Qur'anic Root KH SH ʿ (Kha Sh Ayn)

Core Meaning

The root خ ش ع originally points to lowering, subsiding, softening, and becoming still: something leaves a state of height, hardness, raisedness, sound, motion, or defiance and settles before something greater or before a weighty truth.

In human usage, khushuʿ is a state in which the heart, gaze, voice, body, and behavior settle before greatness, truth, or a power above the self. The person moves away from self-magnification, resistance, display, and scattering. Khushuʿ is therefore not merely fear, and it is not limited to bending the body or lowering the head. Its core is inward and outward subsiding, visible in the heart, eyes, voice, face, conduct, the earth, and even a mountain.

Important Forms

خَشَعَ is a past verb: it became still, lowered, settled, or moved out of raisedness and resistance.

وَخَشَعَتِ الْأَصْوَاتُ لِلرَّحْمَٰنِ فَلَا تَسْمَعُ إِلَّا هَمْسًا

The voices will subside before The Merciful, so you will hear nothing but a whisper.

Ta-Ha 20:108

Here khushuʿ is attributed to voices. Loudness, noise, and normal freedom of expression subside, and only a low whisper remains.

تَخْشَعَ is a present form after أن:

أَلَمْ يَأْنِ لِلَّذِينَ آمَنُوا أَنْ تَخْشَعَ قُلُوبُهُمْ لِذِكْرِ اللَّهِ وَمَا نَزَلَ مِنَ الْحَقِّ

Has the time not come for those who have faith that their hearts should subside for the remembrance of The God and what has come down of the truth?

Al-Hadid 57:16

The subject here is hearts. Khushuʿ is therefore first an inward transformation and a softening of the heart before it is a bodily display.

خُشُوع is the verbal noun: subsiding, softening, becoming still, and descending from resistance or defiance.

وَيَخِرُّونَ لِلْأَذْقَانِ يَبْكُونَ وَيَزِيدُهُمْ خُشُوعًا

They fall upon their chins weeping, and it increases them in khushuʿ.

Al-Isra 17:109

This verse shows that khushuʿ can increase. It is not a static label; it deepens through hearing, understanding, and being affected.

خَاشِع is an active form. In the Qur'an it is used for the human being, the heart, gaze, voice, face, earth, and mountain; therefore it should not always be flattened into “humble.”

الَّذِينَ هُمْ فِي صَلَاتِهِمْ خَاشِعُونَ

Those who are khashiʿun in their salat.

Al-Mu'minun 23:2

خُشَّعًا أَبْصَارُهُمْ

Their gazes lowered and subdued.

Al-Qamar 54:7

In the second expression, the eyes lose the ability to rise, face directly, and display the old boldness.

Linguistic Note

The central movement of this root is from high to low, from hardness to softness, from noise to quiet, and from resistance to receptivity. A loud voice becomes a whisper. A bold or scattered gaze falls. A hard or resisting heart becomes soft and receptive. Earth moves from motion and growth to a dormant, quiet state. A mountain before the weight of truth moves from apparent stability to cracking. A face on the Day of Account loses its former confidence and claim of superiority.

For this reason, khushuʿ stands opposite the field of istikbar and ʿuluww. The arrogant one tries to keep the self high; the khashiʿ one descends from that claimed height before truth.

Yet khushuʿ is not always humiliation, destruction of will, or loss of dignity. Praised khushuʿ before The God is not the breaking of the human personality; it is the subsiding of self-magnification before truth. A person can be khashiʿ before The God and still firm before oppression.

Khushuʿ is also not always voluntary. The Qur'an speaks of conscious khushuʿ of the heart and salat, and also of imposed khushuʿ of gazes and faces on the Day of Account. The core meaning remains subsiding, but the source and ethical value differ by context.

Material Image

The material image of this root is a phenomenon losing height, hardness, motion, noise, or raisedness and settling down. The Qur'an uses this image for earth, voices, gazes, and a mountain.

