Qur’anic Root Ṣ R Ṣ R — Ṣarṣar: Bitterly Cold Wind, a Piercing Sound, and Violent Blowing
Qur’anic and lexical forms
صَرْصَرًا
(ṣarṣaran)
Fuṣṣilat 41:16; accusative wind adjective
صَرْصَرًا
(ṣarṣaran)
Al-Qamar 54:19; accusative wind adjective
صَرْصَرٍ
(ṣarṣarin)
Al-Ḥāqqah 69:6; genitive wind adjective
صَرْصَرَ
(ṣarṣara)
Quadriliteral verb; not used in the Qur’an
يُصَرْصِرُ
(yuṣarṣiru)
Imperfect verb; not used in the Qur’an
صَرْصَرَة
(ṣarṣarah)
Verbal noun; not used in the Qur’an
صُرْصُور
(ṣurṣūr)
Animal name; not used in the Qur’an
1. Root Meaning and Word Structure
Arabic ṣarṣar (صَرْصَر) describes a wind characterized by extreme cold or a harsh, howling sound. It occurs three times in the Qur’an, each time describing the wind sent against ʿĀd that led to their destruction.
Al-ʿAyn, among the earliest comprehensive Arabic dictionaries, records two explanations: رِيحٌ صَرْصَرٌ: ذَاتُ صِرٍّ, a wind with intense cold, and another explanation relating it to the wind’s sound.
Kitāb al-ʿAyn: intense cold and wind sound
Lisān al-ʿArab likewise records رِيحٌ صَرْصَرٌ: شَدِيدَةُ الْبَرْدِ، وَقِيلَ: شَدِيدَةُ الصَّوْتِ: a very cold wind, or, according to another explanation, one with a loud sound.
Both meanings are established in Arabic, but they are not identical.
Cold is a thermal property of wind; sound concerns its audible quality. A wind may be very cold without a terrifying sound, just as a strong, noisy wind need not be cold.
Neither meaning should therefore be removed from the word’s history merely by relying on the other.
In Qur’anic usage, the ṣarṣar wind accompanies devastation and destruction. That destructive outcome should not, however, turn ṣarṣar itself into a direct definition of “destroying.”
Ṣarṣar describes the wind; the destruction of ʿĀd is the outcome the Qur’an reports concerning that wind.
Structurally, Ṣ R Ṣ R (ص ر ص ر) is a quadriliteral entry formed by repeating Ṣ R. The verb ṣarṣara follows the pattern faʿlala (فَعْلَلَ), with ṣarṣarah (صَرْصَرَة) as its verbal noun.
Arabic sometimes uses such structures for repeated sounds, vibration, or successive movement. Repeated letters alone do not establish that the ṣarṣar wind necessarily blew in separate blows, regular waves, or fixed time intervals.
Such features require independent evidence.
2. Connections with Ṣirr and Ṣarīr
Ṣirr: Intense, Biting Cold
Arabic ṣirr (صِرّ), with kasrah on ṣād, denotes intense cold.
Lexicons record it particularly for cold that harms plants and cultivated land.
Lexical sources, including Al-ʿAyn and Lisān al-ʿArab, describe ṣirr as cold that can strike plants and damage them.
The same sources record rīḥun ṣirrun (رِيحٌ صِرٌّ) for a very cold wind.
This is not ordinary, pleasant coolness; it is cold whose intensity can damage living things or crops.
Some lexicographers explain ṣarṣar through this semantic field.
On that reading, a ṣarṣar wind is one whose cold is extremely intense.
The analysis has also been connected with the word’s repetitive structure, as though the quadriliteral form highlights the intensity of the quality already present in ṣirr.
That explanation must remain distinct from a proven historical derivation. Two similar forms with related meanings do not by themselves establish how one arose from the other.
Ṣarīr: A Piercing, Prolonged Sound
Another branch of this linguistic family concerns sound.
Ṣarra al-bābu (صَرَّ الْبَابُ) describes a door producing a high, drawn-out sound when it moves.
