خسف

Core meaning

To give way below one's own level and lose one's hold: the ground that opens and swallows, the heavenly body whose light withdraws.

Uses

1. خَسَفَ بِـ → "to cause the earth to swallow", "to swallow up" : the earth gives way under someone and takes him.

   • «فَخَسَفْنَا بِهِۦ وَبِدَارِهِ ٱلْأَرْضَ» — "We caused the earth to swallow him and his abode" (28:81)
   • «وَمِنْهُم مَّنْ خَسَفْنَا بِهِ ٱلْأَرْضَ» — "some We caused the earth to swallow" (29:40)
   • «لَخَسَفَ بِنَا» — "He would have swallowed us up too" (28:82)

2. خَسَفَ ٱلْقَمَرُ → "to eclipse" : the moon loses its brightness, among the signs of the Day.

   • «وَخَسَفَ ٱلْقَمَرُ» — "and the moon eclipses" (75:8)

Evidence from the text

The subject is God, the instrument the earth, and the victim the one who thought himself sure of it: Qarun and his abode (28:81), those who plotted the evils (16:45), those who hold themselves safe on dry land (17:68, 67:16). In 67:16, the earth that swallows is described at once: "whereupon it sways" (67:16); the ground ceases to bear.

In 75:8, the moon gives way in the same manner: its light withdraws, at the moment when the sight is blinded with glare and the human being asks where to flee. The same gesture holds for the ground and for the heavenly body: what held no longer holds.

Distinctions

• غرق — to drown: submersion by water, whereas خسف is the ground that gives way
• سقط — to fall: the fall of a body from a height

See also

ارض (the earth)