The Qur’anic root B Q Y

1. The lexical core in early Arabic

In Maqāyīs al-Lughah, Ibn Fāris identifies one underlying sense:

«أَصْلٌ وَاحِدٌ، وَهُوَ الدَّوَامُ»

aṣlun wāḥidun wa-huwa al-dawāmu

The family has one underlying sense: continuance.

He then cites al-Khalīl ibn Aḥmad, placing بَقِيَ الشَّيْءُ يَبْقَى بَقَاءً opposite فَنِيَ.

Baqāʾ here means continuing rather than disappearing; fanāʾ concerns ending or passing away.

Al-Rāghib al-Iṣfahānī gives the following explanation:

«ثَبَاتُ الشَّيْءِ عَلَى حَالِهِ الْأُولَى»

thabātu al-shayʾi ʿalā ḥālihi al-ūlā

Something remaining established in its earlier state.

Maqāyīs and Al-Mufradāt: continuance and passing away

This emphasizes continuance, but can become too restrictive if detached from actual linguistic usage.

Someone may survive an accident despite changes in their body, living circumstances, or social position. The person or life remains, rather than necessarily every previous characteristic.

A message may likewise survive into later generations despite changes in its language, number of bearers, or social circumstances.

Something remaining therefore does not always mean every feature and relationship stays unchanged.

The lexical core is something continuing or not disappearing in relation to time, change, or the possibility of ending.

That continuance may be short or long, limited or unlimited, independent or conditional. Its extent depends on the subject and other indications.

Remaining and causing something to remain

An important distinction is between the intransitive verb and the causative construction.

In بَقِيَ الشَّيْءُ, the thing itself remains.

In أَبْقَيْتُ الشَّيْءَ, an agent leaves or preserves something, preventing its disappearance.

Some water, for example, may remain in a vessel. The statement describes the water’s condition.

Saying that a person left some water instead attributes refraining from using it all to an agent.

Both contain the sense of remaining, but their grammatical construction and the agent’s role differ.

The Qur’an shows the same difference. Al-Baqarah 2:278 uses baqiya for what remains of usury. Al-Najm 53:51 uses causative abqā in a statement of leaving nothing remaining.

The difference is therefore more than a change of tense or outward form.

2. Arabic usage and poetic witnesses

Early Arabic does not restrict this root to bodies or property remaining. It also expresses sparing lives, forbearance, continuing friendship, and retaining resources.

Istibqāʾ: preserving and refraining from destroying

اسْتَبْقَى can mean leaving or preserving someone or something.

Someone able to destroy something but refraining from doing so may be said to have preserved it through istibqāʾ.

The sense also applies to human relationships. A person may refrain from punishment or harsh treatment during a dispute to preserve another’s life or their relationship.

Al-Khalīl explains اسْتَبْقَيْتُ فُلَانًا through pardoning someone’s lapse and preserving their affection.

Continuance here concerns a human relationship as well as bodily existence.

The family also appears in conflict: a defeated group asking the victors not to destroy it may plead al-baqiyyah, seeking to have lives spared rather than be exterminated.

Baqiyyah can therefore denote a remnant in one setting and forbearance, sparing a life, or preserving a relationship in another.

The connection follows from remaining, but each sentence must establish what is to be preserved.

A pre-Islamic witness: al-Nābighah al-Dhubyānī

Al-Nābighah al-Dhubyānī says in a celebrated line:

وَلَسْتَ بِمُسْتَبْقٍ أَخًا لَا تَلُمُّهُ
عَلَىٰ شَعَثٍ أَيُّ الرِّجَالِ الْمُهَذَّبُ

wa-lasta bi-mustabqin akhan lā talummuhu / ʿalā shaʿathin ayyu al-rijāli al-muhadhdhabu

“You will not retain a friend unless you embrace him despite his faults; which person is free of every imperfection?”

Mustabqin belongs to B Q Y. Talummuhu comes from L M M, gathering or drawing someone close, rather than lawm, blame.

Talkhīṣ al-Miftāḥ: talummuhu as gathering, rather than blame

The poet concerns himself with retaining friendship, rather than the friend’s bodily survival.

The reasoning is clear: accepting only a faultless friend would leave a person with no lasting friendship.

This attests the root’s application to the continuance of an immaterial relationship.

The agent’s role also matters. A mustabqin acts to preserve the relationship. Its survival may result from forbearance and refraining from breaking the bond, rather than a merely passive state.

The line is recorded in al-Nābighah’s Dīwān and is a familiar witness from pre-Qur’anic poetry.