وَمِنْ آيَاتِهِ أَنَّكَ تَرَى الْأَرْضَ خَاشِعَةً فَإِذَا أَنْزَلْنَا عَلَيْهَا الْمَاءَ اهْتَزَّتْ وَرَبَتْ

Among His signs is that you see the earth subdued and dormant; then when We send water down upon it, it stirs and rises.

Fussilat 41:39

Here خاشعة stands opposite اهتزت and ربت. A khashiʿah earth is dormant, quiet, and without visible movement before growth. It is not “humble” in a moral sense.

خَاشِعَةً أَبْصَارُهُمْ تَرْهَقُهُمْ ذِلَّةٌ

Their gazes are lowered and subdued; humiliation overtakes them.

Al-Qalam 68:43

In the gaze, khushuʿ means that the eye loses the ability to confront directly, show power, or carry its former boldness.

لَوْ أَنْزَلْنَا هَٰذَا الْقُرْآنَ عَلَىٰ جَبَلٍ لَرَأَيْتَهُ خَاشِعًا مُتَصَدِّعًا مِنْ خَشْيَةِ اللَّهِ

If We had sent down this Qur'an upon a mountain, you would have seen it khashiʿ, splitting apart from khashyah of The God.

Al-Hashr 59:21

The mountain is hard, high, and firm. Its khushuʿ is not the soft bending of a human body; in a hard structure it appears as cracking and splitting. خاشع and متصدع are not synonyms: khushuʿ is the state of subsiding before greatness, and tasadduʿ is its structural effect in a hard body.

Classical Usage

In classical and early Arabic usage, KH SH ʿ is connected with lowering the gaze, softening the voice, bowing the head or chest, becoming still, and low or level land. This shows that the material movement of the root existed before its ethical and devotional use.

The Qur'an expands the same image: earth materially, voice audibly, gaze bodily, heart cognitively and spiritually, the human being ethically, and the mountain structurally. Khushuʿ is therefore not merely an emotional or ritual word; it has a broad field of imagery.

Khushuʿ of the Heart Before Dhikr and Truth

أَلَمْ يَأْنِ لِلَّذِينَ آمَنُوا أَنْ تَخْشَعَ قُلُوبُهُمْ لِذِكْرِ اللَّهِ وَمَا نَزَلَ مِنَ الْحَقِّ وَلَا يَكُونُوا كَالَّذِينَ أُوتُوا الْكِتَابَ مِنْ قَبْلُ فَطَالَ عَلَيْهِمُ الْأَمَدُ فَقَسَتْ قُلُوبُهُمْ

Has the time not come for those who have faith that their hearts should subside for the remembrance of The God and what has come down of the truth, and that they should not be like those given the Book before, for time became long over them and their hearts hardened?

Al-Hadid 57:16

Here khushuʿ of the heart is before the dhikr of The God and the truth sent down. A khashiʿ heart is not hard, resisting, or unaffected. The continuation of the verse places khushuʿ opposite qaswah, hardness of heart.

Still, the image of the khashiʿ earth should not be imposed completely on the heart. Earth becomes stirred by water; the heart is transformed by dhikr and truth. The verse about the heart concerns spiritual and cognitive receptivity, not merely the same botanical movement of earth.

Khushuʿ in Salat

قَدْ أَفْلَحَ الْمُؤْمِنُونَ ۝ الَّذِينَ هُمْ فِي صَلَاتِهِمْ خَاشِعُونَ

The believers have certainly succeeded: those who are khashiʿun in their salat.

Al-Mu'minun 23:1-2

Khushuʿ in salat is not merely bending the body or standing quietly. Salat is a field of standing before the Lord, remembrance, guidance, and responsibility. In that field, scattering, haste, display, self-presentation, and resistance must subside.

