ثور

Core meaning

To stir up what lay at rest: earth turned over, clouds driven by the wind, dust raised by a charge.

Uses

1. تُثِيرُ, أَثَارَ (the earth) → "to stir up the earth" : to turn the soil, the work that comes before water and seed.

   • «لَّا ذَلُولٌۭ تُثِيرُ ٱلْأَرْضَ وَلَا تَسْقِى ٱلْحَرْثَ» — "not made docile to stir up the earth or water the tilth" (2:71)

2. تُثِيرُ سَحَابًا → "to stir up clouds" : what the winds that are sent do; rain follows.

   • «ٱللَّهُ ٱلَّذِى يُرْسِلُ ٱلرِّيَٰحَ فَتُثِيرُ سَحَابًۭا» — "God is He who sends the winds; they stir up clouds" (30:48)

3. أَثَرْنَ نَقْعًا → "to stir up the dust" : the gesture of the charge launched at dawn.

   • «فَأَثَرْنَ بِهِۦ نَقْعًۭا» — "stirring up the dust" (100:4)

Evidence from the text

Three materials, one gesture. The cow that has not been made docile does not stir up the earth or water the tilth (2:71): the verb stands beside حَرْث, the field, and names the work of the soil. The peoples before "were stronger than them" and had stirred up the earth (30:9). The winds stir up clouds, which God drives to a dead land to give it life again (35:9, 30:48). The charge of 100:4 stirs up the dust.

What is stirred up always prepares what follows: the earth awaits the water, the cloud carries the shower (30:48), the dust precedes the plunge into the heart of a host (100:5).

Distinctions

• حرث — tilth: the field and the act of tilling it, whereas ثور names the earth stirred up

See also

سحب (the clouds) · نقع (the dust)