Qur’anic Root J R AYN
Drinking gulp by gulp and difficulty swallowing: from drinking liquid to swallowing anger
Qur’anic and lexical forms
يَتَجَرَّعُهُ
(yatajarraʿuhu)
Form V imperfect with object pronoun; sole Qur’anic form
جَرِعَ / جَرَعَ
(jariʿa / jaraʿa)
Two recorded Form I vocalizations; drinking and swallowing
جَرْع
(jarʿ)
Verbal noun of drinking and swallowing; not Qur’anic
جُرْعَة / جَرْعَة
(jurʿah / jarʿah)
A quantity of drink or one act of drinking; not Qur’anic
جَرَّعَ / تَجْرِيع
(jarraʿa / tajrīʿ)
Form II verb and verbal noun; giving a drink
اجْتَرَعَ / اجْتِرَاع
(ijtaraʿa / ijtirāʿ)
Form VIII verb and verbal noun; swallowing liquid
تَجَرَّعَ / تَجَرُّع
(tajarraʿa / tajarruʿ)
Form V verb and verbal noun; successive drinking
جَارِع / مَجْرُوع
(jāriʿ / majrūʿ)
Active and passive participles; not Qur’anic
أَجْرَع / جَرْعاء
(ajraʿ / jarʿāʾ)
Certain sandy or gravelly terrains; not Qur’anic
جَرَعة
(jaraʿah)
A recorded geographical form; not Qur’anic
مَجَارِيع
(majārīʿ)
Camels yielding little milk; not Qur’anic
جَرِع / مُجَرَّع
(jariʿ / mujarraʿ)
A rope or bowstring with protrusions or irregular twist; not Qur’anic
Arabic jariʿa (جَرِعَ) means swallowing water or another liquid through the throat. Jurʿah (جُرْعَة) names a small quantity swallowed at one time. Tajarraʿa can describe repeated drinking, gulp after gulp, particularly when swallowing is difficult or unpleasant.
The family also extends to swallowing anger and enduring grief or bitterness. Someone suppressing anger is compared with a person laboring to swallow something unpleasant. Jarʿāʾ and ajraʿ also describe certain sandy terrains, while other family members concern animals’ scant milk or irregular twisting in a rope strand.
The root occurs once in the Qur’an: yatajarraʿuhu in Ibrāhīm 14:17. A person is given a putrid drink, drinks it gulp by gulp, and can hardly swallow it.
Repeated drinking accompanies difficulty swallowing. The root itself does not mean punishment, putrid drink, or death. Those meanings come from other words and clauses in the scene.
1. Forms and semantic core
J R AYN is a sound triliteral root. Lexical sources record both jariʿa and jaraʿa for drinking and swallowing liquid, although Al-Aṣmaʿī rejected the second past-tense form with a fatḥah on rāʾ.
The imperfect is yajraʿu. Recorded verbal nouns and nouns include jarʿ, jurʿah, jarʿah, ijtirāʿ, and tajarruʿ.
Other derivatives include jāriʿ, majrūʿ, jarraʿa, tajrīʿ, ijtaraʿa, tajarraʿa, ajraʿ, jarʿāʾ, jaraʿah, majārīʿ, and mujarraʿ.
They span drinking and swallowing, giving another a drink, swallowing anger, small quantities of liquid, certain sandy terrains, and conditions of rope strands or bowstrings.
Only yatajarraʿuhu occurs in the Qur’an. It is a third-person masculine singular imperfect in Form V, with the object pronoun -hu.
Quranic Arabic Corpus: the sole Form V occurrence
A small quantity of drink: Ibn Fāris’s account
In Maqāyīs al-Lughah, Ibn Fāris identifies qillatu al-shayʾi al-mashrūbi, the small quantity of what is drunk, as the family’s central principle.
That connects clearly with jurʿah. A person may have a large vessel of water but take and swallow only a little at a time.
