The Qur’anic root B H T
Being confounded by something unexpected; and buhtān as a grave falsehood or wrongful allegation
Qur’anic and lexical forms
بُهِتَ
(buhita)
Form I passive past; Al-Baqarah 2:258
فَتَبْهَتُهُمْ
(fa-tabhatuhum)
Active transitive imperfect; Al-Anbiyāʾ 21:40
بُهْتَان
(buhtān)
Noun or verbal noun for calumny; six Qur’anic uses
بَهَتَ
(bahata)
Transitive verb: confounded or falsely accused; lexical base
بَهِتَ / بَهُتَ
(bahita / bahuta)
Two bewilderment-related forms; not in the base Qur’anic reading
بَهْت / بَهْتَة
(baht / bahtah)
Bewilderment; baht also false speech in some reports; not Qur’anic
بَهِيتَة
(bahītah)
Falsehood or calumny; not Qur’anic
بَهَّات
(bahhāt)
Frequent slanderer; not Qur’anic
بَاهَتَ
(bāhata)
Form III; not in the base Qur’anic reading
مُبَاهَتَة
(mubāhatah)
Form III verbal noun; not Qur’anic
مَبْهُوت
(mabhūt)
Confounded or falsely accused, by context; not Qur’anic
Arabic B H T has two prominent uses. First is bewilderment and helplessness when encountering something unexpected, disturbing words, or an argument one cannot answer. Second is a falsehood or wrongful allegation that gravely distorts truth and can expose an innocent person to a serious accusation.
The uses are semantically connected: in both, something can disrupt a person’s normal understanding and ability to respond. Their difference is fundamental, however. Being confounded is a state someone experiences; buhtān is a wrongful statement or claim someone constructs or attributes to another.
The root occurs eight times in the Qur’an. Two verbal uses concern bewilderment and being confounded. Six occurrences of بُهْتَان (buhtān) concern wrongful accusation, false speech, harming innocent people, and oppressive conduct.
Quranic Arabic Corpus: two verbs and six buhtān occurrences
Qur’anic buhtān is not confined to one accusation, such as illicit sexual relations. One verse describes shifting one’s sin onto an innocent person; another concerns false speech about Mary; another condemns wrongfully taking a woman’s property through the expression بُهْتَانًا وَإِثْمًا مُبِينًا (buhtānan wa-ithman mubīnan).
Understanding this family therefore requires distinguishing bewilderment, inability to answer, fabrication, wrongful allegation, and the resulting injustice. They are connected but do not necessarily mean the same thing in every sentence.
1. The semantic core in early Arabic
Ibn Fāris identifies one principle for B H T in Maqāyīs al-Lughah:
«أَصْلٌ وَاحِدٌ، وَهُوَ كَالدَّهَشِ وَالْحَيْرَةِ»
aṣlun wāḥidun wa-huwa ka-al-dahashi wa-al-ḥayrati
That is, a single principle resembling astonishment and bewilderment.
He then discusses a person being confounded and describes بَهْتَة (bahtah) as bewilderment. He explains buhtān as falsehood.
Kitāb al-ʿAyn more clearly separates the family’s two main uses.
First is بُهِتَ الرَّجُلُ (buhita al-rajulu): someone becomes bewildered and confounded by something.
Second is بَهَتَهُ فُلَانٌ (bahatahu fulānun): someone directs an unfounded accusation at another who is innocent of it.
In Al-Mufradāt, al-Rāghib al-Iṣfahānī describes buhtān as a falsehood so outrageous and wrongful that it confounds the hearer.
This makes the semantic connection intelligible. Someone unexpectedly facing a completely false and grave accusation may be too shocked or distressed to answer immediately.
The image should not become a necessary condition of every occurrence. A person subjected to buhtān may answer calmly and rationally. Someone may also be confounded by clear truth without any lie or accusation being involved.
Thus bewilderment and inability to respond are one main direction of this family, but established buhtān denotes falsehood and wrongful allegation, rather than anything astonishing.
Classical lexicons: bewilderment and false attribution
Bewilderment and inability to answer
Arabic can describe someone as confounded after an unexpected event, disturbing words, or an argument they cannot answer.
They may remain silent, fail to respond, or stay bewildered for a time.
Silence and bewilderment are not identical in themselves.
