عقم

Core meaning

To produce nothing of what is expected: the woman or man without offspring, and, by the same image, the wind or the day that leave nothing behind them.

Uses

1. عَقِيم → "barren" : without child: a disposition of God, or the age of the woman.

   • «وَيَجْعَلُ مَن يَشَآءُ عَقِيمًا» — "and He renders barren whom He wills" (42:50)
   • «وَقَالَتْ عَجُوزٌ عَقِيمٌۭ» — "and said: "An old, barren woman?!"" (51:29)

2. ٱلرِّيح ٱلْعَقِيم, يَوْم عَقِيم → "the barren wind", "a barren day" : what destroys without bringing anything to birth.

   • «إِذْ أَرْسَلْنَا عَلَيْهِمُ ٱلرِّيحَ ٱلْعَقِيمَ» — "when We sent upon them the barren wind" (51:41)
   • «أَوْ يَأْتِيَهُمْ عَذَابُ يَوْمٍ عَقِيمٍ» — "or there comes to them the punishment of a barren day" (22:55)

Evidence from the text

In 42:50 the word closes the list of the gifts of offspring: daughters, sons, both, or none. In 51:29 Ibrahim's wife calls herself an "old, barren woman" at the very moment a child is announced to her. In 51:41 the wind is barren because it "spared nothing it passed over without reducing it to dust": where one would expect the rain that gives life, it brings only ruin. The barren day of 22:55 is likewise a day after which nothing comes.

Distinctions

• عقر — عَاقِر: Zakariya's wife, also called "barren" (3:40, 19:5, 19:8), by another root

See also

عجز (the old woman)