Read · 11 min · Optional
Eight words, four from each story. For Nuh: the leaders, the two things a messenger does, the wonder at an ordinary messenger, and the blindness at the end. For Hud: the charge of foolishness, the trustworthy adviser, the successors, and the root that was cut. Indonesian has words from five of these roots: tablig, nasihat, ajaib, amanah and khalifah.
ٱلْمَلَأُ
al-malaʾu · 7:60 · ▶ hear ayah 60
Saheeh International: “the eminent” — Said the eminent among his people
- Meaning in context
- The leading people: the ones whose word counts. Ibn Kathir: “the general public, chiefs, commanders and great ones of his people”. Al-Qurtubi says the nobles and the chiefs.
- Root
- م ل أ m-l-ʾ. Lane gives the verb first as “He filled”. The noun is “An assembly”, and also “Nobles; chiefs; princes”, “persons whose opinion is respected”. Corpus root ↗ · Lane's Lexicon ↗
- For reflection
- The leaders decided for everyone that Nuh was wrong. When you decide what is right, whose opinion carries the most weight with you?
- In this surah
- Eight times, always the leading people in a messenger's story: Nuh's here, then Hud's (7:66), Salih's (7:75), Shuʿayb's (7:88, 90) and Pharaoh's (7:103, 109, 127). You will meet them again in most of the stories that follow.
Grammar, counts and cross-references
- Grammar
- Noun — nominative masculine. The second word of 7:60. Corpus 7:60 word by word ↗
- Elsewhere in the Qur'an
- The root occurs 40 times, and the noun malaʾ 30 times. Its first place is 2:246, where Saheeh renders it “the assembly”:
- 2:246 أَلَمْ تَرَ إِلَى الْمَلَإِ مِنْ بَنِي إِسْرَائِيلَ مِنْ بَعْدِ مُوسَىٰ — “the assembly of the Children of Israel”.
On the tafsir page → Who the leaders were, and Ibn Kathir on how the wicked see the righteous.
أُبَلِّغُكُمْ … وَأَنصَحُ لَكُمْ
uballighukum … wa-anṣaḥu lakum · 7:62 · ▶ hear ayah 62
Saheeh International: “I convey to you” · “advise you” — I convey to you the messages of my Lord and advise you
- Meaning in context
- Two verbs for what a messenger does. Uballighu: I make the message reach you. Anṣaḥu: I advise you, and al-Jalalayn explains it as “I desire good for you”. In Indonesian, tablig and mubalig come from the root of the first verb, and nasihat, session 03's word, from the root of the second.
- Root
- ب ل غ b-l-gh. Lane: “The causing to reach, attain, arrive, or come; bringing, conveying, or delivering”. ن ص ح n-ṣ-ḥ. Lane: it “was, or became, pure, unadulterated, or genuine”. The same root gives “Pure, or clear, honey”, and “a tailor”. Al-Qurtubi gives the honey and the tailor's thread too. Corpus b-l-gh ↗ · Corpus n-ṣ-ḥ ↗ · Lane b-l-gh ↗ · Lane n-ṣ-ḥ ↗
- For reflection
- Nuh wanted good for people who had just called him astray. Who do you find it hard to want good for right now?
- In this surah
- The root of anṣaḥu comes six times. First Iblis claims it at 7:21 (session 03's word); here a messenger says it of himself for the first time. At 7:68 Hud says the first verb again and calls himself “a trustworthy adviser”. The pairing is our observation.
Grammar, readings, counts and cross-references
- Grammar
- uballighukum: verb, form II — 1st person singular imperfect, with the object pronoun “you” (plural). wa-anṣaḥu: verb, form I — 1st person singular imperfect, joined by wa, and. The first and fourth words of 7:62. Al-Qurtubi says the verb with lakum, “to you”, is the more eloquent way to say it, and Lane says the same. Corpus 7:62 word by word ↗
- How it is read
- The Arabic on this site reads uballighukum; al-Jalalayn and al-Qurtubi also give ublighukum. Al-Qurtubi says the two may be one meaning in two dialects.
- Elsewhere in the Qur'an
- The root b-l-gh occurs 77 times. This form of the verb comes 6 times, twice here in Surah 7: Nuh at 7:62 and Hud at 7:68. Salih and Shuʿayb use another form of the same verb (7:79, 7:93). The root n-ṣ-ḥ occurs 13 times. Nuh speaks of his advice again in Surah Hud:
- 11:34 وَلَا يَنْفَعُكُمْ نُصْحِي — “And my advice will not benefit you”.