Ṣarra al-qalamu (صَرَّ الْقَلَمُ) is recorded for a pen’s sound, and ṣarra al-jundubu (صَرَّ الْجُنْدُبُ) for the sound of an insect such as a cricket or grasshopper.
Ṣarīr (صَرِير) names such sounds.
Their qualities may include sharpness, duration, or repetition. A door’s sound as it opens or closes can be drawn out and unpleasant; certain insects call repeatedly.
Al-ʿAyn distinguishes ṣarra from ṣarṣara in terms of sound quality.
In that account, ṣarra can express a prolonged sound, while ṣarṣara can express a sound that returns and repeats.
The repeated letters thus correspond to an attested sound-related use, rather than merely an impression drawn from the word’s spelling.
The connection between ṣarṣar and the sound of wind consequently has lexical support.
As wind passes forcefully through obstacles or open space, it may produce a piercing, prolonged, or howling sound. That familiar experience makes the audible use understandable.
It does not follow that Qur’anic ṣarṣar necessarily names a physical sound of a particular frequency.
On the sound-based reading, the word concerns the wind’s audible quality, rather than a scientific measurement of it.
Do Intense Cold and a Piercing Sound Have One Origin?
Ibn al-Sikkīt offers two possibilities for rīḥun ṣarṣarun (رِيحٌ صَرْصَرٌ).
The first connects it with ṣirr, intense cold.
The second connects it with ṣarīr and ṣarrah (صَرَّة), in the sense of sound and outcry.
Al-Zajjāj also examines ṣarra and ṣarṣara in relation to repeated letters and sound quality.
Lisān al-ʿArab: Ibn al-Sikkīt and Al-Zajjāj on cold and sound
These accounts show that early lexicographers did not share one agreed historical analysis of ṣarṣar’s origin.
The branches of intense cold and harsh sound should therefore not be forced into one initial meaning.
The word may have arisen in one field and extended into the other. Alternatively, phonetic and practical proximity between several forms may have produced overlap over time.
The precise path requires evidence beyond the definitions in surviving dictionaries.
For Qur’anic research, what is clear is that two established meanings are recorded for the description of a ṣarṣar wind.
3. Linguistic Forms and Arabic Evidence
Important Verbal and Lexical Forms
Arabic records several related forms:
صَرْصَرَ — ṣarṣara: a quadriliteral verb used for a loud, repeated sound, such as the call of certain birds.
يُصَرْصِرُ — yuṣarṣiru: the imperfect verb, “it produces a piercing or repeated sound.”
صَرْصَرَة — ṣarṣarah: the verbal noun; a loud, piercing, or recurring sound.
صَرْصَر — ṣarṣar: an established description of a very cold or noisy wind. This is the form found in the Qur’an.
صُرْصُور — ṣurṣūr: in the lexical vocalization referring to an insect, with ḍammah on ṣād, the name of a small, sound-producing creature. Animal names differ across sources and dialects; the features of a particular modern insect should not all be transferred to the Qur’anic description of wind.
Tāj al-ʿArūs: ṣurṣūr and its animal sense
Some sources also record ṣarṣara for gathering scattered livestock. This differs from the sound and cold branches; placement under the same form does not itself prove a definite historical semantic connection.
Only the adjective ṣarṣar occurs in the Qur’an. None of this family’s verbs or other derivatives occurs in the text.
The Call of a Hawk or Falcon in Arabic Poetry
One clear witness to the sound-related use appears in Jarīr’s poetry.
In his elegy for his son Sawādah, Jarīr uses an image of a hunting hawk:
لَكِنْ سَوَادَةُ يَجْلُو مُقْلَتَيْ لَحِمٍ
بَازٍ يُصَرْصِرُ فَوْقَ الْمَرْقَبِ الْعَالِي
lākin sawādatu yajlū muqlatay laḥimin / bāzin yuṣarṣiru fawqa al-marqabi al-ʿālī
Explanatory rendering: “But Sawādah displays eyes like those of a keen, flesh-eating hawk, calling above a lofty lookout.” Yuṣarṣiru refers to the hawk’s cry; laḥim concerns eating or desiring flesh.