The body may show the effects of khushuʿ, but a calm exterior alone is not certain proof of it. The body can be still while the heart remains scattered or resisting. At the same time, true inward khushuʿ normally does not leave the behavior, voice, gaze, and state of a person untouched.

Khushuʿ and the Weight of Salat

وَاسْتَعِينُوا بِالصَّبْرِ وَالصَّلَاةِ وَإِنَّهَا لَكَبِيرَةٌ إِلَّا عَلَى الْخَاشِعِينَ ۝ الَّذِينَ يَظُنُّونَ أَنَّهُم مُّلَاقُوا رَبِّهِمْ وَأَنَّهُمْ إِلَيْهِ رَاجِعُونَ

Seek help through sabr and salat. It is surely heavy except upon the khashiʿin: those who know they will meet their Lord and that they are returning to Him.

Al-Baqarah 2:45-46

Salat is heavy for the one who sees himself as independent, self-sufficient, or unaccountable. But the khashiʿ person has settled before his Lord and takes seriously the return to Him. Such a person does not experience salat as a threat to pride, but as a path of help and return.

Khushuʿ Before The God, Not for Benefit

وَإِنَّ مِنْ أَهْلِ الْكِتَابِ لَمَنْ يُؤْمِنُ بِاللَّهِ وَمَا أُنزِلَ إِلَيْكُمْ وَمَا أُنزِلَ إِلَيْهِمْ خَاشِعِينَ لِلَّهِ لَا يَشْتَرُونَ بِآيَاتِ اللَّهِ ثَمَنًا قَلِيلًا

Among the People of the Book are those who have faith in The God, and in what was sent down to you and what was sent down to them, khashiʿin before The God; they do not trade the verses of The God for a small price.

Al 'Imran 3:199

In خاشعين لله, the lam defines the direction of khushuʿ. They are not lowered before political power, social benefit, or a small gain. Their khushuʿ is before The God. Its practical result is also clear: they do not sell the verses of The God for a small price.

Khushuʿ With Raghbah and Rahbah

إِنَّهُمْ كَانُوا يُسَارِعُونَ فِي الْخَيْرَاتِ وَيَدْعُونَنَا رَغَبًا وَرَهَبًا وَكَانُوا لَنَا خَاشِعِينَ

They used to hasten in good things, call upon Us with raghbah and rahbah, and they were khashiʿin before Us.

Al-Anbiya 21:90

Hope and desire, caution and fear, and khushuʿ appear together. Khushuʿ purifies hope from entitlement and fear from panic or flight. The khashiʿ person hopes and fears, but does not place the self at the center of demand and command.

Khashiʿin and Khashiʿat

وَالْخَاشِعِينَ وَالْخَاشِعَاتِ

The khashiʿ men and the khashiʿ women.

Al-Ahzab 33:35

Khushuʿ is not a feature of one gender, social role, or class. The Qur'an places khashiʿin and khashiʿat together, showing that subsiding before The God and truth is a shared field for believing men and women.

Increasing Khushuʿ After Hearing the Verses

وَيَخِرُّونَ لِلْأَذْقَانِ يَبْكُونَ وَيَزِيدُهُمْ خُشُوعًا

They fall upon their chins weeping, and it increases them in khushuʿ.

Al-Isra 17:109

Here hearing the verses affects body, emotion, and inward depth together. Falling, weeping, and increasing khushuʿ stand side by side. Yet this should not be turned into a general rule that every bodily movement necessarily produces khushuʿ in the heart. In this context, being affected by the verses deepens khushuʿ.

Khushuʿ of Voices

وَخَشَعَتِ الْأَصْوَاتُ لِلرَّحْمَٰنِ فَلَا تَسْمَعُ إِلَّا هَمْسًا

The voices will subside before The Merciful, so you will hear nothing but a whisper.

Ta-Ha 20:108

This khushuʿ is not the voluntary virtue of a worshipper. It is a scene in which voices have sunk before The Merciful. The core remains subsiding, but the source is the greatness and awe of the scene, not ordinary ethical discipline.

