اسر

Core meaning

To bind and hold: the bond that holds a captive, and the one that holds the parts of a body together.

Uses

1. أُسَٰرَىٰ, أَسْرَىٰ, أَسِير, تَأْسِرُونَ → "captives", "captive", "to take captive" : to hold someone under constraint, to prevent him from leaving.

   • «وَإِن يَأْتُوكُمْ أُسَٰرَىٰ تُفَٰدُوهُمْ» — "and if they come to you as captives, you exchange them" (2:85)
   • «مِسْكِينًۭا وَيَتِيمًۭا وَأَسِيرًا» — "to the destitute, the orphan, and the captive" (76:8)

2. أَسْرَهُمْ → "their frame" : the assembly that holds a body, like a tight bond.

   • «وَشَدَدْنَآ أَسْرَهُمْ» — "and strengthened their frame" (76:28)

Evidence from the text

Five uses state capture: the captives one exchanges though one expelled them oneself (2:85), the captives an informant was not to have until he had fully subdued the land (8:67), "those of the captives in your hands" (8:70), the party one takes captive beside the one one kills (33:26), the captive one feeds with the destitute and the orphan (76:8). The sixth applies the same bond to the body: "It is We who created them and strengthened their frame" (76:28). The verb شَدَّ, "to tighten, to strengthen", is the one used for a bond: what holds a captive and what keeps a body assembled belong to the same gesture.

See also

شدد (to strengthen, to tighten) · فدى (to ransom)