The Qur’anic Root B Z GH (Buzūgh and Bāzigh)
Appearing and beginning to rise; from an emerging tooth and incising skin to the rising moon and sun in Ibrāhīm’s dialogue
Qur’anic and lexical forms
بَازِغًا
(bāzighan)
Masculine accusative active participle functioning as ḥāl; Al-Anʿām 6:77
بَازِغَةً
(bāzighatan)
Feminine accusative active participle functioning as ḥāl; Al-Anʿām 6:78
بَزَغَ
(bazagha)
Basic triliteral lexical verb; this form is not Qur’anic
بُزُوغ / بَزْغ
(buzūgh / bazgh)
Lexical verbal nouns; not Qur’anic
بَوَازِغ
(bawāzigh)
Lexical plural; not Qur’anic
مِبْزَغ
(mibzagh)
Lexical instrument name; not Qur’anic
بَزَّغَ
(bazzagha)
Lexical form II verb of incising; not Qur’anic
اِبْتَزَغَ الرَّبِيعُ
(ibtazagha al-rabīʿu)
Lexical expression for spring beginning; not Qur’anic
1. Introduction and Qur’anic forms
In Arabic, B Z GH concerns something coming out and becoming visible after being concealed or out of sight. Its best-known use concerns the sun, moon, and stars as they rise above the horizon and appear in the sky.
Older Arabic also uses this family for a tooth emerging from the gum and for incising skin with a sharp instrument. A semantic connection can be seen: something appears from behind an obstruction, or an opening in a surface allows what lies beneath it to come out.
Nevertheless, the root’s uses should not all be confined to physical splitting. The appearance of the moon or sun does not mean that the heavenly body itself splits or that a physical opening forms in the horizon.
The root occurs only twice in the Qur’an, in two verses of Al-Anʿām:
- بَازِغًا (bāzighan) in Al-Anʿām 6:77, concerning the moon.
- بَازِغَةً (bāzighatan) in Al-Anʿām 6:78, concerning the sun.
Both are active participles of the basic triliteral verb bazagha. Their difference follows the masculine grammatical gender of al-qamar and the feminine gender of al-shams; it does not establish two independent meanings.
The verbs bazagha and yabzughu, the verbal nouns bazgh and buzūgh, and other derivatives such as bawāzigh and mibzagh do not occur in the Qur’an. These forms are known in Arabic, but are not among its two Qur’anic occurrences.
In both verses, the word concerns observing a heavenly body. In each, the appearance of the moon or sun is followed by ufūl: its disappearance from view.
This contrast provides the principal Qur’anic setting for understanding the root: rising and becoming visible on one side, going down and disappearing from sight on the other.
2. The semantic core in older Arabic
Rising and becoming visible
In Maqāyīs al-lughah, Ibn Fāris presents the root’s semantic core as follows:
«الْبَاءُ وَالزَّاءُ وَالْغَيْنُ أَصْلٌ وَاحِدٌ، وَهُوَ طُلُوعُ الشَّيْءِ وَظُهُورُهُ»
al-bāʾu wa-al-zāʾu wa-al-ghaynu aṣlun wāḥidun wa-huwa ṭulūʿu al-shayʾi wa-ẓuhūruhu
Translation: “Bāʾ, zāy, and ghayn have one underlying sense: something rising and becoming visible.”
He then gives two clear examples: بَزَغَتِ الشَّمْسُ and بَزَغَ نَابُ الْبَعِيرِ: the sun rose, and the camel’s canine tooth emerged.
The subjects differ in kind. The sun is a heavenly body, whereas a tooth is part of an animal’s body. Yet both move from being unseen to becoming visible.
In the case of a tooth, part of the gum opens and the tooth appears. In the case of the sun, what appears to the observer is its bright disc rising above the horizon.
The shared element may therefore be described as “beginning to become visible and come out.”
This resemblance does not establish that bazagha must always mean splitting a physical object. Ibn Fāris presents appearance and rising as the semantic core; incising skin is another use of the family.
The beginning of rising, or the entire rising?
