Qur’anic Root J L D
Skin, endurance, and flogging: from bodily covering to Qur’anic usage
Qur’anic and lexical forms
جُلُود
(julūd)
Plural skins; nine Qur’anic occurrences
فَاجْلِدُوا / فَاجْلِدُوهُمْ
(fa-ijlidū / fa-ijlidūhum)
Form I imperatives; two Qur’anic occurrences
جَلْدَة
(jaldah)
One lash; two Qur’anic occurrences
جِلْد
(jild)
Skin, singular; its plural occurs in the Qur’an
جِلْدَة
(jildah)
A portion of skin; not Qur’anic
جَلَد
(jalad)
Strength and endurance; not Qur’anic
جَلُدَ / جَلِيد
(jaluda / jalīd)
Verb and adjective of resilience; not Qur’anic
جَلَادَة
(jalādah)
Verbal noun of endurance; not Qur’anic
تَجَلَّدَ
(tajallada)
Form V; not Qur’anic
مُجَلَّد
(mujallad)
Resistant to blows; not Qur’anic
جَالَدَ / مُجَالَدَة
(jālada / mujāladah)
Form III and its verbal noun; not Qur’anic
تَجْلِيد
(tajlīd)
Skinning in the usage discussed; not Qur’anic
1. Introducing the root
Arabic J L D concerns skin, the body’s outer covering, hardness, firmness, and resistance. Jild means skin, jalad concerns endurance and resilience, and jalada in one verbal use means flogging.
These meanings have an intelligible relationship. Skin covers and protects underlying tissues. Arabic connects this physical quality with firmness and endurance, while jalada can also describe a blow upon skin.
Their relationship does not make every derivative identical. Skin names a bodily organ; endurance describes a person or thing; flogging is an action performed upon someone’s body.
This distinction matters because the Qur’an uses J L D both for human and animal skin and in a command concerning corporal punishment.
Al-Naḥl 16:80 describes livestock hides as shelter material. Al-Zumar 39:23 concerns skin responding to divine speech. Fuṣṣilat 41:20, Fuṣṣilat 41:21, and Fuṣṣilat 41:22 place skins beside hearing and sight as witnesses to human deeds. Skin also appears in depictions of punishment in Al-Nisāʾ 4:56 and Al-Ḥajj 22:20.
Al-Nūr 24:2 and Al-Nūr 24:4 use the family for flogging.
Fa-ijlidū commands blows upon the body, and jaldah counts those blows. Although related to skin, jaldah here does not mean a piece of skin.
Each derivative’s meaning therefore requires morphology and context. Brief root meaning: Skin and the body’s outer covering; firmness and endurance; and, in the relevant verbal use, flogging.
Qur’anic forms
J L D occurs thirteen times in three morphological categories:
- فَاجْلِدُوا and فَاجْلِدُوهُمْ: two Form I imperatives, in Al-Nūr 24:2 and Al-Nūr 24:4, meaning flogging.
- جَلْدَةٍ and جَلْدَةً: two uses of a single-action noun counting lashes in those verses.
- جُلُود: nine uses of the plural of jild, skins, in Al-Nisāʾ 4:56, Al-Naḥl 16:80, Al-Ḥajj 22:20, Al-Zumar 39:23, Fuṣṣilat 41:20, Fuṣṣilat 41:21, and Fuṣṣilat 41:22.
The skin noun occurs twice within Al-Nisāʾ 4:56 and twice within Al-Zumar 39:23.
The singular jild does not occur independently in the Qur’an. Jalīd, jalādah, tajallud, mijlad, and mujāladah are likewise attested in Arabic without occurring in the Qur’an.
Quranic Arabic Corpus: thirteen occurrences in three categories
2. The semantic core in early Arabic
Skin and firmness
Ibn Fāris writes in Maqāyīs al-Lughah:
الْجِيمُ وَاللَّامُ وَالدَّالُ أَصْلٌ وَاحِدٌ وَهُوَ يَدُلُّ عَلَى قُوَّةٍ وَصَلَابَةٍ.
al-jīmu wa-al-lāmu wa-al-dālu aṣlun wāḥidun wa-huwa yadullu ʿalā quwwatin wa-ṣalābatin
Translation: “Jīm, lām, and dāl have one principle indicating strength and firmness.”
Ibn Fāris: strength and firmness
He then presents skin as an instance, being stronger and more resistant than the flesh beneath it.
Firmness is the common feature connecting skin, endurance, and certain other usages in this analysis.
His lexical account should nevertheless be distinguished from skin’s actual qualities.
Human and animal skin need not be hard or dry: it can be soft, delicate, or flexible. Ibn Fāris does not thereby make every skin physically comparable to hard stone or wood.
Nor does his shared-core analysis establish every derivative’s historical origin.
For Qur’anic study, jild directly means skin. Hardness, softness, shivering, or burning follow from accompanying descriptions and verbs.
