The Qur’anic Root N ʿ Q (ن ع ق)

1. Linguistic forms and earlier Arabic usage

The sole Qur’anic form is yanʿiqu (يَنْعِقُ), the third-person masculine singular imperfect of the form I verb naʿaqa.

Naʿaqa al-rāʿī bi-l-ghanami (نَعَقَ الرَّاعِي بِالْغَنَمِ) means that the shepherd called out to the sheep. Arabic records the imperfects yanʿiqu (يَنْعِقُ) and yanʿaqu (يَنْعَقُ); the Qur’anic form has kasrah on the middle root consonant: yanʿiqu.

Lexicons record verbal nouns including naʿq (نَعْق), naʿīq (نَعِيق), nuʿāq (نُعَاق), and naʿaqān (نَعَقَان). Nāʿiq is the active participle; naʿʿāq (نَعَّاق) describes someone who calls out frequently.

These forms are known in Arabic but do not themselves appear in the Qur’an. Only yanʿiqu occurs in the Qur’anic text.

A shepherd’s call to summon or drive livestock

In Maqāyīs al-Lughah, Ibn Fāris identifies sound as the root’s organizing meaning: a sound that is made. He then illustrates it through a shepherd calling to sheep.

Lisān al-ʿArab likewise describes naʿīq as the shepherd’s sound when calling sheep. In this use, naʿaqa can concern calling animals to move, driving them, or restraining them.

The distinction matters. A shepherd may call to gather sheep or to turn them back when they stray from the intended route. In both situations, sound serves communication and guides the animals’ behavior.

The root alone does not establish the direction of that behavior. Naʿq does not itself mean “come,” “go,” “stop,” or “return.” Those commands or purposes become clear through the manner of calling and the situation.

Some sources associate the verb’s primary use more narrowly with sheep and goats, although explanations of the Qur’anic parable also mention animals such as camels. The initial definition should therefore identify the shepherd calling sheep, followed by the broader use of calling livestock.

A witness from earlier Arabic poetry

A poem by Al-Akhṭal, an Umayyad poet, addresses Jarīr:

انْعِقْ بِضَأْنِكَ يَا جَرِيرُ فَإِنَّمَا
مَنَّتْكَ نَفْسُكَ فِي الْخَلَاءِ ضَلَالَا

inʿiq bi-ḍaʾnika yā Jarīru fa-innamā / mannatka nafsuka fī al-khalāʾi ḍalālā

“Call out to your sheep, Jarīr; what your own self has promised you in solitude is nothing but delusion and empty hope.”

In this line, inʿiq (انْعِقْ) is an imperative. Bi-ḍaʾnika (بِضَأْنِكَ) identifies the sheep addressed by the call.

Within poetic rivalry and satire, the poet sends his opponent back to calling sheep. The usage shows the verb expressing a familiar pastoral activity in Arabic.

Al-Akhṭal belongs to the Umayyad period, however, so this line is not direct evidence from pre-Islamic poetry. Its value lies in clearly documenting this linguistic use.

Through Ibn Barrī, Lisān al-ʿArab transmits a fragment attributed to Bishr ibn Abī Khāzim containing wa-lam yanʿiq bi-nāḥiyati al-riqāqi (ولم ينعق بناحية الرقاق). Without comparing it with the complete poem and manuscript variants, this brief transmission is insufficient to establish a secure pre-Qur’anic witness. Its historical use therefore requires care.

Caution about the witness’s wording and attribution does not change naʿq’s established meaning: numerous lexicons record the shepherd’s call. The historical attribution of each witness must nevertheless be assessed separately.

Naʿaqa and the crow’s call

Some Arabic lexicons also record naʿaqa al-ghurābu (نَعَقَ الْغُرَابُ) for a crow’s call.

The usage is disputed. Ibn Kaysān accepts naʿaqa with ʿayn for the crow, and both forms are also transmitted from Al-Azharī. Nevertheless, the explanation transmitted from Al-Azharī favors naghaqa (نَغَقَ), with ghayn, for the crow and naʿaqa, with ʿayn, for the shepherd’s call. Ibn Sīda likewise judges the ghayn form better for the crow.