Someone may choose silence because they do not wish to answer. Another may know an answer without having the opportunity to give it. A third may actually be bewildered and unable to respond to something unforeseen.
The clear Qur’anic use of buhita resembles the third situation: the opposing statement or argument overcomes someone, leaving them without an answer.
The verb itself does not imply inward belief in, or acceptance of, the other side’s position. Bewilderment may be momentary; conscious acceptance of truth is another matter.
Buhtān and wrongful allegation
In the second use, someone falsely attributes a statement or baseless claim to another.
The issue is more than the listener’s surprise: the statement itself departs from truth.
Accusing someone of an act they did not commit can constitute buhtān.
So can shifting one’s crime onto an innocent person.
Through fabricated stories, distorted facts, or claims to a nonexistent right, buhtān can affect social dealings and legal relations.
It should therefore not be defined merely as words that astonish the listener. A true claim can be astonishing without becoming buhtān.
In accusation-related usage, its defining feature is the wrongful, untrue attribution to a person or subject.
2. Lexical forms and Arabic witnesses
Transitive بَهَتَ (bahata) can mean falsely accusing another.
In بَهَتَ فُلَانٌ فُلَانًا (bahata fulānun fulānan), the subject directs a false claim or baseless accusation at someone else.
By contrast, بُهِتَ (buhita) describes someone becoming bewildered and unable to respond.
Lexical sources also record بَهِتَ (bahita) and بَهُتَ (bahuta) for bewilderment. Lexicographers differ over their eloquence and currency, without treating them as independent roots.
بَهْت (baht) and بَهْتَة (bahtah) occur for bewilderment and being confounded.
بُهْتَان (buhtān) is the familiar noun for falsehood or wrongful allegation.
بَهِيتَة (bahītah) likewise occurs in early sources for falsehood and calumny.
بَهَّات (bahhāt) is an intensive form for someone who frequently slanders or makes wrongful allegations.
Form III بَاهَتَهُ (bāhatahu) can mean confronting someone with a baseless accusation. مُبَاهَتَة (mubāhatah) can also describe a confrontation involving wrongful allegations.
مَبْهُوت (mabhūt) describes someone confounded by astonishment. In some constructions it can also denote a person subjected to a false accusation. Its referent and function must therefore be identified from the sentence.
The forms encompass both the confounded person’s state and the conduct of someone fabricating false speech.
Not all occur in the Qur’an. Qur’anic forms are restricted to verbs and the noun buhtān.
A witness from early verse
Kitāb al-ʿAyn and Lisān al-ʿArab transmit this rajaz:
أَأَنْ رَأَيْتَ هَامَتِي كَالطَّسْتِ
ظَلِلْتَ تَرْمِينِي بِقَوْلٍ بَهْتِ
a-an raʾayta hāmatī ka-al-ṭasti / ẓalilta tarmīnī bi-qawlin bahti
Translation: “Is it because you saw my head like a basin that you kept targeting me with false and wrongful words?”
Baht describes the speech here, indicating wrongful words directed at the person.
تَرْمِينِي (tarmīnī) also matters. Wrongful speech is pictured as something thrown at someone, an image consistent with accusation and false attribution.
The reading and attribution require caution. Lexical sources transmit the fragment without a definite attribution. Discussions of Ruʾbah’s collected poetry identify part of the expression, but do not clearly establish the continuation in that form.
The entire rajaz therefore cannot confidently be attributed to a pre-Islamic poet.
The witness helps establish Arabic baht, but its precise date is unproven. Lisān also vocalises its final word بُهْت (buht), with initial ḍammah, while the reading بَهْت (baht) occurs in Al-ʿAyn.
Kitāb al-ʿAyn: the rajaz and attribution note
A disputed reading in another witness
Al-Ṣiḥāḥ and Lisān transmit وَابْهَتِي عَلَيْهَا (wa-ibhatī ʿalayhā) in rajaz attributed to Abū al-Najm al-ʿIjlī.
On this reading, some lexicographers discuss the verb bahata taking the preposition ʿalā.
Al-Ṣaghānī criticises ibhatī as a scribal corruption, proposing وَانْهَتِي (wa-inhatī), with nūn, from a different family concerning sound.
The disagreement directly affects the witness.
If the second reading is correct, the passage contains no verb from B H T and cannot establish its construction with ʿalā.