Jild: the body’s outer covering
Lisān al-ʿArab states:
الْجِلْدُ ... الْمَسْكُ مِنْ جَمِيعِ الْحَيَوَانِ.
al-jildu ... al-masku min jamīʿi al-ḥayawāni
Translation: “Jild is the hide of all animals.”
Mask here means animal hide, rather than fragrant musk. The form with initial kasrah, misk, names the fragrance; these vocalizations should not be confused.
Jild is thus not limited to human skin.
It can name the hides of camels, sheep, cattle, and other animals.
Specific names for certain animals’ skins do not displace this general usage.
The Qur’an demonstrates that breadth: julūdi al-anʿām in Al-Naḥl 16:80 concerns livestock hides; other verses concern human skin.
Jild therefore primarily names the outer bodily covering of humans or animals.
Jildah: a portion or piece of skin
Lisān al-ʿArab states:
وَالْجِلْدَةُ أَخَصُّ مِنَ الْجِلْدِ.
wa-al-jildatu akhaṣṣu mina al-jildi
Translation: “Jildah is more specific than jild.”
Lexical explanations use jildah for a portion or piece of skin.
This fits the distinction between a whole covering and part of it.
An animal’s complete hide can be jild, while a separated piece may be jildah.
Jildah, with initial kasrah, concerns a skin portion; jaldah, with initial fatḥah, is a single-action noun for one lash in striking usage.
In Al-Nūr 24:2 and Al-Nūr 24:4, the latter counts lashes: miʾata jaldatin and thamānīna jaldatan specify blow counts.
The unvocalized spellings resemble one another, but the first consonant’s vowel and familiar meanings differ; context and sentence structure also clarify their usage.
Lisān: jildah as a portion of skin
The punishment verses concern specified numbers of blows, rather than cutting off a hundred or eighty pieces of skin.
3. Skin, firmness, and endurance within the family
Jalad: strength and endurance
Jalad, with fatḥah on jīm and lām, can mean strength, firmness, and endurance.
Lisān al-ʿArab states:
وَالْجَلَدُ: الْقُوَّةُ وَالشِّدَّةُ.
wa-al-jaladu al-quwwatu wa-al-shiddatu
Translation: “Jalad is strength and firmness.”
This describes someone capable of withstanding hardship or pressure.
Someone retaining strength during difficult work may be called jald or jalīd.
This extends beyond skin resisting blows to bodily ability and sometimes steadfast conduct.
Strength alone does not make someone morally upright. Firmness can serve a good or a wrong direction.
Jalad describes strength and resistance here; their moral worth follows from the person’s conduct and its object.
Jaluda and jalīd
Jaluda is used for being strong or resilient.
Jalīd and jald can describe a strong, enduring person.
Lexical sources record adjective plurals such as juladāʾ and ajlād.
These relate to jild, skin, without being identical in meaning.
Rajulun jaldun need not describe thicker skin: it may concern endurance, bodily strength, or practical resilience.
“Strong,” “resilient,” or “enduring” can therefore fit better than “having skin.”
Jalādah: endurance and resistance
Jalādah is a verbal noun or noun concerning firmness and endurance.
It can describe retaining strength under pressure, hardship, or danger.
It is nevertheless not identical to ṣabr’s entire Qur’anic field.
Qur’anic ṣabr can concern perseverance in truth and responsibility, while jalādah can concern bodily endurance or resistance without identifying its moral direction.
Someone may remain stubborn in wrongdoing.
Firmness and a right direction are separate matters.
Tajallada: showing oneself resilient
Tajallada is Form V and can concern displaying or assuming resilience.
Someone may appear strong and patient before others despite inward grief or difficulty.
Endurance itself and its display are distinguished here.
This should not be imposed upon every Form V usage from morphology alone. Context determines genuine perseverance or merely its appearance.
Mujallad: resistant to blows
Al-Ṣiḥāḥ states:
وَفَرَسٌ مُجَلَّدٌ، إِذَا كَانَ لَا يَجْزَعُ مِنَ الضَّرْبِ.
wa-farasun mujalladun idhā kāna lā yajzaʿu mina al-ḍarbi
Translation: “A mujallad horse is one that does not become agitated under blows.”
This concerns riding and working animals.
It emphasizes endurance under blows.
It does not establish that the animal feels no pain or suffers no injury.
Absence of distress and absence of pain differ.
Describing resilience also does not morally endorse every violent treatment of an animal.
The lexicographer is explaining resistance to blows.
Jilād and mujāladah
Jālada and mujāladah also concern confrontation and exchanging blows in battle.
Lisān al-ʿArab states:
وَجَالَدْنَاهُمْ بِالسُّيُوفِ مُجَالَدَةً وَجِلَادًا: ضَارَبْنَاهُمْ.
wa-jāladnāhum bi-al-suyūfi mujāladatan wa-jilādan ḍārabnāhum
Translation: “We engaged them with swords in mujāladah and jilād: we exchanged blows with them.”
