Qur’anic Root J DH W
Embers, firebrands, and remaining fixed: from portable fire to standing and holding to a place
Qur’anic and lexical forms
جَذْوَةٍ
(jadhwatin)
One Qur’anic occurrence; ʿĀṣim’s vocalization
جِذْوَة
(jidhwah)
Kasrah vocalization in readings and lexicons
جُذْوَة
(judhwah)
Ḍammah vocalization in readings and lexicons
جَذَا / يَجْذُو
(jadhā / yajdhū)
Form I verb; not Qur’anic
جَذْو / جُذُوّ
(jadhw / judhuww)
Verbal nouns in the standing and persistence branch
جَاذٍ / جَاذِيَة / جِذَاء
(jādhin / jādhiyah / jidhāʾ)
Descriptive forms and plural; not Qur’anic
أَجْذَى / إِجْذَاء
(ajdhā / ijdhāʾ)
Standing firm or lifting a stone; not Qur’anic
تَجَاذَى
(tajādhā)
Stone lifting and trials of strength; not Qur’anic
اِجْذَوَى
(ijdhawā)
Lexical form compared with jathā; not Qur’anic
مُجْذِيَة
(mujdhiyah)
Describing a firmly standing tree; not Qur’anic
جِذْي / جَذَاة
(jidhy / jadhāh)
Tree base and substantial timber; not Qur’anic
In Arabic, jadhwah (جَذْوَة) denotes a portion of fire, an ember, or a piece of wood carrying fire that can be taken from a larger fire. The word occurs in Mūsā’s story: while traveling, he sees a fire and tells his family that he may bring them news from it or a portion of fire to warm themselves.
The lexical family J DH W is not limited to fire. Early Arabic also uses jadhā (جَذَا) for standing upright, standing on tiptoe, or remaining fixed in a place. Jādhin (جَاذٍ) can describe someone in such a position, and judhuww (جُذُوّ) denotes the condition. Related usages concern a tick clinging to a camel, a firmly standing tree, lifting stones, and pieces of wood.
This range raises a significant question: do all these usages derive from one original meaning, or do they represent branches whose precise historical relationship is uncertain?
The Qur’an contains only one form from this root: jadhwatin (جَذْوَةٍ) in Al-Qaṣaṣ 28:29. There, the sense of fire or a fire-bearing piece of wood is clear. Understanding it requires distinguishing this usage from other branches before assessing the connections Arabic sources suggest.
1. Forms and semantic range
J DH W is a final-weak root: its third radical is wāw, which appears as alif or yāʾ in some derivatives.
Lexical sources record forms including jadhā (جَذَا), yajdhū (يَجْذُو), jadhw (جَذْو), judhuww (جُذُوّ), jādhin (جَاذٍ), jādhiyah (جَاذِيَة), jidhāʾ (جِذَاء), ajdhā (أَجْذَى), ijdhāʾ (إِجْذَاء), tajādhā (تَجَاذَى), ijdhawā (اِجْذَوَى), jadhwah (جَذْوَة), jidhwah (جِذْوَة), judhwah (جُذْوَة), and mujdhiyah (مُجْذِيَة).
These forms fall into two important fields of usage.
The first concerns standing, becoming upright, remaining fixed, and clinging to a place. Jadhā and the descriptive form jādhin are prominent in this branch.
In the second, jadhwah concerns an ember or a piece of wood carrying fire. Related terms jidhy (جِذْي) and jadhāh (جَذَاة) are also recorded for the bases and substantial parts of trees.
Only jadhwatin occurs in the Qur’an. In Al-Qaṣaṣ 28:29 it follows aw (أَوْ) and is qualified by mina al-nār (مِنَ النَّارِ). Grammatically, it is coordinated with khabarin (خَبَرٍ) and remains genitive within the scope of bi-; aw itself is not a genitive preposition.
No verb or active participle from this root occurs in the Qur’an.
Quranic Arabic Corpus: the sole occurrence, Al-Qaṣaṣ 28:29
Three vocalizations of jadhwah
Arabic lexical sources and Qur’anic readings record three familiar vocalizations: jadhwah, jidhwah, and judhwah.
They differ in the first consonant’s vowel, rather than in the root consonants.
ʿĀṣim’s reading has jadhwah with fatḥah on jīm. Ḥamzah reads judhwah with ḍammah, while jidhwah with kasrah is also recorded among the other well-known readings.
Ibn ʿAṭiyyah: three reading vocalizations
All three vocalizations are recognized in Arabic and refer to the same semantic field here. A different vowel on jīm does not by itself establish three kinds of fire or three independent meanings.
