The Qur’anic Root H W D

Language evidence and the limits of historical reconstruction

Lexicons explain hāda yahūdu through returning and repentance, and also record uses involving gentle or unhurried movement under this entry. These records alone are neither pre-Islamic attestations nor proof that one bodily movement was the historical source of every meaning in the family.

This study did not establish a pre-Qur’anic attestation with sufficiently secure wording and context to determine the meaning of the verb hāda. Lexicons transmit a verse attributed to Zuhayr containing mutahawwid, but readings vary between ʿābid and ʿāʾidh, as do parts of the first hemistich. Without establishing its wording and context, it cannot serve as decisive evidence for “repenting” or the origin of the name al-yahūd. This is a limitation of the evidence, not proof that the word did not exist before the Qur’an.

A report transmitted by Abū Hurayrah from the Prophet and recorded in Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī contains the expression:

فَأَبَوَاهُ يُهَوِّدَانِهِ أَوْ يُنَصِّرَانِهِ أَوْ يُمَجِّسَانِهِ

Fa-abawāhu yuhawwidānihi aw yunaṣṣirānihi aw yumajjisānihi.

“Then his parents make him Jewish, Christian, or Magian.”

Yuhawwidānihi here concerns raising a child within a religious identity. It is a Form II verb and does not occur in the Qur’an itself. Its pairing with yunaṣṣirānihi and yumajjisānihi makes the social and communal use clear. The report is attributed to the Prophet’s period, but the collection was compiled later; it must therefore be distinguished from a contemporary document and from pre-Islamic poetry. Its value here is lexical evidence for the communal use, not proof that al-yahūd derives from returning or repentance.

Innā hudnā ilayka: returning to The God

The clearest Qur’anic passage for understanding this verbal branch is Al-Aʿrāf 7:156:

وَاكْتُبْ لَنَا فِي هَٰذِهِ الدُّنْيَا حَسَنَةً وَفِي الْآخِرَةِ إِنَّا هُدْنَا إِلَيْكَ

Wa-ktub lanā fī hādhihi al-dunyā ḥasanatan wa-fī al-ākhirati innā hudnā ilayka.

“And decree good for us in this world and in the Hereafter; we have returned to You.”

Al-Aʿrāf 7:156

The construction is clear:

هُدْنَا إِلَيْكَ

Hudnā ilayka.

“We have returned to You.”

The preposition ilā, “to,” identifies the direction of this movement. The return is toward The God.

The context also shows that this is not merely relocation or an ordinary return. Moses has just asked The God for forgiveness and mercy, and then says:

إِنَّا هُدْنَا إِلَيْكَ

Innā hudnā ilayka.

“We have repented” can therefore convey the significance of the return in this context. To retain the verb’s image, however, “we have returned to You” is more precise. Repentance characterizes this return in the verse; it need not exhaust the root’s capacity in every use.

The core of this branch can be stated as follows:

H W D in the Qur’an’s clear verbal use: returning or turning toward someone; in Al-Aʿrāf 7:156, a repentant return to The God.

Alladhīna hādū: a verbal form used to designate a community

In all ten of its Qur’anic occurrences, the form hādū appears in the expression:

الَّذِينَ هَادُوا

Alladhīna hādū.

The expression functions as a communal designation.

For example:

إِنَّ الَّذِينَ آمَنُوا وَالَّذِينَ هَادُوا وَالنَّصَارَىٰ وَالصَّابِئِينَ مَنْ آمَنَ بِاللَّهِ وَالْيَوْمِ الْآخِرِ وَعَمِلَ صَالِحًا فَلَهُمْ أَجْرُهُمْ عِنْدَ رَبِّهِمْ وَلَا خَوْفٌ عَلَيْهِمْ وَلَا هُمْ يَحْزَنُونَ

Inna alladhīna āmanū wa-alladhīna hādū wa-al-naṣārā wa-al-ṣābiʾīna man āmana bi-Allāhi wa-al-yawmi al-ākhiri wa-ʿamila ṣāliḥan fa-lahum ajruhum ʿinda rabbihim wa-lā khawfun ʿalayhim wa-lā hum yaḥzanūna.

“Those who believed, those who were Jews, the Christians, and the Sabians—whoever believes in The God and the Last Day and does what is right—shall have their reward with their Lord; no fear shall be upon them, nor shall they grieve.”

Al-Baqarah 2:62

Here alladhīna hādū stands alongside al-naṣārā, Christians, and al-ṣābiʾīn, Sabians. It is therefore a communal designation, rather than the general expression “those who returned.”

