لهو

Core meaning

To distract: to occupy attention to the point of turning it away from the essential.

Uses

1. لَهْو → "distraction" : what occupies without leading anywhere; paired with play to judge the present life.

   • «وَمَا ٱلْحَيَوٰةُ ٱلدُّنْيَآ إِلَّا لَعِبٌۭ وَلَهْوٌۭ» — "The present life is nothing but play and distraction" (6:32)
   • «ٱتَّخَذُوا۟ دِينَهُمْ لَهْوًۭا وَلَعِبًۭا» — "those who took their Law for distraction and play" (7:51)

2. أَلْهَىٰ, تُلْهِى → "distract" : what takes attention and draws it away from remembrance.

   • «لَا تُلْهِكُمْ أَمْوَٰلُكُمْ وَلَآ أَوْلَٰدُكُمْ عَن ذِكْرِ ٱللَّهِ» — "Let not your goods or your children distract you from the remembrance of God" (63:9)
   • «أَلْهَىٰكُمُ ٱلتَّكَاثُرُ» — "Rivalry in accumulation has distracted you" (102:1)
   • «لَّا تُلْهِيهِمْ تِجَٰرَةٌۭ وَلَا بَيْعٌ عَن ذِكْرِ ٱللَّهِ» — "whom neither trade nor selling distracts from the remembrance of God" (24:37)

3. تَلَهَّىٰ → "be distracted" : to let oneself be occupied elsewhere, away from the one who came.

   • «فَأَنتَ عَنْهُ تَلَهَّىٰ» — "from him you are distracted" (80:10)

Evidence from the text

The noun goes with لَعِب, play: "the present life is nothing but play and distraction" (6:32); the same pair recurs in 29:64, 47:36 and 57:20, and 7:51 says of those who took their Law for distraction and play that this life deluded them. In 21:17, God rules out taking on a distraction.

The causative form names each time what distracts: hope (15:3), trade (24:37), goods and children (63:9), rivalry in accumulation (102:1). The complement says from what one is distracted, in the same construction in 24:37 and in 63:9: from the remembrance of God.

In 80:10, the verb bears on the one the text addresses: from the one who comes to him endeavouring and who dreads, he is distracted. Distraction is not reserved for those who disown; it lies in wait for anyone.

Distinctions

• لعب — play, which occupies for its own sake; لهو, what turns away from the essential.