Qur’anic Root S R M D — Sarmad: Continuous Duration and Unbroken Continuance
Qur’anic and lexical forms
سَرْمَدًا
(sarmadan)
Al-Qaṣaṣ 28:71; continuous night
سَرْمَدًا
(sarmadan)
Al-Qaṣaṣ 28:72; continuous day
سَرْمَد
(sarmad)
Base form; lasting and continuous
سَرْمَدِيّ
(sarmadī)
Relational adjective; not used in the Qur’an
سَرْمَدِيَّة
(sarmadiyyah)
Abstract noun; not used in the Qur’an
سَرْمَدَ
(sarmada)
Verb recorded in later Arabic; not used in the Qur’an
1. Root Meaning and Word Structure
Arabic sarmad (سَرْمَد) describes something that continues without a break or interruption during the period in question. It is especially used of time, night, and day: a night continuing without interruption, or a day that does not give way to night.
Al-ʿAyn explains sarmad through the duration and continuity of time. In Al-Ṣiḥāḥ, al-Jawharī defines it as al-dāʾim (الدَّائِمُ), “lasting” or “continuing.”
Ibn Manẓūr writes in Lisān al-ʿArab: “السَّرْمَدُ: دَوَامُ الزَّمَانِ مِنْ لَيْلٍ أَوْ نَهَارٍ”—the continuance of time, whether night or day.
He also adds: “وَلَيْلٌ سَرْمَدٌ: طَوِيلٌ”—a night described as sarmad is a long night.
Al-ʿAyn, Al-Ṣiḥāḥ, and Lisān al-ʿArab: continuous time and a long night
These explanations establish an important point. Sarmad concerns duration and continuation, but Arabic usage does not invariably mean absolute infinity. Even a night experienced as very long can receive this description.
The word’s meaning should therefore be distinguished from philosophical claims about endless time.
In ordinary usage, sarmad emphasizes the continuity of a condition that does not undergo the usual interruption or give way to another condition. How long that continuance lasts is clarified by the word’s use or its accompanying qualifications.
In the Qur’an, sarmadan (سَرْمَدًا) describes night once and day once. Both occurrences include ilā yawmi al-qiyāmah (إِلَىٰ يَوْمِ الْقِيَامَةِ), “until the Day of Resurrection,” specifying the imagined duration.
These Qur’anic occurrences thus describe a hypothetical continuance up to the temporal limit stated in the sentence, rather than beginninglessness or necessary absolute endlessness. The expression alone also gives no account of the condition of night and day after the Resurrection.
2. Morphological Origin and the Proposed Connection with S R D
Qur’anic morphological indexes list sarmad under the quadriliteral entry S R M D (س ر م د). Early lexicographers and grammarians nevertheless disagreed about whether its mīm is an original radical or an added letter.
Ibn Fāris: Connection with Sard
In Maqāyīs al-Lughah, Ibn Fāris connects sarmad with the triliteral root S R D (س ر د).
He writes:
السَّرْمَدُ: الدَّائِمُ، وَالْمِيمُ فِيهِ زَائِدَةٌ، وَهُوَ مِنْ سَرَدَ، إِذَا وَصَلَ، فَكَأَنَّهُ زَمَانٌ مُتَّصِلٌ بَعْضُهُ بِبَعْضٍ
al-sarmadu: al-dāʾimu, wa-l-mīmu fīhi zāʾidatun, wa-huwa min sarada, idhā waṣala, fa-ka-annahu zamānun muttaṣilun baʿḍuhu bi-baʿḍin
That is: sarmad means “lasting”; its mīm is additional, and it comes from sarada, “to join,” as though it were time whose parts are connected to one another.
Maqāyīs al-Lughah, vol.3, p.160: the analysis of an added mīm
This account rests on an attested meaning of S R D: joining and following consecutively.
In Arabic, sarada can mean bringing something forth in succession. Sard al-ḥadīth (سَرْدُ الْحَدِيثِ) can concern continuous narration, while sard in armor making concerns the ordered connection of its components.
The Qur’an likewise uses al-sard in Sabaʾ 34:11 in the context of making armor.
Ibn Fāris’s explanation therefore has a clear semantic connection: as armor rings or parts of speech follow one another, time described as sarmad continues without a gap.
This semantic connection does not, however, by itself establish that sarmad historically derives from sarada.
Another View: An Independent Quadriliteral
Other grammarians instead regard mīm as an original letter of the word.
On this reading, sarmad follows the pattern faʿlal (فَعْلَل), rather than faʿmal (فَعْمَل).
In Al-Durr al-Maṣūn, al-Samīn al-Ḥalabī considers an original mīm morphologically more apparent, because inserting mīm in the middle of such a word is not a regular, productive pattern.
