زحزح

Core meaning

To move out of the reach of what threatens: to pull away from the punishment or the Fire one who was exposed to it.

Uses

1. مُزَحْزِح → "to pull away" : negated: what one thinks able to take him from the punishment does not do so.

   • «وَمَا هُوَ بِمُزَحْزِحِهِۦ مِنَ ٱلْعَذَابِ أَن يُعَمَّرَ» — "but that would not pull him away at all from the punishment, even if he lived that long" (2:96)

2. زُحْزِحَ → "to be pulled away" : in the passive: the one drawn out of the reach of the Fire.

   • «فَمَن زُحْزِحَ عَنِ ٱلنَّارِ وَأُدْخِلَ ٱلْجَنَّةَ فَقَدْ فَازَ» — "Whoever is pulled away from the Fire and admitted into the Garden has thus triumphed" (3:185)

Evidence from the text

The two uses answer each other. In 2:96, the one who "would like to live a thousand years" gains nothing by it: the length of life does not take him away from the punishment. In 3:185, the same movement is accomplished, in the passive: whoever is pulled away from the Fire and admitted into the Garden has triumphed.

Each time the verb names a movement out of a precise reach, the punishment or the Fire. No length of time produces it; when it happens, it is received, and triumph follows it.

Distinctions

• نجو — to save: to separate from the peril those drawn out of it, whereas زحزح names the movement out of a reach

See also

فوز (the triumph that follows in 3:185)