In Kitāb al-ʿAyn, Al-Khalīl ibn Aḥmad distinguishes jarʿ from tajarruʿ in usage. Tajarruʿ involves successive gulps: one is swallowed and another follows.
The distinction matters. Jarʿ can name the basic act of swallowing liquid, whereas tajarruʿ prominently emphasizes repetition.
The Form V pattern alone does not establish that every instance involves force, pain, or unwillingness. Some usages have those features, and independent contextual evidence supports them in the Qur’anic passage.
A defensible core in the drinking branch is therefore swallowing a limited quantity of liquid at one time, and, in tajarruʿ, repeating the act successively. Brief root meaning: Drinking and swallowing a limited quantity of liquid; a gulp of a drink.
Ibn Fāris, Maqāyīs: a small quantity of drink and related branches
2. A gulp, drinking, and swallowing in early Arabic
Jurʿah: a small quantity of drink
Jurʿah names a quantity of water or another drink taken into the mouth and swallowed at one time.
Lexicographers also discuss the difference between jurʿah with ḍammah and jarʿah with fatḥah on jīm.
In one recorded distinction, jarʿah names a single act of swallowing, while jurʿah names the quantity swallowed.
That fits the distinction between one occurrence and a quantity found in certain Arabic nouns.
Actual usage does not always maintain the boundary so precisely. Sources also record closely related meanings for both vocalizations.
One short vowel should not be claimed to create two wholly separate, unchanging meanings across all Arabic dialects and periods.
The clear connection is with a limited quantity of drink and swallowing it.
Al-Muḥkam, Lisān, and Al-Ṣiḥāḥ: jurʿah and verb vocalization
Must a gulp always be extremely small?
A gulp involves a bounded quantity, but Arabic supplies no fixed volume for it.
Someone may take a small gulp or swallow more in one act.
Lexical sources sometimes explain jurʿah as a mouthful.
Al-Azharī, Tahdhīb: a mouthful as a jurʿah
It is therefore neither a numerical unit nor a fixed measure.
Persian jurʿah likewise can mean a little drink without specifying its volume.
That matters for yatajarraʿuhu: the verse describes successive drinking, rather than a particular number of gulps.
Jarʿ, ijtirāʿ, and tajarruʿ
Kitāb al-ʿAyn records jariʿa al-māʾa and ijtaraʿahu for swallowing water.
Al-Khalīl also compares ijtirāʿ for liquid with ibtilāʿ for food.
Both involve swallowing through the throat, while jarʿ is particularly associated with drink.
The same source gives tajarruʿ for repeated gulps.
Al-ʿAyn: successive gulps and ijtirāʿ versus ibtilāʿ
Lisān al-ʿArab additionally records swallowing an unpleasant drink with difficulty, gulp after gulp.
The distinctions can be understood as follows: jarʿ names swallowing liquid; ijtirāʿ can likewise denote swallowing it; tajarruʿ prominently presents successive gulps and sometimes the action’s difficulty.
The forms nevertheless do not always have absolute boundaries. Lexicographers also use them to explain one another.
The specific meaning in Ibrāhīm 14:17 therefore requires both lexical evidence and the verse’s context.
Jarraʿahu: giving another a drink
Form II jarraʿa is recorded for making or letting another drink liquid.
Someone causes another person to swallow it.
The drinker may consent or resist. The verb alone does not specify all the circumstances.
The figurative jarraʿahu ghuṣaṣa al-ghayẓi describes subjecting someone to repeated, bitter anger.
It differs from tajarraʿa al-ghayẓa. In the former, someone subjects another to something; in the latter, the person endures and swallows it himself.
Al-Ṣiḥāḥ: giving a drink and swallowing anger
Ibrāhīm 14:16 uses passive yusqā, being given a drink. The following verse uses active yatajarraʿuhu, attributing the drinking to the person himself.
The grammatical difference matters for the scene.
3. Swallowing anger and bitterness
From swallowing drink to swallowing anger
Arabic tajarraʿa al-ghayẓa means swallowing or suppressing anger.
