رَحْمَةٌ

Full Definition

رَحْمَةٌ and رَحَمَةٌ and رُحْمٌ and رُحُمٌ , thus in a verse of Zuheyr, and thus in the Kur xviii. 80 accord. to the reading of Aboo-'Amr Ibn-El-'Alà, and مَرْحَمَةٌ , of which last مَرَاحِمُ is pl., [all inf. ns.; when used as simple substs. signifying Mercy, pity, or compassion; i. e.] tenderness (S, Msb, K, and Bd on the بَسْمَلَة) of heart; and inclination to favour, or inclination requiring the exercise of favour and beneficence: and pardon, or forgiveness: accord. to Er-Rághib, رَحْمَةٌ signifies tenderness requiring the exercise of beneficence towards the object thereof: and it is used sometimes as meaning tenderness divested of any other attribute: and sometimes as meaning beneficence divested of tenderness; as when it is used as an attribute of the Creator: when used as an attribute of men, it means tenderness, and inclination to favour [without necessarily implying beneficence]: accord. to El-Káshánee, it is of two kinds; namely, gratuitous, and obligatory: the former is that which pours forth favours, or benefits, antecedently to works; and this is the رحمة that embraces everything: the obligatory is that which is promised to the pious and the doers of good, in the Kur vii. 155 and vii. 54: but this, he says, is included in the gratuitous, because the promise to bestow it for works is purely gratuitous: accord. to the explanation of the Imám Aboo-Is-hák Ahmad Ibn-Mohammad-Ibn-Ibráheem Eth-Thaalebee, it is God's desire to do good to the deserving thereof; so that it is an essential attribute: or the abstaining from punishing him who deserves punishment, and doing good to him who does not deserve [this]; so that it is an attribute of operation. The saying in the Kur [xxi. 75] وَأَدْخَلْنَاهُ فِى رَحْمَتِنَا [And we caused him to enter into our mercy] is tropical: so says IJ.
2 وَٱللّٰهُ يَخْتَصُّ بِرَحْمَتِهِ مَنْ يَشَآءُ, in the Kur [ii. 99 and iii. 67], means [And God distinguishes] with his gift of prophecy [whom He will], or his prophetic office or commission.
3 رَحْمَةٌ also means Sustenance, or the means of subsistence: this is said to be its meaning as used in the Kur xli. 50.
4 And Rain: so in the Kur vii. 55.
5 And Plenty; or abundance of herbage, and of the goods, conveniences, or comforts, of life: so in the Kur x. 22 and xxx. 35.

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