Subdued Gazes on the Day of Account

خُشَّعًا أَبْصَارُهُمْ يَخْرُجُونَ مِنَ الْأَجْدَاثِ كَأَنَّهُمْ جَرَادٌ مُّنتَشِرٌ

Their gazes lowered and subdued, they come out from the graves as if they were scattered locusts.

Al-Qamar 54:7

خَاشِعَةً أَبْصَارُهُمْ تَرْهَقُهُمْ ذِلَّةٌ

Their gazes are lowered and subdued; humiliation overtakes them.

Al-Qalam 68:43

أَبْصَارُهَا خَاشِعَةٌ

Their gazes are subdued.

An-Nazi'at 79:9

Khushuʿ of gazes in these verses is not calm ethical choice in worldly life. Truth has become manifest, the scene is overwhelming, and humiliation and account bring the eye down from its former boldness. “Humble gaze” is not enough here; “lowered,” “subdued,” or “unable to face directly” is more precise.

Khushuʿ of Gaze and Ghadd al-Basar

قُل لِّلْمُؤْمِنِينَ يَغُضُّوا مِنْ أَبْصَارِهِمْ

Tell the believing men to restrain from their gazes.

An-Nur 24:30

In this worldly command, ghadd al-basar is voluntary restraint of gaze. Khushuʿ of gaze on the Day of Account is different: the eye loses boldness and the ability to face the scene. Ghadd is an intentional act of restraining the gaze; khushuʿ of sight can be an imposed state produced by awe, humiliation, or unveiled truth.

Khushuʿ From Humiliation and the Hidden Glance

وَتَرَاهُمْ يُعْرَضُونَ عَلَيْهَا خَاشِعِينَ مِنَ الذُّلِّ يَنظُرُونَ مِن طَرْفٍ خَفِيٍّ

You see them being exposed to it, subdued from humiliation, looking from a hidden edge of the eye.

Ash-Shura 42:45

Here the source of khushuʿ is من الذل: humiliation has brought them down. They cannot look directly with strength; they look weakly and from the side. This is not the khushuʿ of free recognition and praised receptivity. It is forced subsiding before defeat and humiliation.

Khashiʿ Faces

وُجُوهٌ يَوْمَئِذٍ خَاشِعَةٌ

Faces on that day will be khashiʿah.

Al-Ghashiyah 88:2

These are not the calm faces of worshippers in worldly life. The verse belongs to the Day of Account: faces that have lost their former confidence, power-display, and sense of security before truth made manifest.

Khashiʿ Earth

وَمِنْ آيَاتِهِ أَنَّكَ تَرَى الْأَرْضَ خَاشِعَةً فَإِذَا أَنْزَلْنَا عَلَيْهَا الْمَاءَ اهْتَزَّتْ وَرَبَتْ

Among His signs is that you see the earth subdued and dormant; then when We send water down upon it, it stirs and rises.

Fussilat 41:39

This use is fully material. The earth is quiet, settled, and without visible movement. Then with water it stirs and rises. This use shows that KH SH ʿ is not limited to moral humility; its root image is dormancy, settling, and subsiding.

A Khashiʿ Mountain Before the Qur'an

لَوْ أَنْزَلْنَا هَٰذَا الْقُرْآنَ عَلَىٰ جَبَلٍ لَرَأَيْتَهُ خَاشِعًا مُتَصَدِّعًا مِنْ خَشْيَةِ اللَّهِ

If We had sent down this Qur'an upon a mountain, you would have seen it khashiʿ, splitting apart from khashyah of The God.

Al-Hashr 59:21

In this verse, khashyah of The God is the source; khashiʿ is the state of subsiding before greatness; and mutasaddiʿ is the structural effect of that encounter upon the hard body of the mountain. Because of the mountain's hardness and height, its khushuʿ appears as cracking and splitting.