It uses a bodily experience. One may labor to swallow a bitter or unpleasant drink; similarly, a person may keep intense anger inside rather than immediately express it through words or actions.
Nothing literally passes down the throat in the figurative use. It concerns an inner feeling and response.
The semantic extension shows a capacity of Arabic expression.
Swallowing anger does not always mean pardoning someone, forgiving, or resolving disagreement. A person may hold anger temporarily without eliminating it.
One may also wisely restrain anger and prevent wrongdoing.
The conduct’s ethical value follows from its circumstances and results, rather than the swallowing image alone.
Jarʿ and kaẓm
Āl ʿImrān 3:134 mentions al-kāẓimīna al-ghayẓa (الْكَاظِمِينَ الْغَيْظَ), those who restrain anger.
The word belongs to K Ẓ M, rather than J R AYN.
Kaẓama concerns holding, closing, and preventing something from coming out. With anger, a person restrains an outward response.
Tajarruʿ al-ghayẓ can likewise describe enduring and swallowing anger, but uses a different image.
Tajarruʿ emphasizes swallowing something unpleasant; kaẓm emphasizes restraint and preventing its emergence.
The distinction should not become absolute. They may describe similar conduct in some circumstances without being identical in formation or lexical imagery.
Ibrāhīm 14:17 does not concern anger. The object pronoun -hu connects the verb to the drink, placing physical swallowing at the sentence’s center.
A proverb about escaping at the last moment
Arabic sources record aflata bi-jurayʿati al-dhaqani (أَفْلَتَ بِجُرَيْعَةِ الذَّقَنِ).
It describes someone escaping at the final moment after approaching destruction.
Jurayʿah is the diminutive of jurʿah. Lexicographers connect the proverb with the last breath nearing the mouth and throat.
The image suggests a person with only a little breath left.
Lisān al-ʿArab quotes a verse attributed to Al-Muhalhil containing jurayʿata al-dhaqani:
«مِلْنَا عَلَى وَائِلٍ وَأَفْلَتَنَا
يَوْمًا عَدِيٌّ جُرَيْعَةَ الذَّقَنِ»
milnā ʿalā Wāʾilin wa-aflatanā / yawman ʿAdiyyun jurayʿata al-dhaqani
Its general sense is someone narrowly escaping the enemy at the final opportunity. Al-Muḥkam, Lisān, and Al-Jāḥiẓ’s Al-Ḥayawān read milnā at the opening, rather than minnā; the supplied text has been corrected accordingly.
Al-Jāḥiẓ, Al-Ḥayawān: milnā in the Al-Muhalhil witness
The witness helps establish the literary use of the expression in early Arabic. Definitive attribution and dating of this exact verse require independent evidence.
The central point is a small gulp employed in an image of life’s last opportunity.
That does not make the root itself mean death or escape from death. Those belong to the proverb’s situation, rather than the word’s definition.
4. Sandy terrain, scant milk, and rope irregularity
Jarʿāʾ and ajraʿ: sandy terrain
Jarʿāʾ and ajraʿ are recorded for certain sandy or gravelly terrains.
Ibn Fāris connects them with ground that seems not to have received enough water.
His account draws a comparison between drinking little and insufficiently watered ground.
It does not cover every geographical use of the family.
Ibn Al-Sikkīt, for example, relates jaraʿah to a sandy mound that does not grow plants. Al-Azharī instead reports hearing Arabs use jarʿāʾ for suitable, sandy, plant-growing ground.
Tahdhīb: Ibn Al-Sikkīt and Al-Azharī on jarʿāʾ ground
That matters: jarʿāʾ does not necessarily mean completely dry, vegetation-free land in every usage.
Definitions variously mention softness or roughness, sand and stones, and the possibility of plant growth.
The resemblance between jarʿāʾ and jurʿah alone does not establish that all such places were originally named for lacking water.
The drinking analogy can be examined, while historical naming requires independent evidence.