This disagreement shows some overlap between the similar-sounding naʿaqa and naghaqa in descriptions of animal sounds.

In Qur’anic usage, calling out to a creature addressed by the sound fits the established meaning of the shepherd’s call more closely.

The recorded expression naʿaqa al-ghurābu does not justify changing the verse’s meaning to a crow cawing. That reading would require evidence from the verse itself, which its construction does not provide.

From a shepherd’s call to a human cry

Arabic also uses loud calling in human situations. In later usage, nāʿiq sometimes describes someone summoning people to unrest or discord.

In such cases, the social setting gives the word a disparaging force. Disapproval is not an invariant part of naʿq itself.

A shepherd guiding animals by calling is not necessarily doing anything wrong. Raising the voice alone likewise does not establish that the speech is false.

Naʿq must therefore not inherently be translated as an ignorant cry, false propaganda, or a misleading summons. Those senses may arise in particular figurative or critical uses, but their contexts must establish them.

2. Yanʿiqu in Al-Baqarah 2:171

Al-Baqarah states:

وَمَثَلُ الَّذِينَ كَفَرُوا كَمَثَلِ الَّذِي يَنْعِقُ بِمَا لَا يَسْمَعُ إِلَّا دُعَاءً وَنِدَاءً صُمٌّ بُكْمٌ عُمْيٌ فَهُمْ لَا يَعْقِلُونَ

wa-mathalu alladhīna kafarū ka-mathali alladhī yanʿiqu bi-mā lā yasmaʿu illā duʿāʾan wa-nidāʾan ṣummun bukmun ʿumyun fa-hum lā yaʿqilūna

“And the likeness of those who disbelieve is like that of someone calling out to a creature that hears nothing but the sound of a summons and a call; deaf, mute, and blind, they do not reason.” (Al-Baqarah 2:171)

Yanʿiqu forms part of a parable. Understanding it requires examining the sentence’s construction and the relation between the caller and the recipient.

Alladhī yanʿiqu: who is calling?

Alladhī (الَّذِي) is a masculine singular relative pronoun. Here it refers to the person calling out.

Yanʿiqu is that person’s imperfect verb. In this construction, the imperfect presents an action as though unfolding before the reader: someone calls, and a creature hears the sound.

An Arabic singular relative pronoun can introduce a general example. The sentence need not name a particular person: it may concern anyone occupying that situation.

Alladhī yanʿiqu therefore does not itself name a historical shepherd or a specific individual. It introduces the caller’s role within the parable.

Linguistically, naʿq indicates more than ordinary conversation: the person addresses the recipient with a raised voice.

The verse does not say the voice must be angry, distressing, or meaningless. The call’s purpose and outcome emerge from the rest of the image.

Bi-mā lā yasmaʿu: the recipient of the call

In bi-mā lā yasmaʿu (بِمَا لَا يَسْمَعُ), the preposition bi connects calling out with the creature being addressed.

Here mā refers to the being receiving the call. Its use suits an animal or nonhuman referent, although mā is not confined to inanimate objects in every Arabic construction.

In the shepherd reading explained in this section, yasmaʿu (يَسْمَعُ) refers to that recipient: the creature hearing the caller’s voice.

The image’s two sides become clear: one produces the call, and the other receives the sound.

Illā duʿāʾan wa-nidāʾan (إِلَّا دُعَاءً وَنِدَاءً) limits that reception. This limitation forms the central feature of the image.

Illā duʿāʾan wa-nidāʾan: only a summons and a call

Duʿāʾ (دُعَاء) belongs to D ʿ W. In this sentence, it concerns calling and summoning.

Nidāʾ (نِدَاء) likewise concerns a cry or summons. In many uses, it emphasizes raising the voice to reach a recipient.

