The Qur’anic Root J DH DH
Cutting, breaking, and severing: from shattered idols to an uninterrupted gift
Qur’anic and lexical forms
جُذَاذًا
(judhādhan)
Noun for broken fragments; one Qur’anic occurrence
مَجْذُوذٍ
(majdhūdhin)
Passive participle; one Qur’anic occurrence with ghayra
جَذَّ / جَذّ
(jadhdha / jadhdh)
Form I verb and verbal noun; cutting or breaking
جِذَاذ / جَذِيذ
(jidhādh / jadhīdh)
Kasrah vocalization and plural analysis of jadhīdh; lexical forms
جُذَاذَة / جُذَاذَات
(judhādhah / judhādhāt)
Broken piece and fragments; not Qur’anic
جَذَّذَ
(jadhdhadha)
Form II; lexical form
اِنْجَذَّ / تَجَذَّذَ
(injadhdha / tajadhdhadha)
Severance occurring; lexical forms
جَذَّاء
(jadhdhāʾ)
Describing severance, including a kinship bond
جَذَاذ / جِذَاذ
(jadhādh / jidhādh)
Cutting and harvesting; lexical use
جَذِيذ / جَذِيذَة
(jadhīdh / jadhīdhah)
Food made from crushed grain; not Qur’anic
جُذَّة
(judhdhah)
A piece or covering; lexical form, not Qur’anic
Arabic J DH DH concerns cutting, breaking, and separating something from its former continuity. Jadhdha is used for cutting or breaking; judhādh denotes broken, separated pieces; majdhūdh describes something cut or severed.
Material uses include breaking a stone, cutting a rope, or harvesting dates from a palm. Each ends an existing connection, but in different ways: breaking a hard object, cutting a rope, and harvesting fruit are distinct acts within the lexical family.
The Qur’an uses the root once in Abraham’s encounter with his people’s idols and once to describe a divine gift. The idols become broken pieces; in Hūd, interruption of the gift to the blessed is denied.
Its meaning is therefore not confined to destroying material objects. Severance can also concern something nonphysical, such as giving and its continuation.
1. Forms and semantic core
J DH DH is a doubled Arabic root: its second and third radicals are identical.
Recorded forms include jadhdha, jadhdh, judhādh, jidhādh, judhādhah, jadhīdh, majdhūdh, jadhdhadha, injadhdha, tajadhdhadha, jadhdhāʾ, judhdhah, and jadhīdhah.
Their forms and uses differ. Some name cutting itself, others the separated pieces, and others something whose continuity has been severed.
Only two forms occur in the Qur’an:
Judhādhan in Al-Anbiyāʾ 21:58 describes the idols’ condition after being broken.
Majdhūdhin in Hūd 11:108 occurs in ʿaṭāʾan ghayra majdhūdhin, a gift that is not interrupted or cut off.
No finite verb from this root occurs in the Qur’an.
Quranic Arabic Corpus: one noun and one passive participle
The root’s semantic core
Ibn Fāris’s Maqāyīs al-Lughah gives one principle, explained through two related uses:
«إِمَّا كَسْرٌ وَإِمَّا قَطْعٌ»
immā kasrun wa-immā qaṭʿun
Meaning: “Either breaking or cutting.”
Ibn Fāris, Maqāyīs: breaking or cutting
The distinction matters. Breaking, particularly a hard object, may produce separate fragments; cutting need not reduce an object to many pieces.
A rope, for example, may be severed into two parts by one cut without being crushed or shattered.
Kitāb al-ʿAyn explains jadhdh as swift, thorough cutting. Other attested uses likewise show differing degrees and manners of cutting and breaking.
Kitāb al-ʿAyn: swift thorough cutting, rope, and fragments
A defensible semantic core is therefore:
Cutting or breaking something so that its continuity is severed or parts are separated.
This covers broken fragments and an interrupted gift without restricting every form to one physical act. Brief root meaning: Cutting or breaking something so that its continuity is severed or parts are separated.
2. Cutting and breaking in early Arabic
Breaking a hard object
Breaking hard objects is one clear use of the root.
