explanatory noun without justification.

Li-ghayri llāh already specifies the act’s direction. Introducing a new noun such as “offering” is not essential to understanding that relationship.

“Something concerning which a declaration has been made for other than The God” stays close to the construction, although natural, precise English requires further attention to the kind of declaration.

“Something offered to other than The God” may read more smoothly but adds an identification of the act that needs contextual support.

Al-Naḥl 16:115

إِنَّمَا حَرَّمَ عَلَيْكُمُ الْمَيْتَةَ وَالدَّمَ وَلَحْمَ الْخِنْزِيرِ وَمَا أُهِلَّ لِغَيْرِ اللَّهِ بِهِ ۖ فَمَنِ اضْطُرَّ غَيْرَ بَاغٍ وَلَا عَادٍ فَإِنَّ اللَّهَ غَفُورٌ رَحِيمٌ

innamā ḥarrama ʿalaykumu al-maytata wa-l-dama wa-laḥma al-khinzīri wa-mā uhilla li-ghayri llāhi bihi fa-mani uḍṭurra ghayra bāghin wa-lā ʿādin fa-inna llāha ghafūrun raḥīmun

Research translation: “He has forbidden you only carrion, blood, the flesh of swine, and that concerning which a cry has been raised for other than The God. But whoever is compelled, neither seeking transgression nor exceeding the limit—surely The God is forgiving, merciful.”

This rendering foregrounds the vocal expression and li-ghayri llāh without adding a noun such as sacrifice or offering.

“A cry has been raised” also requires care. The vocal origin has strong lexical support, but a familiar idiom may denote a ritual utterance or verbal declaration rather than a measurable volume of sound.

The meaning should therefore not be reduced to loudness. The important element is an utterance directed to other than The God.

Al-Naḥl 16:116 then forbids attributing claims of lawful and forbidden to The God without grounds. Take the stated prohibition seriously without extending it by inserting new categories or rulings into the wording.

Al-Anʿām 6:145

Uhilla li-ghayri llāhi bihi follows fisqan in this verse.

Fisq is an independent word concerning disobedience and departure from obedience. Its relationship with ihlāl matters because the passage describes the act within a dietary ruling alongside disobedience.

Direction toward other than The God is explicit in the sentence, rather than extracted from the root itself.

The setting also concerns rejecting groundless prohibitions. Al-Anʿām 6:143 and Al-Anʿām 6:144 challenge claims about particular animals and differences between them. Al-Anʿām 6:145 then returns to revelation as the criterion for identifying the rule.

Studying ihlāl should serve that precise inquiry rather than extend prohibition to whatever people happen culturally to dislike.

6. Ihlāl, naming The God, slaughter and worship

The expression should be compared with several neighbouring concepts.

H L L (ihlāl) and Dh B Ḥ (dhabḥ)

Study of Dh B Ḥ

Dhabḥ denotes killing an animal through a particular act of slaughter. Ihlāl in the usage under discussion concerns verbal expression or declaration.

They can accompany one event without being lexically identical.

Al-Māʾidah 5:3 separately names mā uhilla li-ghayri llāhi bihi and something slaughtered upon erected stones. They may coincide in practice, but their separate wording shows different constructions and verbal subject matter.

Dhabḥ in one expression does not justify substituting it for uhilla in the other without explanation.

H L L (ihlāl) and Dh K R (dhikr)

Study of Dh K R

Dhikr broadly concerns remembering, reminding or naming. Ihlāl in the lexical usage considered here concerns expression and announcement, particularly a raised voice.

They can describe the same conduct: someone may name an object of worship aloud. This overlap does not make them complete synonyms.

Al-Anʿām 6:121 concerns something over which The God’s name has not been mentioned. Al-Māʾidah 5:4 commands mentioning His name.

Linguistically and logically, failing to mention The God’s name differs from performing ihlāl for other than The God. One describes an absence; the other an utterance with a specified direction.

