A Semantic Analysis of Ḍarb in the Narrations on the Children’s Ḍarb for Prayer: A Critique of “Commitment” and “Ja‘li shar‘ī” Readings

Document Type : Research Article

Author

Hojjatollah Dehghani

The researcher, Institute of Fiqhe Nezam, Qom, Iran

10.22067/jquran.2026.95276.1884

Abstract

One of the important challenges in jurisprudential and educational analysis of narrations concerning children’s ḍarb for prayer is disagreement over the meaning of the term “ḍarb”. The existing research background has primarily been based on two readings of this term: “corporal punishment” and “commitment”. However, no study has ever comprehensively examined all the possible meanings of the root “ḍ-r-b”. Furthermore, no one has yet proposed “ja‘li shar‘ī” (divine-juristic enactment) as a third interpretive possibility. Using a descriptive-analytical method and based on lexical examination, comparative study of Quranic usages, and contextual analysis of five main narrations, this article compares and analyzes three interpretations: “corporal punishment”, “commitment”, and “ja‘li shar‘ī”. The findings show that although the “ja‘li shar‘ī” reading is an innovative concept, it faces serious lexical and syntactic problems and is inconsistent with the context of traditions. Also, regarding the “commitment” reading, it does not possess sufficient soundness, as it lacks lexical support and conflicts with the syntactic structure of narrations. In contrast, by considering the lexical meaning of the root “ḍ-r-b”, textual indications in the narrations concerning the children and its similar usage in other educational traditions, it becomes clear that the “corporal punishment” interpretation is more consistent with the available evidence. Accordingly, the interpretation of the term “ḍarb” in the narrations regarding the children’s prayer is explicable within the framework of the concept “punishment”. This finding can serve as a basis for organizing educational views and resolving existing disagreements over the analysis of these narrations.

Keywords

Children’s prayer

Ḍarb narrations

Corporal punishment

commitment

Ja‘li shar‘ī

Subjects

• Semantics of Qurʾanic/Hadith vocabulary

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