Al-Durr al-Maṣūn, vol.8, p.692: the two morphological analyses
Accordingly, the resemblance between sarmad and sard can represent a semantic relationship without establishing direct derivation.
The disagreement should be preserved. Two distinct questions are involved: the meaning of sarmad, which the lexicons explain clearly, and the historical formation of its structure, which remains disputed.
Continuity and uninterrupted duration do not depend on proving that mīm is added. Whether sarmad derives from sard or is an independent quadriliteral, its attested use still denotes duration and continuity.
Linguistic Forms
The basic form is sarmad, used as a noun or description.
سَرْمَد — sarmad: lasting, continuous, and ongoing, especially of time and conditions extending without interruption.
سَرْمَدًا — sarmadan: the accusative form and the only form used in the Qur’an.
سَرْمَدِيّ — sarmadī: a relational adjective formed from sarmad, associated with duration or enduring continuity.
سَرْمَدِيَّة — sarmadiyyah: an abstract noun also used in philosophical and theological discussion.
Later Arabic also records the verb sarmada for persisting in and continuing an activity without interruption. Dozy cites yusarmidu al-ṣawma (يُسَرْمِدُ الصَّوْمَ), concerning continuous fasting. This witness alone establishes neither the general meaning “make anything permanent” nor the verb’s currency in pre-Qur’anic Arabic.
Dozy’s Supplément: the witness concerning continuous fasting
Only sarmadan occurs in the Qur’an. No verb, plural, or relational adjective from this family appears there.
3. Early Arabic Evidence and Continuance
An important pre-Islamic poetic witness is a verse from Ṭarafah ibn al-ʿAbd’s Muʿallaqah:
لَعَمْرُكَ مَا أَمْرِي عَلَيَّ بِغُمَّةٍ
نَهَارِي وَلَا لَيْلِي عَلَيَّ بِسَرْمَدِ
la-ʿamruka mā amrī ʿalayya bi-ghummatin / nahārī wa-lā laylī ʿalayya bi-sarmadi
“By your life, my affairs are not obscure to me by day, nor does my night become unending and exceedingly long for me.”
The poet speaks of decisiveness and emerging from difficulty. He presents himself as someone who does not remain trapped in prolonged uncertainty and bewilderment when facing problems.
Wa-lā laylī ʿalayya bi-sarmadi, “nor is my night unending for me,” evokes a night experienced as very long through worry, suffering, or uncertainty.
Early commentaries on the Muʿallaqah explain sarmad here as lasting and uninterrupted, without taking the poet to mean that a person’s night actually continues to infinity.
Al-Zawzanī’s Sharḥ al-Muʿallaqāt al-Sabʿ: explanation of Ṭarafah’s verse
He describes the experience of a lengthened night and a continuing difficult condition.
The witness matters because it places sarmad in pre-Qur’anic Arabic poetry and associates it with a condition’s continuing and becoming prolonged.
Continuity is clear in this use, but the actual duration is not specified by the word alone.
Lexical explanations also record laylun sarmadun (لَيْلٌ سَرْمَدٌ) for a very long night.
Some sources also record abadan samadan sarmadan (أَبَدًا سَمَدًا سَرْمَدًا) as an emphatic expression of duration and continuance. The proximity of samad and sarmad is noteworthy, but their juxtaposition does not establish the historical derivation of one from the other.
Al-Mughrib: the emphatic expression abadan samadan sarmadan
The entry S M D has other uses as well; they should not all be transferred into sarmad.
Ṭarafah’s verse and the lexical accounts thus agree on a central point: sarmad describes a condition continuing without interruption during the period in question.
Is Sarmad Used Only of Time?
The best-known lexical uses concern time, night, and day.
Al-Ṭabarī nevertheless notes that Arabic can also apply the description to continuous conditions such as ease, affliction, or blessing.
Al-Ṭabarī: continuous ease, affliction, and blessing
This extension is understandable: being sarmad expresses a condition’s continuity rather than the kind of thing it is.
For example, when ease or hardship continues without interruption, its continuity can be described in this way.
That does not mean sarmad intrinsically names ease, suffering, or blessing.
The word expresses continuation; the noun it describes identifies the condition continuing.
Its temporal use likewise does not establish that anything called sarmad must have existed since the beginning of the world or must survive its end.
Such claims depend on the time span, the subject, and the sentence’s context.
4. Qur’anic Usage: Continuous Night and Day
S R M D occurs twice in the Qur’an, both times as sarmadan in consecutive verses of Al-Qaṣaṣ.
