حوط

Core meaning

To encompass: to surround on every side, so that nothing escapes; said of God's power, of His knowledge, and of what closes in on man and leaves him no way out.

Uses

1. مُحِيط → "to encompass perfectly" : God holds on every side what people do, and those who disown.

   • «وَٱللَّهُ مُحِيطٌۢ بِٱلْكَٰفِرِينَ» — "God encompasses perfectly those who disown" (2:19)
   • «وَٱللَّهُ مِن وَرَآئِهِم مُّحِيطٌۢ» — "and God encompasses them from behind" (85:20)

2. أَحَاطَ بِـ → "to encompass" : to hold on every side, with no way out: a gain not yet attained, a man caught by his fault, a fire whose enclosure closes in.

   • «قَدْ أَحَاطَ ٱللَّهُ بِهَا» — "God has already encompassed it" (48:21)
   • «نَارًا أَحَاطَ بِهِمْ سُرَادِقُهَا» — "a fire whose enclosure encompasses them" (18:29)

3. أَحَاطَ بِـ … عِلْمًا, خُبْرًا → "to encompass in knowledge" : to grasp a thing whole through knowledge; denied of man, affirmed of God.

   • «أَحَطتُ بِمَا لَمْ تُحِطْ بِهِۦ» — "I have encompassed what you have not encompassed" (27:22)
   • «وَأَنَّ ٱللَّهَ قَدْ أَحَاطَ بِكُلِّ شَىْءٍ عِلْمًۢا» — "and that God encompasses all things in knowledge" (65:12)

4. أُحِيطَ بِـ → "to be encompassed" : to be caught with no way out.

   • «وَظَنُّوٓا۟ أَنَّهُمْ أُحِيطَ بِهِمْ» — "and they presume they are encompassed" (10:22)
   • «إِلَّآ أَن يُحَاطَ بِكُمْ» — "unless you are encompassed" (12:66)

Evidence from the text

The word always states a hold with no way out. For man, to be encompassed is to be lost: the swell coming from every side (10:22), the garden whose fruits are destroyed (18:42), the fault that leaves no way out (2:81). For God, to encompass is a constant attribute: He encompasses what people do (3:120, 4:108, 8:47), all things (4:126, 41:54), and even what they have not yet attained (48:21).

With "knowledge" or "experience", the verb states the knowledge that seizes a thing whole. It is denied of man, who encompasses of God's knowledge only what He wills (2:255, 20:110), who denies what he does not encompass (10:39, 27:84), or who cannot be patient before what he does not encompass (18:68); it is affirmed of God, who "encompasses whatever is with them" (72:28).

Distinctions

• وسع — amplitude: embracing by extent, whereas حوط encompasses on every side
• حيق — enveloping: what falls back upon someone and envelops him, whereas حوط encompasses him