بَعْضٌSome, or somewhat or some one, of things, or of a thing: Th says that it signifies thus accord. to all the grammarians; except Hishám, as will be seen hereafter: or a part, or portion, of a thing, or of anything; whether little or much: accord. to both these explanations, it may denote the greater part; as eight of ten: [thus it signifies some one or more; and it relates to persons and to other things:] pl. أَبْعَاضٌ; but ISd doubts whether IJ had an authority for this. You say, بَعْضُ الشَّرِّ أَهْوَنُ مِنْ بَعْضٍ [Some kinds of evil are easier to be borne than some]. And جَارِيَةٌ حُسَّانَةٌ يُشْبِهُ بَعْضُهَا بَعْضًا [A very beautiful girl, parts of whom resemble other parts]. [And ضَرَبَ بَعْضُهُمْ بَعْضًاSome of them beat some; i. e. they beat one another.] And لَبِثْنَا يَوْمًاأَوْ بَعْضَ يَوْمٍ [We have tarried a day or part of a day]. And one says to a man of a company of men, “ Who did this? ” and he answers, أَحَدُنَا or بَعْضُنَا [Some one of us]; meaning himself. The article ال should not be prefixed to it, because it is originally a prefixed n., and as such determinate either literally or virtually, so that it does not admit another cause of being determinate; contr. to what is said by IDrst and Ez-Zejjájee; for they said البَعْضُ and الكُلُّ; which, properly, as ISd says, is not allowable; and it is said in the O that IDrst, in this matter, was at variance with all the people of his age: AHát says that the Arabs did not say الكُلُّ nor البَعْضُ, but that people used these expressions, even Sb and Akh in their two books, by reason of their little knowledge in this way: a remark, says MF, which is extr., and needs no comment: [for who surpassed Sb and Akh in knowledge respecting matters of this kind?] AHát also relates his having told As that he had seen in the book of [that celebrated and chaste author] Ibn-ElMukaffa', العِلْمُ الكَثِيرٌ وَ لٰكِنَّ أَخْذَ البَعْضِ خَيْرٌ مِنْتَرْكِ الكُلِّ [Science is large; but the acquiring of part is better than the neglecting of the whole]; and that As disapproved of it most strongly, saying that the article ال is not prefixed to بَعْضٌ and كُلٌّ because they are determinate without it: Az, however, says that the grammarians allow its being prefixed to these two words, though As disallows it, because they are meant to be understood as prefixed ns.; or because the article is meant to be a substitute for the noun to which they should be prefixed; or, in the case of بَعْضٌ, because this word is equivalent to جُزْءٌ, which receives the article ال. It is related of AO, that he assigned also to بَعْضٌ the contr. meaning of All; or the whole: adducing as a proof thereof the words of the Kur [xl. 29], يُصِبْكُمْ بَعْضُ ٱلَّذِىيَعِدُكُمْ as meaning All of that with which he threateneth you will befall you: and the saying of Lebeed. أَوْ يَعْتَلِقْ بَعْضَ النُّفُوسِ حِمَامُهَا [as meaning Or their death shall cling to all living creatures: or, accord. to another relation, او يَرْتَبِطْ, which means the same as او يعتلق]: thus also AHeyth explains the above-cited verse of the Kur; and thus Hishám explains the saying of Lebeed, erroneously asserting that بعض is here a pl.: but with respect to the former instance, the Prophet had threatened them with two things, the punishment of the present world and that of the world to come; so he says, “ This punishment will befall you in the present world; ” which is part (بعض] of the two threats; without denying the punishment of the world to come: or, as Aboo-Is-hák says, he mentions the part to indicate the necessary consequence of the whole: and as to the saying of Lebeed, by بعض النفوس he means himself.
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