Quranic Arabic Corpus: two occurrences of sarmadan
The verses have almost identical structures, but one supposes continuous night and the other continuous day.
Al-Qaṣaṣ 28:71: Continuous Night without Daylight
Al-Qaṣaṣ 28:71
قُلْ أَرَأَيْتُمْ إِنْ جَعَلَ اللَّهُ عَلَيْكُمُ اللَّيْلَ سَرْمَدًا إِلَىٰ يَوْمِ الْقِيَامَةِ مَنْ إِلَٰهٌ غَيْرُ اللَّهِ يَأْتِيكُمْ بِضِيَاءٍ أَفَلَا تَسْمَعُونَ
qul araʾaytum in jaʿala Allāhu ʿalaykumu al-layla sarmadan ilā yawmi al-qiyāmati man ilāhun ghayru Allāhi yaʾtīkum bi-ḍiyāʾin a-fa-lā tasmaʿūna
Proposed Persian translation, rendered here in English:
“Say: Have you considered—if The God made night continuous over you until the Day of Resurrection, what god other than The God would bring you light? Will you not hear?”
Sarmadan describes the condition of night in this verse.
Jaʿala Allāhu ʿalaykumu al-layla sarmadan describes a hypothetical situation in which night remains continuously present.
If jaʿala means “make into a condition,” al-layla, “night,” is its first object and sarmadan its second: to make night continuous.
In another grammatical analysis, if jaʿala means “create,” sarmadan can be a circumstantial qualifier of al-layla: creating night in a continuous condition.
The principal meaning remains the same in both readings: a night continuing without interruption.
Al-Durr al-Maṣūn: sarmadan as second object or circumstantial qualifier
The Importance of “Until the Day of Resurrection”
Sarmadan is followed by ilā yawmi al-qiyāmah, “until the Day of Resurrection.”
This phrase specifies the temporal span of the hypothetical situation.
The qualification presents the continuance within the hypothetical frame “until the Day of Resurrection.” It does not establish necessary absolute endlessness; equally, merely stating this limit does not independently report the ending of night or day after that point.
Understanding sarmad as unbroken continuance makes the sentence clear: suppose night continued from the time in question until the Day of Resurrection without giving way to day.
Being sarmad thus concerns uninterrupted presence during the stated period, rather than denying every beginning and ending.
Ilā, “until,” has a real function here. It expresses extension up to a stated temporal limit and should not be ignored in translation or analysis. Expressing extension up to a limit does not, by itself, independently describe events beyond that limit.
Light in Contrast with Continuous Night
The verse then asks what god other than The God could bring people ḍiyāʾ, “light.”
Ḍiyāʾ (ضِيَاء) concerns light and illumination. Here the light people need is set against continuous night.
Sarmad itself does not mean darkness. It expresses continuation; al-layl, “night,” supplies the subject of that continuation.
Were day made sarmad, the same word would describe daylight and the uninterrupted presence of day.
Sarmad is therefore intrinsically neither dark nor light: it denotes the continuation of the condition named in the sentence.
Here that condition is night. The question about providing light brings out the significance of day replacing night.
Al-Qaṣaṣ 28:72: Continuous Day without Night for Rest
Al-Qaṣaṣ 28:72
قُلْ أَرَأَيْتُمْ إِنْ جَعَلَ اللَّهُ عَلَيْكُمُ النَّهَارَ سَرْمَدًا إِلَىٰ يَوْمِ الْقِيَامَةِ مَنْ إِلَٰهٌ غَيْرُ اللَّهِ يَأْتِيكُمْ بِلَيْلٍ تَسْكُنُونَ فِيهِ أَفَلَا تُبْصِرُونَ
qul araʾaytum in jaʿala Allāhu ʿalaykumu al-nahāra sarmadan ilā yawmi al-qiyāmati man ilāhun ghayru Allāhi yaʾtīkum bi-laylin taskunūna fīhi a-fa-lā tubṣirūna
Proposed Persian translation, rendered here in English:
“Say: Have you considered—if The God made day continuous over you until the Day of Resurrection, what god other than The God would bring you a night in which to rest? Will you not see?”
The same word and construction recur, but al-nahāra, “day,” replaces al-layla, “night.”
This contrast makes sarmad’s meaning clearer.
The first verse supposes night without day; the second supposes day without night.
Both concern the absence of the usual alternation between the two conditions.
If night is sarmad, day does not replace it. If day is sarmad, night does not replace it.
In this context, sarmad can therefore be explained as the continuation of a temporal condition without its opposite normally succeeding it.
This is more precise than simply “very long.” The verse concerns not merely length of time but the uninterrupted presence of night or day until the Day of Resurrection.
