عنكب

Core meaning

The spider: the creature whose house, built of its threads, is the flimsiest there is.

Uses

1. ٱلْعَنكَبُوت → "the spider" : the image of those who take allies besides God.

   • «كَمَثَلِ ٱلْعَنكَبُوتِ ٱتَّخَذَتْ بَيْتًۭا» — "is that of the spider that takes for itself a house" (29:41)

Evidence from the text

The word occurs in one verse only, twice, and the second occurrence explains the first. Those who take allies besides God make themselves a shelter, as the spider takes itself a house; then the verse says what that shelter is worth: «وَإِنَّ أَوْهَنَ ٱلْبُيُوتِ لَبَيْتُ ٱلْعَنكَبُوتِ» — "and the flimsiest of houses is surely the house of the spider" (29:41). The image does not say they are without shelter: it says that the shelter they have given themselves does not hold, "if only they knew".

See also

بيت (the house) · ولى (the allies)