A witness from Dhū Al-Rummah
Dhū Al-Rummah, an Umayyad poet, opens one of his odes:
«أَمَا اسْتَحْلَبَتْ عَيْنَيْكَ إِلَّا مَحَلَّةٌ
بِجُمْهُورِ حُزْوَى أَوْ بِجَرْعَاءِ مَالِكِ»
a-mā istaḥlabat ʿaynayka illā maḥallatun / bi-jumhūri Ḥuzwā aw bi-Jarʿāʾi Māliki
That is: “Has anything but the memory of a dwelling at Jumhūr Ḥuzwā or Jarʿāʾ Mālik drawn tears from your eyes?” Maqāyīs also transmits am in place of aw; the supplied reading, attested in Asās al-Balāghah, is retained.
Asās al-Balāghah: Dhū Al-Rummah witness with aw
Jarʿāʾ occurs as part of a place name.
The poet recalls a location or dwelling associated with memory and sorrow.
The usage is geographical, rather than the act of drinking a gulp of water.
The verse alone does not prove that the ground was dry or without vegetation. Its physical character requires further evidence from the ode and geographical usages.
Dhū Al-Rummah lived in the Umayyad period. The poem witnesses early Arabic after the Qur’an, rather than independently attesting pre-Islamic usage.
Dīwān of Dhū Al-Rummah, Al-Bāhilī commentary: the ode’s opening
Majārīʿ: animals yielding little milk
Nūqun majārīʿu describes camels with little milk.
Ibn Fāris relates it to a small quantity of drink, as though the udders contained only a few gulps of milk.
That account fits the small-quantity principle.
The quantity of milk nevertheless differs from the act of drinking.
The camel is not drinking gulp by gulp; the description concerns the little milk obtainable from it.
This distinction prevents every family member from being explained as one person’s bodily act of drinking.
Jaraʿ in rope and bowstring usages
Lexical sources also record jaraʿ for a condition of rope strands or a bowstring.
A strand or twist is not properly aligned with the others and creates a protrusion or irregular twist.
Watarun jariʿun and watarun mujarraʿun are recorded for such a bowstring.
The use has no direct connection with swallowing water.
One may imagine similarities involving separate quantities or repeated protrusions, but resemblance does not prove historical derivation.
Ibn Fāris likewise separates this usage from his principal account through a small quantity of drink.
Rope irregularity should therefore remain an attested Arabic branch, without an invented certain connection to gulping.
5. The sole Qur’anic occurrence: difficult drinking in Ibrāhīm
Ibrāhīm, verse 17
يَتَجَرَّعُهُ وَلَا يَكَادُ يُسِيغُهُ وَيَأْتِيهِ الْمَوْتُ مِنْ كُلِّ مَكَانٍ وَمَا هُوَ بِمَيِّتٍ وَمِنْ وَرَائِهِ عَذَابٌ غَلِيظٌ
yatajarraʿuhu wa-lā yakādu yusīghuhu wa-yaʾtīhi al-mawtu min kulli makānin wa-mā huwa bi-mayyitin wa-min warāʾihi ʿadhābun ghalīẓun
“He gulps it and can hardly swallow it. Death comes to him from every direction, yet he does not die. And beyond him is a harsh punishment.”
The verse continues a description of the end of stubborn tyrants.
Ibrāhīm 14:15 describes the failure of every jabbārin ʿanīdin, stubborn tyrant.
Verse 16 then says:
مِنْ وَرَائِهِ جَهَنَّمُ وَيُسْقَىٰ مِنْ مَاءٍ صَدِيدٍ
min warāʾihi jahannamu wa-yusqā min māʾin ṣadīdin
“Hell lies beyond him, and he will be given putrid water to drink.”
Verse 17 describes drinking that same liquid.
The connection matters. Yatajarraʿuhu in Ibrāhīm 14:17 does have an object: the attached pronoun -hu. The drink’s explicit name is not repeated in the clause; Ibrāhīm 14:16 supplies its antecedent.