Labīd ibn Rabīʿah: sparing through forbearance

A line attributed to Labīd ibn Rabīʿah reads:

وَمَا صَدَّ عَنِّي خَالِدٌ مِنْ بَقِيَّةٍ
وَلَكِنْ أَتَتْ دُونِي الْأُسُودُ الْهَوَاصِرُ

wa-mā ṣadda ʿannī Khālidun min baqiyyatin / wa-lākin atat dūnī al-usūdu al-hawāṣiru

“Khālid did not hold back from me out of forbearance; rather, fierce lions came between him and me.”

Maqāyīs and Asās al-Balāghah: the Labīd witness

Baqiyyah here does not mean money left over or a remnant of a group.

It concerns refraining from an encounter and sparing someone out of forbearance.

The use connects with istibqāʾ: someone can deal harshly with another but refrain and spare them.

Labīd lived across the pre-Islamic and Islamic periods. The date of this particular line is uncertain. It is useful evidence for early usage, but should not be classified as pre-Qur’anic without further grounds.

Remaining in everyday life

Dictionaries record اسْتَبْقَيْتُ مِنَ الشَّيْءِ for keeping part of something.

Someone may consume part of their food or property and save some for later.

Mubqiyāt also describes horses that do not expend all their running capacity at once, retaining strength to continue.

Another use describes places that retain water.

Lisān al-ʿArab: preserving relationships, horse stamina, and water

These examples show that remaining does not mean absolute immobility. A horse can keep moving while reserving strength for the journey ahead.

Remaining therefore contrasts not always with movement, but with the exhaustion or loss of the particular thing under discussion.

3. Baqiyyah: what is left from something

Baqiyyah is one of the family’s most important Qur’anic forms.

It can denote part of a whole left over, but is not restricted to material objects. A remaining resource of goodness, discernment, virtue, or capacity to preserve something can also receive this name.

Three Qur’anic occurrences illustrate the differences.

Surviving relics: Al-Baqarah 2:248

Verse text:

وَقَالَ لَهُمْ نَبِيُّهُمْ إِنَّ آيَةَ مُلْكِهِ أَنْ يَأْتِيَكُمُ التَّابُوتُ فِيهِ سَكِينَةٌ مِنْ رَبِّكُمْ وَبَقِيَّةٌ مِمَّا تَرَكَ آلُ مُوسَىٰ وَآلُ هَارُونَ تَحْمِلُهُ الْمَلَائِكَةُ ۚ إِنَّ فِي ذَٰلِكَ لَآيَةً لَكُمْ إِنْ كُنْتُمْ مُؤْمِنِينَ

wa-qāla lahum nabiyyuhum inna āyata mulkihi an yaʾtiyakumu al-tābūtu fīhi sakīnatun min rabbikum wa-baqiyyatun mimmā taraka ālu Mūsā wa-ālu Hārūna taḥmiluhu al-malāʾikatu inna fī dhālika la-āyatan lakum in kuntum muʾminīna

Translation:

“Their prophet said to them, ‘The sign of his kingship is that the chest will come to you, containing tranquility from your Lord and a remnant of what the households of Moses and Aaron left behind, carried by the angels. In this is a sign for you, if you believe.’”

Baqiyyatun denotes something surviving from the past.

مِمَّا تَرَكَ آلُ مُوسَىٰ وَآلُ هَارُونَ specifies its reference: what the households of Moses and Aaron had left behind.

It thus means a remnant or surviving relic.

The noun itself does not identify the chest’s exact contents. Historical and exegetical reports name different objects, but the verse does not specify all those details.

“A remnant of what they left behind” consequently preserves the direct meaning.

Baqiyyah itself does not mean a sacred object, a document establishing kingship, or a miraculous relic.

Its significance is understood from the chest’s context and its role as a sign of kingship.

Remaining here concerns something continuing after time passes and its previous owners disappear or move away.

Baqiyyatu Allāh in Shuʿayb’s story: Hūd 11:86

Verse text:

بَقِيَّتُ اللَّهِ خَيْرٌ لَكُمْ إِنْ كُنْتُمْ مُؤْمِنِينَ ۚ وَمَا أَنَا عَلَيْكُمْ بِحَفِيظٍ

baqiyyatu Allāhi khayrun lakum in kuntum muʾminīna wa-mā anā ʿalaykum bi-ḥafīẓin

Translation:

“What The God leaves for you is better for you, if you believe; I am not a guardian over you.”

The verse belongs to Shuʿayb’s address to his people.

Hūd 11:84 calls on them not to diminish measure and weight. Hūd 11:85 commands full measure and balance with justice, forbidding diminution of people’s rights and property and corruption in the land.

He then says بَقِيَّتُ اللَّهِ خَيْرٌ لَكُمْ.

The immediate context is commerce, respecting rights, and avoiding profit obtained through short measure and corruption.

Baqiyyah can here concern what remains after unlawful wealth or profit is set aside.