The words are close here, but need not be treated as either completely synonymous nouns or two separate stages of calling.

The sentence means that the recipient receives the sound of the call, while the speech does not reach the level of understanding the speaker’s intention.

For example, a shepherd might use a human sentence telling sheep to move toward a particular pasture. An animal may hear the voice and even respond to learned acoustic signals without thereby understanding the sentence’s complete linguistic structure and human reasoning.

The Qur’anic parable draws on this distinction.

The parable should not be treated as a scientific theory denying animals all awareness or capacity to learn. Animals such as sheep can learn some sounds, distinguish between them, and respond to acoustic cues.

Responding to a call differs from understanding the substance of human reasoning and a human message. The verse uses that distance to explain the condition of a group of people.

3. Who is compared with what in the parable?

The verse begins with wa-mathalu alladhīna kafarū (وَمَثَلُ الَّذِينَ كَفَرُوا), but introduces the other side through ka-mathali alladhī yanʿiqu (كَمَثَلِ الَّذِي يَنْعِقُ).

This difference raises an important grammatical question.

If the purpose is to portray people who fail to understand truthful speech, one might expect comparison with the creature receiving the call, rather than the caller.

Several readings have therefore appeared in the verse’s interpretive history.

First reading: hearing the invitation without understanding its message

In a reading closely connected with Al-Baqarah 2:170, the caller resembles someone inviting people to truth. The recipients resemble those who hear the invitation’s sound but fail to accept its meaning or reason about it.

On this reading, the comparison concerns two situations: an inviter and people receiving the speech without understanding or attention, and a shepherd calling to livestock.

Each sentence element need not therefore correspond independently and word for word with another element. The Qur’an can compare an entire scene with another scene.

Such comparison is known in Arabic. All the scene’s elements contribute to the image, although its main point may concern the condition of one participant.

Al-Baqarah 2:171 ends with fa-hum lā yaʿqilūna (فَهُمْ لَا يَعْقِلُونَ), strengthening this reading: the central issue is hearing that does not lead to understanding.

Second reading: calling to deities that cannot answer

Another reading compares those who disbelieve with people calling inanimate deities or beings incapable of answering.

Here the caller addresses a recipient unable to understand the request or give an effective response.

This reading connects with other Qur’anic passages about the futility of calling fabricated deities. Al-Raʿd 13:14, for example, describes a call that receives no desired response.

This reading, however, requires a different grammatical account of illā duʿāʾan wa-nidāʾan. In the first reading, the listener is the recipient of the call. If that recipient is taken to be an inanimate idol, the same analysis cannot simply be retained without explaining the attribution of actual hearing to the idol.

In an explanation Al-Ṭabarī transmits from Ibn Zayd, someone calls out among mountains and hears the echo of their own voice. The listener to the returning sound is thus the caller, rather than the inanimate deity. This reading must be kept distinct from the shepherd analysis; in its familiar Arabic use, naʿaqa more readily evokes a shepherd calling livestock.

Which reading fits the context more closely?

Al-Baqarah 2:170 describes people invited to follow what The God has sent down. They reply that they follow their fathers’ way.

That verse’s closing question likewise concerns ancestors who did not reason and were not guided.

Immediately afterward, Al-Baqarah 2:171 presents the caller and the creature that hears only the sound, ending with fa-hum lā yaʿqilūna.

This continuity strengthens the first reading: people facing an invitation to truth fail to progress from hearing its sound to understanding and assessing its message.

Naʿq’s lexical meaning alone nevertheless does not decide between the readings. The preference arises from the parable’s construction, the verse’s ending, and its relation to the preceding verse.

A root study should therefore establish the meaning of calling and summoning, while identifying the verse’s interpretive readings separately.

4. Hearing sound and understanding speech

The image in Al-Baqarah 2:171 establishes a clear relationship between hearing and reasoning.

Someone may hear speech, recognize its words, and even repeat it without thinking about its meaning.