The point becomes clearer in Al-Māʾidah:

إِنَّا أَنْزَلْنَا التَّوْرَاةَ فِيهَا هُدًى وَنُورٌ يَحْكُمُ بِهَا النَّبِيُّونَ الَّذِينَ أَسْلَمُوا لِلَّذِينَ هَادُوا

Innā anzalnā al-tawrāta fīhā hudan wa-nūrun yaḥkumu bihā al-nabiyyūna alladhīna aslamū li-alladhīna hādū.

“We sent down the Torah, containing guidance and light; the prophets who submitted judged by it for those who were Jews.”

Al-Māʾidah 5:44

Here again, the connection between alladhīna hādū and the Torah shows that the expression refers to a recognized community.

Al-Anʿām also says:

وَعَلَى الَّذِينَ هَادُوا حَرَّمْنَا كُلَّ ذِي ظُفُرٍ

Wa-ʿalā alladhīna hādū ḥarramnā kulla dhī ẓufurin.

“And for those who were Jews, We prohibited every animal with claws.”

Al-Anʿām 6:146

And in Al-Jumuʿah:

قُلْ يَا أَيُّهَا الَّذِينَ هَادُوا إِنْ زَعَمْتُمْ أَنَّكُمْ أَوْلِيَاءُ لِلَّهِ مِنْ دُونِ النَّاسِ فَتَمَنَّوُا الْمَوْتَ إِنْ كُنْتُمْ صَادِقِينَ

Qul yā ayyuhā alladhīna hādū in zaʿamtum annakum awliyāʾu li-Allāhi min dūni al-nāsi fa-tamannaw al-mawta in kuntum ṣādiqīna.

“Say: O you who are Jews, if you claim that you alone are friends of The God, to the exclusion of other people, then wish for death, if you are truthful.”

Al-Jumuʿah 62:6

In all these uses, “those who return” would obscure what the sentence actually means.

At the same time, the verbal form hādū alone does not establish that the Qur’an intends to emphasize a sectarian split, an ideological choice, or a particular process in the formation of Judaism. Such a conclusion would require further Qur’anic evidence. What this construction securely establishes is that alladhīna hādū refers to Jews in Qur’anic usage.

Banī Isrāʾīl and alladhīna hādū are different expressions

The Qur’an also frequently uses banī Isrāʾīl:

يَا بَنِي إِسْرَائِيلَ اذْكُرُوا نِعْمَتِيَ الَّتِي أَنْعَمْتُ عَلَيْكُمْ

Yā banī Isrāʾīla udhkurū niʿmatiya allatī anʿamtu ʿalaykum.

“O Children of Israel, remember My blessing which I bestowed upon you.”

Al-Baqarah 2:40

The construction banī Isrāʾīl expresses a relationship of descent: “Children of Israel.”

Alladhīna hādū does not have that construction. In Al-Baqarah 2:62 and Al-Ḥajj 22:17 it occurs alongside other religious designations; in Al-Māʾidah 5:44 it is associated with the Torah and the prophets’ judgment.

We can record this difference without drawing more from the words than they support. The Qur’an does not state that banī Isrāʾīl is a racial category and alladhīna hādū an ideological category, or that one belongs to one historical period and the other to another. Such classifications do not follow from the expressions alone.

The more secure distinction is:

Banī Isrāʾīl expresses a relationship to Israel; alladhīna hādū is a Qur’anic designation of the Jewish community. The expressions differ in wording and perspective, but the precise relationship between their referents must be examined verse by verse.

Hūdan: Jews contrasted with Christians

The form hūdan occurs in three verses of Al-Baqarah, each time contrasted with naṣārā:

وَقَالُوا لَنْ يَدْخُلَ الْجَنَّةَ إِلَّا مَنْ كَانَ هُودًا أَوْ نَصَارَىٰ

Wa-qālū lan yadkhula al-jannata illā man kāna hūdan aw naṣārā.

“They said, ‘No one will enter the Garden unless they are Jewish or Christian.’”

Al-Baqarah 2:111

And:

وَقَالُوا كُونُوا هُودًا أَوْ نَصَارَىٰ تَهْتَدُوا قُلْ بَلْ مِلَّةَ إِبْرَاهِيمَ حَنِيفًا وَمَا كَانَ مِنَ الْمُشْرِكِينَ

Wa-qālū kūnū hūdan aw naṣārā tahtadū qul bal millata Ibrāhīma ḥanīfan wa-mā kāna mina al-mushrikīna.

“They said, ‘Become Jews or Christians and you will be guided.’ Say: ‘Rather, the way of Abraham, a ḥanīf, one turned toward The God; he was not among those who associate others with Him.’”