Lexical sources give:
«جَذَذْتُ الشَّيْءَ»
jadhadhtu al-shayʾa
Meaning: “I broke or cut the thing.”
Breaking a hard object may separate pieces from it. Arabic records judhādh for such fragments.
Examples include small pieces of silver and gold-bearing stone separated by breaking or crushing a larger piece.
Judhādhāt likewise denotes small pieces and separated fragments.
This is a familiar material activity: crushing stone or metal turns a continuous object into separate parts.
Judhādh does not, however, fix their dimensions in every use. Some pieces are small; larger portions of the original object may also remain.
Broken pieces is thus a better general definition than extremely fine particles, since the word alone does not establish a particular size.
Cutting a rope and severing a connection
Kitāb al-ʿAyn records:
«جَذَذْتُ الْحَبْلَ فَانْجَذَّ»
jadhadhtu al-ḥabla fa-injadhdha
Meaning: “I cut the rope, and it was severed.”
This example is particularly useful for understanding the root.
The rope need not become numerous fragments; its continuity need only be broken.
Injadhdha expresses the severance occurring, while majdhūdh describes something subjected to cutting or interruption.
This helps explain why Qur’anic ʿaṭāʾan ghayra majdhūdhin means an uninterrupted gift.
When giving stops, something need not be shattered or destroyed: its continuation has ended.
Severance in this family can therefore be material or concern a relationship or continuing flow.
Thorough cutting
Some lexicographers explain jadhdh through al-qaṭʿu al-mustaʾṣilu: cutting off at the base or thoroughly separating something.
That is stronger than a superficial cut or removing a small part.
It does not follow that every form in every sentence necessarily means complete, irreversible destruction.
Harvesting dates or cutting a rope does not always destroy the tree or every part of the rope.
Thorough cutting is an attested use, rather than a necessary condition of every derivative.
Harvesting dates
Arabic records jadhdha al-nakhla for cutting or harvesting a palm’s fruit.
The cluster or produce is separated from its point of attachment to the tree.
Jadhādh also concerns cutting and harvesting in some agricultural uses.
This differs from smashing idols. Cutting during harvest can be beneficial and part of agricultural work.
The root is therefore not inherently an unfavorable destruction or an invariably violent act.
Its object and setting establish the precise meaning and practical value of the act.
Food made from crushed grain
Lexical sources also record jadhīdh and jadhīdhah for food prepared from grain or coarse flour.
Lisān al-ʿArab connects them with sawīq and jashīshah.
Their relationship with cutting and breaking involves crushing or coarsely grinding the grains during preparation.
Here too, the reference is to smaller parts resulting from crushing.
These food terms do not occur in the Qur’an, and their meanings should not be transferred to its two forms.
A severed kinship bond
Sources record raḥimun jadhdhāʾu for a kinship bond that is not maintained.
The object of severance is a human relationship, rather than a rope or hard material.
Al-Ṣiḥāḥ and Lisān: a severed kinship bond
The Arabic family thus also supports nonmaterial uses.
Severing a material strand and a human relationship share the ending of an earlier connection.
That resemblance does not make every kind of estrangement interchangeable with jadhdha. Each word’s use should be tested against attestation and construction.
3. Witnesses in older Arabic usage
Fragments of stone and metal
Maqāyīs al-Lughah quotes the stone-crushing witness under S Ḥ N. Lisān al-ʿArab under J DH DH also names broken gold-bearing stone judhādh and transmits the witness.
A poetic fragment attributed to a poet of Hudhayl reads:
«كَمَا صَرَّفَتْ فَوْقَ الْجُذَاذِ الْمَسَاحِنُ»
kamā ṣarrafat fawqa al-judhādhi al-masāḥinu
Meaning: “As the implements for pounding and grinding move over the broken stone.”
Masāḥin are stones or stone implements for pounding and grinding gold-bearing stone and similar material. The witness’s commentary explains breaking and grinding to extract the gold.
Maqāyīs under S Ḥ N: stone fragments and masāḥin
Judhādh here concerns stone fragments lying beneath the pounding implements.
