ظِلٌّ

Root: ظل

Full Definition

ظِلٌّ properly signifies Shade; i. e. the light of the sun without the rays: when there is no light, it is ظُلْمَةٌ, not ظِلٌّ: contr. of ضِحٌّ: or i. q. فَىْءٌ: so some say: or so the [common] people say: or the former is [shade] in the morning; and the latter is in the evening: or, accord. to IKt, the former is in the morning and in the evening; but the latter is only after the declining of the sun from the meridian: ISk says that the former is from the rising of the sun to its declining; and the latter, from the declining to the setting: Th says that the ظِلّ of a tree &c. is in the morning; and the فَىْء, in the evening: Ru-beh says, any place, or any thing, upon which the sun has been and which it has quitted is termed ظِلٌّ and فَىْءٌ; but a thing [or place] upon which the sun has not been is termed ظِلٌّ [only]; and hence it is said that the sun annuls, or supersedes, the ظِلّ, and the فَىْء annuls, or supersedes, the sun: AHeyth says, the ظِلّ is anything upon which the sun has not come; and the term فَىْء is applied only after the declining of the sun; the فَىْء being eastwards and the ظِلّ being westwards; and the ظِلّ being termed ظِلّ from the beginning of the day to the declining of the sun; after which it is termed فَىْء until the night: one says the ظِلّ of Paradise, but not its فَىْء, because the sun will never replace its ظِلّ; but En-Nábighah El-Jaadee has assigned to Paradise فَىْء having ظِلَال: in a verse of Aboo-Sakhr ElHudhalee, ظِلٌّ is made fem. as meaning مَنِيَّة [i. e. death]: the pl. [of mult.] is ظِلَالٌ and ظُلُولٌ and [of pauc.] أَظْلَالٌ. The saying of a rájiz, كَأَنَّمَا وَجْهُكَ ظِلٌّ مِنْ حَجَرْ [As though thy face were a shade of a stone] is said to mean hardness of face, and shamelessness: or the being black in the face: for the Arabs say that there is nothing more dense in shade than a stone. قَدْ ضَحَا ظِلُّهُ [His shade, or shadow, has become sun] is said of the dead. مَرَّ بِنَا كَأَنَّهُ ظِلُّ ذِئْبٍ [He passed by us as though he were the shadow of a wolf] means swiftly, as does a wolf. اِنْتَعَلَتْ ظِلَالَهَا [They made their shadows to be as though they were sandals to them] is said of camels or other beasts when it is midday in summer and they have no shadow [but such as is beneath them]: a rájiz says, قَدْ وَرَدَتْ تَمْشِى عَلَى ظِلَالِهَا وَذَابَتِ الشَّمْسُ عَلَى قِلَالِهَا [They came to the water walking upon their shadows, and the sun was intensely hot upon the tops of their heads and humps]. And one says, هُوَ يَتْبَعُ ظِلَّ نَفْسِهِ [He follows the shadow of himself; i. e. a thing that he will not overtake; for], as a poet says, the shadow that goes with thee thou wilt not overtake by following: and هُوَ يُبَارِى ظِلَّ نَفْسِهِ [He strives to outstrip the shadow of himself], meaning that he walks with a proud and self-conceited gait: so in the A. And اِنْتَقَلْتُ عَنْ ظِلِّى I left my state, or condition. And تَرَكَ الظَّبْىُ ظِلَّهُ: so in the T and S and O: but [said to be] correctly, أَتْرُكُهُ تَرْكَ الظَّبْىِ ظِلَّهُ, or لَأَتْرُكَنَّهُ, i. e. [I will forsake him, or I will assuredly forsake him, as the gazelle forsakes] the place of its shade: [each, however, is app. right; and the former is the more agreeable with the following explanations:] a prov., applied to the man who is wont to take fright and flee; for the gazelle, when it takes fright and flees from a thing, never returns to it: by the ظِلّ is here meant the covert in which it shades and shelters