عذر

Core meaning

To put forward what would clear one of a failing: the excuse, which the one who hears it accepts or refuses.

Uses

1. ٱعْتَذَرَ, يَعْتَذِرُونَ → "to make excuses" : to present one's excuse; almost always before a refusal.

   • «لَا تَعْتَذِرُوا۟ ٱلْيَوْمَ» — "Do not make excuses today" (66:7)
   • «يَعْتَذِرُونَ إِلَيْكُمْ إِذَا رَجَعْتُمْ إِلَيْهِمْ» — "They will make excuses to you, when you have returned to them" (9:94)

2. عُذْر, مَعْذِرَة, مَعَاذِير → "excuse" : the excuse itself: what one puts forward to be cleared.

   • «لَّا يَنفَعُ ٱلَّذِينَ ظَلَمُوا۟ مَعْذِرَتُهُمْ» — "the excuse of the wrongdoers will not benefit them" (30:57)
   • «قَدْ بَلَغْتَ مِن لَّدُنِّى عُذْرًۭا» — "you will then have, from me, an excuse" (18:76)

3. ٱلْمُعَذِّرُونَ → "the excuse-makers" : those who put forward excuses to be dispensed.

   • «وَجَآءَ ٱلْمُعَذِّرُونَ مِنَ ٱلْأَعْرَابِ لِيُؤْذَنَ لَهُمْ» — "And the excuse-makers, among the notables, came so that permission might be granted them" (9:90)

4. عُذْرًا → "as justification" : what is delivered to remove every excuse, beside the warning.

   • «ذِكْرًا عُذْرًا أَوْ نُذْرًا» — "a reminder, as justification or as warning" (77:5-6)

Evidence from the text

The word always supposes a failing, and someone before whom one justifies it. Most often, the excuse is refused in advance: "Do not make excuses: you have disowned after your faith" (9:66); "we will not give you credit" (9:94); "you are only being recompensed for what you used to do" (66:7). On the Last Day it does not benefit (30:57, 40:52), and those who carry it are not even permitted to say it (77:36).

One excuse is accepted in advance: the one Moussa grants his companion by an agreement. If he questions him again, the companion may leave him, and will have "from me, an excuse" (18:76). In 7:164, those who exhort a people doomed to ruin do so "For an excuse before your Guardian" (7:164): the excuse is here what one will be able to present for having done one's part. And 75:15 marks the limit of every excuse: the human being sees clearly into himself, whatever he puts forward.

Distinctions

• حجج — the argument: what one sets against someone to prevail, whereas the excuse asks to be cleared

See also

نذر (the warning)