Similar Uses

Voluntary and imposed khushuʿ: Khushuʿ of the heart before dhikr and khushuʿ in salat are conscious and faith-oriented. Khushuʿ of voices, gazes, and faces in the scene of the Hereafter may be imposed. In both, subsiding is present, but the source and ethical value differ.

Heart and body: The heart may soften inwardly. The gaze and voice may lower outwardly. But outward calm does not always prove khushuʿ of the heart, just as inward khushuʿ normally does not remain without effect in conduct.

Earth and human being: Khashiʿ earth is dormant and motionless. A khashiʿ human being subsides before truth, greatness, or account. These are not identical, yet both return to the root image of subsiding.

Praised khushuʿ and humiliation: Praised khushuʿ before The God comes from recognition and acceptance of truth. Khushuʿ from humiliation, in Ash-Shura 42:45, comes from defeat and being lowered. Both are forms of subsiding, but one does not destroy dignity and the other arises from humiliation.

Khushuʿ and silence: Silence may be an effect of khushuʿ, but not every silence is khushuʿ. Fear, exhaustion, compulsion, or loss of power can also silence a voice. In khushuʿ, the lowering of voice is meaningful in relation to superior greatness.

Khushuʿ and psychological collapse: Conscious khushuʿ is not the destruction of will. A person can be khashiʿ before The God and still firm before oppression. Collapse removes responsibility; praised khushuʿ lowers resistance to truth.

Grammar and Structure

In خَاشِعِينَ لِلَّهِ and وَخَشَعَتِ الْأَصْوَاتُ لِلرَّحْمَٰنِ, the lam specifies direction or reference. In English, “before The God” or “in the presence of The Merciful” usually carries the meaning better than a mechanical “for.”

In خَاشِعِينَ مِنَ الذُّلِّ and مِنْ خَشْيَةِ اللَّهِ, من indicates source or cause. The same outward subsiding may arise from humiliation or from khashyah of The God; the translation should preserve the source.

In أَنْ تَخْشَعَ قُلُوبُهُمْ لِذِكْرِ اللَّهِ, the hearts are the subject. Khushuʿ is attributed to the inner life of the human being and connected to the dhikr of The God and the truth sent down.

In فِي صَلَاتِهِمْ خَاشِعُونَ, في shows that the quality occurs within the space and process of salat. The statement is not merely about a general trait outside worship; salat itself should become a field of subsiding and presence.

In خَاشِعَةً أَبْصَارُهُمْ and تَرَى الْأَرْضَ خَاشِعَةً, the description is attributed to gazes and earth. Translation must fit the subject: “their gazes are lowered” and “you see the earth dormant,” not the same vague “humble” for every occurrence.

Nearby Roots

KH SH ʿ and KH D ʿ: Khuduʿ is closer to lowering, submitting, or accepting a lower position in behavior and power relations. Khushuʿ is more about the heart, gaze, voice, and state subsiding before truth or greatness.

KH SH ʿ and KH SH Y: Khashyah is aware awe or fear that comes from recognizing greatness. In Al-Hashr 59:21, khashyah is the source, khushuʿ is the state, and tasadduʿ is the structural effect.

KH SH ʿ and KH W F: Khawf is general fear of danger or loss. Khushuʿ is not necessarily fear; it is subsiding before truth or greatness. A person may fear without becoming khashiʿ.

KH SH ʿ and DH L L: Dhillah can produce imposed khushuʿ, but praised khushuʿ before The God is not moral humiliation. The khashiʿ person before The God does not lose human dignity.

KH SH ʿ and S K N: Sukun is stillness or stopping of movement. Khushuʿ can produce stillness, but not every stillness is khushuʿ, because khushuʿ includes relation to superior greatness or truth.

KH SH ʿ and T M ʾ N: Itmi'nan is settledness and stability after anxiety. Khushuʿ is the movement from hardness and resistance toward subsiding before truth.