On the tafsir page → Ibn Kathir on what makes a messenger, and al-Qurtubi's honey and thread. At ʿArafah the Companions use the same two verbs: that narration is on the hadith page.
أَوَعَجِبْتُمْ
a-wa-ʿajibtum · 7:63 · ▶ hear ayah 63
Saheeh International: “Then do you wonder” — Then do you wonder that there has come to you a reminder from your Lord through a man from among you
- Meaning in context
- Do you find it strange? What they found strange was not the message but the messenger: a man from among them. Al-Qurtubi says he was one of their own kind, a man whose family they knew. In Indonesian, ajaib comes from this root. There it is something wonderful; here, the wondering is a way of refusing.
- Root
- ع ج ب ʿ-j-b. Lane: “He wondered at it; i. e. he deemed it strange, extraordinary, or improbable”, “on account of his being little accustomed to it”. Corpus root ↗ · Lane's Lexicon ↗
- For reflection
- Whose voice do you expect the truth to come from? Whose voice do you not expect it from?
- In this surah
- Only here and at 7:69, where Hud asks his people the same question in the same words.
Grammar, counts and cross-references
- Grammar
- Verb, form I — 2nd person masculine plural perfect, with the question letter a and wa, and, joined in front. The first word of 7:63. Al-Qurtubi says the question here makes them admit it; al-Jalalayn reads it as a denial. Corpus 7:63 word by word ↗
- Elsewhere in the Qur'an
- The root occurs 27 times, and this verb 8 times. Hud's question, word for word:
- 7:69 أَوَعَجِبْتُمْ أَنْ جَاءَكُمْ ذِكْرٌ مِنْ رَبِّكُمْ عَلَىٰ رَجُلٍ مِنْكُمْ لِيُنْذِرَكُمْ — “Then do you wonder that there has come to you a reminder from your Lord through a man from among you, that he may warn you?”
On the tafsir page → Three ways the commentators read “through a man from among you”, and al-Qurtubi on why not an angel.
عَمِينَ
ʿamīna · 7:64 · ▶ hear ayah 64
Saheeh International: “blind” — Indeed, they were a blind people.
- Meaning in context
- Blind, but not in the eyes. All four commentators read it as blindness to the truth. Ibn Kathir: “blind from the Truth, unable to recognize it or find their way to it”. The leaders said Nuh was in clear error; the passage ends by saying who could not see. Do not mix it up with āmīn, the amin after a du'a: this word starts with the letter ʿayn.
- Root
- ع م ي ʿ-m-y. Lane gives the plain sense first, blind “of both eyes”. Then it is “metaphorically used in relation to the mind”, and for this word he gives “Blind in respect of the mind”. Corpus root ↗ · Lane's Lexicon ↗
- For reflection
- What might you be looking at every day and not seeing?
- In this surah
- Only here.
Grammar, counts and cross-references
- Grammar
- Adjective — accusative masculine plural. The last word of 7:64. Corpus 7:64 word by word ↗
- Elsewhere in the Qur'an
- The root occurs 33 times. This word comes only twice, here and at 27:66:
- 27:66 بَلْ هُمْ فِي شَكٍّ مِنْهَا بَلْ هُمْ مِنْهَا عَمُونَ — “Rather, they are, concerning it, blind.”
- 22:46 فَإِنَّهَا لَا تَعْمَى الْأَبْصَارُ — “it is not eyes that are blinded, but blinded are the hearts which are within the breasts.”
On the tafsir page → What each commentator says “blind” means here.
سَفَاهَةٍۢ
safāhatin · 7:66 · ▶ hear ayah 66
Saheeh International: “foolishness” — Indeed, we see you in foolishness
- Meaning in context
- Not madness, and not wickedness. Lightness: someone who does not have his feet under him, who is not to be taken seriously. Nuh’s leaders said ḍalāl, error; Hud’s say safāhah. Al-Jalalayn glosses it as ignorance; al-Qurtubi as stupidity and lightness of mind. Hud answers in the same word in ayah 67: there is no safāhah in me.
