عزل

Core meaning

To set a distance between oneself and another: to keep away from a person, a group or what it serves, or to be kept away from it.

Uses

1. ٱعْتَزَلَ, يَعْتَزِلُ → "to keep away", "to draw apart" : to break contact of one's own accord; in war, to abstain from fighting, in faith, to leave a people and what it obeys.

   • «فَإِنِ ٱعْتَزَلُوكُمْ فَلَمْ يُقَٰتِلُوكُمْ» — "If they keep away from you, do not fight you" (4:90)
   • «فَٱعْتَزِلُوا۟ ٱلنِّسَآءَ فِى ٱلْمَحِيضِ» — "so keep away from women during menstruation" (2:222)
   • «فَلَمَّا ٱعْتَزَلَهُمْ وَمَا يَعْبُدُونَ مِن دُونِ ٱللَّهِ» — "When he had drawn apart from them and from what they obeyed besides God" (19:49)

2. مَعْزِل → "apart" : the place where one who has set himself at a distance stands.

   • «وَنَادَىٰ نُوحٌ ٱبْنَهُۥ وَكَانَ فِى مَعْزِلٍۢ» — "And Nuh called his son, who stood apart" (11:42)

3. عَزَلَ, مَعْزُول → "to set aside", "kept away" : distance imposed by another.

   • «إِنَّهُمْ عَنِ ٱلسَّمْعِ لَمَعْزُولُونَ» — "They are surely kept away from all listening" (26:212)
   • «وَمَنِ ٱبْتَغَيْتَ مِمَّنْ عَزَلْتَ» — "and whomever you seek of those you had set aside" (33:51)

Evidence from the text

The same gesture takes the sense given it by the one who performs it. In 4:90-91, keeping away without fighting opens peace, and refusing to do so opens combat. For the young men of the Cave (18:16) and for Ibrahim (19:48-49), drawing apart from one's people and from what it obeys comes before the gift: a refuge, then Ishaq and Yaacoub. The messenger sent to the people of Fir'awn asks at the end for nothing but this distance: "then keep away from me" (44:21).

The simple form and the participle say distance undergone: "those you had set aside" (33:51), and those who are "kept away from all listening" (26:212).

Distinctions

• فرق — to divide a whole into parts, whereas عزل sets a distance between one being and another

See also

نجو (to draw away from a danger)