Arabic root

غ-ي-ب

Ghayn-Ya-Ba

2 words from this root family

About this root

Ghayn-Ya-Ba (غ-ي-ب) has 2 words in the Fahm dictionary: ghayb (unseen / hidden realm), ghāba (forest).

In the Quran, words built on this root occur 60 times in 59 verses, across 35 of the 114 suras. The first is in 2:3. The form غَيْبٌ (unseen / hidden realm) accounts for 49 of them.

Themes: Quranic, Nature Weather

Words from this root

Word	Meaning	Type	In the Quran	Taught in
غَيْبٌ ghayb	unseen / hidden realm	noun, B1	49×	Advanced Quranic Vocabulary
غَابَة ghāba	forest	noun, B1		Flora & Fauna

“In the Quran” counts every occurrence of that dictionary form, in any of its senses.

In the Quran

ٱلَّذِينَ يُؤْمِنُونَ بِٱلْغَيْبِ وَيُقِيمُونَ ٱلصَّلَوٰةَ وَمِمَّا رَزَقْنَـٰهُمْ يُنفِقُونَ

Who believe in the Unseen, and establish worship, and spend of that We have bestowed upon them;

Quran 2:3

۞ يَوْمَ يَجْمَعُ ٱللَّهُ ٱلرُّسُلَ فَيَقُولُ مَاذَآ أُجِبْتُمْ ۖ قَالُوا۟ لَا عِلْمَ لَنَآ ۖ إِنَّكَ أَنتَ عَلَّـٰمُ ٱلْغُيُوبِ

In the day when Allah gathereth together the messengers, and saith: What was your response (from mankind)? they say: We have no knowledge. Lo! Thou, only Thou art the Knower of Things Hidden,

Quran 5:109

فَلَنَقُصَّنَّ عَلَيْهِم بِعِلْمٍ ۖ وَمَا كُنَّا غَآئِبِينَ

Then verily We shall narrate unto them (the event) with knowledge, for We were not absent (when it came to pass).

Quran 7:7

Arabic text: Tanzil Quran Text (Uthmani 1.1), CC BY 3.0, tanzil.net. English: Marmaduke Pickthall, The Meaning of the Glorious Koran (1930), public domain, via Project Gutenberg. Counts and verse choice: Quranic Arabic Corpus morphology data (corpus.quran.com).

Word cards with examples

B1noun

غَيْبٌ

ghayb

unseen / hidden realm

Example

ذَلِكَ الْكِتَابُ لَا رَيْبَ فِيهِ هُدًى لِلْمُتَّقِينَ الَّذِينَ يُؤْمِنُونَ بِالْغَيْبِ

dhālika al-kitābu lā rayba fīhi hudan lil-muttaqīna alladhīna yuʾminūna bil-ghayb

This is the Book in which there is no doubt, a guidance for the God-conscious who believe in the unseen (2:2-3)

Root: غ-ي-ب Quranic

Grammar

Masculine noun. Related: غَائِبٌ (absent), غَابَ (to be absent/hidden), غَيْبِيٌّ (relating to the unseen). Opposite: شَهَادَة (the witnessed/seen realm). عَالِمُ الْغَيْبِ = Knower of the unseen.

Culture

Belief in the ghayb (unseen) is the first quality of the God-conscious mentioned in the Quran. It encompasses God, angels, the Hereafter, and all that is beyond human perception.

B1noun

غَابَة

ghāba