غمر

Core meaning

Immersion: what covers entirely, like deep water, the one plunged in it, down to his awareness.

Uses

1. غَمَرَات ٱلْمَوْت → "the throes of death" : the moment when death submerges the one who dies.

   • «إِذِ ٱلظَّٰلِمُونَ فِى غَمَرَٰتِ ٱلْمَوْتِ» — "when the wrongdoers are in the throes of death" (6:93)

2. غَمْرَة → "the gulf" : the state in which one is wholly caught, and which nothing else reaches.

   • «فَذَرْهُمْ فِى غَمْرَتِهِمْ حَتَّىٰ حِينٍ» — "So forsake them in their gulf, for a time" (23:54)
   • «ٱلَّذِينَ هُمْ فِى غَمْرَةٍۢ سَاهُونَ» — "those who are plunged in a gulf, absent-minded" (51:11)

Evidence from the text

The four uses speak of a state in which one is wholly caught. At the moment of death, these are the throes in which the wrongdoer holds on to nothing (6:93). Elsewhere, it is a state in which one is left "for a time" (23:54), in which the core stands towards what it is told (23:63), and in which the guessers are "plunged" (51:11): the image is that of water covering over, not of a passing trouble.

Distinctions

• عمى — blindness of sight: not seeing, whereas غمر is the state of being covered over
• سهو — absent-mindedness, which follows immersion in 51:11