The subject is striking and bodily confrontation.
Mujāladah and qitāl nevertheless differ in root and semantic extent.
Mujāladah may occur during warfare without naming every aspect of a state of war.
These forms are not Qur’anic, but illustrate the family’s connection with striking and resisting blows as well as skin.
4. Other early Arabic uses
Jallada al-jazūra: removing an animal’s hide
Arabic also records jallada for removing a camel’s hide.
Al-Ṣiḥāḥ states:
وَتَجْلِيدُ الْجَزُورِ مِثْلُ سَلْخِ الشَّاةِ.
wa-tajlīdu al-jazūri mithlu salkhi al-shāti
Translation: “Tajlīd of a camel is like skinning a sheep.”
This concerns removing skin from an animal’s body.
Lexical accounts distinguish jallada for a camel from salakha for a sheep.
This describes naming practices in certain usages, rather than an absolute rule for every dialect and period.
Tajlīd as skinning should also not be equated with jald as flogging.
The verb’s object and construction clarify the intended meaning.
Al-Ṣiḥāḥ: camel tajlīd and sheep salkh
Jalad in camel husbandry
Lexical sources also record another use of jalad.
A dead calf’s hide was sometimes stuffed with vegetation or other material and placed near its mother, so its smell might calm her or induce acceptance of another calf.
Some accounts call this stuffed hide jalad.
This belongs to camel husbandry.
Skin is a detached material used in herding here, rather than only a living body’s covering.
This should not be equated with Qur’anic julūd, which concerns human or livestock skin rather than that particular herding device.
Ajlād and tajālīd: the body and limbs
Ajlād and tajālīd sometimes denote a person’s body or entire physical frame.
The connection is understandable because skin surrounds and covers the body.
A word for bodily covering can thus extend in certain expressions to the whole body.
This figurative extension does not make jild a complete synonym of jism or badan everywhere.
Qur’anic julūd, particularly beside other organs, retains the skin sense.
Hard, firm ground
Arḍun jaldatun and arḍun jaladun describe hard ground.
Bodily skin is not the subject.
The ground’s hardness and resistance are emphasized.
A hard, compact surface differs from soft or loose ground.
Some uses connect this with rocky conditions or difficulty in digging.
Hard ground need not necessarily be dry, waterless, or barren. Surface hardness, moisture, and growth are separate matters.
Lisān: husbandry, the body, and hard ground
Firm dates and resilient plants
Lisān records tamratun jaldatun for a firm, densely textured date.
Nakhlun jilādun also describes strong palms or palms resistant to difficult conditions.
The family thus describes firmness and resistance in nonhuman things too.
These usages should not replace skin’s meaning in Qur’anic verses.
5. Pre-Islamic Arabic witnesses
Hard ground in Al-Nābighah al-Dhubyānī’s poetry
The familiar pre-Islamic poet Al-Nābighah al-Dhubyānī describes a campsite’s remnants:
إِلَّا الْأَوَارِيَّ لَأْيًا مَا أُبَيِّنُهَا
وَالنُّؤْيَ كَالْحَوْضِ بِالْمَظْلُومَةِ الْجَلَدِ
illā al-awāriyya laʾyan mā ubayyinuhā / wa-al-nuʾya ka-al-ḥawḍi bi-al-maẓlūmati al-jaladi
Translation: “Except the tethering places I can scarcely distinguish, and the encircling earthwork, like a basin in hard, excavated ground.”
Al-jalad describes the ground.
The poet describes a hard surface retaining traces of former residence.
Al-nuʾy is an earthwork around a tent or dwelling intended to keep water out.
Some lexical commentaries explain al-maẓlūmah here as ground that has been dug or excavated.
The witness shows that pre-Islamic jalad could describe firm ground as well as skin or striking.
This accords with Ibn Fāris’s strength-and-firmness analysis.
Khizānat al-Adab: Al-Nābighah and excavated ground
Skin and striking in ʿAbd Manāf ibn Ribʿ al-Hudhalī’s poetry
A verse attributed to ʿAbd Manāf ibn Ribʿ al-Hudhalī states:
إِذَا تَجَاوَبَ نَوْحٌ قَامَتَا مَعَهُ
ضَرْبًا أَلِيمًا بِسِبْتٍ يَلْعَجُ الْجِلِدَا
idhā tajāwaba nawḥun qāmatā maʿahu / ḍarban alīman bi-sibtin yalʿaju al-jilidā
Translation: “When lamentation was answered, the two rose with it, striking painfully with a leather strap that burned and hurt the skin.”
Al-jild refers to bodily skin.
Sibt here concerns a leather strap used for striking.
