Read · 6 min · Optional
Four words: the outcome of the Book, two words for how to call on Allah, the good news before the rain, and the little that bad ground gives. The doa we make every day comes from the same root as the first word of ayah 55.
تَأْوِيلَهُۥ ۚ
taʾwīlahu · 7:53 · ▶ hear ayah 53
Saheeh International: “its result” — Do they await except its result?
- Meaning in context
- Its outcome: what the Book promised, coming true. All four commentators read the word this way here, not as “interpretation”. Ibn Kathir calls it “the final fulfillment”. It comes twice: they wait for it, and on the Day it comes, they admit the messengers told the truth.
- Root
- أ و ل ʾ-w-l. Lane gives the verb first as “He, or it, returned”, and the form of this word as “he made it, or caused it, to return”. Taʾwīl is disclosing “that to which a thing is, or may be, reduced, or that which it comes, or may come, to be”: where a thing ends up. Corpus root ↗ · Lane's Lexicon ↗
- For reflection
- The Book's outcome will come either way. Which of its promises do you live by now, and which are you still waiting to see?
- In this surah
- As taʾwīl, only here, twice in one ayah. The same root gives awwal, first, at 7:38, 39 and 143.
Grammar, counts and cross-references
- Grammar
- Verbal noun, form II — accusative masculine, with the pronoun “its” attached. The fourth word of 7:53; the seventh word, تَأْوِيلُهُۥ taʾwīluhu, is the same word in the nominative. Corpus 7:53 word by word ↗
- Elsewhere in the Qur'an
- The root occurs 170 times. The verbal noun taʾwīl occurs 17 times, eight of them in Surah Yusuf, where the corpus glosses it “interpretation”. When Yusuf's dream comes true, he says:
- 12:100 وَقَالَ يَا أَبَتِ هَٰذَا تَأْوِيلُ رُؤْيَايَ مِنْ قَبْلُ — “this is the explanation of my vision of before. My Lord has made it reality.”
On the tafsir page → The early readings of taʾwīl in al-Tabari, and Ibn Zayd's link to Yusuf's dream.
تَضَرُّعًۭا وَخُفْيَةً ۚ
taḍarruʿan wa khufyatan · 7:55 · ▶ hear ayah 55
Saheeh International: “in humility and privately” — Call upon your Lord in humility and privately
- Meaning in context
- Two words for how to call on Allah. Taḍarruʿ is humbling yourself as you ask; khufya is quietly, in secret. Ibn Kathir: “in humbleness and humility”. Al-Tabari says privately means between you and Him, not loudly to be seen. In Indonesian we say doa, from duʿāʾ. The first word of the ayah, ٱدْعُوا۟ udʿū, call upon, is from the same root.
- Root
- ض ر ع ḍ-r-ʿ. Lane, said of a man: “He was, or became, lowly, humble, or submissive”. خ ف ي kh-f-y: the corpus gives the verb as “to hide”. We have no lexicon line for this root. Corpus ḍ-r-ʿ ↗ · Corpus kh-f-y ↗ · Lane's Lexicon ↗
- For reflection
- When did you last make du'a where no one else could hear it?
- In this surah
- Taḍarruʿan comes again at 7:205: “remember your Lord within yourself in humility and in fear without being apparent in speech”. Ibn Kathir compares it here. The verb from ḍ-r-ʿ is at 7:94.
Grammar, counts and cross-references
- Grammar
- taḍarruʿan: verbal noun, form V — accusative masculine indefinite. khufyatan: noun — accusative feminine indefinite, joined by wa, and. The third and fourth words of 7:55. Corpus 7:55 word by word ↗
- Elsewhere in the Qur'an
- Taḍarruʿan occurs 3 times and khufya twice. The two stand together only here and at 6:63, where Saheeh renders the first word differently:
- 6:63 تَدْعُونَهُ تَضَرُّعًا وَخُفْيَةً — “[when] you call upon Him imploring [aloud] and privately”.
- 19:3 إِذْ نَادَىٰ رَبَّهُ نِدَاءً خَفِيًّا — “When he called to his Lord a private supplication.”
On the tafsir page → Al-Hasan al-Basri's whisper, in al-Tabari. The first core narration is on the hadith page.
بُشْرًۢا
bushran · 7:57 · ▶ hear ayah 57
Saheeh International: “as good tidings” — And it is He who sends the winds as good tidings before His mercy
- Meaning in context
- Good news. The winds come first, as good news of what is coming. Ibn Kathir says “before His mercy” means “before the rain”, and al-Tabari says the mercy here is the rain. In Indonesian we often call rain rahmat; in this ayah, too, the mercy is the rain.
- Root
- ب ش ر b-sh-r. Lane ties the word to bashara, the skin: news that changes a person's complexion. Then “joyful, or glad, tidings; good news”, and the word “when used absolutely, relates only to good”. Corpus root ↗ · Lane's Lexicon ↗
- For reflection
- The winds come before the rain. When good news reaches you, do you thank Allah then, or only when the good thing arrives?
- In this surah
- The root again at 7:188: bashīr, a bearer of good tidings.
Grammar, readings, counts and cross-references
- Grammar
- Noun — accusative masculine indefinite. The fifth word of 7:57. Corpus 7:57 word by word ↗
- How it is read
- The Arabic on this site reads bushran; al-Qurtubi names it as the reading of ʿĀṣim. Al-Jalalayn's text reads nushuran and al-Tabari's nashran. The tafsir page has the detail.