The word was thus used in older literary Arabic for pieces produced by breaking hard material.
Editorial notes to editions of Maqāyīs and Kitāb al-Jīm attribute the witness to Al-Muʿaṭṭil al-Hudhalī and also report attribution to Mālik ibn Khālid. It should not be presented as wholly unattributed; the disagreement and lack of an independent date for this particular witness nevertheless prevent a secure pre-Qur’anic dating. Ṣarafat and inṣarafat are also transmitted in lexical accounts; the supplied quotation is retained here.
Kitāb al-Jīm, editorial notes: the Hudhalī witness’s attributions
A proverb concerning haste
Lexical sources also record this proverb:
«جَذَّهَا جَذَّ الْبَعِيرِ الصِّلِّيَانَةَ»
jadhdhahā jadhdha al-baʿīri al-ṣilliyānata
Lisān al-ʿArab and Tāj al-ʿArūs specifically apply it to someone hastily taking a false oath. Its attested setting is therefore more specific than any hurried action.
Ṣilliyānah denotes a plant a camel can pull away with its mouth.
The image presents rapid separation of the plant, used to illustrate haste in the action.
Speed should not be required in every derivative. Some dictionaries do explain jadhdh through haste, and Tāj records al-isrāʿ, but cutting a rope or ghayr majdhūdh does not necessarily express speed in each setting.
Lisān and Tāj: the false-oath proverb and haste
The example also shows that the root is not confined to breaking hard objects: separating vegetation is within its range.
The proverb’s origin is not independently dated here. Its preservation in a dictionary does not suffice to assign it firmly to the pre-Islamic period.
4. Judhādhan in Abraham’s story
Al-Anbiyāʾ 21:58
فَجَعَلَهُمْ جُذَاذًا إِلَّا كَبِيرًا لَهُمْ لَعَلَّهُمْ إِلَيْهِ يَرْجِعُونَ
fa-jaʿalahum judhādhan illā kabīran lahum laʿallahum ilayhi yarjiʿūna
“He broke them into fragments, except a large one of them, so that they might return to it.”
The verse belongs to Abraham’s encounter with his people’s idols.
In Al-Anbiyāʾ 21:52, Abraham asks about the images before which his people remain in worship. In Al-Anbiyāʾ 21:53, they reply that they found their fathers worshipping them.
He then states their error and announces his intention concerning the idols in Al-Anbiyāʾ 21:57.
Al-Anbiyāʾ 21:58 states the result: he made the idols into broken pieces, leaving a larger one.
The meaning of judhādhan
Judhādhan describes the idols’ resulting condition.
Lexical sources explain it as broken pieces, separated fragments, and material cut or broken from a larger object.
Al-Farrāʾ compares its use with ḥuṭām and rufāt.
It can function here as a name for the collection of broken pieces.
Some readings and lexical analyses have jidhādhan, with kasrah on jīm, analyzed as the plural of jadhīdh. Al-Qurṭubī attributes the kasrah reading to Al-Kisāʾī and others too. The quotation here retains judhādhan as in the installed text.
Al-Qurṭubī: judhādh and variant vocalizations
The vowel difference does not change the basic meaning: something has been broken into separate pieces.
The role of fa-jaʿalahum
Jaʿala occurs with the suffix hum and then judhādhan.
Fa-jaʿalahum judhādhan means that he made them into broken pieces.
Judhādhan expresses the result. Breaking is understood through the construction together with the meaning of fragments.
He broke them into pieces is therefore natural and faithful to the meaning.
The word does not identify Abraham’s implement or establish how many pieces each idol became.
Commentarial reports mention an axe and other details, but this verse does not name the breaking tool.
Nor does the sentence identify every idol’s material. Judhādh is attested for stone fragments, but that does not make all the idols here necessarily one material.
Al-Ṭabarī: the axe report distinguished from the verse’s wording
Illā kabīran lahum: the large idol’s exception
The verse says:
«إِلَّا كَبِيرًا لَهُمْ»
illā kabīran lahum
One large idol was excepted from the action.