In Tahdhīb al-lughah, Abū Manṣūr al-Azharī quotes al-Layth:
«بَزَغَتِ الشَّمْسُ بُزُوغًا: إِذَا بَدَا مِنْهَا طُلُوعٌ»
bazaghati al-shamsu buzūghan idhā badā minhā ṭulūʿun
Translation: “The sun underwent buzūgh: the beginning of its rising became apparent.”
Al-Azharī then explains that buzūgh is used of the sun, moon, and star at the beginning of their rising.
Lisān al-ʿArab records the same sense and quotes al-Zajjāj on bazaghat denoting the beginning of rising. The same source also explains buzūgh through ṭalaʿat and sharaqat: the sun rose or came up.
These witnesses show that the beginning of appearance is a prominent feature of buzūgh. They do not justify restricting it to a tiny instant when only a small portion of the sun’s or moon’s disc is visible.
When the sun is seen rising, part of it may already have crossed the horizon, or its disc may just have become visible. Without further qualification, buzūgh does not specify exactly how much of the disc has appeared.
Consequently, “rising,” “coming up,” and “being in the process of rising” can all convey the word’s meaning in an appropriate context.
Splitting the darkness: a lexical image or a proven origin?
Al-Azharī goes on to connect the buzūgh of heavenly bodies with bazgh in the sense of incising. He explains the image as though a luminous heavenly body were splitting the darkness with its light.
The image also appears in al-Zamakhsharī’s Asās al-balāghah. He describes a tooth splitting the gum and emerging, then connects the rising moon and sun with this image.
The comparison is readily understood. A tooth appearing from beneath the gum and the sun appearing beyond the horizon can both be compared to something emerging from behind an obstruction.
Such a resemblance does not establish a historical derivation.
We cannot confidently say that Arabic speakers first formed bazagha for incising skin and subsequently applied it to sunrise, or that the sense of rising came first and the incising use developed from it.
The lexical witnesses show a connection among the uses, but do not definitively establish the historical order in which they arose.
For Forqan’s study, appearance and the beginning of rising therefore remain the main definition. Splitting the darkness is presented as an intelligible lexical explanation, rather than a meaning that must enter every translation.
3. Uses in older Arabic life
A tooth emerging from the gum
Lisān al-ʿArab records بَزَغَ نَابُ الْبَعِيرِ for the emergence of a camel’s canine tooth.
It also records سِنٌّ بَازِغَةٌ for a tooth that has appeared through the gum.
Two events are connected in this use: the gum opens at the site of eruption, and the tooth becomes visible from beneath it.
Semantically, this resembles the rising sun or moon, since in both cases something gradually comes into view.
The difference is also clear. A tooth actually emerges through bodily tissue, whereas the moon and sun appear beyond the horizon to an observer on Earth.
The image of splitting the gum therefore cannot simply be converted into a physical explanation of heavenly bodies rising.
Mibzagh: an instrument for incising skin
In Arabic, mibzagh names a sharp instrument with which an animal practitioner or cupper made an incision or a limited cut.
In Jamharat al-lughah, Ibn Durayd records bazzagha for an animal practitioner incising part of an animal’s leg with an instrument. The iron implement used for the operation was called a mibzagh.
Tahdhīb al-lughah offers a more specific account: the practitioner might use a sharp implement to open an injured area near the hoof so that accumulated fluid could escape.
This differs from a tooth appearing. In tooth eruption, the tooth makes its way out; in the practitioner’s operation, a person opens a way out with an instrument.
Morphology also requires care. In the uses concerning rising and tooth eruption, bazagha expresses an appearance taking place; form II bazzagha is also recorded for an incision made by an agent. Nevertheless, the basic form bazagha also occurs transitively of a cupper or animal practitioner. The meaning is therefore not determined solely by the verb form: its object and context matter as well.
Sharing a root does not imply that the Qur’anic sun or moon is being physically split by an agent using a material tool.
