عجز

Core meaning

What remains behind, at the end of a thing: the base of the felled trunk, the woman at the end of her years, and the strength that reaches its limit and can go no further.

Uses

1. أَعْجَاز → "trunks" : the lower part of the palm, left when the tree is uprooted or hollowed.

   • «كَأَنَّهُمْ أَعْجَازُ نَخْلٍۢ مُّنقَعِرٍۢ» — "as if they were trunks of uprooted palm trees" (54:20)
   • «كَأَنَّهُمْ أَعْجَازُ نَخْلٍ خَاوِيَةٍۢ» — "as if they were empty trunks of palm trees" (69:7)

2. عَجُوز → "old", "an old woman" : the woman come to the end of life.

   • «ءَأَلِدُ وَأَنَا۠ عَجُوزٌۭ» — "Shall I bear a child, when I am old" (11:72)
   • «إِلَّا عَجُوزًۭا فِى ٱلْغَٰبِرِينَ» — "except an old woman among those who lingered behind" (26:171)

3. عَجَزَ → "to be unable" : to reach the end of one's own strength.

   • «أَعَجَزْتُ أَنْ أَكُونَ مِثْلَ هَٰذَا ٱلْغُرَابِ» — "Am I unable to be like this raven" (5:31)

4. أَعْجَزَ, مُعْجِز → "to render powerless" : to bring the other to the end of his strength; always denied when the other is God.

   • «غَيْرُ مُعْجِزِى ٱللَّهِ» — "you cannot render God powerless" (9:2)
   • «وَمَا كَانَ ٱللَّهُ لِيُعْجِزَهُۥ مِن شَىْءٍۢ» — "could render God powerless" (35:44)

5. مُعَٰجِزِين → "seeking to thwart" : the form of reciprocal effort: trying to bring God to the end of His strength, in vain.

   • «وَٱلَّذِينَ سَعَوْا۟ فِىٓ ءَايَٰتِنَا مُعَٰجِزِينَ» — "And those who endeavoured against Our signs, seeking to thwart Us" (22:51)

Evidence from the text

The concrete sense is given by the trunks: in 54:20 and 69:7, what remains of the palm torn up by the wind. The old woman is the one at the end of her years, and the text places her in 26:171 "among those who lingered behind". Inability is the same end, reached by strength itself: the murderer, in 5:31, finds himself at the end of what he can do.

The causative verb is always turned toward God, and always denied: "you cannot render God powerless" (9:2), "nothing in the heavens or on the earth could render God powerless" (35:44). The Occulted say it of themselves in 72:12: neither on earth, nor by fleeing. No one brings God to the end of His strength.

Distinctions

• ضعف — lack of strength, whereas عجز says the limit reached by a strength

See also

غبر (those who linger behind) · شيخ (the old man)