For example, a person may repeatedly hear a religious expression or inherited rule without ever asking what supports it or whether it agrees with the word of The God.

Hearing has occurred in such a case, but examination and recognition of truth have not yet taken place.

This contemporary application fits the verse’s setting but is not naʿq’s lexical meaning. Naʿaqa expresses calling; the rest of the parable introduces the question of reasoning.

Ṣummun bukmun ʿumyun: a figurative description of people

The verse concludes that they are deaf, mute, and blind and do not reason.

In context, these descriptions concern failure to use the means of recognizing truth. The Qur’an discusses people who have encountered an invitation and speech, so the point is not simply a physical inability to hear or see.

Al-Anfāl 8:21 likewise criticizes people who say they have heard, although their hearing has not led to effective reception of the message.

Al-Anfāl 8:22 places deafness and muteness beside failure to reason. The proximity matters for understanding the figurative usage in Al-Baqarah 2:171.

These verses must not become a disparaging judgment of people with physical disabilities. The Qur’an uses terms associated with the senses to portray an epistemic condition, just as ordinary language can speak of failing to see the truth about someone whose eyesight is sound.

Not exercising understanding, rather than having no intellect

Fa-hum lā yaʿqilūna uses an imperfect verb: they do not reason.

This expression does not, without further evidence, establish that these people inherently lack mental capacity or are physically incapable of thought.

Al-Baqarah 2:170 concerns following ancestors without assessing their guidance. Al-Baqarah 2:171 portrays the outcome through hearing without reasoning.

The criticism therefore centers on failing to exercise recognition and judgment when facing truth.

Al-Zumar 39:18 describes people who listen to speech and follow the best of it. In contrast, that verse highlights attentive hearing and a choice grounded in assessment.

Taken together, these uses show that hearing’s value exceeds sound merely reaching the ear. A person should understand what they have heard, reflect on it, and decide on the basis of recognition.

Naʿq itself, however, does not mean failing to reason. That conclusion belongs to the verse’s complete parable.

5. Distinctions from nearby roots

N ʿ Q (naʿaqa) compared with D ʿ W (daʿā)

Study of D ʿ W

Daʿā has a broad Qur’anic range: calling, summoning, inviting, asking, and turning to someone for help.

In its familiar usage, naʿaqa names a more specific kind of calling: the call a shepherd makes to summon or drive livestock.

Naʿq can thus be a kind of summoning, while not every duʿāʾ is naʿq.

In Al-Baqarah 2:171, duʿāʾan stands beside nidāʾan and describes the sound the recipient hears. Here duʿāʾ need not mean prayer or a request addressed to The God: the construction concerns calling by sound.

N ʿ Q (naʿaqa) compared with N D W (nidāʾ)

Nidāʾ concerns calling out or a summoning cry.

In Arabic, a call can address someone near or far and often emphasizes raising the voice.

Naʿq is close to nidāʾ, but its primary usage concerns the manner of calling livestock.

In Al-Baqarah 2:171, nidāʾ is the sound heard, while yanʿiqu expresses the action of the person producing it.

The act of calling and the noun naming its sound are related but have different grammatical functions.

N ʿ Q (naʿaqa) compared with Ṣ Y Ḥ (ṣāḥa)

Study of Ṣ Y Ḥ (Not yet published)

Ṣāḥa (صَاحَ) concerns crying out and raising the voice.

Naʿaqa is also a kind of calling out, but in earlier Arabic it has a more familiar association with summoning or driving livestock.

Ṣiyāḥ (صِيَاح) can describe widely different situations, such as someone crying out in fear, pain, joy, or warning.

In its pastoral use, naʿq is more specific. Lexicons nevertheless explain it through ṣāḥa bihā (صاح بها), so the expressions can be very close within that usage.

N ʿ Q (naʿaqa) compared with Z J R (zajara)

Study of Z J R (Not yet published)

Zajr concerns restraining, driving away, or forbidding, often accompanied by a commanding or warning voice.

