Qur’anic root ج و ع — J W AYN (J W ʿ)

1. The semantic core in early Arabic

Jūʿ: the opposite of satiety

Arabic lexical sources place الجُوع (al-jūʿ) opposite الشِّبَع (al-shibaʿ), satiety. جَاعَ يَجُوعُ (jāʿa / yajūʿu) means to become or be hungry, while شَبِعَ (shabiʿa) means to become satiated. This contrast clarifies the root’s central meaning: hunger is a condition in which the need for food has not been adequately met. These lexical records explain the words’ meanings, but do not independently establish the precise date when each form was current before revelation.

جُوع (jūʿ) names the condition. جَائِع (jāʾiʿ) describes a hungry person, as does جَوْعَان (jawʿān). Plurals such as جِيَاع (jiyāʿ) and جَوْعَى (jawʿā) are used for groups of hungry people.

جَائِع (jāʾiʿ) and جَوْعَان (jawʿān) both describe being hungry. The intensity comes from context; there is no absolute rule that jāʾiʿ always means mildly hungry and jawʿān always means on the verge of death.

جَوْعَة (jawʿah) can denote a single bout of hunger, experienced on a particular occasion. مَجَاعَة (majāʿah), by contrast, is commonly used for widespread hunger and conditions in which food becomes scarce during a period or across a region. Arabic عام مجاعة (ʿām majāʿah) describes a year when people suffer famine and hunger.

This distinction matters. An individual may be hungry without their society experiencing famine. During a famine, people may also experience different degrees of hunger.

Hunger, then, is a condition involving the need for food, while majāʿah can describe the wider social and economic circumstances in which many people experience it.

Becoming hungry and making someone hungry

Arabic distinguishes جَاعَ (jāʿa) from أَجَاعَ (ajāʿa) and جَوَّعَ (jawwaʿa).

جَاعَ (jāʿa) is intransitive: someone became hungry. أَجَاعَهُ (ajāʿahu) and جَوَّعَهُ (jawwaʿahu), however, can mean making another person hungry or causing their hunger.

This lets us distinguish the condition itself from whatever brings it about. Someone may remain hungry for a time because food does not reach them, because of illness or travel, or by choice. Another person may cause hunger by preventing someone from accessing food.

تَجَوَّعَ (tajawwaʿa) is also recorded for someone deliberately reducing their food intake or enduring hunger. Jūʿ itself, however, does not mean voluntary hunger.

Only تَجُوعَ (tajūʿa), from the basic verb, occurs in the Qur’an. Deliberately making others hungry or voluntarily going hungry should therefore not be presented as the direct meaning of a derivative used in the Qur’an.

Hunger in early Arabic poetry

The celebrated poem Lāmiyyat al-ʿArab, attributed to al-Shanfarā, includes:

«أُدِيمُ مِطَالَ الْجُوعِ حَتَّى أُمِيتَهُ
وَأَضْرِبُ عَنْهُ الذِّكْرَ صَفْحًا فَأَذْهَلُ»

“I keep putting hunger off until I seem to kill it; I turn its memory aside until I forget it.”

In the next line, the poet says he swallows the earth’s dust so that no benefactor can claim a favour over him. This hyperbole highlights his preference for enduring hunger rather than accepting someone’s hold over him through beneficence.

These lines portray hunger in the life of someone seeking to preserve his independence by enduring hardship. Hunger here is real deprivation of food, while the poet connects his response with endurance and avoidance of dependence.

The attribution of the whole poem to al-Shanfarā is disputed, however. Some early transmitters attributed it to him; others assigned it to another poet or transmitter. This line is therefore a familiar witness to Arabic poetic language, but cannot be treated without qualification as certain evidence of usage before Islam.

Later in the same poem comes وَأَطْوِي عَلَى الْخَمْصِ الْحَوَايَا (wa-aṭwī ʿalā al-khamṣi al-ḥawāyā): the poet speaks of folding his intestines over an empty belly, then likens them to intertwined strands. This shows that Arabic describes hunger not only through jūʿ but also through words concerning the belly’s condition and emptiness.

Figurative extensions of hunger

Arabic lexical sources also record جُعْتُ إِلَى لِقَائِكَ (juʿtu ilā liqāʾika), “I longed to meet you.” Here the need for food becomes an image of intense longing.