That matters: the verse does not say every idol was broken without exception.
In Al-Anbiyāʾ 21:63, Abraham refers to that large idol and invites his people to question the idols if they can speak.
Leaving it therefore has a clear narrative role.
Breaking the others while preserving one prepares the people to confront their manufactured objects’ inability.
That purpose emerges from the whole story, rather than judhādh alone.
The reference of ilayhi yarjiʿūna
The verse ends with laʿallahum ilayhi yarjiʿūna.
The nearby kabīran lahum makes reference of ilayhi to the large idol a strong reading.
Leaving it could lead the people to consult it and confront its inability to speak or defend the others.
Al-Anbiyāʾ 21:62 and Al-Anbiyāʾ 21:63 also provide relevant context.
Other interpretations are transmitted. Al-Ṭabarī, for example, explains Abraham’s action as leading them back from worshipping idols to The God; other commentaries discuss their consulting Abraham. These contextual explanations should not be equated with judhādh’s lexical meaning.
The alternatives should be weighed against the construction and context. For this root study, judhādh means broken pieces; identifying the pronoun’s reference is a separate issue of sentence analysis.
Al-Ṭabarī: interpreting return after the idols are broken
Does judhādh itself mean the invalidation of idol worship?
No. It denotes broken pieces.
Breaking the idols serves the story’s critique of worshipping them, but the invalidity of that worship emerges from Abraham’s argument and the narrative together.
J DH DH itself does not judge a belief’s truth or falsehood.
Breaking something might be beneficial, harmful, or morally neutral.
Judhādh should therefore not directly become invalidating a doctrine, destroying associationism, or breaking religious authority.
Those may be subjects of narrative analysis; the lexical meaning remains broken, separated pieces.
5. Majdhūdhin: a gift that is not cut off
Hūd 11:108
وَأَمَّا الَّذِينَ سُعِدُوا فَفِي الْجَنَّةِ خَالِدِينَ فِيهَا مَا دَامَتِ السَّمَاوَاتُ وَالْأَرْضُ إِلَّا مَا شَاءَ رَبُّكَ عَطَاءً غَيْرَ مَجْذُوذٍ
wa-ammā alladhīna suʿidū fa-fī al-jannati khālidīna fīhā mā dāmati al-samāwātu wa-al-arḍu illā mā shāʾa rabbuka ʿaṭāʾan ghayra majdhūdhin
“As for those who are made happy, they will be in the Garden, remaining therein as long as the heavens and the earth endure, except as your Lord wills—a gift uninterrupted.”
Majdhūdhin here concerns neither a shattered object nor separated fragments.
It describes ʿaṭāʾ, giving or a gift.
Majdhūdh is the passive participle of jadhdha, describing something cut or severed. Grammatically, it is the genitive complement of ghayra; ghayra majdhūdhin as a phrase qualifies the gift.
It is preceded by ghayra.
Ghayra majdhūdhin negates interruption: a gift not cut off.
From cutting a rope to interrupting a gift
A cut rope loses its former continuity.
Here, however, the subject is a gift’s continuation, rather than a material strand.
Language can describe a flow as cut off without a physical object being cut.
Interrupted help or provision, for instance, need not involve crushing anything: its continuation ends.
ʿAṭāʾan ghayra majdhūdhin belongs to this semantic field.
The gift is not likened to an object severed with an axe or other implement. Cutting here concerns the end or interruption of giving’s continuation.
This again shows that J DH DH extends beyond smashing hard objects.
Ghayra majdhūdhin and ghayra manqūṣin
Hūd 11:109 uses another expression:
«غَيْرَ مَنْقُوصٍ»
ghayra manqūṣin
Meaning: “Undiminished,” or “without anything being deducted.”
The expressions are close but not identical. Hūd 11:109 concerns fully delivering the share of the people discussed in the context of their worship; comparing the expressions does not make both verses refer to the same gift or group.
Majdhūdh concerns cutting or interruption. Manqūṣ belongs to N Q Ṣ and concerns reduction in quantity or something being incomplete.