Arabic explanations of naʿq sometimes use ṣāḥa bihā wa-zajarahā (صاح بها وزجرها): the shepherd called out to the animals and drove or restrained them.

Zajr may aim at preventing an action, whereas naʿq in its familiar use expresses the act of calling out.

Not every shepherd’s call aims to restrain. It may also gather animals or set them in motion.

N ʿ Q (naʿaqa) compared with N GH Q (naghaqa) and N ʿ B (naʿaba)

Arabic records naghaqa (نَغَقَ) and naʿaba (نَعَبَ) for a crow’s call.

Some sources also use naʿaqa for the crow, but that usage is disputed, and several lexicographers regard naghaqa or naʿaba as more precise.

The phonetic proximity must not lead to translating Qur’anic yanʿiqu exclusively as a crow’s cawing.

In the verse, yanʿiqu bi-mā and the description of a recipient hearing the call fit the image of the caller and the livestock.

The crow-related usage helps explain lexical disagreements, but there is insufficient evidence to prefer it in Al-Baqarah 2:171.

6. Translation proposals for Forqan

Suitable equivalents for naʿaqa include “called out,” “called loudly,” and, in a pastoral context, “called out to the sheep.”

“Shouted” can convey part of the sense but sometimes suggests fear, anger, or agitation. The shepherd’s call need not involve any of those states.

“Called” is natural, but it may understate the raised voice and particular character of naʿq’s sound.

Depending on context, naʿīq and nuʿāq can be rendered as “a call,” “a shepherd’s calling,” or “a call to drive livestock.”

Nāʿiq means “one who calls out”; specifically in the livestock setting, it can mean “a shepherd calling out.”

For yanʿiqu in Al-Baqarah 2:171, “calling out” is accurate and natural within the installed sentence.

The installed Forqan translation reads:

“And the likeness of those who disbelieve is like that of someone calling out to a creature that hears nothing but the sound of a summons and a call; deaf, mute, and blind, they do not reason.”

This translation preserves the verb’s primary meaning. It leaves the root’s natural pastoral image for separate explanation rather than adding “shepherd” or “sheep” to the base text.

That choice is defensible: the Arabic verse does not explicitly name a shepherd or sheep. Instead, yanʿiqu evokes the scene through its established pastoral use.

The root explanation can clarify that the caller resembles a shepherd summoning sheep: they hear the voice without grasping the human speech’s meaning.

Translations such as “speaks meaninglessly,” “misleads the animals,” or “caws like a crow” are unsuitable here. They attribute meanings to the verb that its construction and context do not establish.

Yanʿiqu should likewise not be translated directly as “invites people to religion.” Invitation to truth belongs to the parable’s application and contextual analysis; the verb’s lexical meaning is calling out.

Conclusion

In Arabic, N ʿ Q is associated with calling out and raising the voice, especially a shepherd’s call to summon, gather, or drive livestock.

Lexicons record forms such as naʿq, naʿīq, nuʿāq, and nāʿiq. Some sources also use the family for the crow’s call, although that usage is disputed.

The Qur’an contains only yanʿiqu, in Al-Baqarah 2:171. The verb expresses calling out, while the rest of the verse describes a recipient hearing only a summons and a call.

Within Al-Baqarah 2:170 and Al-Baqarah 2:171, the image portrays people who rely on an inherited way and inherited speech rather than exercise understanding when invited to truth.

Different readings identify the comparison’s participants differently. Its link with the preceding verse and its ending, fa-hum lā yaʿqilūna, nevertheless strengthen the reading of hearing an invitation without understanding and assessing its meaning.

The root itself does not mean failing to understand. Naʿq expresses calling out; sound failing to lead to understanding and reasoning is a conclusion drawn from the verse’s complete image.

N ʿ Q’s semantic core is calling out to summon or drive a recipient, especially a shepherd calling livestock. In Al-Baqarah 2:171, this concrete usage becomes a parable revealing the distinction between hearing an invitation’s sound and consciously understanding its meaning.