Suppose a trader could obtain a hundred units of profit through short measure but retains only eighty through fair dealing.

The extra twenty may seem advantageous in the short term. Yet what remains after others’ rights are respected has a different standing in lawful and honest earning.

The example connects the lexical sense to the verse’s subject; it does not claim that the Qur’an specifies a particular number or calculation.

A remainder and blessing itself

Early lexical and exegetical explanations give several interpretations of baqiyyatu Allāh.

Al-Farrāʾ relates it to the lawful wealth left for the people.

Al-Zajjāj describes the good condition remaining for a person after rights have been respected. Other explanations mention obedience to The God or looking toward divine reward.

These interpretations differ in scope.

Lawful wealth connects more directly with measure, weight, and rights in the preceding verses.

Obedience and divine reward may be broader consequences of right conduct, but should not silently replace the lexical meaning of baqiyyah.

Baqiyyah itself does not mean blessing: barakah belongs to another root.

Wealth remaining through right dealing may be blessed or bring greater good, but that does not make “blessed wealth” the direct translation of baqiyyah alone.

The central point is that something smaller in amount may nevertheless be better in rightfulness, justice, and outcome.

This fits khayrun lakum, “better for you.”

Lisān: al-Farrāʾ and al-Zajjāj on baqiyyatu Allāh

Is baqiyyatu Allāh a personal title?

Some post-Qur’anic religious usage applies the expression as a title to a particular person.

Hūd 11:86 itself, however, contains Shuʿayb’s address in the setting of economic justice.

The phrase names no person and supplies no indication restricting it to someone living long after Shuʿayb.

Its use as a title in religious traditions, whatever its historical standing there, cannot establish the verse’s direct meaning without independent evidence.

Qur’anic lexical study should first understand baqiyyatu Allāh through what The God leaves for people, in the context of commerce.

Ulū baqiyyatin: people retaining goodness and discernment

Hūd 11:116

فَلَوْلَا كَانَ مِنَ الْقُرُونِ مِنْ قَبْلِكُمْ أُولُو بَقِيَّةٍ يَنْهَوْنَ عَنِ الْفَسَادِ فِي الْأَرْضِ إِلَّا قَلِيلًا مِمَّنْ أَنْجَيْنَا مِنْهُمْ ۗ وَاتَّبَعَ الَّذِينَ ظَلَمُوا مَا أُتْرِفُوا فِيهِ وَكَانُوا مُجْرِمِينَ

fa-lawlā kāna mina al-qurūni min qablikum ulū baqiyyatin yanhawna ʿani al-fasādi fī al-arḍi illā qalīlan mimman anjaynā minhum wa-ittabaʿa alladhīna ẓalamū mā utrifū fīhi wa-kānū mujrimīna

Translation:

“Why were there not among the generations before you people retaining goodness and discernment who forbade corruption in the land, except a few whom We saved from among them? Those who acted unjustly pursued the luxury they had been given and were offenders.”

This presents a different application of baqiyyah.

Al-Baqarah 2:248 concerned what remained from earlier people; Hūd 11:86 concerned a remainder of good within commerce and earning.

Hūd 11:116 speaks of ulū baqiyyatin: people possessing something of this kind.

The continuation identifies them through a specific action: preventing corruption in the land.

A literal “possessors of a remainder” is therefore unclear to the reader.

Early lexicographers and grammarians also address this difficulty. Al-Zajjāj explains the phrase through discernment or a resource of virtue and goodness.

Ibn Qutaybah and others likewise describe people retaining a measure of religion, goodness, or capacity for reform.

These explanations connect with the root: amid widespread corruption, some people should still retain goodness, understanding, and responsibility that enable them to oppose it.

Baqiyyah should not be rendered “understanding” or “virtue” in every use, however. This sense arises through the phrase ulū baqiyyatin and its ethical context.

Lisān: ulū baqiyyatin and retained goodness and discernment

Nor does the verse concern theoretical knowledge alone. Its defining characteristic is action against corruption.

A surviving resource of goodness is thus connected with practical responsibility.

The qualification إِلَّا قَلِيلًا مِمَّنْ أَنْجَيْنَا مِنْهُمْ matters too: the verse excepts a few people who opposed corruption and were saved.

It should not be presented as asserting that no reformer existed in any previous generation.

The use clearly illustrates movement from surviving objects to a retained resource of goodness and human responsibility.

4. People, descendants, and speech remaining

Bāqīn and bāqiyah show that remaining can concern people, survivors, and a message continuing through later generations.

Noah’s descendants surviving: Al-Ṣāffāt 37:77

Verse text:

وَجَعَلْنَا ذُرِّيَّتَهُ هُمُ الْبَاقِينَ

wa-jaʿalnā dhurriyyatahu humu al-bāqīna

Translation:

“And We made his descendants the survivors.”

