حمل

Core meaning

To carry: to take a weight upon oneself and bear it, whether matter, a child to be born, an entrusted deposit or a fault.

Uses

1. حَمَلَ, يَحْمِلُ → "to carry", "to bear" : to bear a weight, by hand, by womb or by conscience.

   • «وَحَمَلَهَا ٱلْإِنسَٰنُ» — "and the human being bore it" (33:72)
   • «حَمَلَتْهُ أُمُّهُۥ وَهْنًا عَلَىٰ وَهْنٍۢ» — "his mother carried him, frailty upon frailty" (31:14)
   • «ٱلَّذِينَ يَحْمِلُونَ ٱلْعَرْشَ» — "Those who bear the Edifice" (40:7)

2. حَمَّلَ, حُمِّلَ, حَمَلَ عَلَى → "to make carry", "to make bear" : to set a weight upon another.

   • «رَبَّنَا وَلَا تَحْمِلْ عَلَيْنَآ إِصْرًۭا كَمَا حَمَلْتَهُۥ عَلَى ٱلَّذِينَ مِن قَبْلِنَا» — "Our Guardian, and do not make us bear a yoke as You made those before us bear it" (2:286)
   • «رَبَّنَا وَلَا تُحَمِّلْنَا مَا لَا طَاقَةَ لَنَا بِهِۦ» — "Our Guardian, and do not make us bear what we do not have the strength to bear" (2:286)

3. حَمَلَ (persons), تُحْمَلُونَ → "to transport" : to carry from one place to another, on a beast or a ship.

   • «وَعَلَيْهَا وَعَلَى ٱلْفُلْكِ تُحْمَلُونَ» — "and upon them as well as upon vessels you are carried" (23:22)

4. حَمْل, حِمْل → "bearing", "freight", "what they carry" : what one carries: the child to be born, the load of a beast, the weight of one's deeds; for the mother giving birth, "what they carry".

   • «وَتَضَعُ كُلُّ ذَاتِ حَمْلٍ حَمْلَهَا» — "every pregnant one will lay down her bearing" (22:2)
   • «وَأُو۟لَٰتُ ٱلْأَحْمَالِ أَجَلُهُنَّ أَن يَضَعْنَ حَمْلَهُنَّ» — "And for pregnant women, their term is when they give birth to what they carry" (65:4)
   • «وَإِن تَدْعُ مُثْقَلَةٌ إِلَىٰ حِمْلِهَا» — "and if one heavily laden calls for help with his freight" (35:18)

5. حَمْل (of the mother) → "bearing" : the time in which the mother carries the child.

   • «وَحَمْلُهُۥ وَفِصَٰلُهُۥ ثَلَٰثُونَ شَهْرًا» — "And his bearing and his weaning are thirty months" (46:15)

6. ٱحْتَمَلَ → "to make oneself the bearer" : to take upon oneself what one will have to carry.

   • «فَقَدِ ٱحْتَمَلُوا۟ بُهْتَٰنًۭا وَإِثْمًۭا مُّبِينًۭا» — "make themselves the bearers of a slander and a manifest transgression" (33:58)

7. حَمُولَة → "beasts of burden" : the animals made for carrying.

   • «وَمِنَ ٱلْأَنْعَٰمِ حَمُولَةًۭ وَفَرْشًۭا» — "And among the cattle, there are the beasts of burden and those of the fleece" (6:142)

Evidence from the text

The root carries the heaviest and the tenderest: the mother who bore the child "frailty upon frailty" (31:14), the trust that the heavens, the earth and the mountains refused to carry and that the human being carried (33:72), God's Edifice, borne by others than those around it (40:7), and by eight on that day (69:17).

Carrying binds, and no one carries for another. Those who disown promise: "we will carry your faults", though they will carry nothing of their faults (29:12); whoever calls for help with what he bears will not be relieved, "even by a close relative" (35:18). Hence the invocation, which repeats the root three times: "do not make us bear a burden as You made those before us bear it", then "do not make us bear what we do not have the strength to bear" (2:286). That burden, 7:157 says it is lifted with another verb, وضع.

Distinctions

• وزر — the burden: the fault one carries, whereas حمل is the act of carrying
• ثقل — weight: what weighs, whereas حمل is the gesture of bearing it
• وضع — to set down, to lay aside, to lift from: the messenger lifts the burden (7:157), whereas حمل makes one bear it (2:286)