Yalʿaju belongs to a root concerning burning and pain.
The image therefore concerns a blow affecting skin.
It attests the connection between skin and striking in Arabic literary usage.
Lexical sources discuss the final word’s lām vowel. Al-Jawharī treats its kasrah as poetic necessity, while Ibn al-Aʿrābī accepts another vocalization of the skin noun. Ibn al-Sikkīt questions its currency. The present quotation accordingly writes al-jilidā with kasrah on lām, matching that explanation.
This morphological and phonetic disagreement does not change the word’s meaning in the verse.
Attribution to the Hudhalī poet is recorded, but an exact date requires independent biographical and historical evidence. It can be treated as early Arabic without assuming a definitively established pre-Islamic date.
Lisān: ʿAbd Manāf’s witness and kasrah in al-jilidā
Ajlād in Al-Aswad ibn Yaʿfur’s poetry
The pre-Islamic poet Al-Aswad ibn Yaʿfur says:
أَمَا تَرَيْنِي قَدْ فَنِيتُ وَغَاضَنِي
مَا نِيلَ مِنْ بَصَرِي وَمِنْ أَجْلَادِي
a-mā taraynī qad fanītu wa-ghāḍanī / mā nīla min baṣarī wa-min ajlādī
Translation: “Do you not see that I am worn away, and what has afflicted my sight and body has diminished me?”
Ajlādī concerns his body or physical frame.
Ghāḍanī concerns diminishing.
The poet describes bodily deterioration and lost strength.
The family’s words could therefore refer to an entire human frame in some expressions.
That broader meaning should not be transferred to every Qur’anic julūd without evidence.
Where verses concern bodily skin, its softening, or its burning, the direct skin sense is clearer.
Lisān: Al-Aswad ibn Yaʿfur and the bodily-frame meaning
Findings from the early witnesses
These witnesses illuminate hard ground, skin under blows, and the human body.
The family thus had varied physical and descriptive uses before later legal terminology became established.
None establishes that every use necessarily arose through a single historical path.
Nor does early firmness or endurance justify rendering fa-ijlidū in Al-Nūr as “make firm” or “make persevere.” Each derivative requires its actual construction.
6. First Qur’anic usage: livestock hides and human life
Al-Naḥl 16:80: skin as dwelling material
وَاللَّهُ جَعَلَ لَكُم مِّن بُيُوتِكُمْ سَكَنًا وَجَعَلَ لَكُم مِّن جُلُودِ الْأَنْعَامِ بُيُوتًا تَسْتَخِفُّونَهَا يَوْمَ ظَعْنِكُمْ وَيَوْمَ إِقَامَتِكُمْ وَمِنْ أَصْوَافِهَا وَأَوْبَارِهَا وَأَشْعَارِهَا أَثَاثًا وَمَتَاعًا إِلَىٰ حِينٍ
wa-Allāhu jaʿala lakum min buyūtikum sakanan wa-jaʿala lakum min julūdi al-anʿāmi buyūtan tastakhiffūnahā yawma ẓaʿnikum wa-yawma iqāmatikum wa-min aṣwāfihā wa-awbārihā wa-ashʿārihā athāthan wa-matāʿan ilā ḥīnin
Existing Persian Forqan translation, rendered here in English: “The God has made your homes a place of rest, and made dwellings from livestock hides that you find light on your days of travel and residence; and from their wool, fine hair, and hair, furnishings and provision for a time.”
Julūdi al-anʿām concerns livestock hides.
Al-anʿām denotes domesticated livestock in the Qur’an.
Their hides can become material for various implements after removal from the body.
The verse concerns light dwellings used during travel and residence.
Skin is therefore presented as shelter material.
Julūd itself does not mean house, tent, or shelter.
The houses are made from hides, a relationship expressed by min julūdi al-anʿām.
Skin and animal fibers
The verse then mentions aṣwāf, awbār, and ashʿār.
These concern wool, fine animal hair, and hair.
The Qur’an distinguishes them from hides.
Skin covers the body, whereas wool and hair are structures or fibers growing upon it.
All can furnish everyday materials without being lexically identical.
Julūd should therefore not be rendered as wool or fabric.
This verse alone also does not establish every ruling on animal hides, preparation methods, or the animal’s condition before skin removal.
Where needed, these require independent study of permitted and forbidden uses and other animal-related verses.
Skin and nomadic life
Animal-hide shelters relate to nomadic life.
They can be easier to move than stone or mud-brick buildings.
The verse likewise mentions lightness during travel and residence.
This practical, historical setting clarifies julūd’s use.
It does not make J L D itself mean nomadism, a lightweight dwelling, or desert life.
Skin is the material used for shelter in those circumstances.