The rajaz should therefore not support a grammatical rule about B H T without disclosure of the disputed reading.
An expression’s presence in a dictionary alone does not prove either its definitive wording or the date of its use.
3. Being confounded by an argument: Al-Baqarah 2:258
Verse text:
أَلَمْ تَرَ إِلَى الَّذِي حَاجَّ إِبْرَاهِيمَ فِي رَبِّهِ أَنْ آتَاهُ اللَّهُ الْمُلْكَ إِذْ قَالَ إِبْرَاهِيمُ رَبِّيَ الَّذِي يُحْيِي وَيُمِيتُ قَالَ أَنَا أُحْيِي وَأُمِيتُ ۖ قَالَ إِبْرَاهِيمُ فَإِنَّ اللَّهَ يَأْتِي بِالشَّمْسِ مِنَ الْمَشْرِقِ فَأْتِ بِهَا مِنَ الْمَغْرِبِ فَبُهِتَ الَّذِي كَفَرَ ۗ وَاللَّهُ لَا يَهْدِي الْقَوْمَ الظَّالِمِينَ
a-lam tara ilā alladhī ḥājja Ibrāhīma fī rabbihi an ātāhu Allāhu al-mulka idh qāla Ibrāhīmu rabbiya alladhī yuḥyī wa-yumītu qāla anā uḥyī wa-umītu qāla Ibrāhīmu fa-inna Allāha yaʾtī bi-al-shamsi mina al-mashriqi fa-ʾti bihā mina al-maghribi fa-buhita alladhī kafara wa-Allāhu lā yahdī al-qawma al-ẓālimīna
Translation:
“Have you not considered the one who disputed with Abraham about his Lord because The God had given him kingship? When Abraham said: My Lord is the one who gives life and causes death, he said: I too give life and cause death. Abraham said: The God brings the sun from the east, so bring it from the west. Then the one who disbelieved was confounded. And The God does not guide the wrongdoing people.”
Fa-buhita describes the person disputing with Abraham about his Lord.
The verse first gives Abraham’s statement about giving life and causing death. The other person claims the same ability.
Abraham then moves to something the claimant cannot accomplish through royal power: bringing the sun from the west instead of the east.
Fa-buhita alladhī kafara describes the result of encountering this argument.
The meaning of fa-buhita
In the reading examined, buhita is a passive past verb.
The verb does not name the agent causing bewilderment; alladhī kafara identifies the person experiencing it.
Semantically, he is confounded and unable to answer.
This relates to silence following argumentative defeat, but silence alone is not its full lexical meaning.
Someone may remain silent after an argument because no suitable answer can be found. Silence is then a consequence of bewilderment and inability to respond.
Being confounded does not necessarily imply prolonged silence or the complete loss of speech.
The verse does not specify the state’s duration.
Did the other person come to believe?
Fa-buhita alone does not establish that the disputant accepted the truth or believed.
A person may encounter an unanswerable argument in debate yet subsequently persist in their position.
After describing his bewilderment, the verse also speaks of wrongdoing and guidance.
Failure to answer should therefore be distinguished from conscious acceptance of truth.
The verse also does not name the ruler historically. Some transmitted explanations identify a particular figure, but that identification does not change B H T’s meaning.
Lexically, buhita here denotes bewilderment and inability to respond to an argument for which the person finds no suitable answer.
This is unrelated to slandering Abraham or falsely accusing him. The subject is the disputant’s confounded state.
4. Surprise and bewilderment: Al-Anbiyāʾ 21:40
Verse text:
بَلْ تَأْتِيهِمْ بَغْتَةً فَتَبْهَتُهُمْ فَلَا يَسْتَطِيعُونَ رَدَّهَا وَلَا هُمْ يُنْظَرُونَ
bal taʾtīhim baghtatan fa-tabhatuhum fa-lā yastaṭīʿūna raddahā wa-lā hum yunẓarūna
Translation:
“Rather, it comes upon them suddenly and confounds them; they can neither repel it nor be given respite.”
This is a major witness to the difference between B H T and B GH T.
One sentence contains two close-sounding words from independent roots:
بَغْتَةً (baghtatan) from B GH T, and فَتَبْهَتُهُمْ (fa-tabhatuhum) from B H T.
