هلع

Core meaning

A fundamental anxiety, which panics in ill and withholds in good.

Uses

1. هَلُوعًا → "anxious" : a state given at creation, which the text at once defines by its two faces.

   • «إِنَّ ٱلْإِنسَٰنَ خُلِقَ هَلُوعًا» — "The human being was indeed created anxious" (70:19)

Evidence from the text

The word occurs only in 70:19, and the text defines it at once: "when ill touches him, he panics; and when good touches him, he withholds it". Anxiety is this double reaction: panic in trial, holding back in abundance.

What follows opens an exception: "except those who make contact, constant in their Contact". The state is given at creation, but it is not without a way out.

Distinctions

• جزع — to panic: panic in ill, one of the two faces of anxiety