7. Skin in bodily and emotional responses
Al-Zumar 39:23: shivering and softening skin
اللَّهُ نَزَّلَ أَحْسَنَ الْحَدِيثِ كِتَابًا مُّتَشَابِهًا مَّثَانِيَ تَقْشَعِرُّ مِنْهُ جُلُودُ الَّذِينَ يَخْشَوْنَ رَبَّهُمْ ثُمَّ تَلِينُ جُلُودُهُمْ وَقُلُوبُهُمْ إِلَىٰ ذِكْرِ اللَّهِ ۚ ذَٰلِكَ هُدَى اللَّهِ يَهْدِي بِهِ مَن يَشَاءُ ۚ وَمَن يُضْلِلِ اللَّهُ فَمَا لَهُ مِنْ هَادٍ
Allāhu nazzala aḥsana al-ḥadīthi kitāban mutashābihan mathāniya taqshaʿirru minhu julūdu alladhīna yakhshawna rabbahum thumma talīnu julūduhum wa-qulūbuhum ilā dhikri Allāhi dhālika hudā Allāhi yahdī bihi man yashāʾu wa-man yuḍlili Allāhu fa-mā lahu min hādin
Existing Persian Forqan translation, rendered here in English: “The God sent down the best discourse, a harmonious, recurring Book from which the skins of those who fear their Lord shiver; then their skins and hearts soften toward remembrance of The God. This is the guidance of The God, by which He guides whom He wills; whoever The God leads astray has no guide.”
Julūd occurs twice here.
First, skin shivers or experiences a shiverlike response upon hearing divine speech.
Then skins and hearts soften toward remembrance of God.
Skin is thus a bodily organ present in human experience and response, as well as a material for implements.
Taqshaʿirru: the skin’s response
Taqshaʿirru belongs to Q SH ʿ R and concerns goosebumps, hair standing up, or skin shivering.
Minhu relates the response to the revealed discourse.
Julūd itself does not mean fear or shivering.
Skin names the organ; taqshaʿirru describes its response.
This prevents redefining J L D as fear, humility, or goosebumps.
Thumma talīnu julūduhum wa-qulūbuhum
Talīnu belongs to L Y N.
It concerns becoming soft.
The verse describes skins and hearts softening toward remembrance of God.
Softening skin and softening hearts differ.
Skin is bodily, while the heart here concerns inward response and orientation.
They appear together without becoming lexically identical.
Nor is every bodily response to speech necessarily evidence of faith or guidance.
The verse specifically concerns those who fear their Lord.
The response’s worth follows from the people’s description and the verse’s context.
Are skin and heart two separate realities?
The verse names skins and hearts separately.
That real linguistic distinction does not itself provide a complete account of body, mind, heart, and consciousness.
Bodily reactions can accompany emotional and cognitive experiences.
Their conjunction does not establish the precise biological or philosophical mechanism of every human experience.
The clear lexical result is that julūd names skins while accompanying verbs describe their response.
8. Skin in depictions of punishment
Al-Nisāʾ 4:56: burning and replacement of skins
إِنَّ الَّذِينَ كَفَرُوا بِآيَاتِنَا سَوْفَ نُصْلِيهِمْ نَارًا كُلَّمَا نَضِجَتْ جُلُودُهُم بَدَّلْنَاهُمْ جُلُودًا غَيْرَهَا لِيَذُوقُوا الْعَذَابَ ۗ إِنَّ اللَّهَ كَانَ عَزِيزًا حَكِيمًا
inna alladhīna kafarū bi-āyātinā sawfa nuṣlīhim nāran kullamā naḍijat julūduhum baddalnāhum julūdan ghayrahā li-yadhūqū al-ʿadhāba inna Allāha kāna ʿazīzan ḥakīman
Existing Persian Forqan translation, rendered here in English: “Those who denied Our signs, We shall soon burn in a fire. Whenever their skins are cooked through, We replace them with other skins so that they taste the punishment. Indeed, The God is Mighty, Wise.”
Julūduhum and julūdan both concern skin.
First comes skin altered by fire, then replacement with other skins.
Naḍijat belongs to a root whose physical uses concern ripening or cooking through heat.
The verb describes heat’s effect on skin, rather than jild’s meaning.
Does the verse explain the biology of the Hereafter?
It reports punishment and replacement of skins.
It does not scientifically detail replacement, bodily constitution, or pain mechanisms in the Hereafter.
It should not be taken as a specific theory of all nerves, pain receptors, or the biology of the resurrected body.
Conversely, the absence of such scientific detail does not authorize making the entire image an unsupported metaphor.
The report and the limits of our knowledge about its realization should both remain clear.
Al-Ḥajj 22:20: skin and heat
يُصْهَرُ بِهِ مَا فِي بُطُونِهِمْ وَالْجُلُودُ
yuṣharu bihi mā fī buṭūnihim wa-al-julūdu
Existing Persian Forqan translation, rendered here in English: “What is in their bellies and their skins are melted by it.”