The verse concerns Noah.

Al-bāqīn is a masculine plural active participle meaning those remaining.

Humu al-bāqīn emphasizes the survival of Noah’s descendants.

The story determines this survival’s sense. Nearby verses concern Noah and his household being rescued from great distress and others being drowned.

The setting is therefore rescue and descendants continuing after a devastating event.

The root itself cannot establish that this lineage will physically survive forever.

The precise genealogical and historical scope, including its relation to all human populations, requires broader study of the passages concerning Noah and later generations.

Al-bāqīn describes surviving, rather than biological immortality or permanent superiority guaranteed to a lineage.

Al-Shuʿarāʾ 26:120 also mentions al-bāqīn being drowned after a group has been rescued.

The contrast illustrates an important point: remaining does not always mean final deliverance.

In Al-Shuʿarāʾ 26:120, those left after the rescued group’s departure are subsequently drowned. In Al-Ṣāffāt 37:77, Noah’s descendants survive the event.

The word describes a state of remaining relative to a group or event; context supplies the outcome.

A word continuing through generations: Al-Zukhruf 43:28

Verse text:

وَجَعَلَهَا كَلِمَةً بَاقِيَةً فِي عَقِبِهِ لَعَلَّهُمْ يَرْجِعُونَ

wa-jaʿalahā kalimatan bāqiyatan fī ʿaqibihi laʿallahum yarjiʿūna

Translation:

“And he made it a lasting word among his descendants, so that they might return.”

This follows Abraham’s declaration to his father and people.

Al-Zukhruf 43:26 records his disavowal of what they worship; Al-Zukhruf 43:27 excepts the One who created him and guides him.

Al-Zukhruf 43:28 then mentions the word remaining among later descendants.

Bāqiyatan modifies kalimatan.

It describes a word that does not disappear after its speaker’s time but continues among subsequent generations.

This does not necessarily mean that every descendant of Abraham always remained faithful to it.

Laʿallahum yarjiʿūna itself connects the word with later generations returning and correcting their direction.

If all generations were invariably faithful without deviation, the need to return would have a different significance.

The word’s survival is therefore not identical to the infallibility or correctness of every later generation’s conduct.

Something can persist in a community’s history and memory even when some members distance themselves from its meaning.

A message’s continuance differs from every historical bearer’s unbroken fidelity.

5. Remaining against exhaustion and passing away

A clear Qur’anic use contrasts remaining with worldly things coming to an end.

Al-Naḥl 16:96: what is with you and what is with The God

Verse text:

مَا عِنْدَكُمْ يَنْفَدُ وَمَا عِنْدَ اللَّهِ بَاقٍ ۗ وَلَنَجْزِيَنَّ الَّذِينَ صَبَرُوا أَجْرَهُمْ بِأَحْسَنِ مَا كَانُوا يَعْمَلُونَ

mā ʿindakum yanfadu wa-mā ʿinda Allāhi bāqin wa-la-najziyanna alladhīna ṣabarū ajrahum bi-aḥsani mā kānū yaʿmalūna

Translation:

“What is with you comes to an end, and what is with The God remains. We will certainly reward those who were steadfast according to the best of what they used to do.”

The verse places N F D and B Q Y in opposition.

Yanfadu expresses exhaustion or coming to an end.

Bāqin describes something still remaining.

The contrast distinguishes people’s limited possessions and resources from what is with The God.

Property may be consumed, lost, or cease to be at someone’s disposal when their life ends.

The verse describes something remaining with The God and then connects it with recompense for human conduct.

Mā ʿinda Allāh should therefore not be restricted in translation to one kind of wealth or bodily benefit.

The reward of steadfast people appears in the same verse, connecting lasting value with the outcome of conduct.

Bāqin itself does not mean reward. Remaining is a characteristic; whether the thing is reward, mercy, or blessing depends on context.

Remaining and passing away: Al-Raḥmān 55:26 and Al-Raḥmān 55:27

Al-Raḥmān 55:26

كُلُّ مَنْ عَلَيْهَا فَانٍ

kullu man ʿalayhā fānin

Translation:

“Everyone upon it is passing away.”

Al-Raḥmān 55:27

وَيَبْقَىٰ وَجْهُ رَبِّكَ ذُو الْجَلَالِ وَالْإِكْرَامِ

wa-yabqā wajhu rabbika dhū al-jalāli wa-al-ikrāmi

Translation:

“And the wajh of your Lord, Possessor of majesty and honor, remains.”

These verses express the contrast in a particularly broad Qur’anic setting.

Al-Raḥmān 55:26 concerns the passing away of those upon the earth.