- Elsewhere in the Qur'an
- The root occurs 123 times. The noun bushr occurs only 3 times, and each time it is the winds before His mercy:
- 25:48 وَهُوَ الَّذِي أَرْسَلَ الرِّيَاحَ بُشْرًا بَيْنَ يَدَيْ رَحْمَتِهِ — “And it is He who sends the winds as good tidings before His mercy”.
- 27:63 وَمَنْ يُرْسِلُ الرِّيَاحَ بُشْرًا بَيْنَ يَدَيْ رَحْمَتِهِ أَإِلَٰهٌ مَعَ اللَّهِ — “who sends the winds as good tidings before His mercy”.
On the tafsir page → The mercy as the rain, and how the word for the winds is read.
نَكِدًۭا ۚ
nakidan · 7:58 · ▶ hear ayah 58
Saheeh International: “sparsely, with difficulty” — but that which is bad - nothing emerges except sparsely, with difficulty
- Meaning in context
- A little, and with difficulty: what bad ground gives. Al-Qurtubi calls it the hard ground that refuses to give good. The commentators read the two lands as a parable: for the believer and the disbeliever (al-Jalalayn; Ibn ʿAbbas and Qatada in al-Tabari), or for hearts that receive the Qur'an (al-Suddi in al-Tabari, al-Hasan in al-Qurtubi).
- Root
- ن ك د n-k-d. Lane, of a life: “hard, or strait, and difficult”. Of a well: “The well came to have little water”. Of a man: “he gave little: or gave not at all”. Corpus root ↗ · Lane's Lexicon ↗
- For reflection
- Lane uses the word for a person who gives little. Where do you give only a little, and with difficulty, and where do you give freely?
- In this surah
- Only here, and the only time the root comes in the Qur'an.
Grammar, counts and cross-references
- Grammar
- Noun — accusative masculine singular indefinite. The twelfth word of 7:58. Al-Tabari lists other readings, nakadan and nakdan, and chooses nakidan, ours, by the agreement of the reciters of the cities. Corpus 7:58 word by word ↗
- Elsewhere in the Qur'an
- Nowhere else. In the same ayah the good land is وَٱلْبَلَدُ ٱلطَّيِّبُ al-baladu al-ṭayyibu, from the root of ṭayyibāt, a word from session 05.
On the tafsir page → The readings of the two lands. The Prophet's ﷺ parable of rain on three kinds of ground is on the hadith page.
More words to notice
- وَرَحْمَةًۭ wa-raḥmatan · 7:52, 56, 57
- “Mercy”, three times in this passage: the Book is guidance and mercy (7:52), the mercy of Allah is near (7:56), and the winds come before His mercy, which al-Tabari says is the rain (7:57). The noun raḥma occurs 114 times. Indonesian rahmat.
- ٱلْخَلْقُ وَٱلْأَمْرُ ۗ al-khalqu wa-l-amru · 7:54
- “The creation and the command.” Ibn Kathir: “the dominion and the decision”. The noun khalq occurs 52 times and amr 166. Indonesian makhluk, a creature, is from the root of khalq.
- ٱلْمُعْتَدِينَ al-muʿtadīna · 7:55
- “Transgressors”: those who go past the limit. All four commentators read it here as overstepping in du'a. Lane: “He went, or passed, beyond it; exceeded it; or transgressed it”. The noun occurs 6 times.
- وَطَمَعًا ۚ wa-ṭamaʿan · 7:56
- “Aspiration”: hope. The noun occurs 4 times, and each time fear comes just before it (7:56, 13:12, 30:24, 32:16). Session 07's yaṭmaʿūna (7:46) is the verb from the same root.
- حَثِيثًۭا ḥathīthan · 7:54
- “Rapidly”: the night seeks the day swiftly (al-Tabari, from Ibn ʿAbbas and al-Suddi). The root comes only here.
- ثِقَالًۭا thiqālan · 7:57
- “Heavy” rainclouds, heavy with their water (al-Qurtubi). The root of thaqulat, heavy, at 7:8, the scales of session 01. The same clouds at 13:12: “generates the heavy clouds”.
Self-check
Find the word in the ayah, then open the answer.
Which word in ayah 53 means “its result”?
تَأْوِيلَهُۥ ۚ
taʾwīlahu — the fourth word. It comes again as the seventh.
Which two words in ayah 55 mean “in humility and privately”?
تَضَرُّعًۭا وَخُفْيَةً ۚ
taḍarruʿan wa khufyatan — the third and fourth words.
Which word in ayah 57 means “as good tidings”?
بُشْرًۢا
bushran — the fifth word.
Which word in ayah 58 means “with difficulty”?
نَكِدًۭا ۚ
nakidan — the twelfth word.
| Word | Transliteration | Ayah |
|---|---|---|
| تَأْوِيلَهُۥ ۚ | taʾwīlahu | 7:53 |
| تَضَرُّعًۭا وَخُفْيَةً ۚ | taḍarruʿan wa khufyatan | 7:55 |
| بُشْرًۢا | bushran | 7:57 |
| نَكِدًۭا ۚ | nakidan | 7:58 |