لمم

Core meaning

To draw to oneself in a brief gesture: to touch in passing without staying, to call to come, to gather up the whole.

Uses

1. ٱللَّمَم → "slight lapses" : what one only brushes against, beside the great transgressions.

   • «إِلَّا ٱللَّمَمَ» — "except slight lapses" (53:32)

2. هَلُمَّ → "Bring", "Come" : the call that draws to oneself.

   • «هَلُمَّ شُهَدَآءَكُمُ» — "Bring your witnesses" (6:150)
   • «هَلُمَّ إِلَيْنَا» — "Come to us" (33:18)

3. لَمًّا → "with voracious greed" : eating while gathering up everything.

   • «وَتَأْكُلُونَ ٱلتُّرَاثَ أَكْلًۭا لَّمًّۭا» — "and you consume the inheritance with voracious greed" (89:19)

Evidence from the text

In 53:32, those who do good avoid "the major transgressions and indecencies", except ٱللَّمَم: what one only touches in passing, without settling in it. The verse at once adds: "Your Guardian is indeed vast in forgiveness".

هَلُمَّ says the same gesture of drawing toward oneself, by speech: "Bring your witnesses" (6:150), "Come to us" (33:18). In 89:19, the noun qualifies an eating that gathers up the whole inheritance.

Distinctions

• اثم — transgression, whose major forms are avoided
• فحش — indecency, avoided with them