Al-Raḥmān 55:27 applies yabqā to wajhu rabbika.

The verb expresses continuing and not passing away within this contrast.

Wajh, however, requires study through the separate root W J H and the context of divine description.

Study of W J H

Pairing wajh with yabqā does not establish that The God is a body with perishable parts and a single surviving part called a face.

The Lord’s wajh remaining concerns The God’s continuance and what truly belongs to Him, rather than a bodily organ’s duration.

Nor can the verb baqiya alone yield a complete theory of time, The God’s relationship with time, or the manner of His existence.

The clear assertion is the fundamental difference between creatures passing away and their Lord remaining.

Al-Rāghib likewise distinguishes The God’s continuance from that of creatures dependent on Him.

Al-Rāghib: the Lord’s continuance and that of creatures

A person may live a long time or receive enduring life in the Hereafter, but this does not possess the independence and self-sufficiency of The God’s continuance.

Shared vocabulary therefore does not establish an identical mode of continuance for every referent.

6. Abqā: more lasting, not necessarily eternal

Abqā occurs seven times as a Qur’anic comparative.

It compares the duration or persistence of one thing with another.

Comparison is its defining grammatical feature.

Saying something is abqā emphasizes greater duration. The comparative form alone does not establish that it must be endless.

A stone building, for example, may outlast a wooden shelter while both eventually disappear.

Understanding abqā therefore requires identifying the things compared.

Pharaoh’s threat and the believers’ answer: Ṭā Hā 20:71 and Ṭā Hā 20:73

Ṭā Hā 20:71 describes Pharaoh threatening the believing magicians with amputating hands and feet and crucifying them.

He then says:

«أَيُّنَا أَشَدُّ عَذَابًا وَأَبْقَىٰ»

ayyunā ashaddu ʿadhāban wa-abqā

“Which of us is more severe and enduring in punishment.”

They will learn, in his threat, which side is more severe and enduring in punishment.

Abqā concerns the continuation of punitive power in Pharaoh’s speech.

This is Pharaoh’s claim, rather than the Qur’an endorsing the superiority of his punishment.

Ṭā Hā 20:72 answers that his power is limited to worldly life.

Ṭā Hā 20:73

Verse text:

إِنَّا آمَنَّا بِرَبِّنَا لِيَغْفِرَ لَنَا خَطَايَانَا وَمَا أَكْرَهْتَنَا عَلَيْهِ مِنَ السِّحْرِ ۗ وَاللَّهُ خَيْرٌ وَأَبْقَىٰ

innā āmannā bi-rabbinā li-yaghfira lanā khaṭāyānā wa-mā akrahtanā ʿalayhi mina al-siḥri wa-Allāhu khayrun wa-abqā

Translation:

“We have believed in our Lord so that He may forgive our faults and the sorcery you compelled us to perform. The God is better and more lasting.”

This presents a different use of abqā.

Pharaoh relies on his punitive power, but the believers set The God’s superiority and continuance against that limited power.

Duration no longer concerns only a punishment’s length: The God Himself is contrasted with Pharaoh’s power.

“The God is more lasting” preserves the word’s comparative sense.

It does not mean that His continuance merely exceeds Pharaoh’s lifespan by a measurable amount, as though both possessed the same kind of existence and differed only in duration.

The linguistic comparison exposes the insignificance of Pharaoh’s limited power before The God.

Worldly life and the Hereafter: differing duration

Ṭā Hā 20:127 calls the Hereafter’s punishment ashadd wa-abqā, more severe and lasting.

Ṭā Hā 20:131 describes the Lord’s provision as khayr wa-abqā, better and more lasting.

Al-Qaṣaṣ 28:60 and Al-Shūrā 42:36 describe what is with The God as better and more lasting than worldly benefits.

Al-Aʿlā 87:17 likewise describes the Hereafter as better and more lasting than worldly life.

The shared pattern contrasts what people possess in a short worldly life with value and duration within the Hereafter’s wider horizon.

The uses should not all be reduced to an identical referent.

Ṭā Hā 20:127 concerns the punishment of the Hereafter.

Ṭā Hā 20:131 concerns the Lord’s provision.

Al-Qaṣaṣ 28:60 contrasts worldly enjoyment and adornment with what is with The God.

Al-Shūrā 42:36 combines that contrast with descriptions of people who believe and trust their Lord.

Al-Aʿlā 87:17 compares the Hereafter itself with worldly life.

Abqā retains its comparative sense throughout, but the subject differs in each case.

“More lasting” is therefore preferable in the basic translation. Endless duration or the nature of reward and punishment requires separate consideration of further verses.

Nor do these passages establish that worldly life, provision, comfort, or material resources are inherently blameworthy.

