زيغ

Core meaning

To deviate: to leave the straight axis. The word is said of the core that turns away from what it has received, and of the gaze that strays from what it must see.

Uses

1. زَيْغ → "a deviation" : the state of the core that no longer holds the axis.

   • «فَأَمَّا ٱلَّذِينَ فِى قُلُوبِهِمْ زَيْغٌۭ» — "As for those in whose cores is a deviation" (3:7)

2. زَاغَ, يَزِيغُ, يَزِغْ → "to deviate" : to leave the axis: the core, the sight, or one who strays from a command.

   • «مَا زَاغَ ٱلْبَصَرُ وَمَا طَغَىٰ» — "The gaze did not deviate, nor did it exceed the measure" (53:17)
   • «وَمَن يَزِغْ مِنْهُمْ عَنْ أَمْرِنَا» — "and whoever among them deviated from Our command" (34:12)

3. أَزَاغَ, تُزِغْ → "to cause to deviate" : deviation given in return, or from which one asks God to be kept.

   • «رَبَّنَا لَا تُزِغْ قُلُوبَنَا بَعْدَ إِذْ هَدَيْتَنَا» — "Our Guardian, do not let our cores deviate after You have guided us" (3:8)
   • «فَلَمَّا زَاغُوٓا۟ أَزَاغَ ٱللَّهُ قُلُوبَهُمْ» — "So when they deviated, God caused their cores to deviate" (61:5)

Evidence from the text

Deviation starts from an axis already given. The invocation of 3:8 places it "after You have guided us"; in 9:117, the cores of a group "had almost deviated" before God turned toward them with clemency: it can be halted. In 61:5, it begins with man: "So when they deviated, God caused their cores to deviate"; God's gesture answers theirs.

The gaze deviates too: "and when sights deviated, and cores reached the throats" (33:10), in fear; in 38:63, the people of the Fire wonder whether their sights have deviated from those they took as objects of mockery; in 53:17, on the contrary, "The gaze did not deviate": what was seen was seen without swerving.

Distinctions

• ميل — to lean: inclination toward one side, without the idea of an axis received and then left
• ضلل — to go astray: to lose the way, whereas زيغ is the swerve off an axis one held

See also

قلب (the core) · هدى (to guide)