itself in the vehemence of the heat; then the hunter comes to it and rouses it, and it will not return thither; and one says, تَرَكَ الظَّبْىُ ظِلَّهُ, meaning the place of its shade: it is applied to him who takes fright and flees from a thing, and forsakes it so as not to return to it; and to the case of a man's forsaking his companion. [ثَقِيلُ الظِّلِّ as applied to a man, see expl. in art. ثقل: see also Har p. 250, where it is indicated that it may be rendered One whose shadow, even, is oppressive, and therefore much more so is his person.] In the phrase وَلَا ٱلظِّلُّ وَلَا ٱلْحَرُورُ, in the Kur [xxxv. 20], Th says, accord. to some, الظِّلُّ means Paradise; and الحَرُورُ, the fire [of Hell]: but he adds, I say that الظِّلُّ is the ظِلّ itself [i. e. shade], and الحَرُورُ is the حَرّ itself [i. e. heat]: (M: [see also حَرُورٌ:]) and Er-Rághib says that ظِلٌّ is sometimes assigned to anything; whether it be approved, as in the phrase above mentioned; or disapproved, as in وَظِلٍّ مِنْ يَحْمُومٍ in the Kur [lvi. 42, meaning And shade of smoke, or black smoke]. And الظِّلَالُ means ظِلَالُ الجَنَّةِ [The shades of Paradise]: in some copies of the K, وَالظِّلَالُ الجَنَّةُ, which is a mistake: [but this requires consideration; for] El-'Abbás Ibn- 'Abd-El-Muttalib says, مِنْ قَبْلِهَا طِبْتَ فِى الظِّلَالِ وَفِى مُسْتَوْدَعٍ حَيْثُ يُخْصَفُ الوَرَقُ [Before it thou wast good in, or in the shades of, Paradise, and in a depositary in the part where leaves are sewed together to conceal the pudenda]; i. e. before thy descent to the earth (to which the pronoun in قبلها relates), thou wast good in the loins of Adam when he was in Paradise. الجَنَّةُ تَحْتَ ظِلَالِ السُّيُوفِ [Paradise is beneath the shades of the swords] is a trad., meaning that fighting against unbelievers is a way of attaining to Paradise. مُلَاعِبُ ظِلِّهِ is an appellation of A certain bird; [see art. لعب;] and one says مُلَاعِبَا ظِلِّهِمَا; and مُلَاعِبَاتُ ظِلِّهِنَّ: but when you make them indeterminate, you say مُلَاعِبَاتُ أَظْلَالِهِنَّ. (T, O, K. [But in the TA in art. لعب, it is said that one dualizes and pluralizes both nouns, because the appellation becomes determinate.])
2 ظِلُّ اللَّيْلِ means The blackness of the night: metaphorically thus termed; as in the saying, أَتَانَا فِى ظِلِّ اللَّيْلِ [He came to us in the blackness of the night]: or it signifies جُنْحُ اللَّيْلِ [app. as meaning the darkness, and confusedness, of the night; see جُنْحٌ]; or so الظِّلُّ: or this means the night, itself; so the astronomers say: all the night is ظِلٌّ: and so is all the period from the shining of the dawn to the rising of the sun.
3 ظِلُّ النَّهَارِ is The colour of the day when the sun predominates over it [app. meaning when the light of the sun predominates over that of the early dawn].
4 ظِلُّ السَّحَابِ means Such, of the clouds, as conceal the sun: or the blackness of the clouds.
5 And ظِلَالُ البَحْرِ means The waves of the sea; because they are raised so as to shade the ship and those that are in it.
6 ظِلٌّ also signifies A خَيَال that is seen, [i. e. an apparition, a phantom, or a thing that one sees like a shadow, i. e. what we term a shade,] of the jinn, or genii, and of others: or the like of a خَيَال of the jinn.
7 Also Anything that shades one.