The preceding verses describe questions about the divine promise and demands that it arrive sooner. Al-Anbiyāʾ 21:40 then describes the sudden arrival of what they were warned about.
Baghtatan describes how the event arrives: unexpectedly.
Fa-tabhatuhum describes its effect on the audience: it confounds and overwhelms them.
Sudden arrival and confounding are thus connected aspects or stages, rather than a repeated identical meaning.
The structure of fa-tabhatuhum
Tabhatu is an active Form I imperfect verb.
Hum is the object pronoun, referring to those encountering the event.
Unlike fa-buhita in Al-Baqarah 2:258, it is active and transitive.
In Al-Baqarah, the person is confounded.
In Al-Anbiyāʾ, the event confounds them.
Although the forms share a root, translation must preserve this distinction.
Bewilderment and inability to repel
The verse continues:
«فَلَا يَسْتَطِيعُونَ رَدَّهَا»
fa-lā yastaṭīʿūna raddahā
That is, they cannot repel it.
This states another consequence; inability to repel should not become the definition of baht itself.
Someone may be confounded by news and regain the ability to act shortly afterwards.
Here the event both confounds the audience and leaves them unable to repel it.
The final clause, وَلَا هُمْ يُنْظَرُونَ (wa-lā hum yunẓarūna), adds that they receive no respite.
The verse therefore distinguishes sudden arrival, bewilderment, and inability to repel together with lack of respite.
This distinction is essential for lexical study.
Baghtatan describes the manner of arrival; fa-tabhatuhum describes its effect on the audience.
5. Buhtān in wrongfully taking property: Al-Nisāʾ 4:20
Verse text:
وَإِنْ أَرَدْتُمُ اسْتِبْدَالَ زَوْجٍ مَكَانَ زَوْجٍ وَآتَيْتُمْ إِحْدَاهُنَّ قِنْطَارًا فَلَا تَأْخُذُوا مِنْهُ شَيْئًا ۚ أَتَأْخُذُونَهُ بُهْتَانًا وَإِثْمًا مُبِينًا
wa-in aradtumu istibdāla zawjin makāna zawjin wa-ātaytum iḥdāhunna qinṭāran fa-lā taʾkhudhū minhu shayʾan a-taʾkhudhūnahu buhtānan wa-ithman mubīnan
Translation:
“If you wish to replace one wife with another, and have given one of them a great amount, take nothing back from it. Would you take it through calumny and manifest sin?”
This is an important yet difficult use of buhtān.
Many Qur’anic occurrences concern false speech and wrongful accusation. Here the main subject is taking a woman’s property upon separation and replacing a wife.
It therefore cannot be assumed without examination that Qur’anic buhtān invariably means a verbal accusation of sexual misconduct.
Buhtān in a financial and marital context
The verse concerns men wishing to part with one wife and marry another.
In that situation, even if they gave her abundant property, the Qur’an forbids taking it back.
A rebuking question then describes taking it through buhtānan wa-ithman mubīnan.
Al-Ṭabarī explains buhtānan here as taking property unjustly and without right.
Al-Zajjāj likewise explains it through calumnious and sinful conduct.
Context shows more than a feeling of bewilderment: the wrongdoing concerns conduct and a claim to property whose recovery is disallowed.
Someone seeking a woman’s property might fabricate a claim about her or assert a nonexistent entitlement.
Such conduct clearly relates to established buhtān.
The verse itself does not explicitly say that the man necessarily accuses the woman of a particular sin.
The base translation should therefore not add “by accusing the woman of adultery.”
Why do buhtān and ithm occur together?
They belong to independent roots.
Buhtān highlights the claim and conduct’s wrongful nature here.
Ithm expresses sin and the responsibility arising from it.
The verse therefore condemns both the wrongful manner and nature of taking the property and its manifest sinfulness.
Buhtān can thus occur in the context of violating financial rights and oppressive conduct.
This does not make its lexical meaning simply financial injustice. The financial subject comes from context; the root still concerns wrongful representation and distortion of truth.
6. Attributing one’s sin to an innocent person: Al-Nisāʾ 4:112
Verse text:
وَمَنْ يَكْسِبْ خَطِيئَةً أَوْ إِثْمًا ثُمَّ يَرْمِ بِهِ بَرِيئًا فَقَدِ احْتَمَلَ بُهْتَانًا وَإِثْمًا مُبِينًا
wa-man yaksib khaṭīʾatan aw ithman thumma yarmi bihi barīʾan fa-qadi iḥtamala buhtānan wa-ithman mubīnan
Translation:
“Whoever commits an error or a sin, then casts it upon an innocent person, has indeed borne calumny and manifest sin.”