A witness from Arabic poetry
A verse attributed to al-Ṭirimmāḥ ibn Ḥakīm reads:
يُسَاقِطُهَا تَتْرَى بِكُلِّ خَمِيلَةٍ
yusāqiṭuhā tatrā bi-kulli khamīlatin
كَبَزْغِ الْبِيَطَرِ الثَّقْفِ رَهْصَ الْكَوَادِنِ
ka-bazghi al-biyaṭari al-thaqfi rahṣa al-kawādini
Translation: “He brings them down, one after another, in every thicket, like a skilled animal practitioner lancing bruised hooves of workhorses.”
The poem describes a wild bull striking attacking dogs with its horns. The poet compares its blows to a practitioner opening an injured area of an animal’s hoof.
The verse is quoted in Tahdhīb al-lughah and Lisān al-ʿArab, but its variant wording and attribution matter. Al-Jawharī attributes it to al-Aʿshā in al-Ṣiḥāḥ, whereas Ibn Barrī assigns it to al-Ṭirimmāḥ. A version of al-Ṭirimmāḥ’s Dīwān also reads كَطَعْنِ instead of كَبَزْغِ.
With the reading kabazghi, the verse is a recorded witness to incising in the lexicographic tradition. Its variant wording, however, prevents treating it as an uncontested witness for the word’s history.
Al-Ṭirimmāḥ is an Umayyad poet, not a pre-Islamic poet. Even if kabazghi is accepted, the verse is therefore not direct evidence from before the Qur’an’s revelation.
The sources examined yielded no pre-Islamic verse of secure attribution and wording that explicitly contains bazagha or its derivatives. This limitation does not mean that the word was unknown in pre-Qur’anic Arabic; it only prevents assigning an unverified witness to that period.
The beginning of spring and the appearance of a new period
Lexicons also record اِبْتَزَغَ الرَّبِيعُ: the beginning of spring arrived.
Its subject differs from the rising moon or an emerging tooth. Here a period of time appears, rather than a physical object emerging from beneath a covering.
The semantic relationship remains clear: the beginning of something not previously present in that condition has become apparent.
This does not make bazagha mean renewal, birth, or the historical beginning of an entity in every sentence. The Qur’anic verses concern the moon and sun rising, rather than the beginning of their existence.
4. The first Qur’anic use: the rising moon
Al-Anʿām 6:77
فَلَمَّا رَأَى الْقَمَرَ بَازِغًا قَالَ هَٰذَا رَبِّي ۖ فَلَمَّا أَفَلَ قَالَ لَئِنْ لَمْ يَهْدِنِي رَبِّي لَأَكُونَنَّ مِنَ الْقَوْمِ الضَّالِّينَ
fa-lammā raʾā al-qamara bāzighan qāla hādhā rabbī fa-lammā afala qāla la-in lam yahdinī rabbī la-akūnanna mina al-qawmi al-ḍāllīna
Translation: “Then, when he saw the moon rising, he said: ‘This is my lord.’ But when it disappeared from sight, he said: ‘If my Lord does not guide me, I shall surely be among the people who go astray.’”
The construction al-qamara bāzighan
Here al-qamara is the object of raʾā, and bāzighan is an accusative circumstantial expression, or ḥāl.
The Qur’an therefore does more than say that Ibrāhīm saw the moon: it specifies the moon’s condition when observed. The moon was rising.
The distinction matters.
The moon can be seen in various positions. Sometimes it is rising above the horizon, sometimes it is in the middle of the sky, and sometimes it is descending toward the horizon.
Bāzighan describes the first of these conditions.
In his commentary on Al-Anʿām 6:77, al-Ṭabarī likewise explains bāzighan through ṭāliʿan: the moon rising.
The word alone, however, does not identify the moon’s phase in terms of its illuminated and dark portions.
Bāzighan does not establish that Ibrāhīm necessarily saw the first night’s crescent, or, conversely, a full moon in the sky.
Either conclusion would require an indication of lunar phase, and the verse contains no such qualification.
Bāzighan is therefore not a name for a new moon or full moon. It describes the moon rising.
Bāzighan in contrast with afala
Immediately after Ibrāhīm’s words, the Qur’an says:
«فَلَمَّا أَفَلَ»
fa-lammā afala
Afala belongs to the root ʾ F L and here refers to a heavenly body disappearing from sight.
Al-Ṭabarī explains it through ghāba: it became hidden or disappeared.