جَائِعُ الْقِدْرِ (jāʾiʿ al-qidri) is also recorded for someone whose cooking pot is not full, and جَائِعَةُ الْوِشَاحِ (jāʾiʿat al-wishāḥi) for a woman with a slender, lean belly.

In these uses, hunger extends from a person’s ordinary condition to longing, shortage or physical appearance. Recording these expressions in later dictionaries does not independently date their use before revelation.

These figurative extensions do not mean that every occurrence of jūʿ in the Qur’an should be read as spiritual hunger, deficient faith or spiritual longing. Such a meaning requires support from the verse’s own construction and context.

All five Qur’anic occurrences have a clear connection with food and bodily need. Physical hunger therefore provides the starting point and primary basis for understanding these verses.

2. Hunger and fear: testing and the consequences of conduct

وَلَنَبْلُوَنَّكُمْ بِشَيْءٍ مِنَ الْخَوْفِ وَالْجُوعِ — testing with fear and hunger

Al-Baqarah 2:155 says:

«وَلَنَبْلُوَنَّكُمْ بِشَيْءٍ مِنَ الْخَوْفِ وَالْجُوعِ وَنَقْصٍ مِنَ الْأَمْوَالِ وَالْأَنْفُسِ وَالثَّمَرَاتِ وَبَشِّرِ الصَّابِرِينَ»

“And We will surely test you with something of fear and hunger, and loss of wealth, lives and produce; and give good news to those who patiently endure.”

(Al-Baqarah 2:155)

الْجُوعِ (al-jūʿi), hunger, is one of the conditions people encounter in being tested. Alongside it come fear, loss of wealth, harm to lives and loss of produce.

These conditions are related but do not mean the same thing. Fear may concern a future danger; hunger is the body’s present need for food; and loss of wealth or produce can create difficulties in securing a livelihood.

The verse places hunger within بِشَيْءٍ مِنَ (bi-shayʾin mina), “with something of.” It speaks of experiencing a measure of these difficulties, rather than necessarily saying that all those addressed will suffer equally or that food will disappear completely.

Is hunger a punishment in this verse?

Al-Baqarah 2:155 presents hunger in the context of testing. It calls for patience in facing difficulties, and the next verse describes people’s response when misfortune strikes.

The word jūʿ itself does not mean testing or punishment. Testing comes from وَلَنَبْلُوَنَّكُمْ (wa-la-nabluwannakum), “and We will surely test you,” while patience is the response discussed in facing these difficulties.

Not every instance of hunger can therefore be treated as a sign of the hungry person’s sin or punishment. This very verse shows hunger arising in the lives of people whom the Qur’an addresses through testing and a call to patience.

Nor does patience in hunger make the need for food unimportant. The verse places hunger alongside fear and the loss of property and life, recognising it as a real difficulty in human life.

لِبَاسَ الْجُوعِ وَالْخَوْفِ: hunger in a prosperous settlement

Al-Naḥl 16:112 says:

«وَضَرَبَ اللَّهُ مَثَلًا قَرْيَةً كَانَتْ آمِنَةً مُطْمَئِنَّةً يَأْتِيهَا رِزْقُهَا رَغَدًا مِنْ كُلِّ مَكَانٍ فَكَفَرَتْ بِأَنْعُمِ اللَّهِ فَأَذَاقَهَا اللَّهُ لِبَاسَ الْجُوعِ وَالْخَوْفِ بِمَا كَانُوا يَصْنَعُونَ»

“And The God set forth the example of a settlement that was safe and at ease, its provision coming to it abundantly from every place. Then it was ungrateful for The God’s blessings, so The God made it taste the garment of hunger and fear because of what they used to do.”

(Al-Naḥl 16:112)

The settlement’s initial condition is described through security, tranquillity and abundant provision. The verse then speaks of ingratitude for blessings, presenting hunger and fear as consequences of the people’s conduct.

The difference from Al-Baqarah 2:155 is clear. There hunger appeared in a context of testing; in Al-Naḥl it and fear follow the inhabitants’ ingratitude and conduct.

This distinction does not require changing the lexical meaning of jūʿ. In both verses hunger remains the unmet need for food. What differs is the situation and the cause stated in each verse.

Why a “garment of hunger”?