The reference of -hu in yatajarraʿuhu
Yatajarraʿuhu consists of yatajarraʿu and the object pronoun -hu.
The pronoun refers to the drink mentioned in the preceding verse.
Ibrāhīm 14:16 gives māʾin ṣadīdin. The liquid provided to the person is therefore what he drinks.
Tajarruʿ itself does not mean that the liquid is putrid.
Ṣadīd is explained under the separate root Ṣ D D in the field of purulent matter and wound discharge; its detailed study belongs in a separate article.
Study of Ṣ D D (Not yet published)
Māʾin ṣadīdin identifies the disagreeable liquid, while yatajarraʿuhu supplies the manner of drinking.
The distinction keeps pus or punishment from being inserted into every J R AYN definition.
Yatajarraʿuhu: successive drinking
Form V here fits attested Arabic tajarruʿ: swallowing liquid gulp after gulp.
The image differs from easily and continuously drinking something pleasant.
When a drink is unpleasant, a person may struggle to swallow it and have to repeat the swallowing action.
The verse specifies neither the number of gulps nor the quantity of liquid.
“He drinks it gulp by gulp” is therefore natural and appropriate, without fixing a number of tiny portions or a particular timing.
Wa-lā yakādu yusīghuhu: difficulty swallowing
Wa-lā yakādu yusīghuhu follows yatajarraʿuhu.
Yusīghu belongs to S W GH and concerns being palatable or passing easily down the throat.
Yakādu concerns an action approaching occurrence. Here lā yakādu yusīghuhu emphasizes extreme difficulty swallowing. The construction alone establishes neither absolute inability nor a specified quantity actually swallowed.
The Qur’an presents two related aspects.
First, the person drinks the liquid gulp by gulp.
Second, swallowing it is extremely difficult.
The clauses are connected but do not merely repeat one meaning.
Translating tajarruʿ as “cannot drink” would erase the distinction from the first verb, which attributes drinking to him.
Ignoring lā yakādu yusīghuhu would lose the extreme difficulty of swallowing.
Does he swallow the liquid completely?
Commentaries offer two explanations of lā yakādu yusīghuhu.
One reading makes the difficulty so great that the person can scarcely swallow.
Another sees drinking taking place but swallowing requiring extreme effort.
Al-Ṭabarī explains that Arabic lā yakādu can occur with an act that ultimately happens or one that does not. He prefers difficult swallowing here.
Al-Ṭabarī: two uses of lā yakādu and difficult swallowing here
The clear tension lies between drinking and the extreme difficulty of getting the drink down.
“He drinks it gulp by gulp and can hardly swallow it” defensibly conveys that condition.
The phrase alone does not establish the precise quantity passing through the throat or the physical condition of the digestive system.
The Qur’an describes punishment here, rather than giving a medical account of swallowing mechanisms.
Being given a drink and drinking
The verbs in Ibrāhīm 14:16 and Ibrāhīm 14:17 also differ.
Yusqā in verse 16 is passive and reports liquid being given to the person.
Yatajarraʿuhu in verse 17 is active and attributes drinking to him.
They fit one scene: liquid is provided and he swallows it gulp by gulp.
The passive does not name the provider. It does not by itself identify particular angels forcing him to drink through a specified method.
Tajarruʿ alone does not mean external compulsion, although the punishment context presents an unpleasant drink and difficulty swallowing.
The distinction preserves the word’s meaning without adding unstated narrative details.
6. Death, punishment, and their difference from tajarruʿ
After difficult drinking, the verse says:
«وَيَأْتِيهِ الْمَوْتُ مِنْ كُلِّ مَكَانٍ وَمَا هُوَ بِمَيِّتٍ»
wa-yaʾtīhi al-mawtu min kulli makānin wa-mā huwa bi-mayyitin
Death comes toward him from every direction, yet he is not dead.
The expression conveys the severity of his condition in the punishment scene.
Tajarruʿ has no necessary lexical connection with death. In ordinary life one may drink water or unpleasant medicine gulp by gulp without facing death.
