قطع

Core meaning

To separate what held together: to sever a link, to interrupt a course, to detach a part from its whole.

Uses

1. قَطَعَ, يَقْطَعُ → "to cut off", "to interrupt", "to issue an ordinance" : to break a continuity: the link that was to be joined, the road, an affair, the last remnant of a people.

   • «وَيَقْطَعُونَ مَآ أَمَرَ ٱللَّهُ بِهِۦٓ أَن يُوصَلَ» — "sever what God ordered to be joined" (2:27)
   • «فَقُطِعَ دَابِرُ ٱلْقَوْمِ ٱلَّذِينَ ظَلَمُوا۟» — "Thus was the last remnant of the people who had done wrong cut off" (6:45)
   • «مَا كُنتُ قَاطِعَةً أَمْرًا حَتَّىٰ تَشْهَدُونِ» — "I issue no ordinance without you bearing witness to it" (27:32)

2. ٱقْطَعُوٓا۟ أَيْدِيَهُمَا → "stop their supports" : the hand is here the support, the means of acting: the sanction cuts off the thief's means.

   • «فَٱقْطَعُوٓا۟ أَيْدِيَهُمَا جَزَآءًۢ بِمَا كَسَبَا» — "stop their supports, as a recompense for what they have earned" (5:38)

3. قَطَّعَ, تَقَطَّعَ → "to cut off", "to cut to pieces", "to divide", "to split", "to be severed" : the intensive form: to cut in several places, to divide into parts; the reflexive form: to break apart, to divide.

   • «لَأُقَطِّعَنَّ أَيْدِيَكُمْ وَأَرْجُلَكُم مِّنْ خِلَٰفٍۢ» — "I will surely cut off your hands and feet, on opposite sides" (7:124)
   • «فَقَطَّعَ أَمْعَآءَهُمْ» — "that cuts their entrails to pieces" (47:15)
   • «وَقَطَّعْنَٰهُمُ ٱثْنَتَىْ عَشْرَةَ أَسْبَاطًا أُمَمًۭا» — "And We divided them into twelve bloodlines, into communities" (7:160)
   • «وَتَقَطَّعُوٓا۟ أَمْرَهُم بَيْنَهُمْ» — "But they split their affair among themselves" (21:93)

4. قِطْع, قِطَع → "a time of the night", "plots", "strips" : the part detached from a whole: of the night, of the land.

   • «فَأَسْرِ بِأَهْلِكَ بِقِطْعٍۢ مِّنَ ٱلَّيْلِ» — "So depart with your family, except your wife, at a time of the night" (11:81)
   • «وَفِى ٱلْأَرْضِ قِطَعٌۭ مُّتَجَٰوِرَٰتٌۭ» — "And on the earth, there are neighboring plots" (13:4)

Evidence from the text

All the uses separate what held. The link: those who "sever what God ordered to be joined" (2:27, 13:25), and the links severed between those who followed and those who were followed (2:166, 6:94). The course: the road cut off (29:29), the traffic of a valley interrupted (9:121), the fruits of the garden "neither cut off nor withheld" (56:33). The line of a people: the formula of the last remnant cut off leaves nothing of it (6:45, 7:72, 8:7, 15:66), and God may "cut off a part of those who disown" (3:127).

The intensive form multiplies the cut or distributes it: hands and feet cut off on opposite sides, in Fir'awn's threat (7:124, 20:71, 26:49) and in the penalty of 5:33; the women who "cut their hands" (12:31); the boiling water that "cuts their entrails to pieces" (47:15); the bloodlines and the communities divided (7:160, 7:168). In 5:38 the verb is in the simple form, and the translation reads أَيْدِي as the supports: "stop their supports".

Distinctions

• نقض — to undo what was tied, to break a pact, whereas قطع severs a continuity

See also

دبر (the last remnant) · وصل (to join, its opposite)