رقب

Core meaning

To keep under one's gaze, vigilantly: to observe, to watch, to respect; and the nape, by which one holds a person, hence the person held under the burden of a debt.

Uses

1. رَقِيب → "Observer", "observer" : the one who keeps an eye on another: God, and the one who notes every saying.

   • «إِنَّ ٱللَّهَ كَانَ عَلَيْكُمْ رَقِيبًۭا» — "God is indeed, over you, an Observer" (4:1)
   • «مَّا يَلْفِظُ مِن قَوْلٍ إِلَّا لَدَيْهِ رَقِيبٌ عَتِيدٌۭ» — "He does not utter a saying without an observer, ready, being at his side" (50:18)

2. ٱرْتَقَبَ, مُرْتَقِب, تَرَقَّبَ → "to watch", "on watch" : to wait, eyes open, for what is coming.

   • «فَٱرْتَقِبْ يَوْمَ تَأْتِى ٱلسَّمَآءُ بِدُخَانٍۢ مُّبِينٍۢ» — "So watch for the day when the sky brings a clear smoke" (44:10)
   • «فَٱرْتَقِبْهُمْ وَٱصْطَبِرْ» — "so watch them and be constant" (54:27)
   • «فَخَرَجَ مِنْهَا خَآئِفًۭا يَتَرَقَّبُ» — "He left it, fearful, on watch" (28:21)

3. رَقَبَ → "to respect", "to heed" : to take account of what one has before one's eyes: a bond, a word.

   • «لَا يَرْقُبُونَ فِى مُؤْمِنٍ إِلًّۭا وَلَا ذِمَّةًۭ» — "They respect, toward a believer, neither kinship nor surety" (9:10)
   • «وَلَمْ تَرْقُبْ قَوْلِى» — "and you did not heed my saying" (20:94)

4. رَقَبَة, ٱلرِّقَاب → "a person (under the burden of a debt)", "the captives" : the nape, for the person one holds: the debtor one frees, the captive in war.

   • «فَتَحْرِيرُ رَقَبَةٍۢ مُّؤْمِنَةٍۢ» — "then restoring the independence of a believing person bound by a debt" (4:92)
   • «فَكُّ رَقَبَةٍ» — "It is freeing a person from the burden of a debt" (90:13)

Evidence from the text

The common gesture is to keep under one's gaze. God is "over you, an Observer" (4:1); Issa says that He was so over them after him (5:117); for every saying, an observer stands ready (50:18). The same gaze turns toward what is coming: "So watch: I indeed watch with you" (11:93); "So watch, they are watching" (44:59); Salih is to watch what his people will do with the she-camel (54:27); and Moussa leaves the Capital "fearful, on watch" (28:18, 28:21).

To keep someone under one's gaze is also to respect what protects him: those who "respect, toward a believer, neither kinship nor surety" (9:10) regard nothing. The noun رَقَبَة, the nape, names the person by which one holds him: his independence is restored when a debt binds him (4:92, 5:89, 58:3), he is freed from the burden of a debt (90:13), one gives for him (2:177, 9:60); in war, ٱلرِّقَاب are the persons held, the captives (47:4).

Distinctions

• حفظ — to preserve: to keep intact, whereas رقب keeps under the gaze
• ربص — to await the outcome while biding one's time, whereas ٱرْتَقَبَ watches for what is coming

See also

حرر (to free)