شرق

Core meaning

The rising of light: the side where the sun rises, and the brightness that spreads.

Uses

1. ٱلْمَشْرِق → "the east" : the side of the rising, almost always joined to the west: together they say the whole expanse that belongs to God.

   • «وَلِلَّهِ ٱلْمَشْرِقُ وَٱلْمَغْرِبُ» — "And to God belong the east and the west" (2:115)
   • «فَإِنَّ ٱللَّهَ يَأْتِى بِٱلشَّمْسِ مِنَ ٱلْمَشْرِقِ» — "God indeed brings the sun from the east" (2:258)

2. ٱلْمَشْرِقَيْن, ٱلْمَشَٰرِق → "the two risings", "the risings" : the points of rising, which the sun travels through the year.

   • «وَرَبُّ ٱلْمَشَٰرِقِ» — "and Guardian of the risings" (37:5)

3. شَرْقِيّ, شَرْقِيَّة → "toward the east", "of the east" : what lies on the side of the rising.

   • «مَكَانًۭا شَرْقِيًّۭا» — "in a place toward the east" (19:16)
   • «لَّا شَرْقِيَّةٍۢ وَلَا غَرْبِيَّةٍۢ» — "neither of the east nor of the west" (24:35)

4. مُشْرِقِين → "at daybreak" : at the moment the light rises.

   • «فَأَخَذَتْهُمُ ٱلصَّيْحَةُ مُشْرِقِينَ» — "The Cry then seized them at daybreak" (15:73)
   • «فَأَتْبَعُوهُم مُّشْرِقِينَ» — "and they pursued them at daybreak" (26:60)

5. أَشْرَقَتِ → "to shine" : the light spreading over what it illuminates.

   • «وَأَشْرَقَتِ ٱلْأَرْضُ بِنُورِ رَبِّهَا» — "And the earth will shine with the light of its Guardian" (39:69)

Evidence from the text

The word is almost always joined to غرب: the east and the west belong to God (2:115, 2:142), He is their Guardian (26:28, 73:9), and virtue does not consist in turning toward the one or the other (2:177). The pair says the whole expanse; the dual and the plural say the points of rising the sun travels (37:5, 55:17, 70:40), and man, on the Day, wishes there were between him and his companion "the distance of the two risings" (43:38).

The other side is the light that rises: the Cry seizes the people of Lut at daybreak (15:73), the earth will shine with the light of its Guardian when the record is set down (39:69), and ٱلْإِشْرَاق, in 38:18, names the moment of rising, facing ٱلْعَشِىّ, the decline of the day.

Distinctions

• غرب — the setting, the west: the side where light disappears

See also

شمس (the sun) · نور (the light)