The connection with death and punishment arises from this passage’s particular context.
Does tajarruʿ itself mean suffering punishment?
Persian imagery of drinking bitterness gulp by gulp can describe enduring suffering and difficulty.
Arabic tajarruʿ al-ghayẓ likewise concerns enduring anger.
These figurative uses do not make yatajarraʿuhu in Ibrāhīm 14:17 simply mean “he suffers.”
The preceding verse identifies a particular drink. Directly swallowing that liquid therefore has clearer textual support.
Enduring punishment can be understood from the whole scene, but should not replace the verb’s direct meaning.
Does difficulty drinking prove extreme thirst?
Some commentaries invoke intense thirst to explain the scene.
It is a conceivable account of someone who needs drink but suffers when swallowing it.
Yatajarraʿuhu itself nevertheless does not mean being thirsty.
The passage reports a drink being given and difficulty swallowing, without measuring thirst, identifying the cause of the need to drink, or specifying physiological details.
Extreme thirst, if offered as an explanation, should remain distinct from jarʿ’s lexical meaning.
Al-Ṭabarī: thirst as contextual explanation, not the definition of tajarruʿ
Wa-min warāʾihi ʿadhābun ghalīẓun
The verse ends by reporting a severe punishment beyond this condition.
The difficult-drinking scene is thus not the whole description of punishment.
Tajarruʿ alone cannot identify the kind of subsequent punishment.
ʿAdhābun ghalīẓun is an independent expression in the verse, rather than merely another meaning of drinking gulp by gulp.
Root analysis should keep drinking, difficulty swallowing, approaching death, and further punishment distinguishable.
8. Translation proposal for Forqan
For yatajarraʿuhu in Ibrāhīm 14:17, “he drinks it gulp by gulp” is a natural, defensible equivalent of the proposed Persian wording.
It conveys drinking while retaining successive gulps.
“He swallows it with difficulty” also fits the scene, but alone would weaken the repeated-gulp element.
Extreme difficulty swallowing is also stated separately in the following wa-lā yakādu yusīghuhu.
Both clauses should therefore remain in the translation.
The installed English Forqan translation reads:
“He gulps it and can hardly swallow it. Death comes to him from every direction, yet he does not die. And beyond him is a harsh punishment.”
It keeps the clauses and their relationships distinguishable.
Brief root meaning
“J R AYN: drinking and swallowing a limited quantity of liquid; a gulp of a drink.”
The Qur’anic contextual meaning
“Yatajarraʿuhu: he drinks it gulp by gulp; here, successive drinking of a liquid extremely difficult to swallow.”
The root and verbal form supply quantity and manner, while extreme difficulty and the drink’s character follow from Ibrāhīm 14:16 and Ibrāhīm 14:17.
Suffering punishment, swallowing anger, approaching death, or drinking pus should not replace the verb’s independent meaning.
Conclusion
Arabic J R AYN concerns drinking and swallowing liquid. Jurʿah is a limited quantity of drink; tajarruʿ prominently describes gulp following gulp.
Some uses accompany difficulty and unpleasantness. The same image also describes swallowing anger and enduring bitterness.
The family additionally concerns sandy terrains, animals’ scant milk, and irregular rope strands. Some lexicographers try to connect these with a small quantity of drink, but not every historical relationship is established.
The root occurs only in Ibrāhīm 14:17 in the Qur’an.
The person given putrid water in the preceding verse drinks it gulp by gulp and can hardly swallow it. Death comes toward him from every direction, yet he does not die and severe punishment lies beyond him.
The direct, defensible meaning of yatajarraʿuhu is drinking gulp by gulp and repeatedly swallowing liquid. Extreme difficulty, the liquid’s unpleasant character, and punishment follow from the accompanying expressions and context.
The distinction preserves the root’s meaning without limiting all its usages to punishment, unwillingness, or pain, and without adding conjectural details about punishment to the Qur’an.