Al-Naḥl 16:112 uses لِبَاسَ الْجُوعِ وَالْخَوْفِ (libāsa al-jūʿi wa-al-khawfi), “the garment of hunger and fear.” Clothing covers the body and stays with it. Hunger and fear are likened here to clothing settling over the people’s lives.

The same sentence also uses أَذَاقَهَا (adhāqahā): The God made it taste that condition. The verse thus draws on two familiar images, tasting and wearing.

The point is not literal clothing made of hunger or tasting a substance called fear. These images express the painful, pervasive experience of that condition.

In a settlement, hunger and fear can extend beyond the individual, affecting people’s relationships and everyday activities. Food shortage, anxiety about the future and the loss of security make collective life difficult.

The clothing image, however, does not establish that every inhabitant was equally hungry or that no food remained. It conveys intensity and pervasiveness without specifying the exact scale of shortage.

Nor does the verse itself name the settlement. Identifying it definitively with a particular city or historical event requires independent evidence.

Two occurrences in different contexts

Comparing Al-Baqarah 2:155 and Al-Naḥl 16:112 clarifies an important boundary.

Hunger accompanies fear in both verses. One, however, speaks of testing; the other of the consequences of ingratitude and the conduct of a settlement’s people.

The mere appearance of famine or hunger in a society therefore does not establish that The God has punished those people for some particular conduct. Such a judgement needs independent evidence.

Conversely, hunger’s role as a test in one verse does not prevent human actions from contributing to its emergence or severity in another setting.

The root itself identifies none of these causes. Jūʿ retains its meaning; its relationship to testing, human conduct or social consequences is recognised from the verses’ construction.

3. أَطْعَمَهُمْ مِنْ جُوعٍ: food and security in Quraysh

Quraysh 106:3 and Quraysh 106:4 says:

«فَلْيَعْبُدُوا رَبَّ هَٰذَا الْبَيْتِ ۝ الَّذِي أَطْعَمَهُمْ مِنْ جُوعٍ وَآمَنَهُمْ مِنْ خَوْفٍ»

“So let them worship the Lord of this House, who fed them and delivered them from hunger, and made them secure from fear.”

(Quraysh 106:3 and Quraysh 106:4)

These verses follow the reminder of Quraysh’s accustomed association and their winter and summer journeys. The Qur’an then calls them to worship the Lord of this House and recalls two blessings: food against hunger and security against fear.

Here, unlike Al-Naḥl 16:112, hunger is not presented as a condition imposed on people following ingratitude. The verse speaks of their need being met.

أَطْعَمَهُمْ (aṭʿamahum) comes from ط ع م (ṭāʾ ʿayn mīm) and concerns feeding. جُوع (jūʿ) names the condition of need that food is provided to relieve. The words are related but not synonymous.

مِنْ جُوعٍ: deliverance from hunger

In أَطْعَمَهُمْ مِنْ جُوعٍ (aṭʿamahum min jūʿin), the preposition مِنْ (min), “from,” matters to the relationship. The sentence concerns feeding in response to hunger and deliverance from it.

The expression does not necessarily mean that this verse reports a particular historical famine. What is explicit is feeding and relief of the need for food.

Nor does the verse merely say that food became available. أَطْعَمَ (aṭʿama) denotes feeding. Hunger thus stands opposite an action undertaken to meet that need.

Hunger and fear: two basic needs

The verse pairs أَطْعَمَهُمْ مِنْ جُوعٍ (aṭʿamahum min jūʿin), “fed them against hunger,” with آمَنَهُمْ مِنْ خَوْفٍ (āmanahum min khawfin), “made them secure from fear.”

Feeding meets the body’s need; security removes fear of danger. Both matter to human life, but they are different needs. Someone may have enough food yet live in insecurity, or live somewhere safe without finding sufficient food.

Al-Naḥl 16:112 presents the same pairing from the opposite direction: a settlement previously enjoying provision and security falls into hunger and fear.

Read together, these verses show the Qur’an recognising food and security as real blessings of life. Hunger is a deprivation and distress whose relief is counted a blessing.

This pairing does not establish an absolute hierarchy in which food always matters more than security or security always results from satiety. The verses place the two needs together without making either mean the other.

