جرم

Core meaning

To cut cleanly, to break a link. One who has broken the link finds himself severed from it; and in the formula لَا جَرَمَ, nothing cuts what follows from what precedes: "no doubt".

Uses

1. مُجْرِم, ٱلْمُجْرِمُونَ → "the severed" : those who have broken the link and find themselves severed from it; the text names them mostly in the third person, as cases already settled.

   • «فَٱنظُرْ كَيْفَ كَانَ عَٰقِبَةُ ٱلْمُجْرِمِينَ» — "So look at what was the end of the severed" (7:84)
   • «إِنَّهُۥ لَا يُفْلِحُ ٱلْمُجْرِمُونَ» — "The severed indeed do not succeed" (10:17)

2. أَجْرَمَ, إِجْرَام, تُجْرِمُونَ → "to cut oneself off", "severance" : the act of breaking, for which each answers for himself.

   • «سَيُصِيبُ ٱلَّذِينَ أَجْرَمُوا۟» — "will strike those who cut themselves off" (6:124)
   • «فَعَلَىَّ إِجْرَامِى وَأَنَا۠ بَرِىٓءٌۭ مِّمَّا تُجْرِمُونَ» — "then my own severance falls upon me, and I am quit of your severance" (11:35)

3. لَا يَجْرِمَنَّكُمْ → "let not drive" : let not a hatred or a breach push you as far as the act that severs.

   • «وَلَا يَجْرِمَنَّكُمْ شَنَـَٔانُ قَوْمٍ عَلَىٰٓ أَلَّا تَعْدِلُوا۟» — "and let not the hatred of a people drive you to not be just" (5:8)

4. لَا جَرَمَ → "no doubt" : fixed formula: nothing comes to cut the link between what precedes and what follows.

   • «لَا جَرَمَ أَنَّ ٱللَّهَ يَعْلَمُ مَا يُسِرُّونَ وَمَا يُعْلِنُونَ» — "There is no doubt that God knows what they keep secret and what they disclose" (16:23)

Evidence from the text

The severed one is not designated by an isolated act but by the state in which his breach has put him. The text sets him apart: "And stand apart today, O severed!" (36:59); he will not even be questioned about his offenses (28:78); and the question "Shall We then treat those true to God alone like the severed?" (68:35) sets the one who is whole against the one who has broken.

The breach is first an act: "those who cut themselves off" (6:124), and each answers for it alone: "You will not be questioned about our severance" (34:25). The form لَا يَجْرِمَنَّكُمْ states its mechanism: let not a hatred drive you to aggression (5:2) or to failing in justice (5:8). As for لَا جَرَمَ, it sets down a consequence without a gap: "There is no doubt that, in the last life, they are the losers" (16:109).

Distinctions

• كفر — to disown: to refuse the allegiance due to the One acknowledged, whereas the severed one has already broken the link

See also

قطع (to cut)