In the previous post, I began analyzing the Quran’s verse 14:31, in which we read: “Tell My servants who have believed to establish prayer and spend from what We have provided them, secretly and publicly, before a Day comes in which there will be no exchange, nor any friendships.” In order to proceed, let me recall what I’ve wrote… “According to Edward William Lane’s Arabic Lexicon, the primary signification of Arabic root بيع (bi’), that translates as exchange – and that’s nowadays used as meaning to sell, sale or being sold - is the exchanging, or exchange, of property; or the making an exchange with property. It may also be used in relation to someone that has gained the mastery over another. As for friendship, it is conveyed by root خل (khl), that also denotes habit, custom, social behaviour – as well as the filling with holes and vinegar.The two main features of vinegar is that it’s bitter, and is an astringent agent. A substance is said to be astringent roughly speaking when it tends to draw organic tissues together, an attribute whose name derives from Latin astringo, to draw close, to bind, to tighten. Interesting though it may seem, this same verb, when used metaphorically, meant to put under obligation, which is interesting indeed, since the sense of friendship in the Arabic root appears side by side with the notion of close connection, agreement in ideas, feelings, etc. But there’s coherence here – I mean, it is certainly not a coincidence to find vinegar and social behaviour side by side, because something similar happens with ثقف (thqf), a root that is the cradle of the Arabic word equivalent to English culture (ثقافة)… the same root that, when used in relation to vinegar, means very acid… Besides this, we find one other meaning that is becoming familiar: to have the mastery over.”
I wish to expatiate a bit more on astringency, the tendency some substances have of drawing tissues together, and that has in styptic one other name. This word derives from Latin stypsis, meaning the contracting power; itself a derivation from Greek stuys, contraction, astringency. Originally, the Latin verb contraho had this same sense, that is, to draw several things together, assemble, and generally used as a synonym for colligo, from where Portuguese got coligação, similar to English coallition. These two words are commonly used in relation to the alliance, or union, between political parties, but in a wider sense they both point to temporary alliances that have come into being for the fulfillment of a specific purpose. It is interesting to know that this notion is present in contraho as well. In fact, the verb was used figuratively in the language of business to denote to make a contract. As you’ve already noted, contract derives from this same verb we’ve been analyzing. By contract is meant not only an agreement but one that is enforceable by law, which ultimately means that if one of the parts fails to fulfill it, there’s compensations that ought to be made.
The word translated as spend is conveyed by the Arabic root نفق (nfq), that tells us about that which is easy to be sold – hence, something in much demand; and this is why it is used to describe a market as being brisk . One other meaning is tunnels, that is, artificial underground passages, or channels – a meaning that seems to have derived from the fact that the root denotes the holes excavated by rats.
In the previous post, I’ve suggested looking at custom as a channel collecting water and conveying them to a single place for a specific purpose. The market is one of the best known symbols of a place of assembly. There’s many words to name it, but I wish to focus on conciliabulum, Latin name for a place of assembly, a public place – especially a place for public traffic, hence marketplace. The word is akin to conciliatio, a connection, union; a sense that through figurative use came to denote the making friendly. As for the verbal form, concilio, it meant to bring several objects into a whole, to unite – as well as to purchase, acquire; and friendly. Not all these meanings, especially not the one dealing with traffic, managed to be preserved in English conciliate, that seems to have preferred to transform itself in a synonym of to pacify. In fact, the English word is generally used as meaning to appease, to try to reconquer friendship by pleasant behaviour – so, in general, it converges to the notion of overcoming the sense of distrust or animosity. But perhaps there’s some transaction here… As I’ve said in another place, nothing is capable of effacing the traces of its own origin, and so the word does maintain the image of the marketplace… In a very subtle way, our modern way of looking at conciliation preserves the idea of a transaction that’s being made.
Let us know see what رزق (rzq) will tell us. That’s the root being translated as provided, and its main meaning is means of subsistence in general. One other meaning is a thing from which one derives advantage, which seems to be logical, as means of subsistence embrace everything having to do with food, nourishment, whereby creatures are able to subsist. And as feeding is a sort of daily obligation, the root also denotes a daily allowance of food – that is, the fixed amount considered to be sufficient for the creature’s subsistence; in other words, a daily ration. Although we do not in general pay much attention to it so natural it seems to us, the fact is that feeding is a basic act that’s common to all living organisms. And despite the fact that we tend to see living organisms as creatures, or animals, the fact is that even the sun has its daily ration of food. The same way we need victuals to keep ourselves alive, the sun is dependent on the existence of hydrogen to keep its fusion into helium. Why am I talking about the sun? It is simply to stress the idea that everything in the universe is forced to have to have some sort of energy in order to be able to hope to be present when tomorrow arrives. But the word ration inspires me something else… as it derives from Latin ratio, from where we ourselves inherited reason, I think that when God exorths believers to spend of that which He has provided them with, He is also exhorting us to think – which takes us back to vinegar… When analyzing خل, in 14:31 – “Tell My servants who have believed to establish prayer and spend from what We have provided them, secretly and publicly, before a Day comes in which there will be no exchange, nor any friendships.” - translated as friendship, we’ve seen that it alluded to the filling with holes, a meaning that is akin to something having interstices, breaks. According to the root, this fact seems to be in relation to that which is loose, unfirm, or defective, and that is why it denotes looseness, laxness. This seems to be in contradiction with vinegar being an astringent… but the point is that vinegar’s astringency is very limited, as it only works when applied externally. When in need to confine the bowels, for instance, vinegar is of no help at all, and so one will have to ingest an astringent medicine – and this is exactly what we find in عقل, a root that means both an astringent and the capacity of thinking and understanding – that is, reason.
[to be continued…]
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