نهر

Core meaning

What flows abundantly and without cease: the river, a flow of water, and the day, a flow of brightness; the verb says the rough word that drives away.

Uses

1. نَهَر, أَنْهَٰر → "river", "rivers" : water flowing without cease; beneath the promised gardens rivers flow.

   • «جَنَّٰتٍۢ تَجْرِى مِن تَحْتِهَا ٱلْأَنْهَٰرُ» — "gardens beneath which rivers flow" (2:25)
   • «إِنَّ ٱللَّهَ مُبْتَلِيكُم بِنَهَرٍۢ» — "God is going to test you with a river" (2:249)

2. ٱلنَّهَار → "day" : brightness spreading in a continuous flow, paired with night.

   • «وَٱخْتِلَٰفِ ٱلَّيْلِ وَٱلنَّهَارِ» — "in the alternation of night and day" (2:164)
   • «مَنَامُكُم بِٱلَّيْلِ وَٱلنَّهَارِ» — "your sleep by night and by day" (30:23)

3. تَنْهَرْهُمَا → "rebuke" : the verb: to drive away with a rough word.

   • «وَلَا تَنْهَرْهُمَا» — "do not rebuke them" (17:23)

Evidence from the text

The same radical carries water and brightness: the river flows without cease, and the day spreads in a continuous flow. The corpus distributes the two without ambiguity: rivers in the description of the gardens, "gardens beneath which rivers flow" (2:25), the day in the pair it forms with night, "the alternation of night and day" (2:164).

The verb of 17:23 applies the word to speech: not to rebuke father and mother, not to drive them away with a rough word.