In Al-Kāmil, Al-Mubarrad explains the comparison of Sawādah’s eyes to a hawk’s and relates yuṣarṣiru to the bird’s cry. Transmissions of the verse begin variously with hādhā, dhākum, amsā, or lākin; al-marbaʾ also occurs beside al-marqab. This study retains the supplied poetic wording.
Al-Mubarrad’s Al-Kāmil: the comparison of eyes and the hawk’s cry
The word has no connection with air temperature in this witness; it concerns a bird’s sound.
The sound-related branch of Ṣ R Ṣ R was thus known in Arabic independently of its description of wind.
Jarīr was an Umayyad-era poet, and his verse postdates the Qur’an. It attests early Arabic usage, but should not be presented as independent pre-Qur’anic evidence.
Ṭabaqāt Fuḥūl al-Shuʿarāʾ: variants of the elegy
Use in Describing Wind
A verse attributed to Al-Ḥuṭayʾah, a poet close to the emergence of Islam, states:
الْمُطْعِمُونَ إِذَا هَبَّتْ بِصَرْصَرَةٍ
وَالْحَامِلُونَ إِذَا اسْتُوْدُوا عَنِ النَّاسِ
al-muṭʿimūna idhā habbat bi-ṣarṣaratin / wa-al-ḥāmilūna idhā ustūdū ʿani al-nāsi
Explanatory rendering: “Those who feed others when a cold, harsh wind blows, and who assume the blood-money payment when it is demanded of people.” Al-Qurṭubī explains ustūdū as being asked for blood money and quotes the ending ʿalā al-nāsi; ʿani al-nāsi is also transmitted in other commentaries. The specific sense of blood money should therefore not be expanded without explanation into every financial obligation.
Al-Qurṭubī: Al-Ḥuṭayʾah’s witness and the demand for blood money
Ṣarṣarah here accompanies the blowing of wind.
The witness helps identify the word’s use in describing difficult environmental conditions.
Its attribution is transmitted in commentaries, but the exact date of composition is unclear. It alone does not establish that this very form was used before the Qur’an.
Fatḥ al-Qadīr: the reading ʿani al-nāsi
Together, the evidence attests two fields: loud sound and cold or harsh wind.
Combining several witnesses does not justify concluding that all ṣarṣar winds necessarily had both the greatest sound intensity and the lowest temperature.
4. Ṣarṣar in the Qur’an: The Wind Sent against ʿĀd
Ṣ R Ṣ R occurs three times in the Qur’an: Fuṣṣilat 41:16, Al-Qamar 54:19, and Al-Ḥāqqah 69:6.
Quranic Arabic Corpus: three adjectival occurrences
All three occurrences describe rīḥ (رِيح), wind, and concern the destruction of ʿĀd.
Fuṣṣilat 41:16: Ṣarṣar Wind during Harsh Days
Fuṣṣilat 41:16
فَأَرْسَلْنَا عَلَيْهِمْ رِيحًا صَرْصَرًا فِي أَيَّامٍ نَحِسَاتٍ لِنُذِيقَهُمْ عَذَابَ الْخِزْيِ فِي الْحَيَاةِ الدُّنْيَا وَلَعَذَابُ الْآخِرَةِ أَخْزَىٰ وَهُمْ لَا يُنْصَرُونَ
fa-arsalnā ʿalayhim rīḥan ṣarṣaran fī ayyāmin naḥisātin li-nudhīqahum ʿadhāba al-khizyi fī al-ḥayāti al-dunyā wa-la-ʿadhābu al-ākhirati akhzā wa-hum lā yunṣarūna
Proposed Persian translation, rendered here in English:
“So We sent against them a fierce, howling wind during ominous days, to make them taste the punishment of humiliation in worldly life; the punishment of the Hereafter is more humiliating, and they will not be helped.”
Ṣarṣaran describes rīḥan here. Both are indefinite and accusative.
The word does not name an independent being; it specifies the quality of the wind sent against ʿĀd.