The verse thus presents two distinct conditions of the moon: its rising above the horizon and its disappearance from view.
The two words belong to independent root families.
BZGH concerns appearing and beginning to rise; ʾFL concerns disappearing.
The root B Z GH itself means neither setting nor instability, changeability, or the incapacity of an object of worship. These ideas emerge from comparing the two conditions and from Ibrāhīm’s words across the passage.
Was this Ibrāhīm’s first-ever sight of the moon?
The verse itself does not say so.
فَلَمَّا رَأَى الْقَمَرَ بَازِغًا speaks of seeing the moon in the condition of rising, rather than seeing it for the first time in Ibrāhīm’s entire life.
This distinction matters if we are to avoid inventing historical details. The verse specifies neither Ibrāhīm’s age, the place of observation, the date of that night, nor his earlier astronomical experience.
Nor does the sentence هَٰذَا رَبِّي alone determine whether he stated it as a settled conviction or spoke it in the course of discussing and examining his people’s beliefs.
To assess that issue, the whole account must be examined, particularly Al-Anʿām 6:74, Al-Anʿām 6:75, Al-Anʿām 6:76, Al-Anʿām 6:77, Al-Anʿām 6:78, Al-Anʿām 6:79, Al-Anʿām 6:80, Al-Anʿām 6:81, Al-Anʿām 6:82, and Al-Anʿām 6:83.
In Al-Anʿām 6:79, Ibrāhīm turns toward the Creator of the heavens and Earth and dissociates himself from those who associate partners. This ending matters for understanding the course of his reasoning.
A root study, however, should not be written around adopting one interpretation of this dialogue. In either reading, bāzighan still describes the moon rising.
5. The second Qur’anic use: the rising sun
Al-Anʿām 6:78
فَلَمَّا رَأَى الشَّمْسَ بَازِغَةً قَالَ هَٰذَا رَبِّي هَٰذَا أَكْبَرُ ۖ فَلَمَّا أَفَلَتْ قَالَ يَا قَوْمِ إِنِّي بَرِيءٌ مِمَّا تُشْرِكُونَ
fa-lammā raʾā al-shamsa bāzighatan qāla hādhā rabbī hādhā akbaru fa-lammā afalat qāla yā qawmi innī barīʾun mimmā tushrikūna
Translation: “Then, when he saw the sun rising, he said: ‘This is my lord; this is greater.’ But when it disappeared from sight, he said: ‘My people, I am free of what you associate as partners.’”
Bāzighatan: the same meaning in a feminine form
Bāzighatan is a feminine active participle in the accusative, functioning as a circumstantial expression.
Its difference from bāzighan in the preceding verse concerns grammatical agreement alone.
In that verse, qamar is masculine and bāzighan accordingly takes the masculine form.
Here shams is grammatically feminine in Arabic, so its description takes the feminine form bāzighatan.
This does not signify a more intense sunrise or establish that the moon’s and sun’s rising are entirely different events in the root’s meaning.
In both passages, raʾā concerns visual observation, and the active participle describes the heavenly body’s condition when observed.
Al-Qurṭubī likewise treats bāzighatan as an accusative circumstantial expression and explains it as the sun rising.
Hādhā akbar: which word expresses greatness?
After observing the sun, Ibrāhīm says:
«هَٰذَا أَكْبَرُ»
hādhā akbaru
The sentence presents the sun as greater.
Greatness is not part of the meaning of bāzighatan. It comes from the independent word akbar.
Bāzighatan should therefore not be translated as “the immense and radiant sun” on the assumption that all three descriptions are contained in this derivative.
Bāzighatan expresses rising and appearing; greatness is understood from akbar.
Al-Ṭabarī likewise explains hādhā akbar as comparing the sun with the moon and the preceding star.
The linguistic distinction is clear. Two heavenly bodies may both rise while differing in apparent size or brightness.
B Z GH describes their appearance and does not itself judge one to be greater than the other.
Why is hādhā used for the sun?
Al-shams is feminine in Arabic, as are bāzighatan and afalat in this verse.
Nevertheless, Ibrāhīm uses the masculine demonstrative hādhā in his speech.
