ترك

Core meaning

To leave behind: to cease holding a thing, a person or a conviction, and to leave it where it is.

Uses

1. تَرَكَ (inheritance) → "to leave" : what the dead leave behind them, and which is shared out.

   • «لِّلرِّجَالِ نَصِيبٌۭ مِّمَّا تَرَكَ ٱلْوَٰلِدَانِ وَٱلْأَقْرَبُونَ» — "To men belongs a portion of what the two parents and relatives leave" (4:7)
   • «إِن تَرَكَ خَيْرًا» — "if he leaves some good" (2:180)

2. تَرَكَ (a person, a thing) → "to leave" : to leave someone or something in the state in which it is.

   • «وَتَرَكَهُمْ فِى ظُلُمَٰتٍۢ لَّا يُبْصِرُونَ» — "and leaves them in darknesses where they no longer see clearly" (2:17)
   • «وَٱتْرُكِ ٱلْبَحْرَ رَهْوًا» — "And leave the sea still" (44:24)

3. يُتْرَكُ (passive) → "to be left" : to be left to oneself, without trial or reckoning.

   • «أَيَحْسَبُ ٱلْإِنسَٰنُ أَن يُتْرَكَ سُدًى» — "Does the human being think that he will be left without purpose?" (75:36)
   • «أَمْ حَسِبْتُمْ أَن تُتْرَكُوا۟» — "Or did you think that you would be left" (9:16)

4. تَرَكَ, تَارِك (a conviction) → "to leave" : to cease holding to a doctrine or to deities.

   • «وَمَا نَحْنُ بِتَارِكِىٓ ءَالِهَتِنَا عَن قَوْلِكَ» — "and we will not leave our deities on your saying" (11:53)
   • «إِنِّى تَرَكْتُ مِلَّةَ قَوْمٍۢ لَّا يُؤْمِنُونَ بِٱللَّهِ» — "I have indeed left the doctrine of a people who do not believe in God" (12:37)

5. تَرَكْنَا (God) → "to leave" : what God leaves after an account: a sign, or a word that remains.

   • «وَتَرَكْنَا عَلَيْهِ فِى ٱلْءَاخِرِينَ» — "And We left upon him, among later generations" (37:78)
   • «وَتَرَكْنَا فِيهَآ ءَايَةًۭ لِّلَّذِينَ يَخَافُونَ ٱلْعَذَابَ ٱلْأَلِيمَ» — "and We left therein a sign for those who fear the painful punishment" (51:37)

Evidence from the text

The gesture is always the same: to cease holding, and to leave behind. The dead leave their goods (4:7, 4:11-12, 4:176); the annihilated peoples leave their gardens and springs (44:25); the rain leaves the rock bare (2:264); Moussa leaves the sea still behind him (44:24).

In the passive, the verb carries a question the text puts to the human being: will he be left without trial (9:16, 29:2), secure among his gardens (26:146), neglected (75:36)? The question always awaits the same answer: no one is left.

When God is the subject, what is left is a sign: the city of Lut (29:35, 51:37), the vessel (54:15); and, in sura 37, a word of peace that remains upon Nuh, Ibrahim, Moussa and Harun, and Ilyasin, among later generations (37:78, 37:108, 37:119, 37:129).

Distinctions

• وذر — to let go of what one could still hold: a willed withdrawal, whereas ترك only says that one no longer holds