They compare duration and value with what is with The God. A blessing’s limited duration does not make it worthless or forbidden.

7. Al-bāqiyāt al-ṣāliḥāt: lasting good deeds

Al-bāqiyāt al-ṣāliḥāt is one of the root’s principal Qur’anic expressions.

It appears twice: Al-Kahf 18:46 and Maryam 19:76.

Both pair bāqiyāt with ṣāliḥāt.

The phrase therefore concerns more than anything that happens to remain: lastingness and goodness are combined.

Al-Kahf 18:46

Verse text:

الْمَالُ وَالْبَنُونَ زِينَةُ الْحَيَاةِ الدُّنْيَا ۖ وَالْبَاقِيَاتُ الصَّالِحَاتُ خَيْرٌ عِنْدَ رَبِّكَ ثَوَابًا وَخَيْرٌ أَمَلًا

al-mālu wa-al-banūna zīnatu al-ḥayāti al-dunyā wa-al-bāqiyātu al-ṣāliḥātu khayrun ʿinda rabbika thawāban wa-khayrun amalan

Translation:

“Wealth and children are the adornment of worldly life; lasting good deeds are better with your Lord in reward and better in hope.”

Wealth and children are described as worldly life’s adornment.

The verse does not call them inherently bad. In their place, they form part of life’s beauty and enjoyment.

Lasting good deeds are nevertheless described as better in reward and hope.

The comparison concerns value and duration.

Wealth can disappear, and life ends. Children are independent persons, and one’s relationship with them alone does not guarantee an afterlife outcome.

A deed worthy in The God’s judgment can retain value beyond the worldly occasion of its performance.

Someone may spend money helping a person in need: the money leaves their property, but the good deed’s value can remain with The God.

Lastingness here need not mean the physical action continues forever in the same form and moment.

The action may be finished while its value, effect, and reward remain.

The connection with khayrun ʿinda rabbika thawāban, better with your Lord in reward, supports this explanation.

Maryam 19:76

Verse text:

وَيَزِيدُ اللَّهُ الَّذِينَ اهْتَدَوْا هُدًى ۗ وَالْبَاقِيَاتُ الصَّالِحَاتُ خَيْرٌ عِنْدَ رَبِّكَ ثَوَابًا وَخَيْرٌ مَرَدًّا

wa-yazīdu Allāhu alladhīna ihtadaw hudan wa-al-bāqiyātu al-ṣāliḥātu khayrun ʿinda rabbika thawāban wa-khayrun maraddan

Translation:

“The God increases those who have found guidance in guidance. Lasting good deeds are better with your Lord in reward and better in outcome.”

The same expression appears, but the sentence’s ending differs from Al-Kahf.

Al-Kahf 18:46 has khayrun amalan.

Maryam 19:76 has khayrun maraddan.

The distinction should remain visible in translation.

Amal concerns hope and expectation; maradd concerns return and outcome.

Despite sharing al-bāqiyāt al-ṣāliḥāt, the endings emphasize different aspects.

Are lasting good deeds restricted to particular formulas of remembrance?

Some exegetical reports explain the phrase through formulas of glorification, praise, magnification, and declaring divine unity.

Others mention ṣalāt, particular acts of worship, or good deeds generally.

The differences matter for interpretation’s history, but identifying an example differs from establishing an exclusive definition.

The Arabic construction itself does not name four particular formulas.

It combines descriptions of lastingness and goodness.

A formula of remembrance or act of worship may belong within the expression if it is good and enduring in value. This does not exclude other good deeds.

After recording narrower explanations, al-Rāghib likewise prefers the broad sense of worthy acts whose value remains with The God.

Al-Ṭabarī: good deeds beyond particular formulas of remembrance

This fits the general construction and its contrast with transient worldly adornments.

Justice, helping the needy, fulfilling commitments, reconciling people, safeguarding rights, and other good actions can be considered within this conceptual field.

A deed’s final value before The God is not established simply by giving it an attractive name. Intention, justice, circumstances, and effects also require examination through the related verses.

Thus al-bāqiyāt al-ṣāliḥāt broadly describes good deeds with enduring value and outcome, rather than exclusively naming a few spoken formulas.

8. When nothing is left remaining

The Qur’an also uses this family to negate remaining.

These uses show the actual relationship between continuance and ending.

Fa-mā abqā: Al-Najm 53:51

Verse text:

وَثَمُودَ فَمَا أَبْقَىٰ

wa-Thamūda fa-mā abqā

Translation:

“And Thamūd as well; He left nothing remaining.”

Al-Najm 53:50 had mentioned ʿĀd’s destruction, followed here by Thamūd.

Abqā is a Form IV past verb negated by mā.

Its distinction from comparative abqā is essential.