The distinction matters to dietary inquiry. The combined rulings and exceptions still require an independent, comprehensive study, rather than a lexical comparison alone.

H L L (ihlāl) and N S K (nusuk)

Study of N S K

Qur’anic nusuk belongs to worship and religious observances. H L L does not itself mean all such observances.

Ihlāl can occur within pilgrimage rites or a ritual food act; those settings follow from its relationship with the rest of the sentence.

Ihlāl therefore need not always be a religious sacrifice. Equally, its general lexical meaning should not erase the evident ritual setting of the dietary passages.

H L L (ihlāl) and Ḥ L L (ḥalāl)

Study of Ḥ L L

The roots have different initial consonants.

H L L begins with hāʾ and here concerns hilāl and ihlāl.

Ḥ L L begins with ḥāʾ and includes the family of ḥalāl, “permissible.”

Thus أُهِلَّ (uhilla) differs from أُحِلَّ (uḥilla). The former concerns ihlāl in these passages; the latter can mean “was made permissible.”

Their similar morphological shape must not make uhilla become “became lawful” or “was made lawful.”

7. Translation proposals for Forqan

Hilāl and ahillah

Hilāl is naturally “crescent” or “new crescent moon.” Where needed, explain the moon’s first visible appearance at the start of the month.

Al-ahillah is “the crescents.” In Al-Baqarah 2:189, “They ask you about the crescents” preserves both the noun and its plural.

Do not replace ahillah with “calendar,” “times” or “months of the year”: the next statement itself explains the crescents’ timekeeping role.

Ihlāl and uhilla

Depending on context, ihlāl can be considered as “raising a cry,” “uttering” or “making a verbal declaration.”

Ritual expressions need a short explanation of what is being declared. Ihlāl should not automatically become performing every rite or slaughtering.

For uhilla in the four dietary verses, retain as far as possible the passive form, its relation to the thing referred to by bihi, and the direction li-ghayri llāh.

Several renderings have different strengths and limits.

“A cry was raised” retains the vocal meaning but needs its direction and subject matter to complete the expression.

“Was declared” may be more natural, yet alone does not specify the kind of utterance.

“Was dedicated” can convey the practical outcome of ihlāl for other than The God, while backgrounding its vocal and declarative character.

“Was slaughtered” and “was sacrificed” may identify the historical referent but do not give uhilla’s independent lexical meaning.

A concise basic translation should remain faithful to the construction, with the historical explanation of naming an object of worship at slaughter supplied in reflection or dietary commentary.

Preserve the recognized meaning of utterance without inserting an unsupported noun absent from the expression itself.

8. Conclusion

The Qur’an uses H L L in only two forms: uhilla and al-ahillah.

Raised voices and verbal expression are important earlier Arabic senses. Related uses concern a newborn’s cry, ritual declarations and informing others of a crescent’s appearance.

Hilāl is the crescent in this Qur’anic usage; Al-Baqarah 2:189 presents plural ahillah as markers of time for people and pilgrimage. Its proposed relationship to people crying out on sighting the moon belongs to lexical inquiry, while the passage emphasizes the timekeeping function.

In four dietary verses, uhilla concerns an utterance or declaration directed to other than The God. It must not simply be identified with slaughter, sacrifice or offering, even where those acts accompanied ihlāl historically.

Ihlāl for other than The God must also be distinguished from merely failing to mention His name. These are different expressions; their combined legal relationship requires comparison of the relevant passages.

An appropriate final definition for Forqan:

H L L includes raised voices, verbal expression and declaration, and the crescent’s appearance. Qur’anic uhilla concerns an utterance directed to other than The God in four dietary passages, while ahillah in Al-Baqarah 2:189 denotes crescents functioning as markers of time. The branches’ possible historical connection can be studied without imposing one sense upon the other without evidence.

Accurate translation should preserve utterance and declaration without allowing a contextual identification, such as sacrifice or offering, to replace the Qur’an’s wording.