Something can diminish without its flow ending entirely.
Conversely, a gift might stop abruptly without gradually decreasing first.
Ghayra majdhūdhin thus particularly emphasizes uninterrupted continuation, while ghayra manqūṣin emphasizes absence of diminution.
The Qur’an uses distinct words for continuation and completeness.
Its relationship with illā mā shāʾa rabbuka
Before ʿaṭāʾan ghayra majdhūdhin, the verse says:
«إِلَّا مَا شَاءَ رَبُّكَ»
illā mā shāʾa rabbuka
Meaning: “Except as your Lord wills.”
Hūd 11:107 also has this expression when describing the other group’s abiding.
Its presence alongside an uninterrupted gift raises an interpretive question concerning continuity and divine will.
Lexically, ghayra majdhūdhin is clear: a gift that is not interrupted.
That meaning alone cannot resolve every question of time, the hereafter’s duration, and divine will’s relationship with people’s abiding.
Nor does the exception authorize disregarding the clear sense of ghayra majdhūdhin.
Both occur in the verse and should be examined together with other passages in a separate study of abiding and divine will.
For this root article, the precise conclusion is that majdhūdh describes severance, negated here concerning the gift.
Al-Ṭabarī: ghayr majdhūdh and the separate question of the exception
Is the gift inherently independent of The God?
No. The verse calls it a gift and places it in the context of the Lord’s will.
Being uninterrupted does not make it independent of its giver.
Nor does majdhūdh alone establish that its amount stays constant, increases, or takes an identical form at every stage.
The phrase ghayra majdhūdhin conveys noninterruption; majdhūdh itself means cut or severed.
This prevents a lexical description from becoming a complete theory of the nature and details of the hereafter’s blessings.
7. Translation proposals for Forqan
One fixed Persian equivalent cannot be used for both Qur’anic occurrences.
Judhādhan in Al-Anbiyāʾ 21:58 denotes broken, separated pieces. In fa-jaʿalahum judhādhan, “he broke them into pieces” is natural and precise.
Forqan’s existing translation reads:
“He broke them into fragments, except a large one of them, so that they might return to it.”
It preserves fragmentation without adding an implement or the idols’ material.
Majdhūdh in Hūd 11:108 describes something cut off, but ghayra negates that condition.
Forqan’s current translation reads:
“As for those who are made happy, they will be in the Garden, remaining therein as long as the heavens and the earth endure, except as your Lord wills—a gift uninterrupted.”
The Persian bakhsheshī bī-gosast, an uninterrupted gift, suits ʿaṭāʾan ghayra majdhūdhin by conveying both continuation and negation of severance.
An endless gift can also suggest continuation, but uninterrupted is closer to the lexical image of not being cut off.
A brief root explanation can read:
“J DH DH: cutting or breaking something so that its continuity is severed or it becomes separate pieces.”
The Qur’anic forms require separate explanations.
Judhādhan: broken, separated pieces; here, the idols Abraham broke into fragments.
Majdhūdhin: cut or interrupted; in ghayra majdhūdhin, a gift that is not interrupted.
This avoids transferring shattered idols’ image to the divine gift or importing that gift’s continuity into judhādh’s definition.
Conclusion
Arabic J DH DH concerns cutting, breaking, and severing continuity.
Material uses include broken stone, a cut rope, harvesting dates, and crushed grain; nonmaterial uses can concern interruption of a relationship or continuation.
Judhādhan in Al-Anbiyāʾ 21:58 denotes broken idols, while majdhūdhin in Hūd 11:108 concerns interruption of a gift, negated by ghayra.
Breaking a material object and ending a flow are different instances of lost continuity.
The defensible semantic core of J DH DH is cutting or breaking and severed continuity. Judhādh names the resulting broken pieces; ghayra majdhūdh expresses the gift’s continuation through negating interruption.
The root itself does not judge idol worship’s validity, specify precisely how the idols were broken, or settle every detail of the hereafter’s enduring blessings. Such matters require the context and independent evidence rather than additions to the lexical definition.