Fī ayyāmin naḥisātin (فِي أَيَّامٍ نَحِسَاتٍ) describes the event’s time, while li-nudhīqahum ʿadhāba al-khizyi (لِنُذِيقَهُمْ عَذَابَ الْخِزْيِ) states its purpose and outcome.
The preceding verse, Fuṣṣilat 41:15, speaks of ʿĀd’s arrogance and claim to superior power.
The sending of the wind is accordingly presented as a response to that people’s conduct.
The meaning of ṣarṣar should nevertheless not be extracted from the outcome of punishment.
The word describes the wind; the context shows how it contributed to the people’s destruction.
On the sound-based reading, it is a wind with a piercing, formidable sound.
On the cold-based reading, it is one with intensely biting cold.
Both have support in early sources. This verse alone, without further evidence, does not establish either as the only possible meaning.
Al-Ṭabarī: accounts of force, cold, and sound
Al-Qamar 54:19: Ṣarṣar Wind and Continuing Affliction
Al-Qamar 54:19
إِنَّا أَرْسَلْنَا عَلَيْهِمْ رِيحًا صَرْصَرًا فِي يَوْمِ نَحْسٍ مُسْتَمِرٍّ
innā arsalnā ʿalayhim rīḥan ṣarṣaran fī yawmi naḥsin mustamirrin
Proposed Persian translation, rendered here in English:
“We sent against them a fierce, howling wind on a day of continuing misfortune.”
Ṣarṣaran again describes rīḥan, with the same sense as in the earlier occurrence.
The temporal expression differs.
Fuṣṣilat speaks of ayyāmin naḥisātin, whereas Al-Qamar uses yawmi naḥsin mustamirrin (يَوْمِ نَحْسٍ مُسْتَمِرٍّ).
These expressions should not be treated without examination as two wholly separate events, since both concern the punishment of ʿĀd.
In Al-Qamar, yawm may refer to the event’s beginning or a particular period within it; mustamirr can highlight the continuing hardship or misfortune of that situation.
Al-Ḥāqqah 69:7 gives seven nights and eight days as the event’s duration. Mentioning one day in Al-Qamar does not by itself deny that the event extended over several days.
Mustamirrin should not be transferred without justification into ṣarṣar itself, as though the structure of ṣarṣar established that the wind necessarily blew without interruption at a constant strength.
Duration and wind quality are separate matters, expressed through separate terms.
Al-Ṭabarī: the wind and continuing affliction
The Wind’s Effect in the Following Verse
Al-Qamar 54:20 says that the wind tears people away, leaving them like uprooted palm trunks.
The description conveys an important aspect of the event’s destructive power.
The context makes clear the immense force of a wind that tears people from their places and casts them down.
This can fit a noisy, formidable wind; intense cold could also have been a quality of that same wind.
The ability to uproot objects does not, by itself, establish the wind’s temperature.
The destructive outcome in verse 20 therefore proves neither intense cold nor loud sound as the exclusive meaning of ṣarṣar.
What is more certain is that ṣarṣar describes a wind with destructive force in this narrative.
Al-Ḥāqqah 69:6: Ṣarṣar and ʿĀtiyah
Al-Ḥāqqah 69:6
وَأَمَّا عَادٌ فَأُهْلِكُوا بِرِيحٍ صَرْصَرٍ عَاتِيَةٍ
wa-ammā ʿādun fa-uhlikū bi-rīḥin ṣarṣarin ʿātiyatin
Proposed Persian translation, rendered here in English:
“As for ʿĀd, they were destroyed by a fierce, howling, overpowering wind.”
Ṣarṣarin is genitive here, agreeing with rīḥin, which is governed by the preposition bi-.
ʿĀtiyatin (عَاتِيَةٍ) follows as another description of the same wind.
The structure matters.
If ṣarṣar is translated only as “strong” and ʿātiyah likewise only as “strong,” the distinction between the descriptions fades.
ʿĀtiyah belongs to ʿ T W (ع ت و), concerning exceeding bounds, defiance, and intensity beyond the ordinary measure.
Applied to wind, it can express overpowering, formidable force.
Ṣarṣar, meanwhile, highlights the wind’s audible or thermal quality.