This is among the clearest Qur’anic uses of buhtān.
First, someone commits an error or sin.
They then attribute that act to another who is innocent of it.
This does more than tell a lie: it distorts responsibility, attempting to put an innocent person in the wrongdoer’s place.
The meaning of yarmi bihi barīʾan
Yarmi belongs to R M Y, whose concrete meaning concerns throwing.
There is no physical throwing here: a sin or error is attributed to an innocent person.
The expression pictures casting an accusation onto another.
Ramy and buhtān are nevertheless different.
Ramy describes the act of making the accusation in this context.
Buhtān identifies the attribution’s wrongful and untrue nature.
The verse therefore helps distinguish accusing from the false accusation itself.
The meaning of barīʾan
Barīʾ here is someone innocent of the particular attributed error or sin.
They need not be free of every other lifetime wrong for that attribution to constitute buhtān.
Someone might have acted wrongly elsewhere yet be innocent of a particular alleged theft.
Falsely attributing that theft remains wrongful even if they have behaved badly in other matters.
The distinction matters ethically and in considering rights.
Assessing an accusation’s truth requires examining the particular act and evidence, rather than substituting a person’s bad reputation or record for proof.
The meaning of iḥtamala buhtānan
Iḥtamala belongs to Ḥ M L and here expresses bearing a burden of responsibility.
The person attributes their sin to another, but the burden of calumny and manifest sin rests upon them.
The contrast is clear: attempting to transfer responsibility creates a new responsibility for the accuser.
Buhtān here is not an inconsequential lie. The accusation can harm an innocent person’s reputation, rights, and future.
7. Grave calumny against Mary: Al-Nisāʾ 4:156
Verse text:
وَبِكُفْرِهِمْ وَقَوْلِهِمْ عَلَىٰ مَرْيَمَ بُهْتَانًا عَظِيمًا
wa-bi-kufrihim wa-qawlihim ʿalā Maryama buhtānan ʿaẓīman
Translation:
“And because of their disbelief and their uttering a grave calumny against Mary.”
The sentence connects with surrounding verses as part of an account of the criticised group’s conduct.
Buhtānan ʿaẓīman directly concerns words spoken about Mary.
Maryam 19:27, Maryam 19:28, and Maryam 19:29 also describe Mary’s encounter with her people upon bringing her child.
Their words there show a wrongful suspicion and accusation about her chastity.
Read alongside those passages, the grave calumny in Al-Nisāʾ 4:156 concerns a false allegation about Mary and her child’s birth.
Does buhtān always mean a sexual accusation?
This is a clear example concerning chastity.
It does not establish that Arabic or Qur’anic buhtān denotes only sexual accusations.
Al-Nisāʾ 4:112 concerns attributing an unspecified error or sin to someone innocent.
Al-Nisāʾ 4:20 concerns wrongfully taking property within marriage.
A sexual accusation is therefore an important instance, rather than the entire meaning.
The description ʿaẓīman
ʿAẓīm highlights the calumny’s gravity and magnitude.
Since established buhtān already concerns grave wrongful speech, adding ʿaẓīm intensifies the condemnation.
Buhtān without that adjective is not necessarily a minor or unimportant accusation.
Its seriousness and consequences also depend on its subject, reach, harm, and circumstances.
8. Buhtān and spreading rumour: Al-Nūr 24:16
Verse text:
وَلَوْلَا إِذْ سَمِعْتُمُوهُ قُلْتُمْ مَا يَكُونُ لَنَا أَنْ نَتَكَلَّمَ بِهَٰذَا سُبْحَانَكَ هَٰذَا بُهْتَانٌ عَظِيمٌ
wa-lawlā idh samiʿtumūhu qultum mā yakūnu lanā an natakallama bi-hādhā subḥānaka hādhā buhtānun ʿaẓīmun
Translation:
“Why, when you heard it, did you not say: It is not for us to speak of this. Glory be to You! This is a grave calumny.”
The surrounding passages concern the circulation of a wrongful accusation.