Recorded plurals include jadhan (جَذًى), jidhan (جِذًى), judhan (جُذًى), and jidhāʾ (جِذَاء).
For Qur’anic study, these variations belong to the family that names a portion of fire or a firebrand in this verse. Brief root meaning: A portion of fire or an ember-bearing piece of wood; in another branch, standing upright and holding to a place.
2. Standing, stability, and clinging in early Arabic
Ibn Fāris’s account of the root
In Maqāyīs al-Lughah, Ibn Fāris introduces the root’s organizing principle as follows:
«أَصْلٌ يَدُلُّ عَلَى الِانْتِصَابِ»
aṣlun yadullu ʿalā al-intiṣābi
That is: “A principle indicating uprightness or standing erect.”
He illustrates it with jadhawtu ʿalā aṭrāfi aṣābiʿī (جَذَوْتُ عَلَى أَطْرَافِ أَصَابِعِي): standing on the tips of one’s toes.
Here, the person raises the body onto the toes rather than resting on the whole foot. Al-Ṣiḥāḥ nevertheless also defines jādhī in one account as muqʿī, muntaṣib al-qadamayn (مُقْعِي، منتصب القدمين), a crouching posture with the feet upright. The posture should therefore not always be equated with standing at full height.
These usages emphasize raising the body or resting on the toes, but they do not all require a single posture or a completely upright body.
Kitāb al-ʿAyn also records jadhā yajdhū and compares it with jathā yajthū (جَثَا يَجْثُو).
In distinguishing them, Al-Khalīl associates jadhā with holding to a place and remaining fixed.
The distinction matters: the branch concerns more than the shape of a standing posture. Persistence in a position or place also matters.
Ibn Fāris, Maqāyīs: uprightness and holding to a place
A witness from early Arabic poetry
The following description of horses is attributed to the pre-Islamic poet Abū Duʾād al-Iyādī:
«جَاذِيَاتٍ عَلَى السَّنَابِكِ قَدْ
أَنْحَلَهُنَّ الْإِسْرَاجُ وَالْإِلْجَامُ»
jādhiyātin ʿalā al-sanābiki qad / anḥalahunna al-isrāju wa-al-iljāmu
That is: “Horses poised on their hoof tips, worn lean by saddling and bridling.”
Al-sanābik is the plural of sunbuk, referring to the hard part or tip of a horse’s hoof.
Jādhiyāt describes the horses’ position on their hoof tips.
The poet is not describing fire or wood. The word concerns the animals’ bodily position and stance.
The witness records standing or remaining poised on a particular support in early literary Arabic.
Attributing a verse to a pre-Islamic poet does not by itself conclusively date its composition. It is an early witness attributed to Abū Duʾād, rather than grounds for dating the emergence of every meaning in the root family.
Lisān al-ʿArab: Abū Duʾād’s witness and standing on hoof tips
Jadhā and holding to a place
Lexical sources give the following expression:
«جَذَا الْقُرَادُ فِي جَنْبِ الْبَعِيرِ»
jadhā al-qurādu fī janbi al-baʿīri
That is: “The tick clung to the camel’s side and stayed there.”
Here, a tick is not standing on tiptoe like a person or horse.
The prominent feature is its attachment and persistence in place.
This example shows that some usages extend beyond a particular foot posture to remaining fixed or holding to a location.
Early sources also use ajdhā al-shayʾu (أَجْذَى الشَّيْءُ) for something standing upright and remaining firm.
Related forms describe a tree standing firmly upright in the ground.
These usages connect J DH W with stability and persistence in a condition.
They do not establish that Qur’anic jadhwah directly means steadfastness, resistance, or clinging.
The fire noun requires its own lexical evidence.
Lifting stones and associated usages
Lexical sources record ajdhā al-ḥajara (أَجْذَى الْحَجَرَ) for lifting a stone.
Tajādhaw (تَجَاذَوْا) also describes people competing in lifting a stone to test their strength. The sources explain it through tarābaʿūhu li-yarfaʿūhu (تَرَابَعُوهُ لِيَرْفَعُوهُ). It should not be reduced to several people merely cooperating to carry a stone.
Al-Muḥkam and Lisān: stone lifting as a trial of strength
The object is raised from a lower position.
This can be compared with uprightness and elevation, but it differs from a tick clinging to a camel or a person standing on tiptoe.
Some sources also compare these forms with tajāthaw (تَجَاثَوْا).
J DH W and J TH W thus overlap in some bodily usages, but overlap does not make the roots identical.