Al-Baqarah 2:135

And:

أَمْ تَقُولُونَ إِنَّ إِبْرَاهِيمَ وَإِسْمَاعِيلَ وَإِسْحَاقَ وَيَعْقُوبَ وَالْأَسْبَاطَ كَانُوا هُودًا أَوْ نَصَارَىٰ

Am taqūlūna inna Ibrāhīma wa-Ismāʿīla wa-Isḥāqa wa-Yaʿqūba wa-al-asbāṭa kānū hūdan aw naṣārā.

“Or do you say that Abraham, Ishmael, Isaac, Jacob, and the tribes were Jews or Christians?”

Al-Baqarah 2:140

The contrast itself makes the meaning of hūdan clear in these verses: Jewish people, or Jews.

Al-Baqarah 2:135 contains another important detail. Two similar-looking forms occur in one sentence:

هُودًا

Hūdan.

And:

تَهْتَدُوا

Tahtadū.

But they do not belong to the same root.

Hūdan refers to the Jewish community;
tahtadū belongs to the root H D Y and concerns guidance.

Phonetic similarity between hūd, hudā, and tahtadū must therefore not lead us to merge these two word families.

Al-yahūd and yahūdiyyan: Qur’anic meaning and the limits of etymological inference

Alongside alladhīna hādū and hūdan, the Qur’an also uses al-yahūd:

وَقَالَتِ الْيَهُودُ لَيْسَتِ النَّصَارَىٰ عَلَىٰ شَيْءٍ وَقَالَتِ النَّصَارَىٰ لَيْسَتِ الْيَهُودُ عَلَىٰ شَيْءٍ وَهُمْ يَتْلُونَ الْكِتَابَ

Wa-qālati al-yahūdu laysati al-naṣārā ʿalā shayʾin wa-qālati al-naṣārā laysati al-yahūdu ʿalā shayʾin wa-hum yatlūna al-kitāba.

“The Jews said, ‘The Christians have nothing to stand on,’ and the Christians said, ‘The Jews have nothing to stand on,’ although they recite the Book.”

Al-Baqarah 2:113

The singular relational adjective yahūdiyyan, “Jewish,” also occurs:

مَا كَانَ إِبْرَاهِيمُ يَهُودِيًّا وَلَا نَصْرَانِيًّا وَلَٰكِنْ كَانَ حَنِيفًا مُسْلِمًا وَمَا كَانَ مِنَ الْمُشْرِكِينَ

Mā kāna Ibrāhīmu yahūdiyyan wa-lā naṣrāniyyan wa-lākin kāna ḥanīfan musliman wa-mā kāna mina al-mushrikīna.

“Abraham was neither Jewish nor Christian, but a ḥanīf, one turned toward The God and submitted to Him; he was not among those who associate others with Him.”

Āl ʿImrān 3:67

The preceding context also states the Qur’an’s own reasoning:

يَا أَهْلَ الْكِتَابِ لِمَ تُحَاجُّونَ فِي إِبْرَاهِيمَ وَمَا أُنْزِلَتِ التَّوْرَاةُ وَالْإِنْجِيلُ إِلَّا مِنْ بَعْدِهِ أَفَلَا تَعْقِلُونَ

Yā ahla al-kitābi li-ma tuḥājjūna fī Ibrāhīma wa-mā unzilati al-tawrātu wa-al-injīlu illā min baʿdihi a-fa-lā taʿqilūna.

“O People of the Book, why do you dispute about Abraham when the Torah and the Gospel were not sent down until after him? Will you not reason?”

Āl ʿImrān 3:65

No external chronology is needed for this argument. The Qur’an itself states that the Torah and the Gospel were sent down after Abraham, then denies that he was Jewish or Christian.

The Qur’an does not, however, explain how the name yahūd arose historically. The absence of such an explanation in the Qur’an does not mean that historical evidence is absent from other languages; the issue here is what can be concluded from the Qur’anic text itself.

The Qur’an alone cannot establish with certainty whether yahūd was formed from hāda, “to return,” whether the verb associated with Judaism developed from the name yahūd, or whether the two became connected through another path in linguistic history.

Their similarity merits investigation, but similarity alone does not establish a history of derivation.

It is therefore preferable to examine al-yahūd and yahūdiyyan here because of their clear semantic connection, without presenting them as proven historical derivatives of H W D on insufficient evidence.

Does alladhīna hādū mean “those who repented”?

Al-Aʿrāf 7:156 shows that hudnā ilayka can express returning to The God.

This resemblance might suggest that alladhīna hādū likewise originally means “those who repented” or “those who returned.”

But the Qur’anic uses do not allow that meaning to be inserted directly into their translation.

In:

يَحْكُمُ بِهَا النَّبِيُّونَ ... لِلَّذِينَ هَادُوا

Yaḥkumu bihā al-nabiyyūna … li-alladhīna hādū.