Al-Nūr 24:11 mentions a group who produced harmful false speech.
Al-Nūr 24:12 calls believers to think well when confronted with that accusation.
Al-Nūr 24:13 raises the issue of bringing witnesses.
Al-Nūr 24:15 condemns people receiving words from one another on their tongues and saying with their mouths what they did not know.
Al-Nūr 24:16 then emphasises that they should have refrained from speaking about the allegation.
Hearing a statement and knowing its truth are different
The verse illustrates an important distinction between hearing and knowing.
Hearing an accusation neither establishes its truth nor permits repeating it as fact.
When a statement circulates without adequate evidence, those repeating it can spread harm even if they did not originate it.
The Qur’an examines both the first accuser’s responsibility and the conduct of those passing uninformed statements among themselves.
An accusation known to be false must nevertheless be distinguished from a report whose truth remains unknown.
Not every unproven claim can definitively be called buhtān, just as it cannot be accepted as true without evidence.
Faithful reporting, examining evidence, and avoiding turning suspicion or hearsay into certainty are the proper criteria.
Buhtān and social responsibility
Hādhā buhtānun ʿaẓīmun concerns an accusation that can harm a person’s standing and life.
Buhtān therefore involves more than a relationship between one liar and an accused person.
Those repeating a wrongful claim in society also contribute to its consequences.
Each person’s responsibility must nevertheless be assessed through their knowledge, conduct, and actual role. Accidentally hearing something differs from knowingly inventing or deliberately spreading it.
Here buhtān is a grave falsehood and accusation that should not be circulated wrongfully.
9. Harming innocent people and buhtān: Al-Aḥzāb 33:58
Verse text:
وَالَّذِينَ يُؤْذُونَ الْمُؤْمِنِينَ وَالْمُؤْمِنَاتِ بِغَيْرِ مَا اكْتَسَبُوا فَقَدِ احْتَمَلُوا بُهْتَانًا وَإِثْمًا مُبِينًا
wa-alladhīna yuʾdhūna al-muʾminīna wa-al-muʾmināti bi-ghayri mā iktasabū fa-qadi iḥtamalū buhtānan wa-ithman mubīnan
Translation:
“Those who harm believing men and believing women for what they have not done have indeed borne calumny and manifest sin.”
The verse describes people harming believing men and women without justification in the victims’ actual conduct.
Bi-ghayri mā iktasabū helps determine the statement’s scope.
Iktasabū belongs to K S B and concerns what people have earned through their deeds.
The harm is therefore based on something the victim did not commit or was not responsible for.
Harm and buhtān
Yuʾdhūna and buhtānan are independent words.
Harm may arise through speech, action, deprivation, or other means.
Its association with buhtān emphasises wrongful attribution and the burden assumed by those causing harm.
This resembles Al-Nisāʾ 4:112: both expose an innocent person to wrongful conduct or attribution.
The constructions nevertheless differ.
In Al-Nisāʾ 4:112, someone attributes their own error or sin to an innocent person.
Al-Aḥzāb 33:58 uses a broader expression for harming innocent people.
The latter should not be confined to accusing someone of one particular crime. Nor does it make every evidenced, fair criticism of a believer’s actual conduct buhtān.
The criterion is wrongful attribution or harm unsupported by the person’s actual conduct.
Naming men and women
The verse explicitly names al-muʾminīna wa-al-muʾmināt.
Protection of the people’s standing and rights is therefore not confined to men.
Both men and women can suffer wrongful allegations and consequent harm.
This does not permit false allegations against people outside the named group. The wider ethics of justice, testimony, and falsehood require reading the Qur’an as a whole.
This verse’s particular subject is wrongful harm against believing men and women.