3. Jadhwah: an ember or firebrand
The word in lexical sources
Kitāb al-ʿAyn explains jadhwah through qabsatun min nār (قَبْسَةٌ مِنْ نَارٍ): a portion of fire that can be taken from another fire.
Kitāb al-ʿAyn: a portion of fire, persistence, and lexical forms
Al-Jawharī’s Al-Ṣiḥāḥ also associates it with jamrah (جَمْرَة), an ember or glowing piece of burning material.
In Majāz al-Qurʾān, Abū ʿUbaydah describes jadhwah min al-nār as a thick piece of firewood without a flame. This includes ember-bearing wood that is not flaming.
Al-Ṣiḥāḥ transmits a broader explanation from Abū ʿUbaydah: a thick piece of wood, whether or not it has fire at its end. Absence of fire in this general definition must be distinguished from absence of flame in the explanation of the Qur’anic usage.
Al-Wāḥidī, Al-Basīṭ: Majāz al-Qurʾān on wood without flame
Abū Saʿīd also describes jadhwah as a thick stick with an ember at one end.
These explanations are not identical.
One emphasizes the ember; another, a piece of wood bearing fire. In the general definition transmitted in Al-Ṣiḥāḥ, the thick piece of wood itself can be meant even without fire.
Al-Ṣiḥāḥ and other sources: wood, embers, and differing definitions
For the Qur’anic usage, however, the semantic field is clear: a portion of fire or an ember-bearing piece of wood that can be taken from a fire and carried elsewhere. This contextual description does not make fire a necessary condition of every lexical usage.
In the Qur’an, mina al-nār and the family’s intended warming specify the fire-related sense.
Although the general definition can include wood without fire, the verse cannot be read as merely referring to ordinary wood unrelated to fire.
Must a jadhwah have a visible flame?
Flame, ember, and fire-bearing wood are distinguishable concepts.
A flame is the luminous, leaping part of a fire. An ember is material made glowing by combustion that can continue to give heat without a tall flame. A firebrand can burn at one end while retaining its wooden structure elsewhere.
Arabic definitions likewise do not uniformly require a visible flame for jadhwah.
Some lexicographers distinguish jadhwah from shuʿlah (شُعْلَة), treating it as wood or an ember that need not have a tall flame.
The distinction helps explain actual usage.
Someone transporting fire could take a partly burned, ember-bearing stick that might kindle another fire or provide warmth elsewhere.
This does not establish that the verse’s jadhwah necessarily meant a flame-free stick carrying only hidden heat.
The verse does not specify the flame’s condition, the wood’s size, or the method of transport.
Jidhy, jadhāh, and the tree base
Lexical sources also record jidhy and jadhāh for the bases or substantial parts of trees.
Some usages concern a tree’s lower part remaining after its upper part has deteriorated.
This branch helps explain the connection with wood: substantial pieces from a tree’s base can serve as fuel.
It does not turn jadhwah in Al-Qaṣaṣ 28:29 into a term meaning tree root.
The verse concerns bringing a portion of fire for warmth.
A tree base or thick piece of wood may supply the material, but the word in this sentence has the fire-related sense.
A poetic witness attributed to Tamīm ibn Muqbil
Al-Ṭabarī and Lisān al-ʿArab attribute the following verse to Tamīm ibn Muqbil. The text of Al-Kashshāf names Kuthayyir, while its accompanying annotation returns the attribution to Ibn Muqbil. This attribution difference should therefore be recorded:
«بَاتَتْ حَوَاطِبُ لَيْلَى يَلْتَمِسْنَ لَهَا
جَزْلَ الْجِذَا غَيْرَ خَوَّارٍ وَلَا دَعِرِ»
bātat ḥawāṭibu Laylā yaltamisna lahā / jazla al-jidhā ghayra khawwārin wa-lā daʿiri
That is: “Laylā’s wood gatherers spent the night seeking substantial, sound timber for her, wood neither weak and brittle nor foul-smoking.” Al-Ṭabarī’s explanation identifies daʿir with wood producing excessive, poor smoke; another reported explanation concerns decayed wood.
Al-Ṭabarī: Ibn Muqbil’s witness and unsuitable wood
Ḥawāṭib denotes people who gather firewood.
Jazla al-jidhā refers to substantial wood suitable for fuel.
Khawwār here describes weak, brittle wood, and daʿir wood producing excessive or undesirable smoke.
The verse witnesses related usages in the practical activity of gathering firewood and selecting suitable fuel.
Tamīm ibn Muqbil lived across the pre-Islamic and Islamic periods. This particular verse’s date is not independently established, so it should not be presented as certainly pre-Qur’anic.