KH SH ʿ and R K ʿ: Rukuʿ is a specific bodily bending. Khushuʿ is broader and more inward. Rukuʿ may manifest khushuʿ, but not every rukuʿ contains khushuʿ.

KH SH ʿ and KH R R: Khurur is sudden bodily falling. In Al-Isra 17:109, falling, weeping, and increased khushuʿ appear together, but khurur itself is not khushuʿ.

KH SH ʿ and GH D D: Ghadd is the intentional act of reducing or restraining gaze or voice. Khushuʿ of sight, especially on the Day of Account, can be an imposed state in which the eye loses boldness.

KH SH ʿ and T W D ʿ: Tawaduʿ is more about social conduct before other people and avoiding arrogance. Khushuʿ is broader and is used for heart, voice, earth, and mountain.

KH SH ʿ and Q N T: Qunut is sustained obedience and service. Khushuʿ is the quality of subsiding and the lowering of resistance.

KH SH ʿ and Q S W: Qaswah is hardness and being unaffected. Al-Hadid 57:16 places khushuʿ of the heart opposite hardness of the heart.

KH SH ʿ and K B R / ʿ L W: Kibr, istikbar, and ʿuluww involve self-magnification and keeping the self claimed high. Khushuʿ is the reverse movement: subsiding from the claim of superiority before truth, without destroying human worth.

Translation Suggestions for Forqan

For خَشَعَ: subsided, lowered, became still, fell out of defiance.

For خُشُوع: subsiding before greatness, inward humility, softening before truth, lowering of self-magnification.

For خَاشِع about a human being: humble, subdued before The God, softened and receptive, still and without defiance.

For خَاشِع about the gaze: lowered, fallen, subdued, unable to face directly. “Lowered gazes” often works best.

For خَاشِع about voice: hushed, lowered, subsided, quieted.

For خَاشِع about earth: dormant, subdued, settled, quiet and without visible movement.

For خَاشِع about a mountain: subdued, lowered from apparent firmness, subsiding before greatness.

For خُشَّعًا أَبْصَارُهُمْ: with lowered gazes; their eyes fallen and subdued.

For وَخَشَعَتِ الْأَصْوَاتُ لِلرَّحْمَٰنِ: the voices subsided before The Merciful; the sounds hushed in the presence of The Merciful.

For أَنْ تَخْشَعَ قُلُوبُهُمْ: that their hearts should subside; that their hearts should soften and become receptive; that the hardness of their hearts should subside before truth.

For فِي صَلَاتِهِمْ خَاشِعُونَ: they are khashiʿun in their salat; they are inwardly subdued and present in their salat.

For الْأَرْضَ خَاشِعَةً: you see the earth dormant; you see the earth quiet and still.

For خَاشِعِينَ مِنَ الذُّلِّ: subdued from humiliation; humiliation has brought them low.

For يَنْظُرُونَ مِنْ طَرْفٍ خَفِيٍّ: they look from a hidden edge of the eye; they look weakly and from the side.

For خَاشِعًا مُتَصَدِّعًا: subdued and splitting apart; lowered before greatness and cracking open.

Summary

The root خ ش ع in the Qur'an indicates movement from height, hardness, noise, and resistance toward subsiding, softness, stillness, and lowering. This appears in the dormant earth, hushed voice, lowered gaze, softened heart, subdued face, and splitting mountain.

Human khushuʿ may be voluntary and faith-oriented, as in salat and the heart's response to the dhikr of The God; or it may be imposed and scene-bound, as with gazes and faces on the Day of Account. In both, the root image is subsiding, but the value and source differ.

Khushuʿ overlaps with fear, khashyah, khuduʿ, stillness, and tawaduʿ, but it is not identical with any of them. Its core is subsiding before truth or superior greatness: a lowering that brings down self-magnification and resistance, while in its praised form it does not destroy human dignity or responsibility.