حُزْن sadness in Arabic
حُزْن is how you say “sadness” in Arabic.
Root ح ز ن ḥ-z-n. noun (substantive). ḥuzn.
Arabic
English
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Meaning of sadness in Arabic
- grief, sorrow, sadness, mourning, unhappiness the general word for sadness, given as the opposite of سُرور (joy, gladness)
- grieving anxiety over a loss already suffered one lexicographer (El-Munāwī) distinguishes it from هَمّ, which is anxious dread of something feared to come, whereas ḥuzn follows an unpleasant event that has already happened
Example sentence
ما زال يكتب بدم الندم سطور الحزن في القصص،
He never stopped writing with the blood of regret the lines of sadness in the stories.
الحُزْنِ of sadness
al- = 'the'; huzn means 'sadness, grief' — the 'of…' word: 'of sadness'.
The English is machine-translated.
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How it is used
Frequent in the Qur'an in the reassurance لَا تَحْزَنْ / لَا تَحْزَنُوا ('do not grieve'); one commentator explains this forbids the deeds that bring on ḥuzn, since the feeling itself is not within human control. Muḥammad himself named عَامُ الحُزْنِ ('the Year of Sorrow') for the year his wife Khadījah and uncle Abū Ṭālib died. Er-Rāghib links the abstract sense to the root's physical one, describing ḥuzn as 'a roughness in the spirit, occasioned by grief.'
Words from the same root
- حَزِنَ to grieve, be sorrowful (form I verb)
- أَحْزَنَ to grieve someone, cause sorrow (causative, form IV)
- تَحَزَّنَ to lament or express grief over something (form V)
- تَحْزِين reciting in a slender, plaintive voice (form II verbal noun)
- حَزِين grieving, sorrowful, sad (adjective)
- حَزْن rugged, hard ground — the root's literal 'roughness' sense
- حُزَانَة one's family or household, over whom one feels concern
More example sentences
لما رأى الرَّسُول حزنه قد اشْتَدَّ
When the Messenger saw that his sorrow had intensified.
حُزْنَهُ his sorrow
'Grief' with '-hu' (his) attached, the object of 'saw', accusative ('-a') — Abu Bakr's sorrow. What the Prophet observed.
وأما عملك فغير صالح، وأما تلاوتك فثقيلة عرية عن الخشية والحزن والخوف
As for your deeds, they are not righteous, and your recitation is heavy, devoid of fear, sorrow, and apprehension.
وَالْحُزْنِ and sorrow
The conjunction adds a coordinated genitive, sorrow, definite and genitive under the same preposition. Joining items with 'and' lets the one preposition govern the whole list of missing qualities.
وقال عبد الواحد بن زيد لو رأيت الحسن، لقلت صب على هذا حزن الخلائق؛ من طول تلك الدمعة، وكثرة ذلك النشيج
Abdul-Wahid ibn Zaid said: If you saw Al-Hasan, you would say: 'The sorrow of all beings has been poured upon him,' because of the length of his weeping and the abundance of his lamentations.
حُزْنُ sorrow
This noun is the delayed subject of the passive verb, the thing that got poured, so it holds the subject form. It also fronts an 'of' pairing with the word after it.
وَأما الْحزن فَلم يَأْمر الله بِهِ وَلَا رَسُوله بل قد نهى عَنهُ فِي مَوَاضِع
As for sadness, God did not command it, nor did His Messenger; rather, it has been prohibited in certain places.
الحُزْنُ sadness
Definite noun, 'sadness', the fronted topic introduced by 'as for'. The 'the' marks it as the abstract concept treated as a known whole; it is what the rest of the sentence comments on.
نعم لَا يَأْثَم صَاحبه إِذا لم يقْتَرن بحزنه محرم كَمَا يحزن على المصائب
Yes, one does not sin for it if his sadness is not accompanied by something prohibited, as one grieves over calamities.
بِحُزْنِهِ with his sadness
A preposition 'with/by' carrying a noun 'sadness' with 'his' attached, 'with his sadness'. One word bundles preposition, noun, and possessor; it marks what something forbidden might be joined to.
كَمَا قَالَ النَّبِي إِن الله لَا يُؤَاخذ على دمع الْعين وَلَا حزن الْقلب وَلَكِن يُؤَاخذ على هَذَا وَيرْحَم
As the Prophet said, 'Indeed, Allah does not punish for the tear of the eye or the sadness of the heart, but He punishes for this — or shows mercy.'
حُزْنِ sadness of
First noun of an 'X of Y' pair, 'sadness', in the owned head form, completed by 'the heart'. It heads 'the sadness of the heart', the second thing not held against a person.
وَمِنْه قَوْله تَعَالَى يُوسُف فَتَوَلّى عَنْهُم وَقَالَ يَا أسفي على يُوسُف وابيضت عَيناهُ من الْحزن فَهُوَ كظيم
And from this is His saying in Surah Yusuf: 'So he turned away from them and said, "Oh, my grief over Yusuf!" And his eyes turned white from sadness, for he was suppressing it.'
الحُزْنِ the grief
Definite noun, 'the grief', governed by the cause preposition into the owned form. The 'the' marks the known sorrow; it names what caused the eyes to whiten.
Common questions
- How do you say "sadness" in Arabic?
- Sadness is حُزْن (ḥuzn) in Arabic, from the root ح-ز-ن, meaning grief, sorrow, or mourning.
- What is the difference between حُزْن and حَزَن?
- Both mean grief/sadness from the same verb حَزِنَ, but grammarians treat حُزْن as a plain noun and حَزَن as its verbal noun (maṣdar); some say ḥuzn is used in the nominative/genitive and ḥazan in the accusative.
Related words
Definitions summarised from Lane's Arabic-English Lexicon (E. W. Lane, 1863–1893).