زخرف

Core meaning

Gilding: the sheen laid on the surface, which charms the eye without holding to the substance — on a house, on the earth in its season, on speech.

Uses

1. زُخْرُف → "gilding", "a house of gilding" : the luxury that makes a dwelling shine; God withholds it so that people do not make it a measure.

   • «وَسُرُرًا عَلَيْهَا يَتَّكِـُٔونَ وَزُخْرُفًۭا» — "and couches upon which they recline, and gilding" (43:34-35)
   • «أَوْ يَكُونَ لَكَ بَيْتٌۭ مِّن زُخْرُفٍ» — "or you have a house of gilding" (17:93)

2. زُخْرُفَهَا → "its gilding" : the sheen of the earth in its full season, just before the harvest.

   • «حَتَّىٰٓ إِذَآ أَخَذَتِ ٱلْأَرْضُ زُخْرُفَهَا» — "when the earth has taken on its gilding" (10:24)

3. زُخْرُفَ ٱلْقَوْلِ → "gilded saying" : speech adorned to delude.

   • «يُوحِى بَعْضُهُمْ إِلَىٰ بَعْضٍۢ زُخْرُفَ ٱلْقَوْلِ غُرُورًۭا» — "who inspire one another with gilded saying, to delude" (6:112)

Evidence from the text

The four uses set gilding where the sheen does not last or does not speak true. In 10:24, the earth takes on its gilding, its people presume they have mastery over it, and the command comes that makes it "a mown field" (10:24). In 6:112, gilding covers speech, whispered "to delude" (6:112).

In 17:93, "a house of gilding" (17:93) stands among the proofs demanded of the messenger, beside the gushing spring and the ascent to the sky; the answer brings back what matters: "Am I anything but a human, a messenger?" (17:93). In 43:33-35, God would have given the disowners roofs of silver, stairways, doors, couches and gilding, were it not that mankind would become a single community; and the text concludes: "all that is nothing but the enjoyment of the present life" (43:35).

Distinctions

• زين — adornment: making attractive, rightly or as a lure; gilding is only a surface sheen
• حلى — the ornament one wears

See also

غرر (to delude) · فضض (silver)