جلد

Core meaning

The skin: the surface of the body that receives what reaches it; the verb names the blow struck upon it.

Uses

1. جِلْد, جُلُود → "skins" : the surface of the body, which burns, shivers, softens and testifies.

   • «كُلَّمَا نَضِجَتْ جُلُودُهُم بَدَّلْنَٰهُمْ جُلُودًا غَيْرَهَا» — "Every time their skins are consumed, We will replace them with other skins" (4:56)
   • «تَقْشَعِرُّ مِنْهُ جُلُودُ ٱلَّذِينَ يَخْشَوْنَ رَبَّهُمْ» — "at which the skins of those who dread their Guardian shiver" (39:23)

2. جُلُود ٱلْأَنْعَٰم → "the hides of cattle" : the skin of beasts become a material that is worked, from which light houses are made; the only use where the skin is not that of a body.

   • «وَجَعَلَ لَكُم مِّن جُلُودِ ٱلْأَنْعَٰمِ بُيُوتًۭا» — "and He has made for you, from the hides of cattle, houses" (16:80)

3. جَلَدَ, جَلْدَة → "to inflict strokes on the skin", "strokes" : to strike the skin: the penalty bears the name of the surface it reaches, without naming the instrument or the part of the body.

   • «فَٱجْلِدُوا۟ كُلَّ وَٰحِدٍۢ مِّنْهُمَا مِا۟ئَةَ جَلْدَةٍۢ» — "inflict on each of them a hundred strokes on the skin" (24:2)
   • «فَٱجْلِدُوهُمْ ثَمَٰنِينَ جَلْدَةًۭ» — "inflict on them eighty strokes on the skin" (24:4)

Evidence from the text

The skin is always the surface where something happens to the body. It is consumed and renewed so that the taste of punishment lasts (4:56); boiling water melts it (22:20); it shivers, then softens toward the remembrance of God (39:23). On the Day, it testifies with hearing and sights (41:20-22), and those it accuses are astonished: "Why did you testify against us?" (41:21).

The verb derives from it: the stroke is named by the skin it strikes (24:2, 24:4). The text has a word for the whip, سَوْط (89:13), and does not use it here: the penalty falls on the skin, strokes that hurt without wounding, for wounds belong to an investigation (5:45). A group of believers witnesses it (24:2): it guards the right of the one punished, should the penalty wound, and that of the authority that applies it, should it be falsely accused. Outside the human body, the hide of cattle becomes a material: houses carried at departure and set upright again at the encampment (16:80), beside the furnishings of wool, fur and hair (16:80).

Distinctions

• سوط — the whip: the instrument, named once (89:13), which 24:2 and 24:4 do not name
• جرح — the wound: it belongs to an investigation (5:45), whereas جَلْد reaches the skin without wounding

See also

شهد (to testify)