j-r-h

Description

The Arabic root جرح (j-r-h) carries the core meaning of cutting, wounding, or marking a surface, which extends metaphorically to earning or acquiring something through effort. In the Quran, this root appears in contexts ranging from physical wounds (jurūḥ) to the action of trained hunting animals that "wound" or catch prey (jawāriḥ), and to the earning or committing of sins and deeds (jarḥa/iktasaba). This semantic range reflects how the Quran uses the physical concept of cutting or marking to describe both tangible injuries and the moral "marking" that occurs through one's actions and acquisitions.