- Root
- س ف ه s-f-h. Lane gives the verb as “unwise, witless, or destitute of wisdom or understanding, or [rather] lightwitted.” Of a wind, the same root means it “put the branches in motion”. Al-Qurtubi brings a line of poetry with the same picture: spear tips that sway as the soft winds pass. Corpus root ↗ · Lane's Lexicon ↗
- For reflection
- Being called foolish for your faith is lighter than being called evil, and it can sting more. When it happens, do you answer the label, or do what Hud did and say what you are?
- In this surah
- Only here and in Hud’s answer, 7:67. The root comes back at 7:155, where Musa speaks of the foolish among his people.
Grammar, counts and cross-references
- Grammar
- Noun — genitive feminine indefinite. The tenth word of 7:66, and the fifth of 7:67. Corpus 7:66 word by word ↗
- Elsewhere in the Qur'an
- The root occurs 11 times. This noun comes only in these two ayat. The plural sufahāʾ, the foolish, comes seven times, and the mirror image of this ayah is 2:13, where it is the believers who are called foolish:
- 2:13 قَالُوا أَنُؤْمِنُ كَمَا آمَنَ السُّفَهَاءُ — the corpus glosses it “the fools”.
On the tafsir page → Al-Qurtubi on “we see you” as a fact and “we think you” as an opinion, and what the two openings share.
أَمِينٌ
amīnun · 7:68 · ▶ hear ayah 68
Saheeh International: “trustworthy” — I am to you a trustworthy adviser
- Meaning in context
- Nuh said: I advise you. Hud says: I am to you an adviser who is amīn, someone you can trust with the thing itself. Al-Jalalayn: trustworthy in the message he conveys. Al-Tabari puts it in Hud’s mouth: I do not lie in it, I do not add to it, I do not change it. In Indonesian, amanah, a trust you carry for someone, and aman, safe, are both this root. So is the title the people of Makkah gave the Prophet ﷺ before his mission, al-Amīn. Do not mix it up with ʿamīn, “blind”, the last word of ayah 64: that one begins with the letter ʿayn.
- Root
- أ م ن ʾ-m-n. Lane: the root sense is that “he was, or became, quiet, or tranquil, in heart”; the word itself is “trusty; trustworthy; trustful; confidential; faithful”. He notes the Qur'an's al-rūḥ al-amīn, the trustworthy Spirit, is Jibril, “because he is intrusted with the revelation of God”. Corpus root ↗ · Lane's Lexicon ↗
- For reflection
- Think of the one person whose advice you take without arguing. What did they do, over years, to earn that? Whose amīn are you?
- In this surah
- The word comes only here. The root closes this passage: ayah 72 ends with muʾminīn, believers, the ones who take the message as a trust. In the next passage the root opens 7:97–99, where the cities felt secure. The link from 68 to 72 is in the Arabic; the reading of it is ours.
Grammar, counts and cross-references
- Grammar
- Adjective — nominative masculine singular indefinite. The last word of 7:68. Corpus 7:68 word by word ↗
- Elsewhere in the Qur'an
- The root occurs 879 times, most often as the verb “to believe”. This adjective comes 14 times. Five of them are the same phrase, nāṣiḥun amīn, in Surah Ash-Shuʿara, where Nuh, Hud, Salih, Lut and Shuʿayb each say it of themselves:
- 26:125 إِنِّي لَكُمْ رَسُولٌ أَمِينٌ — Hud: “Indeed, I am to you a trustworthy messenger.”
On the tafsir page → Ibn Kathir on the three qualities of the prophets, and al-Tabari’s gloss of amīn. On the hadith page, the Prophet ﷺ uses the word of a Companion.
خُلَفَآءَ
khulafāʾa · 7:69 · ▶ hear ayah 69
Saheeh International: “successors” — And remember when He made you successors after the people of Noah
- Meaning in context
- A khalīfah stands in a place someone else left. Hud tells ʿAd they were put in the place of Nuh’s people, who were removed. Ibn Kathir reads it as a favour to be thankful for; al-Tabari reads it as a warning too: He put you in their place, and He can put others in yours. In Indonesian, khalifah is the word for a caliph, and the Qur'anic sense underneath it is this one.
- Root
- خ ل ف kh-l-f. Lane gives the verb as “He came after, followed, succeeded, or remained after, another, or another that had perished or died.” The noun is a “successor, or vice-agent”, one who “supplies the place of him who has been before him”. Corpus root ↗ · Lane's Lexicon ↗
- For reflection
- You stand where someone stood before you: at work, in your family, in your community. What did they leave you, and what are you doing with the place?
