رفد

Core meaning

To make a gift in support: what is given to someone to accompany and sustain him.

Uses

1. ٱلرِّفْد, ٱلْمَرْفُود → "gift", "that which was made to them" : the noun and its participle together: the gift, and what is made as a gift.

   • «بِئْسَ ٱلرِّفْدُ ٱلْمَرْفُودُ» — "what a detestable gift is that which was made to them" (11:99)

Evidence from the text

The word appears only in 11:99, and the verse turns it around. Fir'awn advances at the head of his people to the Fire, "what a detestable place of arrival" (11:98); then they are "pursued, here, by a curse, and on the Day of Appearance too" (11:99). The gift that accompanies them is this curse: the word keeps its sense of support, and that is what gives the verse its force.

Distinctions

• وهب — to bestow: a being or a quality, without measure, without the idea of support
• عطو — to endow, the endowment: a share the text measures

See also

لعن (the curse)