اول

Core meaning

The point of origin and the return to it: the first, from which everything starts, and the تَأْوِيل, what a thing returns to and ends in, whether the meaning of a text or the fulfilment of an announcement.

Uses

1. أَوَّل, ٱلْأُولَىٰ → "first" : what comes at the head, set against the last; said of God, of life, of death, of the generations.

   • «هُوَ ٱلْأَوَّلُ وَٱلْءَاخِرُ» — "He is the First and the Last" (57:3)
   • «فَلِلَّهِ ٱلْءَاخِرَةُ وَٱلْأُولَىٰ» — "For to God belong the last life and the first" (53:25)

2. ٱلْأَوَّلُون → "the earlier ones", "the ancients" : those who came before; in the mouth of opponents, the reference set against the message.

   • «كَمَآ أُرْسِلَ ٱلْأَوَّلُونَ» — "just as the earlier ones were sent with" (21:5)
   • «قَالَ أَسَٰطِيرُ ٱلْأَوَّلِينَ» — "he says, "Legends of the ancients!" (83:13)

3. تَأْوِيل → "interpretation", "prediction" : to bring a thing back to what it tends towards: the meaning of a text or of a rule, the fulfilment of a dream or of an announcement.

   • «وَمَا يَعْلَمُ تَأْوِيلَهُۥٓ إِلَّا ٱللَّهُ» — "but none knows its interpretation, except God" (3:7)
   • «هَٰذَا تَأْوِيلُ رُءْيَٰىَ مِن قَبْلُ» — "this is the prediction of my vision of old" (12:100)

4. أُو۟لُوا, أُو۟لِى, أُو۟لَٰت → "the possessors of", "those who hold" : those who possess a quality, a good or a charge; in the feminine, "pregnant women" (65:4); a form filed under this key.

   • «وَمَا يَذَّكَّرُ إِلَّآ أُو۟لُوا۟ ٱلْأَلْبَٰبِ» — "and only the possessors of intelligence remember" (3:7)
   • «وَأُو۟لِى ٱلْأَمْرِ مِنكُمْ» — "and to those among you who hold command" (4:59)

Evidence from the text

The تَأْوِيل is always what comes at the end. In 7:53: "Do they await anything but its prediction?"; and on the day it comes, those who had forgotten it will acknowledge that the messengers spoke the truth. In 12:100, Youssof, before his parents bowed down, says: "this is the prediction of my vision of old: my Guardian has made it true". The vision returns to what it announced. For a text, the same movement leads to its meaning: "none knows its interpretation, except God" (3:7).

The first is the point from which this movement starts. God is "the First and the Last" (57:3); the first life faces the last life (53:25, 92:13, 93:4). The "earlier ones" are those before: opponents invoke them to demand a sign (21:5) or to reject the message as "legends of the ancients" (83:13).

Also filed under this key are أُو۟لُوا۟, أُو۟لِى and their feminine أُو۟لَٰت, "possessors of" (3:7, 4:59, 65:4, where the feminine names pregnant women), the demonstrative أُو۟لَآءِ (3:119, 20:84) and ٱلْأَوْلَيَٰنِ, "the two nearest" (5:107). These forms belong to grammar or to nearness, and do not carry the sense of return.

Distinctions

• فسر — the detailed explanation of a statement, whereas تَأْوِيل brings it back to what it tends towards
• اخر — the last, the other end of the same line
• اولاء — the demonstrative أُو۟لَٰٓئِكَ, "those are the ones", "those", filed under its own key

See also

رجع (to return) · سلف (what is past)