- In this surah
- Salih says the same word of Thamud in the next passage, 7:74: “successors after the 'Aad”. One people after another. The root comes back at 7:129 (succession in the land), 7:142, 7:150 and 7:169, and the Qur'an's first use of the idea is 2:30, where Adam is made a khalīfah.
Grammar, counts and cross-references
- Grammar
- Noun — accusative masculine plural. The fourteenth word of 7:69. Corpus 7:69 word by word ↗
- Elsewhere in the Qur'an
- The root occurs 127 times. The corpus groups the noun in its three forms, khalīfah, khulafāʾ and khalāʾif, as nine occurrences: 2:30, 6:165, 7:69, 7:74, 10:14, 10:73, 27:62, 35:39 and 38:26. The plural used here comes three times, 7:69, 7:74 and 27:62. Hud says the threat out loud in Surah Hud:
- 11:57 وَيَسْتَخْلِفُ رَبِّي قَوْمًا غَيْرَكُمْ وَلَا تَضُرُّونَهُ شَيْئًا — “My Lord will give succession to a people other than you”.
On the tafsir page → Al-Tabari’s reading of “successors” as a warning, and Ibn Kathir’s as a favour.
دَابِرَ
dābira · 7:72 · ▶ hear ayah 72
Saheeh International: “eliminated” — And We eliminated those who denied Our signs
- Meaning in context
- Saheeh renders the two Arabic words, qaṭaʿnā dābira, as one English verb, “eliminated”. Word for word it is: We cut off the dābir of those who denied. Al-Qurtubi glosses dābir as the last: no remnant was left. Al-Tabari reports Ibn Zayd: We uprooted them. The corpus glosses it “the roots”. A people who were made successors, put after others, now have nothing after them.
- Root
- د ب ر d-b-r. The root is about what is behind: the back, turning the back, what comes after. Lane gives dābir as “The last of anything”, and, from al-Asmaʿi and others, “the root, stock, race, or the like”. He quotes the idiom qaṭaʿa llāhu dābirahum, “May God cut off the last that remain of them”, and this very phrase at 6:45. Corpus root ↗ · Lane's Lexicon ↗
- For reflection
- The same root gives tadabbur, pondering the Qur'an: looking at what is behind the words. What is behind the strength you rely on?
- In this surah
- Only here. The noun comes four times in the Qur'an, each time with “cut off” and each time of a people’s end: 6:45, 7:72, 8:7 and 15:66.
Grammar, counts and cross-references
- Grammar
- Noun — accusative masculine. The seventh word of 7:72, the object of “We cut off”. Corpus 7:72 word by word ↗
- Elsewhere in the Qur'an
- The root occurs 44 times: the verb “to ponder” four times (4:82, 23:68, 38:29, 47:24), “to turn away” four times, and the noun “back” eighteen times. The nearest use of this word is 6:45:
- 6:45 فَقُطِعَ دَابِرُ الْقَوْمِ الَّذِينَ ظَلَمُوا وَالْحَمْدُ لِلَّهِ رَبِّ الْعَالَمِينَ — “So the people that committed wrong were eliminated.”
On the tafsir page → Al-Tabari and al-Qurtubi on the last of them, and the contrast with ayah 69.
More words to notice
- ضَلَـٰلٍۢ ḍalālin · 7:60, and ضَلَـٰلَةٌۭ ḍalālatun · 7:61
- “Error.” The leaders say ḍalāl; Nuh answers laysa bī ḍalālatun. Al-Jalalayn says the second word “is more general”, so denying it is stronger: not even a little error. Al-Qurtubi says the two mean the same. The root occurs 191 times. Session 04 met aḍ-ḍalālah at 7:30.
- رِسَـٰلَـٰتِ risālāti rabbī · 7:62
- “The messages of my Lord.” In ayah 61 Nuh is a rasūl, a messenger, from the same root. This plural noun occurs 6 times, three of them in this surah (7:62, 68, 93). Session 01 met the root in al-mursalīn.
- ذِكْرٌۭ dhikrun · 7:63
- “A reminder.” Al-Jalalayn and al-Qurtubi both explain it here as an admonition. Session 01's word dhikrā (7:2) is from the same root. Indonesian zikir.