8 And it is the subst. from أَظَلَّنِى الشَّىْءُ meaning “ the thing covered me; ” [i. e. it means A covering;] in which sense Th explains it in the phrase إِلَى ظِلٍّ ذِى ثَلَاثِ شُعَبٍ [in the Kur lxxvii. 30, Unto a covering having three parts, or divisions]; saying, the meaning is that the fire will have covered them; not that its ظِلّ will be like that of the present world. (M. [See شُعْبَةٌ.]) And ظِلُّ الشَّىْءِ means That which serves for the veiling, covering, or protecting, of the thing; syn. كِنُّهُ. [Hence] one says, فُلَانٌ يَعِيشُ فِى ظِلِّ فُلَانٍ i. e. [Such a one lives] in the shelter, or protection, of such a one. And السُّلْطَانُ ظِلُّ ٱللّٰهِ فِى الأَرْضِ, a saying of the Prophet, [meaning The sovereign, or ruling, power is God's means of defence in the earth,] because he wards off harm from the people like as the ظِلّ [properly so called] wards off the harm of the heat of the sun: or the meaning is, God's means of protection: or God's خَاصَّة [or special servant].
9 Also Might; or power of resistance or defence: whence [as some say] its usage in the Kur xiii. 35, and the usage of [the pl.] ظِلَال in xxxvi. 56 and in lxxvii. 41: [but the primary signification is more appropriate in these instances:] and so in the saying, جَعَلَنِى فِى ظِلِّهِ [i. e. He placed me within the scope of his might, or power of resistance or defence]: so says Er-Rághib.
10 And A state of life ample in its means or circumstances, unstraitened, or plentiful, and easy, pleasant, soft, or delicate.
11 Also The beginning of winter. (T, O. [Accord. to the copies of the K, of youthfulness: but I think that الشَّبَاب in this instance, in the K, is evidently a mistranscription for الشِّتَآء.]) And The vehemence of the heat of summer.
12 Also The شَخْص [as meaning person of a human being, and as meaning the bodily or corporeal form or figure or substance which one sees from a distance, or the material substance,] of anything; (M, K, TA; [in the second and third of which is added, “ or its كِنّ, ” a signification which I have mentioned above on the authority of the M;]) because of its [apparent] blackness [or darkness, resembling that of a shade or shadow]: whence the saying, لَا يُفَارِقُ ظِلِّى ظِلَّكَ [My person will not quit thy person]; like the saying, لَا يُفَارِقُ سَوَادِى سَوَادَكَ: and the following exs. have been cited as instances of ظِلّ in the sense of شَخْص: the saying of a poet, لَمَّا نَزَلْنَا رَفَعْنَا ظِلَّ أَخْبِيَةٍ [as though meaning When we alighted, we raised the material fabric of tents], for it is said that they do not set up the ظِلّ which is the فَىْء, but they only set up the tents; and the saying of another, تَتَبَّعَ أَفْيَآءَ الظِّلَالِ عَشِيَّةً [as though meaning He followed the shadows of the material objects in the evening]: but Er-Rághib says that the former means, we raised the tents, and so raised the ظِلّ thereof; and in the other ex., الظلال is a general term, and الفَىْء [or افيآء] is a special term, so that it is an instance of the إِضَافَة of a thing to its kind [i. e. of prefixing a noun to one significant of its kind]. [See also ظَلَالَةٌ.]
13 And accord. to Ibn- 'Abbád, it signifies also The nap, or villous substance, upon the surface of a garment, or piece of cloth; syn. زِئْبِرٌ.

Lane's Lexicon + Hans Wehr + Mufradat

Five dictionaries. One search.

"The product of over thirty years of unrelenting labor — to this day supreme in the field of Arabic lexicography."

47,000+ classical entries Root-based navigation Full text search Hyperlinked definitions

Try Now

Trusted by researchers at University of Michigan, Duke, Alberta & more

Lane's Arabic-English Lexicon

Full Definition

Related Words from the Same Root

Verbs

Nouns