Al-Kashshāf and annotation: Kuthayyir and Ibn Muqbil attributions
The poem helps document substantial timber and fuel in early Arabic, but it does not establish that every jadhwah must come from an ancient tree base.
Jadhwah and remaining firm
Ibn Fāris organizes J DH W around uprightness and fixedness; definitions of jadhwah concern a piece of wood or an ember.
The two branches can be compared at the level of imagery. Thick wood may be a substantial part of a tree, while an ember can retain heat for a time.
These similarities do not establish the historical course of derivation.
For example, explaining jadhwah as named because fire “remains fixed” in wood is a hypothesis requiring independent evidence.
Two facts should therefore remain distinct: early jadhā can concern standing and holding to a place, while Qur’anic jadhwah concerns a portion of fire or ember-bearing wood.
Their placement in one lexical family does not justify imposing one meaning on the other.
4. Qur’anic usage: fire during Mūsā’s journey
Al-Qaṣaṣ, verse 29
فَلَمَّا قَضَىٰ مُوسَى الْأَجَلَ وَسَارَ بِأَهْلِهِ آنَسَ مِن جَانِبِ الطُّورِ نَارًا قَالَ لِأَهْلِهِ امْكُثُوا إِنِّي آنَسْتُ نَارًا لَعَلِّي آتِيكُم مِّنْهَا بِخَبَرٍ أَوْ جَذْوَةٍ مِّنَ النَّارِ لَعَلَّكُمْ تَصْطَلُونَ
fa-lammā qaḍā Mūsā al-ajala wa-sāra bi-ahlihi ānasa min jānibi al-ṭūri nāran qāla li-ahlihi umkuthū innī ānastu nāran laʿallī ātīkum minhā bi-khabarin aw jadhwatin mina al-nāri laʿallakum taṣṭalūna
“When Moses completed the term and traveled with his family, he noticed a fire on the side of the mountain. He said to his family: Stay here. I have noticed a fire; perhaps I will bring you news from it or a burning ember, so that you may warm yourselves.”
Mūsā has completed the agreed term and set out with his family.
During the journey, he sees a fire on the side of Al-Ṭūr and tells his family to remain there.
He then mentions two possibilities: he may bring news from the fire’s location or obtain a portion of fire to warm his family.
Jadhwatin names one of the things he hopes to obtain.
The observed fire and a portion of it
The verse first uses nāran (نَارًا): Mūsā has seen a fire.
When describing what he might bring his family, it uses jadhwatin mina al-nār (جَذْوَةٍ مِنَ النَّارِ).
The difference matters.
Nār names fire, whereas jadhwah names a portion of fire or fire-bearing material that can be taken and transported.
Mūsā need not intend to bring the whole observed fire. He hopes to obtain a portable portion.
Mina al-nār connects the jadhwah with that observed fire.
In this construction, min can express a portion of something or its source.
The context concerns bringing a portion of fire.
It does not specify the wood species, ember size, or means of carrying it.
Bi-khabarin aw jadhwatin: two needs during a journey
Mūsā mentions two possibilities.
First, he might obtain news at the fire’s location.
Second, he might bring his family some fire.
The aims differ.
Khabar (خَبَر), from KH B R, concerns information and receiving news. Mūsā might hope to find someone near the fire able to tell him about the route or their location.
Study of KH B R (Not yet published)
The verse itself does not specify exactly what news he seeks.
Jadhwah is something portable from the fire that can provide warmth.
Aw links the two. It presents possibilities, rather than identifying news and a firebrand as two names for one thing.
Jadhwah should therefore not be translated as intellectual illumination or the news Mūsā will receive.
One aim concerns news; the other, bringing a portion of fire.
Laʿallakum taṣṭalūn: the aim of warming themselves
The verse ends:
«لَعَلَّكُمْ تَصْطَلُونَ»
laʿallakum taṣṭalūna
That is: “So that you may warm yourselves.”
Taṣṭalūn (تَصْطَلُونَ) belongs to Ṣ L Y and Form VIII, concerning warming oneself at a fire.
Ibn ʿAṭiyyah: taṣṭalūn, Form VIII, and warming
The phrase states the practical purpose of bringing the jadhwah.
Mūsā’s family needs warmth, and he hopes to bring something from the observed fire for that purpose.
This fits a familiar experience of travel: people may need fire for warmth, especially in cold conditions.
The verse does not specify the season, temperature, or exact hour.
Laʿallakum taṣṭalūn supports the need or hope for warmth; weather details require other evidence.
Did Mūsā actually return with a firebrand?