Al-julūd appears beside what is inside their bellies.
The preceding verse describes intensely hot liquid poured from above their heads.
Skin thus appears in relation to heat affecting the body.
Julūd names skins; yuṣharu describes melting or being affected by heat.
The noun alone cannot establish the intensity, duration, or every stage of punishment.
Skin figures in punishment in Al-Nisāʾ 4:56 and Al-Ḥajj 22:20 without that contextual role becoming the root’s lexical meaning.
Arabic jild does not mean punishment.
9. Skins as witnesses to deeds
Fuṣṣilat 41:20: hearing, sight, and skin testify
حَتَّىٰ إِذَا مَا جَاءُوهَا شَهِدَ عَلَيْهِمْ سَمْعُهُمْ وَأَبْصَارُهُمْ وَجُلُودُهُم بِمَا كَانُوا يَعْمَلُونَ
ḥattā idhā mā jāʾūhā shahida ʿalayhim samʿuhum wa-abṣāruhum wa-julūduhum bi-mā kānū yaʿmalūna
Existing Persian Forqan translation, rendered here in English: “Until, when they reach it, their hearing, eyes, and skins testify against them about what they used to do.”
Julūduhum concerns their skins.
Skin appears beside hearing and sight.
These three terms differ lexically.
Hearing receives sound; sight concerns seeing; skin concerns bodily covering.
The verse nevertheless places all three in the role of witnesses to deeds.
That role follows from shahida and the sentence, rather than jild itself meaning a witness.
Fuṣṣilat 41:21: speaking skins
وَقَالُوا لِجُلُودِهِمْ لِمَ شَهِدتُّمْ عَلَيْنَا ۖ قَالُوا أَنطَقَنَا اللَّهُ الَّذِي أَنطَقَ كُلَّ شَيْءٍ وَهُوَ خَلَقَكُمْ أَوَّلَ مَرَّةٍ وَإِلَيْهِ تُرْجَعُونَ
wa-qālū li-julūdihim li-ma shahidtum ʿalaynā qālū anṭaqanā Allāhu alladhī anṭaqa kulla shayʾin wa-huwa khalaqakum awwala marratin wa-ilayhi turjaʿūna
Existing Persian Forqan translation, rendered here in English: “They say to their skins, ‘Why did you testify against us?’ They say, ‘The God, who makes everything speak, made us speak. He created you the first time, and to Him you are returned.’”
People speak to their skins, which answer.
Anṭaqanā Allāh attributes the speaking to God.
The skins’ speaking is part of the Qur’anic report about that scene.
It does not establish that present human skin has a tongue, independent consciousness, or humanlike speech.
Nor should its precise physical or nonphysical mechanism be determined without evidence.
The verse reports testimony and speech without scientifically detailing their manner.
Do julūd here mean sexual organs?
Some lexical and exegetical accounts suggest a euphemistic reference to sexual organs.
Al-Farrāʾ proposes that reading; Ibn Sīdah, however, explicitly understands the bodily skins involved in people’s actions.
This disagreement matters lexically.
The verses place julūd beside hearing and sight, and verse 22 again mentions all three witnessing.
The direct meaning “skins” is therefore clear.
Restriction to one body part requires stronger evidence.
Skin covers different bodily regions, with participation in bodily actions unrestricted to one area.
“Their skins” is consequently more precise in a basic translation; any proposed euphemism should remain distinct from the direct meaning.
Lisān: Al-Farrāʾ and Ibn Sīdah on julūd
Fuṣṣilat 41:22: deeds do not remain hidden
Fuṣṣilat 41:22 again relates hearing, sight, and skins to testimony.
It then discusses people’s assumptions about God’s knowledge of their actions.
The context emphasizes deeds not remaining hidden and people’s responsibility for them.
That ethical finding should not create a new meaning for julūd itself.
Skin remains skin; testimony is its role in the scene described.
10. Jalada and jaldah: flogging in Al-Nūr
Al-Nūr 24:2: a hundred lashes
الزَّانِيَةُ وَالزَّانِي فَاجْلِدُوا كُلَّ وَاحِدٍ مِّنْهُمَا مِائَةَ جَلْدَةٍ ۖ وَلَا تَأْخُذْكُم بِهِمَا رَأْفَةٌ فِي دِينِ اللَّهِ إِن كُنتُمْ تُؤْمِنُونَ بِاللَّهِ وَالْيَوْمِ الْآخِرِ ۖ وَلْيَشْهَدْ عَذَابَهُمَا طَائِفَةٌ مِّنَ الْمُؤْمِنِينَ
al-zāniyatu wa-al-zānī fa-ijlidū kulla wāḥidin minhumā miʾata jaldatin wa-lā taʾkhudhkum bihimā raʾfatun fī dīni Allāhi in kuntum tuʾminūna bi-Allāhi wa-al-yawmi al-ākhiri wa-l-yashhad ʿadhābahumā ṭāʾifatun mina al-muʾminīna
Existing Persian Forqan translation, rendered here in English: “The woman and man who commit unlawful sexual intercourse (zinā): flog each a hundred lashes. Let no pity for them overcome you in the religion of The God, if you believe in The God and the Last Day; let a group of believers witness their punishment.”
