Qur’anic Root Z L Z L — Zalzala: Violent Shaking, Loss of Stability, and Convulsion

1. Root Meaning and Word Structure

In Arabic, zalzala means to shake or make something tremble, particularly when the movement is strong enough to disturb its settled, stable condition. It is used both for the tangible shaking of land and objects and for people who experience agitation, fear, and unrest under the pressure of severe events.

Two features matter in this word family: movement or shaking, and the disruption of a settled condition. What is shaken does not remain in its previous state of calm stability. The change may involve physical displacement or disturbance of a person’s condition and peace.

Al-ʿAyn, one of the earliest comprehensive Arabic dictionaries, defines zalzalah as taḥrīk al-shayʾ, “moving something,” and also records zalāzil for afflictions and hardships.

Kitāb al-ʿAyn: moving something and afflictions

Lisān al-ʿArab emphasizes intensity as well as movement. Its expression al-ḥarakah al-ʿaẓīmah wa-l-izʿāj al-shadīd describes great movement and a severe disturbance of peace or settledness.

Lisān al-ʿArab: severe movement and disrupted settledness

Zalzalah therefore does not merely denote ordinary movement. It often indicates shaking and agitation that disturb something’s established condition.

Structurally, Z L Z L is a quadriliteral root repeating the sequence Z L, and zalzala follows the pattern faʿlala. Comparable repetition appears in verbs such as qalqala and waswasa.

Sound repetition in such words may relate to successive movement, intensity, or continuity. Yet the structure of zalzala alone does not establish that every instance necessarily consists of several distinct shocks or regular, periodic movements.

Shaking and unrest are established by the attested lexical uses. The number of shocks, their duration, and their precise manner of occurrence are separate matters requiring context or independent evidence.

The Relationship between Z L Z L and Z L L

Many early dictionaries discuss zalzala alongside the triliteral entry Z L L.

Zalla means to slip or leave a stable position or course. For example, zallat qadamuhu describes a person’s foot slipping.

The same meaning extends beyond physical movement. A person may slip in speech, judgment, or conduct, departing from the right course or an earlier position.

Under the entry Z L in Maqāyīs al-Lughah, Ibn Fāris considers slipping, fluid movement, and the loss of settledness within one semantic field, including tazalzalati al-arḍu, “the earth shook.”

Maqāyīs al-Lughah, Z L: slipping and the earth’s shaking

This semantic connection is understandable. Slipping involves losing support or departing from a stable position; zalzalah likewise expresses movement and the disruption of stability.

There is nevertheless an important distinction between zalla and zalzala.

Zalla may describe a single slip, such as a slipping foot or an error in speech. Zalzala usually expresses stronger, more extensive shaking and unrest.

Shared consonants and related meanings allow a possible historical connection to be investigated. They do not justify importing every meaning of Z L L into Z L Z L without evidence. In particular, moral error or sin, attested in some uses of zalla, is not the direct meaning of zalzalah.

Study of Z L L

This distinction matters in the Qur’an because zulzilū also describes believers placed under severe pressure. In those verses, being shaken does not mean committing a sin or a moral lapse.

2. Lexical Forms and Early Arabic Evidence

Verbs and Verbal Nouns

Important forms in this Arabic word family include:

زَلْزَلَ — zalzala: A transitive past-tense verb: he shook something, made it tremble, or disturbed its settled condition.

يُزَلْزِلُ — yuzalzilu: The imperfect: he shakes or sets something trembling.

زُلْزِلَ — zulzila: A passive past-tense verb: it was shaken or subjected to severe shaking.

تَزَلْزَلَ — tazalzala: A verb following tafaʿlala: to begin shaking, become unstable, or enter a state of agitation and unrest.

زَلْزَلَة — zalzalah: The familiar verbal noun: movement or severe shaking.

زِلْزَال — zilzāl: A verbal noun or noun concerning shaking and the event of an earthquake. This form also occurs in the Qur’an.

زَلَازِل — zalāzil: The plural of zalzalah: earthquakes and, in figurative uses, afflictions and severe events.

مُزَلْزِل — muzalzil: An active participle: something or someone causing shaking or instability.

مُزَلْزَل — muzalzal: A passive participle: something or someone shaken or placed in a condition of instability.

These forms illustrate the word’s morphological range, but not all occur in the Qur’an. The Qur’an uses only the passive verb and the two nominal forms zalzalah and zilzāl.

Quranic Arabic Corpus: six occurrences in three derived forms

Zalzalah and Zilzāl

Lexical sources record both zalzalah and zilzāl for moving something and shaking.

The vocalizations zilzāl and zalzāl are also distinguished. Some grammarians and lexicographers classify zilzāl, with initial kasrah, as the verbal noun, and zalzāl, with initial fatḥah, as the name of the event.

