اصل

Core meaning

Two senses the text does not connect: evening, the bound of the day always paired with morning; and the root, the foundation on which a thing stands.

Uses

1. أَصِيل, ٱلْءَاصَال → "evening" : the end of the day, named with the morning to cover the whole day.

   • «وَسَبِّحُوهُ بُكْرَةًۭ وَأَصِيلًا» — "and glorify Him morning and evening" (33:42)
   • «وَظِلَٰلُهُم بِٱلْغُدُوِّ وَٱلْءَاصَالِ» — "as do their shadows, morning and evening" (13:15)

2. أَصْل, أُصُول → "root", "foundations" : what holds the thing from below, opposed to what rises.

   • «أَصْلُهَا ثَابِتٌۭ وَفَرْعُهَا فِى ٱلسَّمَآءِ» — "whose root is firm and whose branches are in the sky" (14:24)
   • «قَآئِمَةً عَلَىٰٓ أُصُولِهَا» — "left standing on its foundations" (59:5)

Evidence from the text

The seven uses of evening are all paired with morning, without exception (7:205, 13:15, 24:36, 25:5, 33:42, 48:9, 76:25). The pair frames remembrance, glorification, the prostration of shadows: the two bounds of the day express constancy. The accusers take up the same pair to turn it around: legends "dictated to him morning and evening" (25:5).

The root holds what rises: the good tree is the one "whose root is firm and whose branches are in the sky" (14:24); the tree of the Blaze grows at its very أَصْل (37:64); what was not cut remains standing on its foundations (59:5). The text establishes no passage from one sense to the other; the entry keeps them apart.

Distinctions

• بكر — the morning, with which evening is paired
• عشو — evening as the moment paired with غدو, in another formula
• فرع — the branches, which the root bears (14:24)

See also

ثبت (to be firm)