10. Buhtān in believing women’s pledge: Al-Mumtaḥanah 60:12
Verse text:
يَا أَيُّهَا النَّبِيُّ إِذَا جَاءَكَ الْمُؤْمِنَاتُ يُبَايِعْنَكَ عَلَىٰ أَنْ لَا يُشْرِكْنَ بِاللَّهِ شَيْئًا وَلَا يَسْرِقْنَ وَلَا يَزْنِينَ وَلَا يَقْتُلْنَ أَوْلَادَهُنَّ وَلَا يَأْتِينَ بِبُهْتَانٍ يَفْتَرِينَهُ بَيْنَ أَيْدِيهِنَّ وَأَرْجُلِهِنَّ وَلَا يَعْصِينَكَ فِي مَعْرُوفٍ فَبَايِعْهُنَّ وَاسْتَغْفِرْ لَهُنَّ اللَّهَ ۖ إِنَّ اللَّهَ غَفُورٌ رَحِيمٌ
yā ayyuhā al-nabiyyu idhā jāʾaka al-muʾminātu yubāyiʿnaka ʿalā an lā yushrikna bi-Allāhi shayʾan wa-lā yasriqna wa-lā yaznīna wa-lā yaqtulna awlādahunna wa-lā yaʾtīna bi-buhtānin yaftarīnahu bayna aydīhinna wa-arjulihinna wa-lā yaʿṣīnaka fī maʿrūfin fa-bāyiʿhunna wa-istaghfir lahunna Allāha inna Allāha ghafūrun raḥīmun
Translation:
“O Prophet, when believing women come to pledge to you that they will associate nothing with The God and will neither steal, commit illicit sexual intercourse, kill their children, nor bring a calumny they fabricate between their hands and feet, and will not disobey you in anything right, accept their pledge and ask The God’s forgiveness for them. Indeed, The God is forgiving and merciful.”
Buhtān occurs alongside yaftarīnahu here.
The association helps establish its meaning.
Iftirāʾ belongs to F R Y and here concerns fabricating and attributing false speech.
The verse thus concerns more than something astonishing: the women are prohibited from bringing a calumny they fabricate.
Between their hands and feet
Early explanations differ over this expression.
The familiar commentary reading concerns attributing a child to a husband who is not its actual father.
Its explanation relates the phrase to a child’s position between the mother’s hands and feet at birth, understanding it as fabricated parentage.
Some reports also describe a woman attributing a child to herself or her husband contrary to fact.
This is a clear instance of buhtān: an invented family relationship can alter people’s rights and responsibilities.
The instance should nevertheless be distinguished from the expression’s range.
Lexically, buhtān is not restricted to false parentage.
Nor does the expression in question explicitly repeat child, husband, or paternity.
Other explanations relate “between their hands and feet” to human conduct or what a person does with hands and feet.
That broader reading allows examination of different forms of conduct involving wrongful attribution.
The breadth of buhtān alone nevertheless does not establish that the particular hands-and-feet expression has no limiting role.
What is clear is the prohibition of fabricated calumny. False parentage is a compatible, early-attested instance; restricting the expression’s entire scope to it requires independent evidence.
Al-Ṭabarī: buhtān and false parentage
Why is this prohibition separate from adultery and theft?
Theft, illicit sexual intercourse, and killing children are separately named before buhtān.
Buhtān consequently has an independent place in the list.
A woman committing illicit sexual intercourse performs one particular act.
Subsequently fabricating a child’s parentage introduces another wrong and responsibility.
Even on the parentage reading, buhtān is therefore distinct from the sexual act itself.
Theft and buhtān likewise differ, although a person might accuse another to conceal their theft.
Translation must retain that semantic independence.
Since the verse uses bi-buhtānin, the base translation should retain “calumny,” leaving the possible false-parentage instance to a separate explanation.
12. Translation proposals for Forqan
Buhita in bewilderment-related usage can mean “was confounded,” “was bewildered,” or, in argument, “was at a loss for an answer.”
Transitive bahata meaning to create bewilderment can be rendered “confounded.”
Accusation-related bahata can mean “slandered” or “falsely accused someone.”
Mabhūt can mean “confounded” or “bewildered and at a loss.”
For buhtān, “calumny” is appropriate; “wrongful allegation,” “false accusation,” or “grave falsehood” can provide clearer equivalents where needed.
All equivalents should not be inserted together in every verse. Context determines the particular sense.
Proposed renderings for the eight Qur’anic occurrences
Al-Baqarah 2:258
«فَبُهِتَ الَّذِي كَفَرَ»
fa-buhita alladhī kafara
“Then the one who disbelieved was confounded.”
The explanation can clarify his inability to answer Abraham’s argument.
Al-Nisāʾ 4:20
«أَتَأْخُذُونَهُ بُهْتَانًا وَإِثْمًا مُبِينًا»
a-taʾkhudhūnahu buhtānan wa-ithman mubīnan
“Would you take it through calumny and manifest sin?”
