طير

Core meaning

To fly: the bird, what flies; and the omen, once read in the flight of birds, become the lot that clings to someone.

Uses

1. طَيْر, طَٰٓئِر, يَطِيرُ → "bird", "the birds", "to fly" : the real bird: a creature among creatures, subjected, glorifying.

   • «وَلَا طَٰٓئِرٍۢ يَطِيرُ بِجَنَاحَيْهِ» — "nor bird flying with its two wings" (6:38)
   • «فَخُذْ أَرْبَعَةًۭ مِّنَ ٱلطَّيْرِ» — "Take, then, four birds" (2:260)

2. طَٰٓئِر (the lot) → "omen" : what comes back to someone from his own deeds, which people claimed to read in flight.

   • «وَكُلَّ إِنسَٰنٍ أَلْزَمْنَٰهُ طَٰٓئِرَهُۥ فِى عُنُقِهِۦ» — "And to every human being We have fastened his own omen to his neck" (17:13)
   • «قَالَ طَٰٓئِرُكُمْ عِندَ ٱللَّهِ» — "He said: "Your omen is with God" (27:47)

3. يَطَّيَّرُوا۟, ٱطَّيَّرْنَا, تَطَيَّرْنَا → "to see an ill omen in" : to blame a misfortune on someone as on a bird of ill omen.

   • «إِنَّا تَطَيَّرْنَا بِكُمْ» — "We see in you an ill omen" (36:18)
   • «يَطَّيَّرُوا۟ بِمُوسَىٰ وَمَن مَّعَهُۥٓ» — "they attribute it to an ill omen from Moussa and those with him" (7:131)

4. مُسْتَطِيرًا → "spreading far and wide" : what flies far off and spreads everywhere.

   • «وَيَخَافُونَ يَوْمًۭا كَانَ شَرُّهُۥ مُسْتَطِيرًۭا» — "and they fear a Day whose ill spreads far and wide" (76:7)

Evidence from the text

The bird of the text is first the one we see: it flies with its two wings and forms communities "like you" (6:38), it holds in the space of the sky, "held by nothing but God" (16:79), it glorifies with Dawud (21:79, 38:19), Sulayman knows its language (27:16).

The omen is taken up three times in the same scene. Opponents see the messenger as the cause of their misfortune: Fir'awn and his court in Moussa (7:131), the people of Salih (27:47), the city of sura 36 (36:18). Each time, the answer takes the omen away from the flight of birds and returns it to its source: "Your omen is with God" (27:47), "Your omen lies with yourselves" (36:19). In 17:13 it is fastened to each one's neck, and the register that follows shows it made of his own deeds.

Distinctions

• جنح — the wing, by which the bird flies

See also

عنق (the neck, where the omen is fastened)