رقد

Core meaning

To lie asleep, in a stillness that hides what it is: the long sleep one would take for waking, or death that is called a sleep.

Uses

1. رُقُود → "asleep" : sleepers whom appearance makes one think awake.

   • «وَتَحْسَبُهُمْ أَيْقَاظًۭا وَهُمْ رُقُودٌۭ» — "And you would have thought them awake, while they were asleep" (18:18)

2. مَرْقَد → "resting place" : the place where one lies, named by those who rise from it.

   • «مَنۢ بَعَثَنَا مِن مَّرْقَدِنَا» — "Who has raised us up from where we slept" (36:52)

Evidence from the text

Both uses set an appearance against a state. In 18:18 the companions of the Cave seem awake and are asleep; the same verse shows them turned "to the right and to the left" (18:18). In 36:52 the dead whom the Horn brings out of their sepulchres (36:51) call their grave a place of sleep: only on rising do they learn what that stillness was, "This is what the All-Benevolent promised" (36:52).

Distinctions

• نوم — sleep itself, whereas رقد says the state of one who lies asleep

See also

بعث (to raise up)