4. أَلَّا تَجُوعَ فِيهَا: freedom from hunger in Adam’s story

The root’s only Qur’anic verb occurs in Ṭā Hā 20:118:

«إِنَّ لَكَ أَلَّا تَجُوعَ فِيهَا وَلَا تَعْرَىٰ»

“Indeed, it is yours there neither to be hungry nor to be naked.”

(Ṭā Hā 20:118)

The next verse says:

«وَأَنَّكَ لَا تَظْمَأُ فِيهَا وَلَا تَضْحَىٰ»

“And that there you neither thirst nor suffer exposure to the sun.”

(Ṭā Hā 20:119)

These verses appear in Adam’s story after the warning about Iblīs’s enmity and the danger of being driven out of the Garden.

Freedom from hunger is presented as one feature of Adam’s life in that setting. Alongside it, the Qur’an speaks of freedom from nakedness, thirst and the distress of exposure to the sun.

What does تَجُوعَ express?

تَجُوعَ (tajūʿa) is an imperfect verb from جَاعَ (jāʿa). In أَلَّا تَجُوعَ (allā tajūʿa), the verb follows أَنْ (an), which introduces a verbal clause functioning as a noun, and the negative لَا (lā). It is therefore in the subjunctive, marked here by its final -a.

Adam is the addressee, and فِيهَا (fīhā), “in it,” refers to the Garden mentioned in the preceding verses.

The verb’s meaning is straightforward: to be hungry. Its negation means that Adam does not face an unmet need for food there.

The verse does not say, however, that Adam eats no food there or that his body has no need for it. These are separate claims that do not follow from the negation of hunger alone.

Later verses also speak of Adam and his wife eating from the tree. Freedom from hunger in this context is therefore not the absence of all eating.

Hunger, nakedness, thirst and heat

These two verses place four conditions together: hunger, nakedness, thirst and exposure to the sun.

Their relationship is clear. Food, clothing, water and shelter from the sun’s heat are familiar human needs. In describing Adam’s condition, the Qur’an speaks of freedom from the distress caused by these deprivations.

Their juxtaposition does not establish that hunger and nakedness mean the same thing lexically, or that thirst and heat are the same condition.

Each word identifies a particular need or distress. Together the verses describe Adam’s life through the absence of several basic difficulties.

Nor can these two verses determine all the Garden’s physical features, the nature of food there or the physical character of its environment. Those questions exceed the meaning of ج و ع.

For this root study, the conclusion is clear: the Qur’an recognises hunger as a condition whose absence can form part of a life of abundance and freedom from distress.

5. لَا يُسْمِنُ وَلَا يُغْنِي مِنْ جُوعٍ: food that does not relieve hunger

Al-Ghāshiyah 88:6 and Al-Ghāshiyah 88:7 says:

«لَيْسَ لَهُمْ طَعَامٌ إِلَّا مِنْ ضَرِيعٍ ۝ لَا يُسْمِنُ وَلَا يُغْنِي مِنْ جُوعٍ»

“They have no food except from ḍarīʿ, which neither fattens nor relieves hunger.”

(Al-Ghāshiyah 88:6 and Al-Ghāshiyah 88:7)

These verses describe the suffering of a group in the hereafter. Al-Ghāshiyah 88:4 speaks of their entering a scorching fire, and Al-Ghāshiyah 88:5 of their being given drink from an intensely hot spring; their food is then introduced.

ضَرِيع (ḍarīʿ) names the food mentioned in the verse. Its lexical explanation and identification belong to another root. What matters here for ج و ع is وَلَا يُغْنِي مِنْ جُوعٍ (wa-lā yughnī min jūʿin), “nor does it relieve hunger.”

Eating and relieving hunger do not mean the same thing

The verses speak of طَعَام (ṭaʿām), food, but describe that very food as unable to relieve hunger.

This distinction matters. The existence of something called food does not necessarily mean relief from hunger. Food may be available or consumed without meeting the body’s need.

لَا يُسْمِنُ (lā yusminu) says that the food does not fatten the body; لَا يُغْنِي مِنْ جُوعٍ (lā yughnī min jūʿin) says that it does not remove hunger.

The verse thus negates two properties separately. Fattening comes from أَسْمَنَ (asmana); meeting or relieving a need comes from أَغْنَىٰ (aghnā). Jūʿ is the hunger that remains unrelieved.

