خبث

Core meaning

To be corrupt in one's very nature, opposite to what is good: said of goods, words, persons and acts.

Uses

1. ٱلْخَبِيث, خَبِيثَة, خَبُثَ → "vile" : what is corrupt in its nature, always set against the good.

   • «لَّا يَسْتَوِى ٱلْخَبِيثُ وَٱلطَّيِّبُ» — "The vile and the wholesome are not equal" (5:100)
   • «حَتَّىٰ يَمِيزَ ٱلْخَبِيثَ مِنَ ٱلطَّيِّبِ» — "without distinguishing the vile from the wholesome" (3:179)
   • «وَمَثَلُ كَلِمَةٍ خَبِيثَةٍۢ كَشَجَرَةٍ خَبِيثَةٍ» — "And the example of a vile word is like a vile tree" (14:26)

2. ٱلْخَبِيثُونَ, ٱلْخَبِيثَٰت → "the vile" (men), "the vile" (women) : persons themselves, in both genders.

   • «ٱلْخَبِيثَٰتُ لِلْخَبِيثِينَ وَٱلْخَبِيثُونَ لِلْخَبِيثَٰتِ» — "The vile for the vile, and the vile for the vile" (24:26)

3. ٱلْخَبَٰٓئِث → "the vile things", "vile practices" : what one consumes or what one commits, when the corruption lies in the thing or in the act.

   • «وَيُحَرِّمُ عَلَيْهِمُ ٱلْخَبَٰٓئِثَ» — "prohibits to them the vile things" (7:157)
   • «ٱلَّتِى كَانَت تَّعْمَلُ ٱلْخَبَٰٓئِثَ» — "that used to commit vile practices" (21:74)

Evidence from the text

The root lives in a pair: facing it there almost always stands ٱلطَّيِّب, "the good". One does not substitute the one for the other (4:2); one does not aim at the vile to spend it, when one would not take it oneself "except by closing your eyes to it" (2:267); God distinguishes them (3:179), then places the vile "part upon part" to put it into Jahannam (8:37).

Quantity changes nothing: "The vile and the wholesome are not equal, even if the abundance of the vile dazzles you" (5:100). A land of that nature brings forth only scantily (7:58); a word of that nature is an uprooted tree, "having no stability" (14:26), facing the good tree whose root is firm (14:24). The pair finally extends to persons, in both genders (24:26).

Distinctions

• سوء — evil: what harms or afflicts, whereas خبث names a corruption of nature
• رجس — filth: what soils and is put away, whereas خبث names what is vitiated in itself

See also

طيب (the good, its opposite)