زيد

Core meaning

To increase: to add to what is already there, for good as for ill, and to give more than what is due.

Uses

1. زَادَ, يَزِيدُ → "to increase" : God, a sign or an act adds to a state already present: faith, guidance, knowledge, or recoil and loss.

   • «رَّبِّ زِدْنِى عِلْمًۭا» — "My Guardian, increase me in knowledge" (20:114)
   • «وَلَا يَزِيدُ ٱلظَّٰلِمِينَ إِلَّا خَسَارًۭا» — "but it only increases the wrongdoers in loss" (17:82)

2. ٱزْدَادَ → "to increase" (intransitive) : the reflexive form: one increases oneself in what one already carries.

   • «ثُمَّ ٱزْدَادُوا۟ كُفْرًۭا» — "then increase in disowning" (3:90)
   • «لِيَزْدَادُوٓا۟ إِثْمًۭا» — "so that they may increase in transgression" (3:178)

3. سَنَزِيدُ, يَزِيدُهُم مِّن فَضْلِهِۦ, أَزِيدَ → "to give more" : the surplus God adds to the reward that is due.

   • «وَسَنَزِيدُ ٱلْمُحْسِنِينَ» — "and We will give more to those who do good" (2:58)
   • «وَيَزِيدُهُم مِّن فَضْلِهِۦ» — "and He will give them more of His favor" (4:173)
   • «ثُمَّ يَطْمَعُ أَنْ أَزِيدَ» — "then he covets that I should give more" (74:15)

4. زِيَادَة, مَزِيد, نَزْدَادُ → "increase", "extra", "even more" : the surplus itself, or what one obtains in addition.

   • «إِنَّمَا ٱلنَّسِىٓءُ زِيَادَةٌۭ فِى ٱلْكُفْرِ» — "The postponement is only an increase in disowning" (9:37)
   • «لِّلَّذِينَ أَحْسَنُوا۟ ٱلْحُسْنَىٰ وَزِيَادَةٌۭ» — "To those who do good belongs the best, and even more" (10:26)
   • «وَلَدَيْنَا مَزِيدٌۭ» — "and with Us there is even more" (50:35)
   • «وَنَزْدَادُ كَيْلَ بَعِيرٍۢ» — "and obtain an extra camel's measure" (12:65)

5. زَيْد (proper name) → "Zayd" : a man named in the text; his name says increase, and the text keeps of him only the end of all ties.

   • «فَلَمَّا قَضَىٰ زَيْدٌۭ مِّنْهَا وَطَرًۭا» — "Then when Zayd had ended all ties with her" (33:37)
   • Written exception: "to add", where the Arabic doubles the object: "filth to their filth" (9:125), "strength to your strength" (11:52), "a punishment upon the punishment" (16:88), "faith to their faith" (48:4); likewise in 38:61, 35:1 and 18:25.

Evidence from the text

The verb always bears on a state already there. The signs recited increase the faith of those who believe (8:2, 9:124); the same surah, in those whose core is sick, "added filth to their filth" (9:125). The Reading that guides some "only increases the wrongdoers in loss" (17:82). The addition does not create the state, it extends it.

Hence the formula that recurs: "it only increases" (17:41), "it only increased them in faith and adherence with complete integrity" (33:22). And when God rewards, He adds to what is due: He repays "their rewards", then gives "more of His favor" (4:173).

Distinctions

• كثر — abundance: great number, without the idea of an addition to what is already there
• ربو — to swell: growth by swelling
• نفل — "as an addition": the gift added beyond what is due (17:79, 21:72), whereas زيد increases a state already present

See also

نقص (to diminish)