The descriptions can thus complement each other: a wind characterized as ṣarṣar, also ʿātiyah in its force and destructive strength.
ʿĀtiyah alone does not prove that ṣarṣar concerns only sound or cold, but shows that a separate word also conveys extraordinary intensity.
The Wind’s Duration and Outcome
Al-Ḥāqqah 69:7 speaks of seven nights and eight successive days, then compares the fallen people to hollow palm trunks.
The account does not portray the destruction of ʿĀd as a brief, ineffectual event.
Al-Aḥqāf 46:24 and Al-Aḥqāf 46:25 likewise describe a wind the people initially took for a rain-bearing cloud. It is then identified as carrying punishment and destroying what it was commanded to destroy.
These verses help explain the event’s scope, but their features should not all become part of ṣarṣar’s lexical meaning.
Ṣarṣar alone, for example, does not mean an eight-day wind; the duration comes from Al-Ḥāqqah 69:7.
Nor does ṣarṣar itself name collapsing houses or the destruction of people; such outcomes are described in the related accounts.
Distinguishing lexical meaning from an event’s outcome is essential to accurate translation.
6. Conclusion and Translation Proposals
Ṣ R Ṣ R is a quadriliteral entry with a repetitive structure and two important recorded Arabic semantic fields.
First, intense, biting cold, especially in describing wind.
Second, a piercing, harsh, sometimes repeated sound, such as the calls of certain birds or noisy winds.
Early lexicographers explain the connection with Ṣ R R in different ways: some connect its origin with ṣirr, cold, others with ṣarīr and intense sound.
The disagreement should not be erased by inventing an unsupported general meaning.
Ṣarṣar occurs three times in the Qur’an, always describing the wind sent against ʿĀd.
In Fuṣṣilat 41:16, the wind is sent against them during harsh, harmful days.
In Al-Qamar 54:19, the description accompanies a temporal expression; the next verse describes the wind’s destructive power.
In Al-Ḥāqqah 69:6, ṣarṣar accompanies ʿātiyah; the following account gives the destruction’s duration and outcome.
Both intense cold and harsh sound have lexical support as descriptions of wind.
The independent use of ṣarṣara for bird calls and early accounts of a wind’s loud sound clearly support the sound-based reading. The connection with ṣirr and biting cold is also explicitly recorded in early dictionaries.
Intense cold should therefore neither be excluded nor declared certain and exclusive in every use.
Brief root meaning: A piercing, intense, sometimes repeated sound; in describing wind, extreme cold or a formidable, howling sound.
Meanings of Qur’anic forms and translation proposals:
صَرْصَرًا — Fuṣṣilat 41:16: describes the wind sent against ʿĀd, with intense cold or a harsh, howling sound. Proposed rendering: “fierce and howling.”
صَرْصَرًا — Al-Qamar 54:19: the same wind description in the destruction of ʿĀd. Proposed rendering: “fierce and howling.”
صَرْصَرٍ — Al-Ḥāqqah 69:6: describes the wind alongside ʿātiyatin; a harsh, distressing ṣarṣar quality in a context of formidable force. Proposed rendering: “fierce and howling.”
“A very cold wind” is also defensible through an established lexical meaning. “A howling wind” makes the recorded audible quality and the word’s sound pattern clearer to the reader.
To keep both possibilities in one expression, a note may use “a biting, howling wind,” while recognizing that “biting” does not by itself establish a cold temperature with certainty.
The study’s central conclusion is that Qur’anic ṣarṣar describes wind, rather than independently naming punishment or destruction.
The three verses present this wind as the agent of ʿĀd’s destruction, but express its duration, destructive force, and outcome through separate words and clauses.
The root explanation should distinguish intense cold from harsh sound, avoiding the conversion of a lexical possibility into a certain account of the event’s natural mechanism.
The severe setting of the verses must nevertheless remain visible. The Qur’an does not describe an ordinary wind, but one that shattered the life of ʿĀd in a formidable event.
That conclusion follows from the verses together. The precise quality of ṣarṣar still requires translation and explanation grounded in lexical evidence and an appropriate degree of confidence.