خشع
Attested forms : خَٰشِعِينَ 3 · ٱلْخَٰشِعِينَ 2 · خَٰشِعَةً 2 · خُشُوعًۭا 1 · خَشَعَتِ 1 · خَٰشِعُونَ 1 · ٱلْخَٰشِعَٰتِ 1 · خَٰشِعَةًۭ 1
Core meaning
To make oneself low in bearing, voice and gaze: humility, chosen before God or imposed by what surpasses one.
Uses
خَاشِع, خُشَّع → "humble" : the state of one who holds himself low; it is said of men, of sights, of faces, and of the dry earth.
خَشَعَ, تَخْشَعَ → "to become humble" : to enter this state.
خُشُوع → "humility" : the state itself, which can grow.
- «وَيَزِيدُهُمْ خُشُوعًۭا» — "and it increases their humility" (17:109)
Evidence from the text
The word covers two faces of the same state. Chosen, humility is that of the believers in their Contact (23:2), of those who know they are on their way to meeting their Guardian (2:45-46), of the people of the Scripture who believe (3:199), of the informants toward God (21:90); it can grow, with tears (17:109), or be slow to come (57:16). Imposed, it is that of the voices before the All-Benevolent (20:108), of sights and faces on the day they emerge from the sepulchres (54:8, 68:43, 70:44, 79:9, 88:5), of those exposed to the Fire (42:45).
The same word is said of the dry earth, low and still before the rain: when the water comes down, "it quivers and swells" (41:39). And of the mountain which, if the Recitation came down upon it, would become humble and split apart (59:21). It is always a state, not a gesture: one is humble, one becomes so.
Distinctions
- خبت — to lower oneself: the act of coming down of one's own accord, whereas خشع says the state
- ذلل — the lowering of what yields: humiliation undergone
- ضرع — to beseech: the request made out of distress