Fa-ijlidū is an imperative from J L D.
Miʾata jaldatin specifies the blow count.
The construction therefore concerns bodily blows, the familiar Arabic flogging use.
This also accords with Al-Jawharī’s gloss of jaladahu al-ḥadda as striking him and hitting his skin.
Al-Ṣiḥāḥ: flogging and striking skin
Does jald mean cutting skin?
Arabic does have forms in this family for removing an animal’s hide.
Fa-ijlidū in Al-Nūr 24:2, however, accompanies the count miʾata jaldatin.
This construction counts blows, rather than cutting a hundred pieces of skin.
Skinning an animal and flogging a human should therefore remain distinct.
They share a family but differ in meaning and sentence construction.
Does jaldah name an implement or a blow?
Jaldah here counts a single blow.
It does not independently identify the striking implement.
The familiar Arabic verb concerns whipping, making “flog” natural.
The phrase alone does not specify the implement’s material, length, thickness, or construction.
It also does not provide technical procedures, medical details, or implementation instructions for individual blows.
These limits should not be filled with unstated details.
Punishment rules and lexical meaning
This verse contains a legal, penal command.
J L D itself does not state every basis, evidentiary condition, limit of responsibility, or adjudicative procedure.
Understanding the ruling requires distinguishing the verb’s meaning from conditions of application.
Fa-ijlidū is lexically clear; identifying who falls under the ruling and how an accusation is established goes beyond defining the verb.
Subsequent Al-Nūr verses also discuss accusation, testimony, and accountability.
The punishment command does not let anyone impose it upon someone through mere allegation or suspicion.
Al-Nūr 24:4: eighty lashes for an unsubstantiated accusation
وَالَّذِينَ يَرْمُونَ الْمُحْصَنَاتِ ثُمَّ لَمْ يَأْتُوا بِأَرْبَعَةِ شُهَدَاءَ فَاجْلِدُوهُمْ ثَمَانِينَ جَلْدَةً وَلَا تَقْبَلُوا لَهُمْ شَهَادَةً أَبَدًا ۚ وَأُولَٰئِكَ هُمُ الْفَاسِقُونَ
wa-alladhīna yarmūna al-muḥṣanāti thumma lam yaʾtū bi-arbaʿati shuhadāʾa fa-ijlidūhum thamānīna jaldatan wa-lā taqbalū lahum shahādatan abadan wa-ulāʾika humu al-fāsiqūna
Proposed translation based on this study: “Those who accuse chaste women and then fail to produce four witnesses: flog them eighty lashes and never accept their testimony; they are the defiantly disobedient.”
Fa-ijlidūhum is the same imperative with a plural object pronoun.
Thamānīna jaldatan specifies the blow count.
Al-Nūr 24:2 and Al-Nūr 24:4 do not differ in jalada’s meaning.
Both concern flogging.
Their subjects and conditions differ.
Verse 2 concerns the woman and man who commit zinā.
Verse 4 concerns accusers of chaste women who fail to produce four witnesses.
The Qur’an thus specifies a legal response to an unsubstantiated accusation too.
Reputation, testimony, and responsibility for accusations
Al-Nūr 24:4 makes accusing someone of a sexual offense subject to accountability.
Accusers are responsible for their claims.
The verse also mentions rejecting testimony and calls them al-fāsiqūn.
Those matters follow from other phrases, rather than jaldah itself.
Al-Nūr 24:5 discusses repentance and reform.
Al-Nūr 24:6, Al-Nūr 24:7, Al-Nūr 24:8, and Al-Nūr 24:9 provide a different structure of testimony and reciprocal response for accusations between spouses.
Punishment thus cannot be separated from establishing allegations, accountability, and the right to respond.
A root study nevertheless does not replace comprehensive Qur’anic criminal-law research.
The lexical finding is clear: jald in the two Al-Nūr commands concerns flogging, with jaldah counting the blows.
Is jald figurative in Al-Nūr?
J L D also concerns firmness and endurance.
That branch alone does not authorize translating fa-ijlidū as “strengthen,” “educate,” or “make withstand.”
The verb, blow counts, and familiar Arabic usage support flogging.
Discarding the physical meaning requires stronger linguistic and contextual evidence.
Conversely, its clear meaning alone does not specify every application detail.
Lexical meaning and legal conditions differ; neither should replace the other.
12. Questions of interpretation and translation
Does j-l-d always mean skin?
No.
Jild means skin, while jalad can mean strength and firmness.
Jalada in a striking construction can mean flogging.