The subject is wrongfully recovering a woman’s property. Financial injustice and wrongful claims should be explained separately.
Al-Nisāʾ 4:112
«فَقَدِ احْتَمَلَ بُهْتَانًا وَإِثْمًا مُبِينًا»
fa-qadi iḥtamala buhtānan wa-ithman mubīnan
“He has indeed borne calumny and manifest sin.”
The context identifies attributing one’s error or sin to an innocent person.
Al-Nisāʾ 4:156
«وَقَوْلِهِمْ عَلَىٰ مَرْيَمَ بُهْتَانًا عَظِيمًا»
wa-qawlihim ʿalā Maryama buhtānan ʿaẓīman
“And their uttering a grave calumny against Mary.”
The accusation is understood through the related Mary passages.
Al-Anbiyāʾ 21:40
«فَتَبْهَتُهُمْ»
fa-tabhatuhum
“And it confounds them.”
This should not become “it comes upon them suddenly,” because suddenness is expressed by baghtatan.
Al-Nūr 24:16
«هَٰذَا بُهْتَانٌ عَظِيمٌ»
hādhā buhtānun ʿaẓīmun
“This is a grave calumny.”
The subject is wrongful speech and circulation of a baseless accusation.
Al-Aḥzāb 33:58
«فَقَدِ احْتَمَلُوا بُهْتَانًا وَإِثْمًا مُبِينًا»
fa-qadi iḥtamalū buhtānan wa-ithman mubīnan
“They have indeed borne calumny and manifest sin.”
The context concerns wrongful harm against believing men and women.
Al-Mumtaḥanah 60:12
«وَلَا يَأْتِينَ بِبُهْتَانٍ يَفْتَرِينَهُ بَيْنَ أَيْدِيهِنَّ وَأَرْجُلِهِنَّ»
wa-lā yaʾtīna bi-buhtānin yaftarīnahu bayna aydīhinna wa-arjulihinna
“Nor bring a calumny they fabricate between their hands and feet.”
This retains the verse’s own image. The possible false-parentage reading is examined separately.
Buhtān should never be extended here to every strange statement or disagreement.
Nor should the particular subject of one verse, such as a sexual accusation or violation of financial rights, define the entire family.
13. Conclusion
Arabic B H T has two prominent, semantically connected uses: bewilderment and inability to respond to something unexpected, and a falsehood or wrongful allegation gravely distorting truth.
Maqāyīs identifies astonishment and bewilderment as the family’s principle; Al-ʿAyn records being confounded and making a false accusation as recognised uses.
The Qur’an’s two verbal occurrences concern being confounded.
In Al-Baqarah 2:258, the disputant cannot answer Abraham’s argument.
In Al-Anbiyāʾ 21:40, a sudden event confounds the audience.
The six remaining occurrences concern wrongful speech or conduct.
Al-Nisāʾ 4:20 concerns wrongfully taking a woman’s property upon separation.
Al-Nisāʾ 4:112 concerns attributing one’s error or sin to an innocent person.
Al-Nisāʾ 4:156 mentions a grave accusation against Mary.
Al-Nūr 24:16 criticises the circulation of grave false speech.
Al-Aḥzāb 33:58 associates wrongful harm against believing men and women with calumny and manifest sin.
Al-Mumtaḥanah 60:12 forbids believing women to fabricate buhtān, an expression whose important early-explained instances include inventing a child’s parentage.
These uses do not restrict buhtān to sexual accusation. Nor should it encompass every disagreement, criticism, or claim that astonishes a hearer.
Its assessment involves the claim’s truth, the attribution’s subject, available evidence, and the speaker’s responsibility.
Final root definition: In one branch, B H T denotes bewilderment and inability to respond to something startling or an unanswerable argument. In another, buhtān denotes falsehood and wrongful attribution distorting truth and potentially exposing an innocent person to accusation or harm.
The branches can be connected through the possibility of bewilderment before something unexpected or an outrageous allegation. The connection should not erase either branch’s independent meaning.
Qur’an translation should preserve being confounded for bewilderment-related uses and calumny for falsehood and wrongful attribution. The cause of bewilderment, kind of accusation, and resulting responsibility must be understood from each verse’s context, rather than imposing one instance on every derivative.