In wa-al-ākhiratu khayrun wa-abqā, abqā means more lasting.

Fa-mā abqā instead means that He left nothing remaining.

Similar written consonants do not establish identical grammatical roles.

The context describes Thamūd’s destruction. Its precise scope nevertheless requires the other passages concerning Thamūd, since elsewhere the Qur’an describes Ṣāliḥ and the believers being rescued.

The expression should therefore not deny every survivor throughout the entire event.

Lā tubqī wa-lā tadharu: Al-Muddaththir 74:28

Verse text:

لَا تُبْقِي وَلَا تَذَرُ

lā tubqī wa-lā tadharu

Translation:

“It neither leaves anything remaining nor leaves it alone.”

The verse describes Saqar.

Tubqī is a Form IV imperfect verb negated by lā.

Tadharu belongs to the separate root W DH R and concerns leaving or letting be.

Together, the verbs express severity and comprehensiveness.

The two verbs alone should not determine every detail of punishment’s duration, whether it ends, or the bodily nature of those in Saqar.

Within its context, the verse describes a severity that leaves nothing in its previous condition.

Leaving something remaining and letting it be are related but distinct. The first concerns preservation or remaining; the second concerns leaving alone.

Translation should preserve the distinction as far as possible.

Min bāqiyatin: Al-Ḥāqqah 69:8

Verse text:

فَهَلْ تَرَىٰ لَهُمْ مِنْ بَاقِيَةٍ

fa-hal tarā lahum min bāqiyatin

Translation:

“Do you then see any remnant of them?”

This follows the description of ʿĀd’s destruction.

Bāqiyah may denote a surviving person or group.

Lexical and grammatical accounts also allow a nominal sense of continuance or a remnant.

Al-Mufradāt and Lisān: analyses of bāqiyah in Al-Ḥāqqah

Both readings converge on the absence of what might have remained from the people in the scene of destruction.

“Do you see any remnant of them?” naturally conveys the question.

It does not without further evidence determine the fate of all generations and every possible associate at every time. The destruction narrative and other passages establish its scope.

Together with Al-Najm and Al-Muddaththir, this shows the root’s connection both with survival and rescue and with destruction and the absence of survivors.

9. Distinctions from related roots

B Q Y (baqiya) and F N Y (faniya)

Study of F N Y (Not yet published)

Fanāʾ is the closest contrasting concept.

Baqāʾ concerns continuing; fanāʾ concerns disappearing or coming to an end.

Al-Raḥmān 55:26 and Al-Raḥmān 55:27 clearly express the contrast.

Something passing away does not mean it was worthless or useless throughout its existence.

Nor does remaining at one moment establish imperishability.

Understanding worldly existence and the Hereafter requires distinguishing limited duration, perishability, and a continuance whose ending is negated in a particular Qur’anic context.

B Q Y (baqiya) and N F D (nafida)

Study of N F D (Not yet published)

N F D concerns something being exhausted, particularly an amount or store that is consumed.

Al-Naḥl 16:96 places yanfadu opposite bāqin.

Food supplies may be used up; nafād aptly describes their exhaustion.

Remaining is not limited to stores or quantities, however. It can concern a person, message, relationship, or reward.

N F D is therefore an important contrast, but its range is not identical to fanāʾ.

B Q Y (baqiya) and KH L D (khalada)

Study of KH L D

KH L D concerns long duration and persistence, and in some afterlife passages endless continuance.

Baqāʾ also expresses continuing, but the root does not necessarily specify unlimited duration.

Someone surviving an accident is remaining, without the word establishing that they will never die.

Expressions of khulūd in afterlife passages, meanwhile, require attention to their qualifications, subjects, and the full network of verses.

“Eternal” is therefore not a suitable translation of bāqī everywhere. Equally, limited worldly uses cannot settle the duration of every afterlife promise.

B Q Y (baqiya) and D W M (dawām)

Study of D W M (Not yet published)

Ibn Fāris uses dawām to define the root.

The families overlap in expressing continuance.

Baqiyyah, however, can identify an amount or portion remaining after other parts disappear. This sense does not follow from every use of dawām.

Dawām therefore helps explain the core without explaining every form, including baqiyyah and istibqāʾ, by itself.

B Q Y (baqiya) and T R K (taraka)

Study of T R K

T R K concerns leaving or leaving behind.

Al-Baqarah 2:248 combines the fields: a remnant of what the households of Moses and Aaron left behind.

The distinction is clear.

Taraka concerns the action of leaving something.

Baqiyyah concerns what still remains afterward.

A person may leave something that later disappears. Something may also remain without anyone deliberately leaving it.

The concepts therefore relate without being identical.

10. Morphology and translation proposals for Forqan

B Q Y is a weak-final yāʾ root. Its final consonant changes in some forms and is written with alif maqṣūrah in yabqā and abqā.

