سعى

Core meaning

To move actively toward an aim: to endeavour for it by effort, good or bad, or to go to it with a hurried movement.

Uses

1. سَعَىٰ, يَسْعَىٰ (effort) → "to endeavour" : to spend one's energy toward a result, whether to build or to destroy.

   • «وَسَعَىٰ فِى خَرَابِهَآ» — "and endeavors to dismantle them" (2:114)
   • «لِتُجْزَىٰ كُلُّ نَفْسٍۭ بِمَا تَسْعَىٰ» — "so that every Self may be recompensed for what it has endeavoured" (20:15)

2. سَعْى → "effort" : what one has spent, which will be shown and acknowledged.

   • «فَأُو۟لَٰٓئِكَ كَانَ سَعْيُهُم مَّشْكُورًۭا» — "those are the ones whose effort will be acknowledged" (17:19)
   • «وَأَنَّ سَعْيَهُۥ سَوْفَ يُرَىٰ» — "and that his effort will soon be shown" (53:40)

3. يَسْعَىٰ, تَسْعَىٰ (movement) → "to move swiftly", "to hurry" : to go quickly toward a point: the staff come alive, the man from far away, the one who comes in search of the reminder, the light of the believers; for a person who comes, "hurrying".

   • «فَإِذَا هِىَ حَيَّةٌۭ تَسْعَىٰ» — "and behold, it became a snake, moving swiftly" (20:20)
   • «يَسْعَىٰ نُورُهُم بَيْنَ أَيْدِيهِمْ» — "their light hurrying before them" (57:12)
   • «وَأَمَّا مَن جَآءَكَ يَسْعَىٰ» — "But as for him who came to you hurrying" (80:8)

Evidence from the text

Effort has no colour of its own: one endeavours to dismantle the places of prostration (2:114), to sow corruption (2:205, 5:33, 5:64), against the signs (22:51, 34:5); and one endeavours toward the last life, with an effort that will be acknowledged (17:19, 76:22). The formula of 53:39-40 draws the rule from it: the human being will have only what he has endeavoured, and that endeavour will soon be shown.

Movement carries the same drive toward an aim: the man who comes from the far end of the Capital to warn (28:20, 36:20), the one who comes hurrying in search of the reminder (80:8), the call of the day of reunion toward the remembrance of God (62:9), the light that goes before the believers (57:12, 66:8).

Distinctions

• جهد — the effort of struggle, whereas سعى is the drive toward an aim
• عجل — haste: to want a thing before its time

See also

عمل (action)