وزر

Core meaning

The weight one carries on one's own account; the assistant is the one who takes part in that weight, and, in a single isolated use, the word names the support one withdraws to.

Uses

1. وِزْر, تَزِرُ, وَازِرَة → "burden", "bear the burden", "bearer of burden" : each one's own charge, which no one bears for another.

   • «وَلَا تَزِرُ وَازِرَةٌۭ وِزْرَ أُخْرَىٰ» — "and no bearer of burden shall bear the burden of another" (6:164)
   • «فَإِنَّهُۥ يَحْمِلُ يَوْمَ ٱلْقِيَٰمَةِ وِزْرًا» — "shall indeed bear, on the Day of Appearance, a burden" (20:100)

2. أَوْزَار → "burdens" : the plural, for a group's charges, the adornments carried, or what war lays down.

   • «لِيَحْمِلُوٓا۟ أَوْزَارَهُمْ كَامِلَةًۭ يَوْمَ ٱلْقِيَٰمَةِ» — "so as to bear, on the Day of Appearance, their burdens in full" (16:25)
   • «حُمِّلْنَآ أَوْزَارًۭا مِّن زِينَةِ ٱلْقَوْمِ» — "we were made to carry burdens of the people's adornments" (20:87)
   • «حَتَّىٰ تَضَعَ ٱلْحَرْبُ أَوْزَارَهَا» — "until the war lays down its burdens" (47:4)

3. يَزِرُونَ → "the burden they bear" : the verb of وِزْر: to bear one's own burden.

   • «أَلَا سَآءَ مَا يَزِرُونَ» — "How evil is the burden they bear!" (6:31)

4. وَزِير → "assistant" : the one who takes part in the charge of a mission.

   • «وَٱجْعَل لِّى وَزِيرًۭا مِّنْ أَهْلِى» — "and appoint for me an assistant from among my own" (20:29)
   • «وَجَعَلْنَا مَعَهُۥٓ أَخَاهُ هَٰرُونَ وَزِيرًۭا» — "and We placed with him his brother Harun as an assistant" (25:35)

5. لَا وَزَرَ → "no bulwark" : the support to withdraw to, denied at the moment one seeks to flee.

   • «كَلَّا لَا وَزَرَ» — "By no means! There is no bulwark" (75:11)

Evidence from the text

6:164 sets the principle by doubling the word: no bearer of burden shall bear the burden of another; the formula returns in 17:15, 35:18, 39:7 and 53:38. 16:25 does not contradict it: those who mislead bear their full burdens and a portion of the burdens of those they mislead, their own charge for having misled.

In 6:31 as in 16:25, the preceding sentence speaks of the burdens borne; the close, "how evil is the burden they bear!", gives their verb, from the same root.

The weight is also material: the adornments the people were loaded with (20:87), the gear that war lays down (47:4). وَزِير names Harun, asked for by Moussa to help him carry the mission (20:29) and then placed with him (25:35).

75:10-12 links the question "where to flee?", the answer "no bulwark" and the turn to the Guardian: the isolated use of وَزَر there names the support one would withdraw to, and the text denies it.

Distinctions

• ثقل — ثقل says heaviness and heavy loads; وزر says the weight that belongs to the one who carries it.
• حمل — حمل is the act of carrying; وزر is what is carried.

See also

وضع (the war that lays down its burdens, 47:4; the burden lifted, 94:2)