- لِيُنذِرَكُمْ li-yundhirakum · 7:63
- “That he may warn you.” Lane gives the first sense as “I informed him” of a thing, then “put him in fear”. A warning is first of all news. This form of the verb occurs 44 times; in this surah at 7:2, 63 and 69.
- ٱلْفُلْكِ al-fulki · 7:64
- “The ship.” Ibn Kathir: “the ark”. Lane says the word is “particularly applied to the ark of Noah”. The noun occurs 23 times.
- فَأَنجَيْنَـٰهُ fa-anjaynāhu … وَأَغْرَقْنَا wa-aghraqnā · 7:64
- “So We saved him” and “And We drowned”: two verbs of the same form, side by side. The same pair closes Nuh's story in Surah Yunus (10:73), and “We drowned” comes again in this surah for Pharaoh's people (7:136).
- بَصْۜطَةًۭ ۖ basṭatan · 7:69
- “Extensively” in Saheeh, of stature. Lane: “Width, or ampleness”, and “in body, height, or tallness”. The root is to spread out. This noun comes twice: here and of Talut at 2:247, “in knowledge and stature”. The Uthmani text writes it with ṣād and a small sīn above.
- رِجْسٌۭ rijsun · 7:71
- “Defilement” in Saheeh. The commentators’ glosses differ: scorn and anger (Ibn ʿAbbas), punishment (al-Jalalayn, al-Qurtubi). Lane: “Uncleanness, dirt, or filth”, and “anything that is disliked, or hated, for its uncleanness”. Ten occurrences in the Qur'an.
- وَغَضَبٌ ۖ wa-ghaḍabun · 7:71
- “And anger.” The noun comes 14 times, twice more in this surah, at 7:152 and 7:154, of the calf. Al-maghḍūb in Al-Fatihah is the same root.
- أَتُجَـٰدِلُونَنِى a-tujādilūnanī · 7:71
- “Do you dispute with me.” The root occurs 29 times, 25 as this verb. Nuh’s people use the same verb of him at 11:32: you have disputed with us much. Indonesian jidal, debate.
- أَسْمَآءٍۢ سَمَّيْتُمُوهَآ asmāʾin sammaytumūhā · 7:71
- “Names you have named.” The same phrase comes at 12:40 and 53:23. Al-Qurtubi: the name stands for the thing, and al-ʿUzza was named from might, with no might in it.
- سُلْطَـٰنٍۢ ۚ sulṭānin · 7:71
- “Authority”: al-Jalalayn says argument and proof. The noun comes 37 times; session 05 met it at 7:33. Indonesian sultan.
- وَحْدَهُۥ waḥdahu · 7:70
- “Alone.” This noun comes six times in the Qur'an, always “Him alone”.
- وَقَطَعْنَا wa-qaṭaʿnā · 7:72
- “And We cut off.” The verb that goes with dābir. The root occurs 36 times.
Self-check
Find the word in the ayah, then open the answer.
Which word in ayah 60 means “the eminent”?
ٱلْمَلَأُ
al-malaʾu — the second word. Hud's leaders are the same word at ayah 66.
Which word in ayah 62 means “and advise”?
وَأَنصَحُ
wa-anṣaḥu — the fourth word. The first word, uballighukum, means “I convey to you”; Hud opens ayah 68 with it.
Which word in ayah 68 means “trustworthy”?
أَمِينٌ
amīnun — the last word.
Which two words in ayah 72 does Saheeh render “eliminated”?
وَقَطَعْنَا دَابِرَ
qaṭaʿnā dābira — the sixth and seventh words: We cut off the last of them.
| Word | Transliteration | Ayah |
|---|---|---|
| ٱلْمَلَأُ | al-malaʾu | 7:60 |
| أُبَلِّغُكُمْ … وَأَنصَحُ لَكُمْ | uballighukum … wa-anṣaḥu lakum | 7:62 |
| أَوَعَجِبْتُمْ | a-wa-ʿajibtum | 7:63 |
| عَمِينَ | ʿamīna | 7:64 |
| سَفَاهَةٍۢ | safāhatin | 7:66 |
| أَمِينٌ | amīnun | 7:68 |
| خُلَفَآءَ | khulafāʾa | 7:69 |
| دَابِرَ | dābira | 7:72 |