Older lexicographers and grammarians offered several explanations. One is that the reference may be to هَٰذَا الطَّالِعُ, “this rising one,” or to the body or thing being seen.
Al-Qurṭubī transmits such explanations from al-Kisāʾī, al-Akhfash, and other grammarians.
The grammatical issue helps us understand Ibrāhīm’s speech, but does not alter the meaning of bāzighatan.
The description itself remains feminine and refers to the sun. The masculine demonstrative in the following sentence is not evidence that shams has become masculine here.
The sun’s rising and disappearance
As in the verse about the moon, bāzighatan stands in contrast with afalat.
The contrast places the sun’s appearance and disappearance within a sequence of reasoning.
Although the sun appears great and bright to human observers, it rises above the horizon and eventually disappears from view.
The observed event must nevertheless be distinguished from Ibrāhīm’s conclusion concerning the oneness of The God.
Buzūgh itself neither establishes nor denies divinity. The word expresses the phenomenon of rising.
In Ibrāhīm’s speech, observing the motion and disappearance of heavenly bodies contributes to reasoning about the Lord and dissociation from assigning partners to Him.
That reasoning emerges from the passage as a whole, rather than from the lexical meaning of one active participle.
7. Translation proposals for Forqan
For the general meaning of B Z GH, “rising,” “appearing,” and, where appropriate, “beginning to rise” are usable equivalents.
For a tooth, “emerging” or “appearing through the gum” is more natural.
In the veterinary use, “incising” or “lancing” is appropriate.
The two Qur’anic verses do not require the image of splitting, since the word is used of the moon and sun.
For bāzighan in Al-Anʿām 6:77, the principal proposal is:
“Rising.”
In a sentence:
“Then, when he saw the moon rising…”
The same equivalent suits bāzighatan in Al-Anʿām 6:78:
“Then, when he saw the sun rising…”
“Coming up” is also clear and defensible. “Rising” naturally conveys the heavenly body’s appearance above the horizon in English; the Persian equivalent dar ḥāl-e barāmadan similarly emphasizes its coming into view.
Renderings such as “splitting the darkness,” “radiating light,” “newly created,” or “appearing for the first time” should not replace the word’s direct meaning. Each adds an explanation or qualification that bāzigh does not necessarily express in these verses.
Nor do the masculine and feminine Arabic forms require different English words. English, like Persian, has no corresponding gender agreement in this expression, so one rendering suits both.
8. Conclusion
In older Arabic, B Z GH concerns something rising, coming out, and becoming visible.
Ibn Fāris presents rising and appearance as the family’s semantic core. Other uses concern a tooth emerging from the gum and skin being incised with an instrument.
Lexicographers connect the uses through the image of splitting and emerging. The image is intelligible, but cannot establish the definitive historical development of all the root’s meanings.
B Z GH occurs only twice in the Qur’an: bāzighan concerning the moon, and bāzighatan concerning the sun.
Both active participles function as circumstantial expressions and describe the heavenly body’s condition when Ibrāhīm observes it.
In each verse, buzūgh is followed by ufūl. This contrast places heavenly bodies rising and disappearing within Ibrāhīm’s reasoning.
Buzūgh itself, however, does not mean worship, divinity, guidance, or rejection of assigning partners. These ideas are understood from Ibrāhīm’s speech and the surrounding passage.
Nor does the moon’s buzūgh mean that it is a crescent. The active participle does not determine the disc’s size, its phase in the lunar month, or the precise time of observation.
Final definition for Forqan:
B Z GH in Arabic concerns something coming out and becoming visible after being hidden from sight. In celestial usage, the root denotes the beginning of the sun, moon, or a star rising and appearing; elsewhere it is also used of a tooth emerging or skin being incised. The Qur’an uses this root only in the two forms بَازِغًا and بَازِغَةً in Al-Anʿām 6:77 and Al-Anʿām 6:78, concerning the moon and sun rising. Its principal meaning is appearing and beginning to rise, rather than the sky physically splitting, a heavenly body beginning to exist, or the conclusion concerning the oneness of The God that emerges from comparing rising and setting in Ibrāhīm’s speech.