غرق

Core meaning

To be submerged by water until one perishes in it: to drown, to be drowned; in the oath of 79:1, the tearing away that plunges to the bottom.

Uses

1. أَغْرَقَ, يُغْرِقُ → "to drown" : God drowns a people that denied, and sets apart from it those He saves.

   • «وَأَغْرَقْنَآ ءَالَ فِرْعَوْنَ» — "and drowned the clan of Fir'awn" (2:50)
   • «أَغْرَقْنَٰهُمْ وَجَعَلْنَٰهُمْ لِلنَّاسِ ءَايَةًۭ» — "We drowned them and made them a sign for mankind. And We have made ready for the wrongdoers" (25:37)

2. أُغْرِقُوا۟, مُغْرَقُون, ٱلْمُغْرَقِين → "to be drowned", "the drowned" : the passive and the participle: those on whom drowning has fallen, or will fall.

   • «فَكَانَ مِنَ ٱلْمُغْرَقِينَ» — "and he was among the drowned" (11:43)
   • «مِّمَّا خَطِيٓـَٰٔتِهِمْ أُغْرِقُوا۟» — "Because of their faults they were drowned" (71:25)

3. ٱلْغَرَق → "the drowning" : submersion itself, which overtakes the one who flees.

   • «حَتَّىٰٓ إِذَآ أَدْرَكَهُ ٱلْغَرَقُ» — "until, when the drowning overtook him" (10:90)

4. غَرْقًا → "submerging" : the verbal noun qualifies a tearing away that goes to the bottom.

   • «وَٱلنَّٰزِعَٰتِ غَرْقًۭا» — "By those who tear away, submerging" (79:1)

Evidence from the text

The verb almost always has God as subject and a people as object: the clan of Fir'awn (2:50, 8:54), the people of Nuh (25:37), those who denied the signs (7:64, 10:73). Drowning follows denial, and it separates: "We saved Moussa and all those with him, then We drowned the others" (26:65-66).

It is also a moment when one is overtaken: Fir'awn speaks of faith only once seized by the drowning (10:90); the son of Nuh, cut off from his father by the wave, is "among the drowned" (11:43). In 18:71, to hole the boat is, in Moussa's eyes, to want "to drown its occupants".

Distinctions

• خسف — being swallowed: the earth closing over someone, whereas غرق is submersion by water

See also

يمم (the deep)