ذهب

Core meaning

To go away: to leave a place or someone; with بِـ, to leave taking something along; in the causative form, to make go until it disappears. The noun ٱلذَّهَب, gold, bears the same root without sharing its sense.

Uses

1. ذَهَبَ, ٱذْهَبْ, ذَاهِب → "to go", "to go away", "to leave" : to set out toward someone, or to leave a place.

   • «ٱذْهَبْ إِلَىٰ فِرْعَوْنَ إِنَّهُۥ طَغَىٰ» — "Go to Fir'awn: he has exceeded all measure" (20:24)
   • «إِنِّى ذَاهِبٌ إِلَىٰ رَبِّى سَيَهْدِينِ» — "I am going to my Guardian; He will guide me" (37:99)
   • «يَحْسَبُونَ ٱلْأَحْزَابَ لَمْ يَذْهَبُوا۟» — "They think the parties have not gone" (33:20)

2. ذَهَبَ عَنْ → "to leave", "to depart" : what weighed on someone goes away from him.

   • «فَلَمَّا ذَهَبَ عَنْ إِبْرَٰهِيمَ ٱلرَّوْعُ» — "When the alarm had left Ibrahim" (11:74)
   • «فَإِذَا ذَهَبَ ٱلْخَوْفُ» — "Then, when the fear departs" (33:19)

3. ذَهَبَ بِـ → "to take away" : to leave having with oneself what one takes: a person, a light, a revelation.

   • «ذَهَبَ ٱللَّهُ بِنُورِهِمْ» — "God takes away their light" (2:17)
   • «فَلَمَّا ذَهَبُوا۟ بِهِۦ» — "When they took him away" (12:15)
   • «لَنَذْهَبَنَّ بِٱلَّذِىٓ أَوْحَيْنَآ إِلَيْكَ» — "We would surely take away what We have revealed to you" (17:86)

4. أَذْهَبَ, يُذْهِبُ → "to remove", "to make disappear", "to dispel", "to exhaust" : to make go what was there, until nothing of it remains; with عَنْ, to remove it far from someone; in 46:20, to make one's good things pass to the end, hence "to exhaust".

   • «إِن يَشَأْ يُذْهِبْكُمْ أَيُّهَا ٱلنَّاسُ» — "If He wills, He makes you disappear, O mankind" (4:133)
   • «إِنَّ ٱلْحَسَنَٰتِ يُذْهِبْنَ ٱلسَّيِّـَٔاتِ» — "good deeds dispel bad ones" (11:114)
   • «إِنَّمَا يُرِيدُ ٱللَّهُ لِيُذْهِبَ عَنكُمُ ٱلرِّجْسَ» — "God only intends to remove from you filth" (33:33)
   • «أَذْهَبْتُمْ طَيِّبَٰتِكُمْ» — "You exhausted your wholesome things" (46:20)

5. ٱلذَّهَب → "gold" : the metal: hoarded here below, worn as bracelets in the Gardens.

   • «وَٱلَّذِينَ يَكْنِزُونَ ٱلذَّهَبَ وَٱلْفِضَّةَ» — "And those who hoard gold and silver" (9:34)
   • «يُحَلَّوْنَ فِيهَا مِنْ أَسَاوِرَ مِن ذَهَبٍۢ وَلُؤْلُؤًۭا» — "ornamented therein with bracelets of gold and pearls" (35:33)

Evidence from the text

The gesture is always a departure. One is sent (20:24, 25:36), one goes away (24:62), one goes toward one's Guardian (37:99); what weighed goes away from someone: alarm (11:74), fear (33:19), the grief God removes (35:34). With بِـ, one leaves taking along: the brothers take Youssof away (12:15), God takes away the light (2:17), He could take away what He revealed (17:86); and were there several deities, "each deity would have gone off with what it created" (23:91).

The causative form makes go until it disappears: people, whom God replaces with others (4:133, 14:19, 35:16), bad deeds dispelled by good ones (11:114); with عَنْ, God removes from people what defiles them: the defilement of the Diverter (8:11), filth (33:33). With بِـ, the same departure can go that far: the water God is well able to make disappear (23:18).

ٱلذَّهَب, gold, shares the root with no demonstrable link of sense with departure: it is the hoarded metal (9:34), the refused ransom (3:91), the bracelets of the Gardens (18:31, 22:23, 35:33).

Distinctions

• ولى — to turn one's back: to break off nearness with someone, whereas ذهب is departure itself
• صرف — to turn away: to divert a thing from its course, whereas أَذْهَبَ عَنْ removes it far from someone (8:11, 33:33)
• نفد — to be exhausted: what runs out of itself, whereas أَذْهَبَ, "to exhaust" in 46:20, makes a thing pass to the end

See also

فضض (silver)