آزر

Core meaning

Proper noun. The text gives it only once, to Ibrahim's father, at the moment his son reproaches him for taking idols as deities. The translation writes the name alone: "Azar".

Uses

1. ءَازَرَ → "Azar" : Ibrahim's father, named on the threshold of the confrontation.

   • «وَإِذْ قَالَ إِبْرَٰهِيمُ لِأَبِيهِ ءَازَرَ» — "And when Ibrahim said to his father Azar" (6:74)

Evidence from the text

The name appears only in 6:74. Elsewhere the same father returns without his name, always in the same scene: he obeys "what neither hears nor sees clearly" (19:42), threatens to banish his son (19:46); Ibrahim asks forgiveness for him, then declares himself quit of him when it becomes clear to him "that he was an enemy of God" (9:114). The name therefore does not qualify a role: it designates the man whom Ibrahim's speech confronts first.

The text does not attach the name to the root ازر: its two uses express the reinforcement brought to a strength (20:31, 48:29), whereas Ibrahim's father is the one who opposes him.

Distinctions

• ازر — to strengthen what already exists; no link with the name of Ibrahim's father is established by the text

See also

ابراهيم (Ibrahim) · صنم (the idol)