تبب

Core meaning

To perish, to go to one's ruin: a pronounced annihilation, not a mere failure, which strikes the work raised against the message and, through it, the one who made it.

Uses

1. تَبَّ (verb) → "to perish" : the accomplished form states the ruin as already gained: wished upon the hands, stated of the person.

   • «تَبَّتْ يَدَآ أَبِى لَهَبٍۢ وَتَبَّ» — "Perish the hands of the Father of the Flame, and he himself has perished" (111:1)

2. تَبَاب, تَتْبِيب (nouns) → "ruin" : ruin as a state one is in (تَبَاب), or as what is made to grow upon one (تَتْبِيب).

   • «وَمَا كَيْدُ فِرْعَوْنَ إِلَّا فِى تَبَابٍۢ» — "Fir'awn's scheming was nothing but ruin" (40:37)
   • «وَمَا زَادُوهُمْ غَيْرَ تَتْبِيبٍۢ» — "and they only increased their ruin" (11:101)

Evidence from the text

The four uses aim at an action led against the message: the hands of the Father of the Flame (111:1), Fir'awn's scheming (40:37), the deities the cities invoked "besides God" (11:101). Each time, the ruin does not stay in the act: it goes back to the one who did it, and what was called upon for help only increases the ruin.

In 111:1 the verb returns twice in the same verse: first upon the hands, the instrument of the act, then upon the whole person. The ruin extends from what was done to the one who did it; it is never partial.

Distinctions

• هلك — the end of what lives or lasts, without the idea of a ruin bound to an act
• خسر — the loss of an exchange: what was given up without return

See also

لهب (the flame) · كيد (scheming)