جعل

Core meaning

To make a thing be such, or be there: to institute a state, a function or a place by a willed act.

Uses

1. جَعَلَ + two complements → "to make … a …" : to give a thing a state or a function it did not have.

   • «ٱلَّذِى جَعَلَ لَكُمُ ٱلْأَرْضَ فِرَٰشًۭا وَٱلسَّمَآءَ بِنَآءًۭ» — "He who made for you the earth a bed, and the sky a structure" (2:22)
   • «وَكَذَٰلِكَ جَعَلْنَٰكُمْ أُمَّةًۭ وَسَطًۭا» — "And thus have We made you an exemplary community" (2:143)

2. جَعَلَ فِى, جَعَلَ عَلَى → "to place", "to put" : to set someone or something in a place, with a view to what it is to be there.

   • «إِنِّى جَاعِلٌۭ فِى ٱلْأَرْضِ خَلِيفَةًۭ» — "I am going to place a successor on the earth" (2:30)
   • «جَعَلَ ٱلسِّقَايَةَ فِى رَحْلِ أَخِيهِ» — "he placed the cup in his brother's saddlebag" (12:70)

3. جَعَلَ لِ → "to assign", "to make for" : to attribute to someone what falls to him or is granted to him.

   • «لِكُلٍّۢ جَعَلْنَا مِنكُمْ شِرْعَةًۭ وَمِنْهَاجًۭا» — "To each of you, We have assigned a law and a way" (5:48)
   • «وَٱللَّهُ جَعَلَ لَكُم مِّنْ أَنفُسِكُمْ أَزْوَٰجًۭا» — "And God has made for you, from yourselves, spouses" (16:72)

4. جَعَلَ لِلَّهِ → "to assign to God" : the same gesture turned into a fault: to set beside God associates, equals, daughters.

   • «وَجَعَلُوا۟ لِلَّهِ شُرَكَآءَ» — "And they have assigned associates to God" (13:33)
   • «فَلَا تَجْعَلُوا۟ لِلَّهِ أَندَادًۭا» — "So do not assign equals to God" (2:22)

Evidence from the text

The verb does not describe a mere displacement: it establishes. God makes the night a rest (6:96), the sun a brightness and the moon a light (10:5), places a successor on the earth (2:30); Youssof places the cup so that it will be found (12:70). What is made receives a function.

Taken up by people toward God, the same gesture becomes the fault: "And they assign to God daughters" (16:57), associates (13:33), a portion of what He scattered as tilth and cattle (6:136). The text thus sets what God institutes against what people attribute to Him.

Distinctions

• وضع — to set a thing down materially; جعل gives it a place or a function
• خلق — to create: to bring into existence; جعل disposes what exists