This verse does not establish that the lexical meaning of hunger in the hereafter changes to “spiritual regret” or “deficient faith.” The text speaks of food and hunger, although the precise nature of that experience in the hereafter cannot be determined with certainty from bodily experience in present life.

مِنْ جُوعٍ in Al-Ghāshiyah and Quraysh

Comparing Al-Ghāshiyah 88:7 and Quraysh 106:4 brings out a clear point.

Quraysh says أَطْعَمَهُمْ مِنْ جُوعٍ (aṭʿamahum min jūʿin): The God fed them and relieved their hunger.

Al-Ghāshiyah says لَا يُغْنِي مِنْ جُوعٍ (lā yughnī min jūʿin): the food mentioned does not relieve hunger.

In both, مِنْ جُوعٍ (min jūʿin) concerns the same need, but the result differs. In one, feeding leads to relief from hunger; in the other, the food present does not suffice to relieve it.

This distinction comes from أَطْعَمَ (aṭʿama), يُغْنِي (yughnī) and the negation in the second verse, rather than jūʿ taking a new meaning in each verse.

The meaning of hunger thus remains constant, while people’s situation in relation to it differs.

6. Neighbouring roots and translation choices

ج و ع (jūʿ) and ش ب ع (shabiʿa)

شبع (shibaʿ) concerns becoming satiated and satisfying the need for food. Jūʿ stands opposite it, denoting hunger.

This opposition is among the clearest lexical relationships in this family. It does not mean, however, that every satiated person is necessarily well nourished, or that every hungry person is dying from lack of food.

Hunger and satiety are conditions concerning the need for and intake of food. Their intensity can vary.

The Qur’an uses ج و ع, but not shibaʿ or its derivatives. Their absence does not deny the familiar meaning of satiety in Arabic.

ج و ع (jūʿ) and خ م ص (makhmaṣah)

خ م ص (khāʾ mīm ṣād) concerns an empty or hollowed belly. مَخْمَصَة (makhmaṣah) is used for hunger and, in some settings, severe food shortage.

Al-Māʾidah 5:3 says:

«فَمَنِ اضْطُرَّ فِي مَخْمَصَةٍ غَيْرَ مُتَجَانِفٍ لِإِثْمٍ فَإِنَّ اللَّهَ غَفُورٌ رَحِيمٌ»

“Then whoever is compelled by hunger and shortage of food, without inclining towards sin—indeed, The God is forgiving and merciful.”

(Al-Māʾidah 5:3; end of the verse)

Here makhmaṣah accompanies compulsion and necessity. The context presents hunger under conditions of seriously restricted access to food.

The same word occurs in Al-Tawbah 9:120 alongside thirst and fatigue.

Lexically, jūʿ and makhmaṣah overlap; some sources even explain one through the other. Khamaṣ, however, brings out the image of the empty, hollowed belly, whereas jūʿ directly names the condition of hunger.

This is a tendency, not a fixed boundary under which jūʿ always means mild hunger and makhmaṣah always severe hunger.

ج و ع (jūʿ) and س غ ب (masghabah)

س غ ب (sīn ghayn bāʾ) also concerns hunger. Some sources explain it as hunger accompanied by fatigue and hardship.

Al-Balad 90:14 says:

«أَوْ إِطْعَامٌ فِي يَوْمٍ ذِي مَسْغَبَةٍ»

“Or feeding on a day of hunger and food shortage.”

(Al-Balad 90:14)

The following verses speak of feeding a related orphan or a destitute person in distress.

مَسْغَبَة (masghabah) here expresses difficult conditions of hunger, highlighting feeding at such a time.

Jūʿ and masghabah are not wholly separate kinds of hunger. Both concern the need for food, while masghabah in its Qur’anic use accompanies hardship and widespread shortage.

Their differences are best understood through each word’s image and context, rather than assigning them numerical degrees of hunger.

ج و ع (jūʿ) and ط ع م (aṭʿama)

ط ع م (ṭāʾ ʿayn mīm) concerns food, eating and, in some uses, tasting. أَطْعَمَ (aṭʿama) means to feed someone.

Quraysh 106:4 places this verb alongside jūʿ. Feeding is an action concerned with meeting the need expressed by hunger.

Jūʿ itself does not mean eating, however, nor does طعم necessarily mean hunger. Someone may eat without previously having been very hungry.

