خزى

Core meaning

Shame inflicted in broad daylight: a dishonour exposed before all, in the present life or on the Day of Appearance.

Uses

1. خِزْى, ٱلْخِزْى → "disgrace" : disgrace as a lot: one has it, tastes it, is saved from it.

   • «إِلَّا خِزْىٌۭ فِى ٱلْحَيَوٰةِ ٱلدُّنْيَا» — "but disgrace in the present life" (2:85)
   • «فَأَذَاقَهُمُ ٱللَّهُ ٱلْخِزْىَ فِى ٱلْحَيَوٰةِ ٱلدُّنْيَا» — "God made them taste disgrace in the present life" (39:26)

2. أَخْزَىٰ, يُخْزِى, مُخْزِى, نَخْزَىٰ → "to cover with disgrace", "to disgrace", "to be disgraced" : the act that exposes: God does it to those who disown, and invocation asks to be kept from it.

   • «وَأَنَّ ٱللَّهَ مُخْزِى ٱلْكَٰفِرِينَ» — "and that God covers with disgrace those who disown" (9:2)
   • «وَلَا تُخْزِنَا يَوْمَ ٱلْقِيَٰمَةِ» — "and do not cover us with disgrace on the Day of Appearance" (3:194)

3. أَخْزَىٰ (comparative) → "more disgraceful" : the disgrace of the last life, heavier than that of the present one.

   • «وَلَعَذَابُ ٱلْءَاخِرَةِ أَخْزَىٰ» — "and the punishment of the last life is more disgraceful still" (41:16)

Evidence from the text

Disgrace is always exposed. It strikes in the present life the one who prevents God's name from being mentioned in His places of prostration (2:114), those who wage war against God and His messenger (5:33), and returns on the Day of Appearance, when God covers them with disgrace before all (16:27). Only the people of Younes were saved from it: their faith came before the punishment of disgrace (10:98).

Lut uses the same verb before his city: "do not disgrace me" (15:69); it is a public dishonour, not an inner feeling. And Ibrahim asks it for the Day: "and do not disgrace me on the day they are raised" (26:87).

Distinctions

• ذلل — humiliation: a lowering undergone, without the idea of exposure
• هون — degradation: being made vile
• فضح — the exposure of what should have stayed covered