Quran Root Words > Root ʾ-l-h
The Arabic root أ ل ه (ʾ-l-h) occurs 2,851 times in the Quran, in 3 different words, and is number 1 of the Quran's 1,642 roots by frequency. The most frequent word is ٱللَّه (Allāh), 2,699 times, followed by إِلَٰه (ilāh), 147 times.
What the root ʾ-l-h means
The Quranic Arabic Corpus glosses ٱللَّه (Allāh), which occurs 2,699 times, as "Allah". It glosses إِلَٰه (ilāh), which occurs 147 times, as "god".
One letter of ʾ-l-h is a hamza, the glottal stop. Arabic writes a hamza on a seat chosen by the vowels around it (أ, إ, ؤ, ئ, or ء on its own); in إِلَٰه (ilāh) it is written إ.
Every word from the root ʾ-l-h in the Quran
The Quran builds 3 different words on ʾ-l-h. The table lists them from most to least frequent, with the spelling the corpus gives each one, its word type, its meaning and its number of occurrences. The Quran uses no verb from ʾ-l-h: all 2,851 occurrences are nouns, adjectives or participles.
| Arabic | Transliteration | Word type | Meaning | Occurrences |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| ٱللَّه | Allāh | Proper noun | Allah | 2,699 |
| إِلَٰه | ilāh | Noun | god | 147 |
| ٱللَّهُمَّ | Allāhumma | Form of address | O Allah | 5 |
| أ ل ه | ʾ-l-h | All words from ʾ-l-h | 2,851 |
Meanings in quotation marks are MASAQ word-by-word glosses, the others the corpus dictionary's, and the word types follow the dictionary. The Arabic is the corpus's, in the Quran's own spelling, so إِلَٰه (ilāh) keeps its small dagger alif. Every count on this page is a lemma count from the Quranic Arabic Corpus, version 0.4. We compared each of these 3 counts, and the root total of 2,851, with the corpus's own dictionary entry for ʾ-l-h, and all of them match.
The root ʾ-l-h in the verses of the Quran
Words from ʾ-l-h appear in 1,879 verses spread over 86 of the Quran's 114 suras. Sura 2 has the most of them, 174 verses. Below are the shortest verses in which the root's most frequent words occur, with the word marked. The text is the Uthmani text of Tanzil, and each reference opens the verse on quran.com with translations.
ٱللَّه (Allāh), 2,699 times
ٱللَّهُ ٱلصَّمَدُ
Quran 112:2; word-by-word gloss of the marked word: "Allah"
نَارُ ٱللَّهِ ٱلْمُوقَدَةُ
Quran 104:6; word-by-word gloss of the marked word: "Allah"
مِّنَ ٱللَّهِ ذِى ٱلْمَعَارِجِ
Quran 70:3; word-by-word gloss of the marked word: "Allah"
إِلَٰه (ilāh), 147 times
إِلَٰهِ ٱلنَّاسِ
Quran 114:3; word-by-word gloss of the marked word: "(the) god"
إِنَّ إِلَٰهَكُمْ لَوَٰحِدٌ
Quran 37:4; word-by-word gloss of the marked word: "your lord"
ٱللَّهُمَّ (Allāhumma), 5 times
دَعْوَىٰهُمْ فِيهَا سُبْحَٰنَكَ ٱللَّهُمَّ وَتَحِيَّتُهُمْ فِيهَا سَلَٰمٌ ۚ وَءَاخِرُ دَعْوَىٰهُمْ أَنِ ٱلْحَمْدُ لِلَّهِ رَبِّ ٱلْعَٰلَمِينَ
Quran 10:10; word-by-word gloss of the marked word: "O Allah"
قُلِ ٱللَّهُمَّ فَاطِرَ ٱلسَّمَٰوَٰتِ وَٱلْأَرْضِ عَٰلِمَ ٱلْغَيْبِ وَٱلشَّهَٰدَةِ أَنتَ تَحْكُمُ بَيْنَ عِبَادِكَ فِى مَا كَانُوا۟ فِيهِ يَخْتَلِفُونَ
Quran 39:46; word-by-word gloss of the marked word: "O Allah"
Learning the words of ʾ-l-h
ٱللَّه (Allāh), no. 2 with 2,699 and إِلَٰه (ilāh), no. 73 with 147, are on our list of the 100 most common Quran words, which counts them the same way. The root ʾ-l-h is one of the 1,642 roots you can search in our Quran root word explorer; for the rest of the language, see our Arabic learning resources by level.
Frequently asked questions
How many times is the root ʾ-l-h used in the Quran?
2,851 times, in 3 different words, according to the Quranic Arabic Corpus. The most frequent is ٱللَّه (Allāh), which occurs 2,699 times.
What does the Arabic root أ ل ه (ʾ-l-h) mean?
The Quranic Arabic Corpus glosses ٱللَّه (Allāh), which occurs 2,699 times, as "Allah". The root gives the Quran 3 words in all.
Does the Quran use a verb from the root ʾ-l-h?
No. All 2,851 occurrences of ʾ-l-h in the Quran are nouns, adjectives or participles; the most frequent is ٱللَّه (Allāh).