اثم

Core meaning

The wrong that does harm and weighs: a concrete fault, which one acquires, which one bears, and which can be measured against a profit.

Uses

1. إِثْم → "transgression" : the wrong committed, which one acquires and answers for.

   • «فِيهِمَآ إِثْمٌۭ كَبِيرٌۭ وَمَنَٰفِعُ لِلنَّاسِ» — "There is, in both, a great transgression, and profits for men" (2:219)
   • «وَإِثْمُهُمَآ أَكْبَرُ مِن نَّفْعِهِمَا» — "but their transgression is greater than their profit" (2:219)
   • «وَمَن يَكْسِبْ إِثْمًۭا فَإِنَّمَا يَكْسِبُهُۥ عَلَىٰ نَفْسِهِۦ» — "And whoever acquires a transgression acquires it only against his own Self" (4:111)

2. فَلَا إِثْمَ عَلَيْهِ → "no transgression upon him" : the formula that lifts the charge: what is permitted does not weigh.

   • «فَلَآ إِثْمَ عَلَيْهِ» — "no transgression upon him" (2:173)

3. ءَاثِم, أَثِيم → "transgressor" : the one who commits the wrong, or who makes it his state.

   • «وَلَا تُطِعْ مِنْهُمْ ءَاثِمًا» — "do not defer to any transgressor or great disowner among them" (76:24)
   • «إِلَّا كُلُّ مُعْتَدٍ أَثِيمٍ» — "except every crosser of limits, a transgressor" (83:12)

4. تَأْثِيم → "incitement to transgression" : what drives to the fault, absent from the Garden.

   • «لَا يَسْمَعُونَ فِيهَا لَغْوًۭا وَلَا تَأْثِيمًا» — "They will hear therein no idle talk and no incitement to transgression" (56:25)

5. أَثَام → "grave transgression" : the wrong come back upon its author as what he meets.

   • «وَمَن يَفْعَلْ ذَٰلِكَ يَلْقَ أَثَامًۭا» — "and whoever does that will meet with grave transgression" (25:68)

Evidence from the text

In 2:219, wine and games of chance contain "a great transgression, and profits for men", and the sentence compares the two: "their transgression is greater than their profit". What is weighed against a profit is a real harm, not an invisible stain.

The wrong is a charge: one acquires it "against his own Self" (4:111), one returns "burdened" with another's transgression (5:29), one bears its weight (33:58); and the formula that lifts this charge says it is not "upon him" (2:173, 2:203).

The pair مُعْتَدٍ أَثِيم (68:12, 83:12) distinguishes two levels: the act of crossing a limit, then the state of the one who commits the wrong.

Distinctions

• ذنب — the fault considered in what follows from it for its author, whereas إِثْم is the wrong committed itself
• عدو — hostility, the crossing of the limit, often joined to إِثْم (5:2, 58:9)

See also

وزر (the burden) · كسب (to acquire)