سوى
Attested forms : يَسْتَوِى 11 · ٱسْتَوَىٰ 9 · سَوَآءٌ 8 · سَوَآءِ 5 · سَوَآءَ 4 · سَوَآءًۭ 4 · ٱسْتَوَىٰٓ 3 · يَسْتَوُۥنَ 3
Core meaning
To set upright: to give a thing its right measure, to make it equal to what it must be or to another; in the reflexive form, to stand upright, to establish oneself.
Uses
سَوَّىٰ → "to proportion", "to form" : to complete what is created by giving it its measure.
سَوَّىٰ بِـ, سَوَآء → "to set on the same level", "the same" : to make two things equal, or to call them equal.
سَوَّىٰهَا (91:14) → "to level" : to make equal to the ground what was standing.
- «فَدَمْدَمَ عَلَيْهِمْ رَبُّهُم بِذَنۢبِهِمْ فَسَوَّىٰهَا» — "So their Guardian pounded them for their offense and leveled it" (91:14)
ٱسْتَوَىٰ → "to establish oneself", "to proceed toward" : to reach the upright and hold to it, on a place or in one's stature; with إِلَىٰ, to go straight toward the sky.
Evidence from the text
The verb follows creation and completes it: "then He created and proportioned him" (75:38), "who created and proportioned" (87:2). It bears on the human being (18:37, 82:7), on the Self (91:7), on the sky (2:29, 79:28). To proportion is to make a thing equal to its measure; hence the sameness of 36:10, and the avowal of 26:98, where the strayed admit having set their deities on the same level as the Guardian of all beings.
The reflexive form states the upright reached: the vessel establishes itself on al-Judi (11:44), the plant stands straight upon its stalk (48:29), one establishes oneself on the backs of mounts (43:13). In 91:14, the same verb states the reverse of a construction: what had been set to its measure is brought down flat.
Distinctions
- خلق — to create: to bring into being, whereas سوى gives what is created its right measure
- عدل — to balance: 82:7 sets them in sequence, to proportion then to balance