دئب

Core meaning

The constancy of a conduct that repeats itself without varying: effort kept up without respite, a course that never stops, a way of acting that becomes the mark of a people.

Uses

1. دَأَبًا → "assiduously" : effort kept up without interruption, from one year to the next.

   • «تَزْرَعُونَ سَبْعَ سِنِينَ دَأَبًۭا» — "You shall cultivate for seven years, assiduously" (12:47)

2. دَآئِبَيْنِ → "assiduous" : the sun and the moon, which follow their course without stopping.

   • «وَسَخَّرَ لَكُمُ ٱلشَّمْسَ وَٱلْقَمَرَ دَآئِبَيْنِ» — "And He subjected for you the sun and the moon, assiduous in their course" (14:33)

3. كَدَأْبِ → "like the conduct of" : the conduct that repeats itself identically from one people to another, and calls for the same outcome.

   • «وَأُو۟لَٰٓئِكَ هُمْ وَقُودُ ٱلنَّارِ كَدَأْبِ ءَالِ فِرْعَوْنَ» — "And those are the ones who will fuel the Fire, in the image of the conduct of the clan of Fir'awn" (3:11)
   • «كَدَأْبِ ءَالِ فِرْعَوْنَ» — "Like the conduct of the clan of Fir'awn" (8:52)

Evidence from the text

The six uses state a repetition without deviation. Applied to work, it is effort kept up seven years in a row (12:47); applied to the heavenly bodies, the course the sun and the moon follow without stopping (14:33).

Applied to peoples, it is a conduct that repeats itself, and its outcome repeats with it: the clan of Fir'awn and those before them denied the signs, and God seized them for their offenses (3:11, 8:52, 8:54). In 40:31, the believer from Fir'awn's clan fears for his own the conduct of the peoples of Nuh, the Aad and the Thamud.

Distinctions

• سنن — the path traced and followed: the norm, whereas دَأْب is the repeated conduct of a people

See also

صبر (patience)