ثوب

Core meaning

Return: what comes back to its starting point, the place one returns to, and the requital that comes back to the one who acted. The root also names clothes.

Uses

1. ثَوَاب, مَثُوبَة → "requital" : what comes back to someone in exchange for what he did or sought, in the present life or in the last.

   • «وَمَن يُرِدْ ثَوَابَ ٱلْءَاخِرَةِ نُؤْتِهِۦ مِنْهَا» — "and whoever wants the requital of the last life, We give it to him" (3:145)
   • «فَـَٔاتَىٰهُمُ ٱللَّهُ ثَوَابَ ٱلدُّنْيَا وَحُسْنَ ثَوَابِ ٱلْءَاخِرَةِ» — "God then gave them the requital of the present life, and the beautiful requital of the last life" (3:148)

2. أَثَابَ, ثُوِّبَ → "to requite", "to receive the return of" : to make the fruit of his deeds come back to someone (3:153, 5:85, 48:18); in the passive, to receive it.

   • «هَلْ ثُوِّبَ ٱلْكُفَّارُ مَا كَانُوا۟ يَفْعَلُونَ» — "have the disowners received the return of what they used to do?" (83:36)

3. مَثَابَة → "place to come back to" : the place one regains.

   • «وَإِذْ جَعَلْنَا ٱلْبَيْتَ مَثَابَةًۭ لِّلنَّاسِ وَأَمْنًۭا» — "And when We made the House, for mankind, a place to come back to, and a security" (2:125)

4. ثِيَاب → "clothes" : the clothes one wears, removes, lays aside, purifies, and covers oneself with.

   • «وَثِيَابَكَ فَطَهِّرْ» — "and your clothes, purify them" (74:4)
   • «وَٱسْتَغْشَوْا۟ ثِيَابَهُمْ» — "covered themselves with their clothes" (71:7)

Evidence from the text

The requital answers what one sought. 3:145 and 4:134 set the requital of the present life against that of the last, and each receives the one he wanted. The word carries the worst as well as the best: in 5:60, a requital worse than that is announced for those whom God has cursed; in 83:36, it is asked whether the disowners have received the return of what they used to do. The same return makes the House a place to which people come back (2:125).

Clothes are what one wears and lays aside: they are laid aside at midday (24:58), elderly women too may lay them aside (24:60), people cover themselves with them so as not to hear (71:7). They also tell the final state: clothes of fire cut out for those who disown (22:19), clothes of fine green silk for the people of the Garden (76:21).

Distinctions

• اجر — reward: what is due for a work, like a wage
• جزى — recompense: the response matched to the act
• لبس — garment: what covers in general, whereas ثِيَاب names the clothes one wears and lays aside

See also

اوب (the return to God)