This spelling should not prompt assigning B Q W or another root to the Qur’anic forms.

Early dialects also record alternative pronunciations of baqiya. Ibn Fāris describes a Ṭayyiʾ usage changing the vowel before yāʾ. This matters historically, but the present study follows the standard Qur’anic forms.

Morphology requires distinguishing Form I, Form IV, the comparative, the active participle, and the noun baqiyyah.

Baqiya and yabqā express remaining.

Abqā as Form IV means leaving or preserving; as a comparative, it means more lasting.

Bāqin is an active participle describing what remains.

Bāqīn is masculine plural and bāqiyāt feminine plural within the same descriptive family.

Bāqiyah may describe something lasting or function as a designation for a remnant or continuance, depending on construction.

Baqiyyah denotes what remains and extends in certain social and ethical expressions to a resource of goodness or capacity for preservation and forbearance.

Suggested equivalents

For baqiya, “remained” and “was left” are appropriate.

For causative abqā, “left remaining,” “preserved,” or, where appropriate, “did not destroy” can fit.

Comparative abqā is “more lasting” or “more enduring.”

Material baqiyyah is a “remainder” or “what is left.” In ulū baqiyyatin, the people’s described conduct supports “people retaining goodness and discernment.”

Bāqin can be “remaining” or “lasting.”

Bāqīn can be “those remaining” or, in a rescue context, “survivors.”

Bāqiyah requires choosing “remaining,” “lasting,” or “remnant” according to the modified noun and construction.

The proposal for al-bāqiyāt al-ṣāliḥāt is “lasting good deeds.”

These share a lexical core, but uniform wording should not erase morphological and contextual differences.

Proposals for important occurrences

In Al-Baqarah 2:248, wa-baqiyyatun mimmā taraka is “and a remnant of what they left behind.”

In Al-Baqarah 2:278, mā baqiya mina al-ribā is “what remains of usury.”

In Hūd 11:86, baqiyyatu Allāh should retain its relationship to The God, with lawful earnings and economic justice explained contextually.

In Hūd 11:116, ulū baqiyyatin is “people retaining goodness and discernment,” following early usage and the conduct described.

Al-Naḥl 16:96 should preserve yanfadu versus bāqin through “comes to an end” and “remains.”

Al-bāqiyāt al-ṣāliḥāt in Al-Kahf 18:46 and Maryam 19:76 should not be restricted to a few particular formulas or acts of worship.

Kalimatan bāqiyatan in Al-Zukhruf 43:28 is “a lasting word,” concerning a message’s continuance.

Yabqā in Al-Raḥmān 55:27 is “remains,” without importing a bodily reading of wajh into the verb.

Comparative abqā is “more lasting”; the verbal use in Al-Najm 53:51 instead means “He left nothing remaining.”

In Al-Ḥāqqah 69:8, min bāqiyatin is naturally “any remnant,” within the people’s destruction narrative.

11. Conclusion

B Q Y expresses something continuing rather than disappearing. Its subjects can include people, property, relationships, messages, values, or the results of conduct.

Early usage goes beyond bodily duration to preserved friendship, forbearance, sparing lives, retained property, and strength reserved for continued movement.

The Qur’anic uses have several principal directions.

First, what remains from something: relics of Moses’ and Aaron’s households, an outstanding financial claim, or a surviving resource of goodness and responsibility within society.

Second, people and descendants surviving: those left after an event or a lineage continuing after earlier generations.

Third, speech and conduct enduring: Abraham’s lasting word and good deeds whose value and reward remain with The God.

Fourth, comparisons of duration: worldly life’s brevity against the Hereafter, or Pharaoh’s limited power against The God’s continuance.

Fifth, negation of remaining: the destruction of a people or a severity leaving nothing in its previous condition.

The core remains shared, but the word alone does not determine duration, subject, or value.

Remaining property, continuing descendants, preserved friendship, and The God’s continuance differ in referent and nature.

Baqiyyah likewise does not always mean a material quantity left over. It concerns property and relics in one context and a resource of goodness and human responsibility in another.

Comparative abqā expresses greater duration without necessarily establishing absolute eternity in every setting.

Final root definition: B Q Y denotes something continuing or not disappearing against ending, passing away, or loss. Causative constructions express leaving or preserving; descriptive forms express lastingness and surviving; baqiyyah denotes what remains of a whole, relationship, or valuable resource.

The distinguishing feature is continuance against ending, rather than necessarily eternity, positive ethical value, or every characteristic remaining unchanged.

Each Qur’anic use therefore requires its own subject and context. What remains may be modest wealth, a survivor, a lasting word, or value preserved with The God from a person’s good conduct.