زيل

Core meaning

To come apart from a state or a whole. Negated, the verb says that a state does not cease; in the intensive form, that what was mingled is separated.

Uses

1. لَا يَزَالُ, مَا زَالَ → "not to cease to" : always negated: a lasting state, hostility, betrayal, doubt or divergence.

   • «وَلَا يَزَالُونَ يُقَٰتِلُونَكُمْ» — "And they will not cease to fight you" (2:217)
   • «وَلَا يَزَالُونَ مُخْتَلِفِينَ» — "but they do not cease to differ" (11:118)
   • «فَمَا زِلْتُمْ فِى شَكٍّۢ» — "and you did not cease to be in doubt" (40:34)

2. زَيَّلَ, تَزَيَّلَ → "to separate", "to be separated" : to undo a mingled whole: on the Day, those who associated and their associates; in this world, those who believe and those who disown.

   • «فَزَيَّلْنَا بَيْنَهُمْ» — "then We will separate them from one another" (10:28)
   • «لَوْ تَزَيَّلُوا۟» — "Had they separated" (48:25)

Evidence from the text

The eight negated uses all name a state that does not break off: the hostility of those who fight "until they make you renounce your Law" (2:217), the betrayal discovered (5:13), doubt (9:110, 40:34), contention (22:55), divergence (11:118), the sudden crash that strikes those who disown (13:31), the cry that did not cease "until We made them a mown harvest, extinguished" (21:15). A term is often given by حَتَّىٰ: the state lasts until an event breaks it.

The two other uses name this break itself. On the day of gathering, God separates those who associated from their associates (10:28). In 48:25, those who believe are mingled with those who disown, and it is this mingling that holds back the punishment: "Had they been separated", it would have struck only those who disowned. What does not cease is a continuity nothing interrupts; زَيَّلَ is the act that interrupts it.

Distinctions

• فرق — to separate into distinct parts, whereas زَيَّلَ undoes a mingled whole
• ميز — to distinguish the vile from the good
• فتء — not to cease to: the same negated duration, in a single use, where the negation is understood after the oath (12:85)

See also

برح (not to leave, another verb of negated duration)