اذى

Core meaning

To trouble: to cause a real but minor wrong, a burden that weighs without destroying.

Uses

1. أَذًى → "nuisance" : the burden itself: an ailment of the body, rain, a wounding word, what follows charity and spoils it.

   • «قَوْلٌۭ مَّعْرُوفٌۭ وَمَغْفِرَةٌ خَيْرٌۭ مِّن صَدَقَةٍۢ يَتْبَعُهَآ أَذًۭى» — "A recognized saying and forgiveness are better than charity followed by nuisance" (2:263)
   • «هُوَ أَذًۭى» — "It is a nuisance" (2:222)

2. آذَىٰ, يُؤْذِى, أُوذِىَ → "to trouble", "to be troubled" : to make someone bear that burden, most often the messengers and those who follow them.

   • «وَٱلَّذِينَ يُؤْذُونَ رَسُولَ ٱللَّهِ لَهُمْ عَذَابٌ أَلِيمٌۭ» — "And those who trouble the messenger of God will have a painful punishment" (9:61)
   • «يَٰقَوْمِ لِمَ تُؤْذُونَنِى» — "O my people, why do you trouble me" (61:5)

Evidence from the text

The text itself measures the wrong: "They can never harm you, except by a nuisance" (3:111). Nuisance thus stops short of real damage. It names a burden of the body, in the head (2:196), menstruation (2:222), the rain that hinders carrying arms (4:102), and above all the word that wounds, of which one will hear "much nuisance" (3:186).

Minor, it is not for that light to bear. It goes with the denial of the messengers (6:34), with expulsion and exile (3:195); Moussa suffers it from his people (33:69, 61:5), the Informant from those who tarry in his house for discourse (33:53). The expected answer is patience: "We shall surely be patient in the face of the trouble you cause us" (14:12).

Distinctions

• ضرر — damage: a wider and graver wrong, which nuisance does not reach (3:111)

See also

صبر (patience) · كذب (denial)