The subject is a community associated with the Torah.

In:

وَعَلَى الَّذِينَ هَادُوا حَرَّمْنَا كُلَّ ذِي ظُفُرٍ

Wa-ʿalā alladhīna hādū ḥarramnā kulla dhī ẓufurin.

The subject is a particular ruling for that same community.

And in:

إِنَّ الَّذِينَ آمَنُوا وَالَّذِينَ هَادُوا وَالنَّصَارَىٰ وَالصَّابِئِينَ

Inna alladhīna āmanū wa-alladhīna hādū wa-al-naṣārā wa-al-ṣābiʾīna.

The expression occurs among the names of other communities.

Thus, even if hudnā and hādū are historically related, the contextual meaning of alladhīna hādū in these verses is “Jews,” not “those who repented.”

Etymology cannot displace a meaning established by the Qur’anic context itself.

The prophet’s name Hūd

The Qur’an speaks of a prophet named Hūd:

وَإِلَىٰ عَادٍ أَخَاهُمْ هُودًا قَالَ يَا قَوْمِ اعْبُدُوا اللَّهَ مَا لَكُمْ مِنْ إِلَٰهٍ غَيْرُهُ

Wa-ilā ʿĀdin akhāhum Hūdan qāla yā qawmi uʿbudū Allāha mā lakum min ilāhin ghayruhu.

“And to ʿĀd, their brother Hūd. He said, ‘O my people, worship The God; you have no god other than Him.’”

Al-Aʿrāf 7:65

And:

إِذْ قَالَ لَهُمْ أَخُوهُمْ هُودٌ أَلَا تَتَّقُونَ

Idh qāla lahum akhūhum Hūdun a-lā tattaqūna.

“When their brother Hūd said to them, ‘Will you not be mindful?’”

Al-Shuʿarāʾ 26:124

In these verses, Hūd is a personal name.

The Qur’an supplies no etymological explanation of his name. Its resemblance to hudnā therefore does not establish that it means “one who returns,” “one who repents,” or another meaning associated with this root.

A proper name should first remain a proper name unless independent evidence establishes its meaning.

Translation proposals for Forqan

In Al-Aʿrāf 7:156:

إِنَّا هُدْنَا إِلَيْكَ

Innā hudnā ilayka.

A suitable translation is:

“We have returned to You.”

The context identifies this as a repentant return, but the basic translation need not incorporate the entire explanation.

For the expression:

الَّذِينَ هَادُوا

Alladhīna hādū.

“Jews” is usually the most natural translation. Where preserving the verbal construction matters, “those who were Jews” or “those who became Jews” may also be considered. The choice must follow the context of the particular verse. The verb’s form alone must not compel us to insert a particular historical process into the translation.

In Al-Baqarah 2:111, 2:135, and 2:140:

هُودًا

Hūdan.

Is translated as “Jewish” or “Jews,” according to the sentence’s construction.

Al-yahūd likewise means “Jews,” and yahūdiyyan means “Jewish.”

The prophet’s name Hūd is retained as a name, not translated into a lexical meaning.

Conclusion

The clearest Qur’anic use of the root H W D as a verb of returning is:

إِنَّا هُدْنَا إِلَيْكَ

Innā hudnā ilayka.

“We have returned to You.” Its context connects this return with repentance and turning back to The God.

In the Qur’an’s many uses of alladhīna hādū, however, the expression does not simply mean “those who returned.” It designates the Jewish community, appearing alongside Christians and Sabians, in connection with the Torah, and in rulings specific to that community.

Hūdan likewise appears in three verses of Al-Baqarah contrasted with naṣārā, and means Jews.

Alongside these forms, the Qur’an also uses al-yahūd and yahūdiyyan. Their semantic relationship with alladhīna hādū is clear, but the Qur’an does not explain the historical origin of the name yahūd. Mere similarity of wording therefore does not establish that the name was certainly formed from hāda, “to return.”

Banī Isrāʾīl and alladhīna hādū are also different expressions. The first literally expresses descent from Israel, while the second is a Qur’anic designation of the Jewish community. This difference should not be used without evidence to construct broader historical, racial, or sectarian classifications.

The prophet’s name Hūd is a proper name, and the Qur’an does not state an etymological connection between it and this verb.

A concise definition of the root can remain:

H W D: in its clearest Qur’anic use as a verb of returning, turning back or turning toward someone; in innā hudnā ilayka, a repentant return to The God. Alladhīna hādū designates Jews in Qur’anic usage, while hūdan expresses the same communal identity in contrast with naṣārā. The historical relationship between al-yahūd and this verb cannot be determined from the Qur’an alone, and the proper name Hūd should not be derived from this meaning merely because it shares the same letters.