رجع

Core meaning

To go toward the point one comes from: to return to a place, to one's own, and at the end to God; in the transitive form, to make return.

Uses

1. رَجَعَ, ٱرْجِعْ, يَرْجِعُونَ → "to return" : to go back to the starting point: to a father, a people, a city, or to God.

   • «ٱرْجِعُوٓا۟ إِلَىٰٓ أَبِيكُمْ» — "Return to your father" (12:81)
   • «ٱرْجِعِىٓ إِلَىٰ رَبِّكِ رَاضِيَةًۭ مَّرْضِيَّةًۭ» — "Return to your Guardian, well-pleased and pleasing" (89:28)

2. لَعَلَّهُمْ يَرْجِعُونَ → "perhaps they will return" : the aim of trial and of the signs: that people return.

   • «وَبَلَوْنَٰهُم بِٱلْحَسَنَٰتِ وَٱلسَّيِّـَٔاتِ لَعَلَّهُمْ يَرْجِعُونَ» — "And We tested them with good things and bad things, perhaps they would return" (7:168)

3. تُرْجَعُونَ, رَٰجِعُونَ → "to be returned", "to return" : the formula of the end, in the passive or the participle: all returns to God.

   • «ثُمَّ إِلَيْهِ تُرْجَعُونَ» — "then it is to Him that you will be returned" (2:28)
   • «إِنَّا لِلَّهِ وَإِنَّآ إِلَيْهِ رَٰجِعُونَ» — "We are indeed God's, and it is to Him that we return" (2:156)
   • «وَإِلَى ٱللَّهِ تُرْجَعُ ٱلْأُمُورُ» — "And it is to God that all matters return" (2:210)

4. رَجَعَ (transitive) → "to return" (someone, something) : to send someone or something back to its starting point: a child to his mother, a word, the gaze.

   • «فَرَجَعْنَٰكَ إِلَىٰٓ أُمِّكَ» — "So We returned you to your mother" (20:40)
   • «فَلَا تَرْجِعُوهُنَّ إِلَى ٱلْكُفَّارِ» — "do not return them to those who disown" (60:10)

5. مَرْجِع, رَجْع, ٱلرُّجْعَىٰ → "the return" : the return itself, and the place where it ends.

   • «ثُمَّ إِلَىَّ مَرْجِعُكُمْ» — "Then to Me will be your return" (3:55)
   • «إِنَّ إِلَىٰ رَبِّكَ ٱلرُّجْعَىٰٓ» — "To your Guardian is the return" (96:8)

6. يَتَرَاجَعَا → "reuniting" : the reciprocal form: two spouses who return to each other.

   • «فَلَا جُنَاحَ عَلَيْهِمَآ أَن يَتَرَاجَعَآ» — "no blame upon them both for reuniting" (2:230)

Evidence from the text

The movement always goes toward a point already known: Moussa returns to his people (7:150, 20:86), the brothers to their father (12:63, 12:81), the fighters to their city (63:8), the reassured Self to its Guardian (89:28). The return can be refused: the annihilated generations do not return to their own (36:31, 36:50), and the one whom death reaches asks in vain: "make me return" (23:99).

The formula of the end recurs from one sura to another, in the passive (2:28, 2:245, 10:56, 28:70, 36:83), in the participle (2:46, 2:156, 23:60) and in the noun (3:55, 5:48, 96:8): the origin of all things is also the place where they end. In between, لَعَلَّهُمْ يَرْجِعُونَ states the aim of trial and of the signs (7:168, 7:174, 30:41, 43:28): that people return before the end. In 86:8 and 86:11, the noun passes to the sky "which returns", answering God's power to make the human being return.

Distinctions

• توب — the turning back to God after a deviation, whereas رجع names return in general
• اوب — repeated return, become habit, and the place one returns to
• ردد — to send back, to turn away: the movement imposed from outside, whereas رجع names the return to the origin
• قلب — انقلب names the about-face, whereas رجع names the return to the point one set out from
• كرر — كرّة is the return that takes up again what has already happened, whereas رجع names return in general

See also

الى ("to": the direction of the return) · قلب (to turn over, to go back)