Stillness and Rest
The second hypothetical situation ends with a question about a night in which people can rest: bi-laylin taskunūna fīhi (بِلَيْلٍ تَسْكُنُونَ فِيهِ).
This phrase identifies an important function of night in human life.
Continuous day provides light, but does not replace every function of night.
Likewise, continuous night may provide a setting for rest, but does not replace daylight and the opportunities of day.
The verses concern more than the beauty of alternating night and day: human life depends on differing conditions with distinct functions.
They should nevertheless not be taken to require every person to sleep throughout every night or conduct all earning activities only in daytime.
The verses describe the general functions of night and day, rather than a uniform, unchangeable schedule for every person and every region of the earth.
The Continuing Context in Al-Qaṣaṣ 28:73
Al-Qaṣaṣ 28:73
وَمِنْ رَحْمَتِهِ جَعَلَ لَكُمُ اللَّيْلَ وَالنَّهَارَ لِتَسْكُنُوا فِيهِ وَلِتَبْتَغُوا مِنْ فَضْلِهِ وَلَعَلَّكُمْ تَشْكُرُونَ
wa-min raḥmatihi jaʿala lakumu al-layla wa-l-nahāra li-taskunū fīhi wa-li-tabtaghū min faḍlihi wa-laʿallakum tashkurūna
Proposed Persian translation, rendered here in English:
“And out of His mercy He made night and day for you, so that you may rest therein, seek of His bounty, and perhaps give thanks.”
This verse gives the outcome of the preceding two questions.
Al-Qaṣaṣ 28:71 and Al-Qaṣaṣ 28:72 present two hypothetical situations: continuous night and continuous day. Al-Qaṣaṣ 28:73 speaks of the presence of both and their differing functions.
The uninterrupted presence of night alone or day alone is thus contrasted with an arrangement containing both, from each of which human life benefits.
This should not be taken to mean that continuity itself is always harmful.
Being sarmad has no intrinsically negative meaning. What matters in these hypothetical situations is the absence of the opposite condition and the loss of its functions for people.
Sarmad here names neither affliction nor mercy; it describes continuance. Its consequences depend on what continues and on the human needs identified by the context.
6. Conclusion and Suggested Translation
Arabic sarmad denotes continuous duration, especially of night, day, and temporal conditions extending without interruption.
Early sources explain it both as lasting and unbroken and as describing a very long night.
Ṭarafah ibn al-ʿAbd’s poetic witness places the word in pre-Qur’anic Arabic, where it described a night’s prolongation and continuation.
There are two morphological analyses. Ibn Fāris treats mīm as additional and connects the word with sard, “joining.” Other grammarians regard mīm as original and sarmad as an independent quadriliteral.
The disagreement does not fundamentally alter the word’s clear Qur’anic meaning.
S R M D occurs twice in the Qur’an and only as sarmadan.
Al-Qaṣaṣ 28:71 supposes continuous night, which does not give way to daylight until the Day of Resurrection.
Al-Qaṣaṣ 28:72 supposes continuous day, which night does not replace until the Day of Resurrection.
The two uses emphasize a condition’s uninterrupted presence and the absence of its usual alternation with its opposite.
“Until the Day of Resurrection” in both verses also makes clear that being sarmad does not itself entail beginninglessness or absolute endlessness.
Brief root meaning: Continuous duration and unbroken continuance; a condition continuing without a break or interruption during the period in question.
Qur’anic forms and suggested translation:
سَرْمَدًا — sarmadan, Al-Qaṣaṣ 28:71: A night continuing uninterrupted until the Day of Resurrection, without day replacing it. Suggested translation: “continuous.”
سَرْمَدًا — sarmadan, Al-Qaṣaṣ 28:72: A day continuing uninterrupted until the Day of Resurrection, without night replacing it. Suggested translation: “continuous.”
For both verses, Persian peyvasteh gardānad, “make continuous,” can naturally convey jaʿala together with sarmadan.
“Permanent” is also lexically close. Since both verses explicitly say “until the Day of Resurrection,” however, “continuous” avoids implying absolute infinity without weakening the word’s force or genuine continuity.
This study’s central finding is that sarmad denotes unbroken duration, rather than necessarily an existence without beginning or end.
What is made sarmad continues and retains its uninterrupted condition during the stated period. Its beginning, ending, and whether its continuation is desirable must be established from context.
Continuous night and continuous day in Al-Qaṣaṣ are contrasting hypothetical situations revealing the importance of both conditions in human life. The next verse identifies their presence as an expression of divine mercy.
The root’s meaning is therefore not identical with darkness, light, harm, or mercy. Its core is continuity and continuance; the sentence identifies what continues and its consequences.