Morphology and vowels therefore require examination.
Does skin always symbolize hardness?
No.
Ibn Fāris identifies firmness and resistance as central family features.
Al-Zumar 39:23 nevertheless describes skin shivering and softening.
Skin itself should therefore not invariably be interpreted as hardness and resistance.
Its meaning remains while accompanying verbs express its state.
Is flogging the same as skinning?
Arabic has forms for removing animal hides, but fa-ijlidū in Al-Nūr accompanies counted blows.
It therefore means flogging, rather than skinning.
Does the root itself make flogging an act of justice?
No.
Jalada in striking usage names the action.
Its legitimate or illegitimate circumstances depend on the ruling, subject, and conditions.
Sharing the verb does not make every bodily blow against someone permissible or just.
Does skins’ testimony establish independent consciousness in earthly life?
Fuṣṣilat 41:20 and Fuṣṣilat 41:21 do not establish that definitively.
They report testimony and speaking in a particular scene and attribute speech to divine power.
These verses do not scientifically detail its realization in present life or the Hereafter.
Are skins in Fuṣṣilat only a euphemism for sexual organs?
Lexical sources mention that possibility.
Julūd nevertheless directly means skins, appearing beside hearing and sight.
Restricting it to one organ requires independent evidence.
“Skins” is more precise in a basic translation.
13. Translation proposals for Forqan
“Skin” is jild’s primary, natural equivalent.
“Skins” fits plural julūd.
Julūdi al-anʿām in Al-Naḥl 16:80 means livestock hides.
Julūdu alladhīna yakhshawna rabbahum in Al-Zumar 39:23 concerns the skins of those who fear their Lord.
Julūduhum and julūdan ghayrahā in Al-Nisāʾ 4:56 mean “their skins” and “other skins.”
Al-julūd in Al-Ḥajj 22:20 likewise means skins.
Julūduhum in Fuṣṣilat 41:20 means “their skins”; li-julūdihim in Fuṣṣilat 41:21 means “to their skins”; and julūdukum in Fuṣṣilat 41:22 means “your skins.”
None requires replacing skin with corpse, body, sexual organs, or conscience.
For penal jalada, “flogged” or “whipped” is appropriate.
Fa-ijlidū in Al-Nūr 24:2 means “flog.”
Fa-ijlidūhum in Al-Nūr 24:4 means “flog them.”
Jaldah counts lashes in these verses.
Miʾata jaldatin and thamānīna jaldatan therefore mean “a hundred lashes” and “eighty lashes.”
These equivalents agree with the existing Forqan translations.
Non-Qur’anic uses require differing equivalents.
Jalad as a verbal noun can mean firmness, strength, or endurance.
Jalīd applied to a person can mean strong or resilient.
Jalādah concerns firmness and resistance.
Tajallada can mean “showed perseverance” or “presented himself as resilient,” according to context.
Military jāladahu can mean “exchanged blows with him.”
Tajlīd in animal-hide removal concerns skinning.
Arḍun jaldatun means hard, firm ground.
These meanings should not be transferred to one another’s Qur’anic usages without evidence.
14. Conclusion
Arabic J L D concerns skin, hardness, firmness, and striking.
Ibn Fāris identifies strength and firmness as its semantic core. This fits skin’s resistance, human endurance, and hard ground without reducing every derivative’s direct meaning to one word.
Early jild names human and animal skin; jalad can express strength and endurance; and jalada in striking usage concerns flogging.
Early poetry attests hard ground, bodily skin, and the human frame.
The Qur’an uses the root thirteen times.
Al-Naḥl 16:80 presents livestock hides as shelter material.
Al-Zumar 39:23 describes skin shivering and then softening in response to divine speech.
Al-Nisāʾ 4:56 and Al-Ḥajj 22:20 place skin in depictions of punishment.
Fuṣṣilat 41:20, Fuṣṣilat 41:21, and Fuṣṣilat 41:22 depict skins witnessing deeds beside hearing and sight.
Al-Nūr 24:2 and Al-Nūr 24:4 use jalada for flogging and jaldah for counting blows.
Skin thus appears as a human bodily organ involved in experience and reports of the Hereafter, as well as detached material for implements.
The word itself nevertheless does not mean consciousness, fear, punishment, or testimony.
Flogging’s meaning in Al-Nūr is clear, while the root does not establish every evidentiary or application condition.
For Forqan, skin is the primary equivalent of jild and julūd; flogging fits penal jalada; and jaldah counts individual blows.
Descriptive jalad and jalādah concern strength, resistance, and endurance.
The family has several related branches: skin as bodily covering; firmness and endurance as qualities; and flogging as an action delivering blows upon the body.
Distinguishing these branches permits study of every Qur’anic use without making skin an ethical abstraction, removing the physical meaning of flogging, or imposing unstated details upon the verses.