لبث

Core meaning

To remain for a time in a place or a state: a time measured afterwards, which those who remained almost always judge too short.

Uses

1. لَبِثَ, لَبِثْتُمْ, يَلْبَثُوا۟, لَٰبِثِينَ → "remain" : to remain for a time the sentence measures: a day, a hundred years, a whole life.

   • «كَمْ لَبِثْتُمْ» — "How long have you remained?" (18:19)
   • «وَلَبِثُوا۟ فِى كَهْفِهِمْ ثَلَٰثَ مِا۟ئَةٍۢ سِنِينَ» — "And they remained in their cave three hundred years" (18:25)
   • «فَقَدْ لَبِثْتُ فِيكُمْ عُمُرًۭا» — "I remained among you a whole lifetime" (10:16)

2. فَمَا لَبِثَ أَن, تَلَبَّثُوا۟ → "delay" : with the negation: letting no time, or almost none, pass before acting.

   • «فَمَا لَبِثَ أَن جَآءَ بِعِجْلٍ حَنِيذٍۢ» — "and he did not delay in bringing a roasted calf" (11:69)
   • «وَمَا تَلَبَّثُوا۟ بِهَآ إِلَّا» — "and would have delayed but a little" (33:14)

Evidence from the text

The duration changes from one use to another: "a day, or part of a day" (18:19), a hundred years (2:259), three hundred years and nine (18:25), a thousand years less fifty (29:14). The verb does not state an action but the time spent; the recurring question, how long (2:259, 18:19, 23:112), turns it into a measure.

This measure is almost always too short in the mouth of those who give it: "you will presume you had remained only a little while" (17:52), "an hour of the day" (10:45), "an evening, or its morning" (79:46). The answer puts it back in its place: "God knows best" (18:26), "if only you knew" (23:114).

Negated and followed by أَن, the verb says that no time passes before the act: Ibrahim "did not delay" in serving his guests (11:69). In 33:14, the form تَلَبَّثَ reduces this delay to an instant.

Distinctions

• ظلل — to stay: the state that lasts through the day, whereas لبث measures a time spent
• خلد — to abide: duration without end, whereas لبث is a time that is counted
• ثوى — the sojourn: the place where one settles, whereas لبث says the time spent there
• غبر — to linger behind: staying back when the others leave

See also

عدد (to number: the count of the years spent (23:112))