Al-Qaṣaṣ 28:29 reports Mūsā’s intention and hope, rather than certain fulfillment.
He says laʿallī ātīkum (لَعَلِّي آتِيكُمْ): perhaps I will bring you.
In Al-Qaṣaṣ 28:30, when he approaches, he is called from the direction of the tree in the blessed place.
The narrative thus leads to another event.
Al-Qaṣaṣ 28:29 itself does not say that Mūsā certainly took fire-bearing wood and returned to his family.
Nor does the call in the following verse establish that jadhwah had already meant revelation or divine speech in the preceding verse.
Before arriving, Mūsā speaks of travel needs and warming his family. What happens upon his approach belongs to the next stage of the narrative.
Jadhwah in his speech retains its direct meaning: a portion of fire.
Comparison with Ṭā Hā 20:10 and Al-Naml 27:7
The scene also occurs in two other surahs.
In Ṭā Hā 20:10, Mūsā hopes to bring a qabas from the fire or find guidance there.
Al-Naml 27:7 uses shihābin qabasin (شِهَابٍ قَبَسٍ).
The accounts concern the same narrative setting but use different words.
Qabas concerns taking or bringing fire from another fire; shihāb concerns brightness, a flame, or a luminous portion; lexical definitions of jadhwah often emphasize an ember or firebrand.
All three can occur in the setting of obtaining fire for human use.
That does not make all their forms and derivatives fully synonymous.
In Al-Qaṣaṣ, jadhwah names what Mūsā hopes to bring. The other surahs describe close but distinguishable aspects of the same wish through qabas and shihāb.
None of these words by itself names a prophetic office, spiritual rank, or divine knowledge in this scene. Those topics, if discussed, require evidence from subsequent events and other sources.
6. Translation proposals for Forqan
Several Persian equivalents can be considered for jadhwatin in Al-Qaṣaṣ 28:29.
The Persian equivalent of “ember” conveys glowing, fire-bearing material well, but may suggest a small piece of charcoal. Some lexical witnesses instead describe a substantial piece of wood.
“Fire-bearing wood” or “ember-bearing wood” explains the material more explicitly, but may be overly descriptive in a fluent verse translation.
“A portion of fire” conveys the general meaning without fixing the material or amount of flame.
The installed English Forqan translation reads:
“When Moses completed the term and traveled with his family, he noticed a fire on the side of the mountain. He said to his family: Stay here. I have noticed a fire; perhaps I will bring you news from it or a burning ember, so that you may warm yourselves.”
The Persian translation’s “a portion of fire” is natural and defensible; the installed English uses “a burning ember.” Neither requires adding a particular wood species or precise ember condition to the base translation.
A brief root explanation can read:
“J DH W: early Arabic uses concern standing upright, remaining firm, and holding to a place; jadhwah denotes an ember or firebrand.”
The specific meaning in Al-Qaṣaṣ 28:29 can be explained separately:
“Jadhwatin: a portion of fire, often an ember-bearing piece of wood that can be carried elsewhere for warmth or kindling.”
The first part gives the Qur’anic meaning; the second explains the material image recorded in lexical sources.
Jadhwah should not become “guidance,” “revelation,” “the light of knowledge,” or “steadfastness” in this verse’s translation. None is the noun’s direct meaning in Mūsā’s speech.
Conclusion
Early Arabic uses J DH W for uprightness, remaining firm, holding to a place, and clinging. Ibn Fāris organizes the family around uprightness; Al-Khalīl also emphasizes persistence in a condition or location.
The same family includes jadhwah: an ember, a portion of fire, or fire-bearing wood. Related terms for tree bases and substantial timber also occur in lexical sources.
These uses may be close in their physical imagery, but a certain derivation of all of them from one concept is not established.
The Qur’an contains jadhwatin only in Al-Qaṣaṣ 28:29. During his journey, Mūsā sees a fire and tells his family that he may bring them news from it or a portion of fire for warmth.
The usage fits the attested ember and firebrand meanings. Comparison with qabas and shihāb in Ṭā Hā 20:10 and Al-Naml 27:7 further clarifies the field of portable fire.
The direct, defensible meaning of Qur’anic jadhwah is a portion of fire or an ember-bearing piece of wood. Remaining fixed or standing belongs to another branch of the family and should not be made a hidden meaning of Mūsā’s speech without independent evidence.
“A portion of fire” is therefore suitable in the Persian base translation, while the full root study can explain the fire-bearing wood more precisely. This distinction preserves actual usage and avoids replacing a clear practical need during Mūsā’s journey with an unsupported symbolic meaning.