سحر

Core meaning

To make one see something other than what is: illusion, and the one who produces it. The same word also names the last hours of the night, when darkness comes undone before day has come.

Uses

1. ٱلسِّحْر, سِحْر → "illusion" : the artifice that deceives the eye; it is also the word by which those who disown reject the message.

   • «قَالُوا۟ هَٰذَا سِحْرٌۭ مُّبِينٌۭ» — "This is a manifest illusion" (61:6)
   • «مَا جِئْتُم بِهِ ٱلسِّحْرُ» — "What you have brought is illusion" (10:81)

2. سَاحِر, ٱلسَّحَرَة → "worker of illusion" : the one who produces illusion; the charge laid against every messenger.

   • «سَاحِرٌ أَوْ مَجْنُونٌ» — "A worker of illusion, or a deranged one" (51:52)
   • «فَأُلْقِىَ ٱلسَّحَرَةُ سُجَّدًۭا» — "So the workers of illusion were cast down, prostrate" (20:70)

3. مَسْحُور, ٱلْمُسَحَّرِين → "abused by illusion" : one said to be deceived by illusion.

   • «إِن تَتَّبِعُونَ إِلَّا رَجُلًۭا مَّسْحُورًا» — "You follow none but a man abused by illusion" (25:8)

4. سَحَرَ → "to beguile" : to beguile someone by illusion.

   • «لِّتَسْحَرَنَا بِهَا» — "to beguile us with it" (7:132)

5. ٱلْأَسْحَار, سَحَر → "before dawn", "the last hours of the night" : the moment of the night when forgiveness is implored, and when Lut and his own are saved.

   • «وَٱلْمُسْتَغْفِرِينَ بِٱلْأَسْحَارِ» — "those who ask forgiveness before dawn" (3:17)
   • «وَبِٱلْأَسْحَارِ هُمْ يَسْتَغْفِرُونَ» — "in the last hours of the night, they would implore forgiveness" (51:18)

Evidence from the text

The account of Moussa shows what illusion does: the ropes and staffs thrown seem alive, and Moussa's staff "snapped up what they distorted" (26:45). What is seen is not what is.

That is why the word serves as an accusation. The message is called "a manifest illusion" (10:76), the messenger "a worker of illusion" (51:52), or "a man abused by illusion" (25:8); and Moussa turns the reproach back: "What you have brought is illusion" (10:81).

The three temporal uses (3:17, 51:18, 54:34) name a moment of the night, that of the plea for forgiveness and of rescue; they carry no idea of deceit.

Distinctions

• خيل — to make imagine: the effect on the one who looks, whereas سِحْر is the artifice that produces it

See also

لقف (to snap up) · جنن (the deranged)