Al-Ghāshiyah 88:6 and Al-Ghāshiyah 88:7 also shows that calling something food does not necessarily mean that it relieves hunger.

ج و ع (jūʿ) and ظ م أ (ẓamiʾa)

ظَمَأ (ẓamaʾ) denotes thirst. Ṭā Hā 20:118 and Ṭā Hā 20:119 places hunger and thirst together, but each expresses a different need.

Hunger concerns food; thirst concerns water and drinking. A person may be thirsty without being hungry, or hungry while having sufficient water.

Placing them together in Adam’s story therefore does not merge their meanings. The Qur’an describes freedom from each distress separately.

Translation choices for Forqan

Across all five Qur’anic occurrences, “hunger” and “to be hungry” are clear, natural equivalents for this root.

In Al-Baqarah 2:155, الْجُوعِ (al-jūʿi) is “hunger.” Testing comes from وَلَنَبْلُوَنَّكُمْ (wa-la-nabluwannakum), and should not become part of the meaning of hunger itself.

In Al-Naḥl 16:112, لِبَاسَ الْجُوعِ وَالْخَوْفِ (libāsa al-jūʿi wa-al-khawfi) is best explained while preserving the clothing image: “made them taste the garment of hunger and fear.” The wording is unusual in English, but retains the verse’s two principal images. The explanation can describe hunger and fear settling over their lives like an enveloping covering.

In Ṭā Hā 20:118, أَلَّا تَجُوعَ فِيهَا (allā tajūʿa fīhā) can naturally be rendered “you will not be hungry there.” Adding “you never need food” introduces more than the verb itself says.

In Al-Ghāshiyah 88:7, لَا يُغْنِي مِنْ جُوعٍ (lā yughnī min jūʿin) is “does not relieve hunger.” This makes its relationship to the preceding verse’s food clear.

In Quraysh 106:4, أَطْعَمَهُمْ مِنْ جُوعٍ (aṭʿamahum min jūʿin) can be rendered “fed them and delivered them from hunger.”

None of these occurrences requires jūʿ to become “spiritual hunger,” “unbelief,” “punishment” or “poverty.” Such concepts may enter other discussions, but they do not change the root’s direct meaning in these five verses.

7. Conclusion

ج و ع in Arabic concerns hunger and the unmet need for food. جاع (jāʿa) expresses being or becoming hungry; جوع (jūʿ) names the condition. Other forms, such as جائع (jāʾiʿ), جوعان (jawʿān) and مجاعة (majāʿah), describe a hungry person or widespread food shortage.

Only jūʿ and tajūʿa occur in the Qur’an. All their uses fit the familiar meaning of hunger, while its circumstances and outcomes vary.

In Al-Baqarah 2:155, hunger is one difficulty involved in human testing. In Al-Naḥl 16:112, hunger and fear follow a settlement’s inhabitants’ ingratitude and conduct. In Quraysh 106:4, feeding and deliverance from hunger are a divine blessing. In Ṭā Hā 20:118, freedom from hunger is a feature of Adam’s life in the Garden. In Al-Ghāshiyah 88:7, food is described that does not relieve hunger.

Taken together, these occurrences show that hunger is intrinsically neither punishment nor virtue in the Qur’an. Its relationship to human conduct and destiny comes from context. One verse may present it as testing and another as a consequence of a group’s actions; a person’s hunger alone does not establish their sin, faith or standing.

Another distinction separates the existence of food from relief of hunger. Quraysh 106:4 speaks of feeding that meets the need; Al-Ghāshiyah 88:7 describes food that does not suffice to meet it. Jūʿ remains hunger, while the difference in outcome comes from the food’s character and the sentence’s construction.

The semantic core of ج و ع can be stated as follows: the body’s need for food remaining inadequately met, ranging in intensity from a passing feeling of hunger to distress caused by prolonged deprivation of food.

This definition covers uses concerning testing and famine, freedom from hunger in Adam’s story and its remaining unrelieved in Al-Ghāshiyah. Hunger retains its central meaning throughout; its causes, intensity, conditions and outcomes differ.

Alongside this meaning, the Qur’an shows the importance of feeding and security from fear. Hunger is a real need in human life, and its relief a real blessing. This bodily need should neither become an unsupported metaphor nor serve as grounds for an unfounded judgement about a hungry person’s moral worth or the cause of their suffering.