Glossary: B
A B D F G H I J K L M N Q R S T U W Y Z
baghī
Its basic meaning is "to seek", but it is mainly used for wrongdoing, seeking what belongs to another by infringing their rights; since the verse adds "unduly", wrongdoing is not its primary meaning. → Read at 10:23
baghy
bahīmah
Al-Rāghib: bahīmah refers to an animal in the sense that it cannot speak, there being some ambiguity (ibhām) in its sound; in usage it does not include predators or birds. → Read at 22:28
bāl
Majmaʿ al-Bayān: "affairs" means one's condition or state, and it can also mean the heart; it takes no plural because it is more ambiguous than ḥāl or shaʾn. → Read at 47:2
balāgh
Balāgh means tablīgh, the delivery of the message; the messengers' only job was to deliver the message and thereby provide conclusive proof. → Read at 36:17
al-bāqiyāt al-ṣāliḥāt
Al-bāqiyāt al-ṣāliḥāt means good works: human deeds are recorded with God and so are ever-abiding, and if they are good they are an ever-abiding good. → Read at 18:46
barʾ
Barʾ and burūʾ mean to create from nothingness. → Read at 57:22
barāʾah
- () Al-Rāghib: the original meaning of al-barʾ, al-barāʾ and al-tabarrī is to recoil from something one detests being close to, as in becoming free from illness or disassociating oneself from someone; hence the "repudiation" by God and His Messenger. → Read
- () Dissociation is clarified by its effects: rejecting the polytheists (kufr) and enmity toward them as long as they remain polytheists, until they believe in God alone. → Read
barakah
- () Being blessed (mubārak) means being the locus of baraka, and baraka means an increase in goodness. → Read
- () Al-Rāghib: barakah means the persistence and durability of divine good in something, like water fixed in a pond (birkah); since divine good emanates beyond observation and limit, mubārak and barakah are used for anything with unobservable abundance. → Read
- () Barakah means the stability and subsistence of goodness in something, like the subsistence of water in a birkah (pond); it is derived from barak al-baʿīr, said when a camel kneels and settles. → Read
barr
The All-benign (al-Barr) is one of God's Most Beautiful Names, derived from birr in the sense of treating kindly; some scholars say it is similar in meaning to the Gracious (al-Laṭīf). → Read at 52:28
barzakh
Barzakh is the intermediate realm between this life and the resurrection, where sinners are punished after death until the resurrection; the fire that Noah’s drowned people entered is part of it, making the verse a Qur’anic proof of barzakh. → Read at 71:25
baṣāʾir
Baṣāʾir is the plural of baṣīrah, that by which one perceives and understands something; here it means the clear proofs by which a person perceives the truth and distinguishes truth from falsehood. → Read at 28:43
bashar
Al-Rāghib: bashar is the outer layer of human skin, and the human being is called bashar because he is covered in skin, unlike animals covered in wool or fur. → Read at 38:71
baṣīrah
Baṣīrah (insight) means “the vision of the heart, intuitive realization”; the verse literally calls man “insight” for emphasis, and baṣīrah has also been interpreted as ḥujjah (proof), since one will be a proof against oneself on that day. → Read at 75:14
bāṭil
Al-Rāghib: falsehood, the opposite of ḥaqq: something that does not withstand scrutiny, used of both statements and actions. → Read at 13:17
baṭr
Al-baṭr means arrogance, insolence, ingratitude and exultation due to material blessings. → Read at 28:58
bayʿah
Swearing allegiance is a pledge to give one's obedience to someone, derived from bayʿ (sale): as the seller gave his hand to the buyer to transfer rights of disposal, the one pledging gives his hand to the ruler to do with as he pleases. Al-Rāghib: one gives allegiance to the Sultan by guaranteeing obedience in matters within his purview. → Read at 48:10
bayān
Literally to uncover something; here the power to uncover what is in one's own mind, one of God's most profound blessings. → Read at 55:4
bayyinah
- () An adjective meaning "clear and apparent"; since clear things can make other things clear, as light does, it is often used for what makes things clear, such as an argument, a sign, or a witness's testimony for a claimant. → Read
- () Standing on a manifest proof from one's Lord means following a proof that gives certainty in what one believes, that is, a definitive argument. → Read
- () Bayyinah (clear evidence, manifest sign) is the outer proof, and the clear evidence in the verse is Muḥammad. → Read
birr
Comprehensive good-doing. Al-Rāghib: al-barr (land) is the opposite of al-baḥr (sea); this led to the idea of spaciousness, and from it is derived al-birr, spaciousness or comprehensiveness in good-doing. → Read at 3:92
buhtān
The slander "invented between their hands and feet" is a woman attributing to her husband a child born of adultery, since a child is delivered from between a mother's hands and feet. → Read at 60:12
bulūgh al-ashadd
Coming of age is the period in which a person reaches his full strength; reaching forty usually coincides with the maturing of the intellect. → Read at 46:15
bunyān marṣūṣ
Bunyān is a structure and marṣūṣ derives from riṣāṣ (lead): a structure strengthened or soldered with lead so it can resist what strikes it. → Read at 61:4
burhān
- () The means by which a person attains such certainty that it takes control of his heart like a miracle; a conclusive argument that clarifies the truth and leaves no doubt. → Read
- () Burhān is a proof which produces knowledge; and dhikr (reminder) here, as the context shows, means a divinely revealed Book. → Read
burūj
Burūj is the plural of burj, “that which is visible and apparent,” used for castles and for watchtowers on city walls; here it means the positions of heavenly bodies that guard the heaven, not the signs of the zodiac. → Read at 85:1
bushrā
Good news is news that pleases the one informed, which happens only through some good coming to him; the good news of a new prophet is conceivable only if his call is more advanced and comprehensive than the previous one. → Read at 61:6