جمد

Core meaning

To be frozen, without movement; in its only use, a stillness that is only apparent.

Uses

1. جَامِدَة → "frozen" : what seems motionless to the eye, while it moves.

   • «تَحْسَبُهَا جَامِدَةًۭ وَهِىَ تَمُرُّ مَرَّ ٱلسَّحَابِ» — "you think them frozen, while they pass as the clouds pass" (27:88)

Evidence from the text

The word appears only once, and the verse belies it at once: the mountains, thought to be frozen, "pass as the clouds pass" (27:88). The verb "to think" places the stillness in the eye of the one who sees, not in the thing; what follows refers this movement to "the work of God, who has perfected everything" (27:88).

Distinctions

• سكن — to find rest, to settle: a real rest, whereas جَامِدَة names a merely apparent stillness

See also

حسب (to think, to reckon)