This distinction is familiar in the morphological tradition. It does not mean, however, that the kasrah form always denotes only an abstract act of shaking, while the fatḥah form always denotes only an external event.

Actual usage can overlap between the name of an action and the name of an event.

The familiar form recorded in the Qur’anic text examined here is zilzāl, with initial kasrah. It appears in Al-Aḥzāb 33:11 and Al-Zalzalah 99:1.

In Al-Aḥzāb, zilzālan follows zulzilū as a cognate accusative, emphasizing the action and its intensity. In Al-Zalzalah, zilzālahā likewise follows zulzilati al-arḍu and emphasizes the earth’s shaking.

The morphological distinction should therefore be recognized without making these nominal forms express two wholly separate, incompatible concepts.

Lisān al-ʿArab and Tāj al-ʿArūs: zilzāl, zalzāl, action and event

Early Evidence for Shaking and Unrest

Zalzala was not used in Arabic solely for the movement of the earth.

Lisān al-ʿArab quotes the following verse from Abū Dhuʾayb al-Hudhalī, a poet who lived through the pre-Islamic and early Islamic periods:

وَقَالُوا تَرَكْنَاهُ تَزَلْزَلُ نَفْسُهُ
وَقَدْ أَسْنَدُونِي أَوْ كَذَا غَيْرَ سَانِدِ

wa-qālū taraknāhu tazalzalu nafsuhu / wa-qad asnadūnī aw kadhā ghayra sānidi

Explanatory rendering: “They said: We left him with his soul trembling; they had propped me up, or left me lying thus without support.” The second half follows the lexical commentary’s reconstruction of the omitted tarakūnī, “they left me.”

In the first half of the verse, the speakers describe a person whose soul is in a state of trembling and unrest near death.

Tazalzalu nafsuhu shows that the verb can concern agitation and movement of the human soul or self, rather than only shaking ground.

The poetic image concerns approaching death. It should not be equated without evidence with ordinary psychological anxiety or a modern medical concept.

The precise date of this verse is unknown. Although the poet lived close to the period of Qur’anic revelation, the witness cannot be presented without qualification as certainly pre-Qur’anic.

Lisān al-ʿArab: Abū Dhuʾayb’s witness and the omitted verb

Lexical sources transmit another witness from ʿImrān ibn Ḥiṭṭān, a poet of the Islamic period:

فَقَدْ أَظَلَّتْكَ أَيَّامٌ لَهَا حَمَسٌ
فِيهَا الزَّلَازِلُ وَالْأَهْوَالُ وَالْوَهَلُ

fa-qad aẓallatka ayyāmun lahā ḥamasun / fīhā al-zalāzilu wa-l-ahwālu wa-l-wahalu

“Days of severity have overshadowed you, containing upheavals, terrors, and fear.” This rendering follows ḥamas, explained as severity.

Here zalāzil appears alongside terrors and intense fears, describing days filled with severe events and upheaval. Lisān al-ʿArab transmits khams, but Ibn al-Anbārī’s Al-Zāhir fī Maʿānī Kalimāt al-Nās records ḥamas and explains it as severity. The quotation here follows that wording.

Ibn al-Anbārī’s Al-Zāhir: ḥamas, explained as severity

This use shows that zalāzil can extend beyond earthquakes to circumstances disrupting the peace and stability of human life.

Since ʿImrān ibn Ḥiṭṭān belonged to the Islamic period, his verse attests the word’s continuing use in Arabic. It is not independent evidence establishing its meaning before the Qur’an.

Some sources also record zulzūl wa-ʿulʿūl for a situation of fighting and conflict. The lexicographers themselves differed over how familiar this expression was. Such limited evidence cannot provide the basis of the root’s main definition.

Lisān al-ʿArab: zulzūl and ʿulʿūl, with differing familiarity

Taken together, the reliable witnesses establish movement, shaking, and unrest in this word family, as well as uses concerning afflictions and human upheaval.

3. Shaking Applied to People and Life’s Hardships

Two Qur’anic verses apply zulzilū to people facing extremely difficult circumstances.

Al-Baqarah 2:214: Shaken under the Pressure of Afflictions

Al-Baqarah 2:214

أَمْ حَسِبْتُمْ أَنْ تَدْخُلُوا الْجَنَّةَ وَلَمَّا يَأْتِكُمْ مَثَلُ الَّذِينَ خَلَوْا مِنْ قَبْلِكُمْ مَسَّتْهُمُ الْبَأْسَاءُ وَالضَّرَّاءُ وَزُلْزِلُوا حَتَّىٰ يَقُولَ الرَّسُولُ وَالَّذِينَ آمَنُوا مَعَهُ مَتَىٰ نَصْرُ اللَّهِ أَلَا إِنَّ نَصْرَ اللَّهِ قَرِيبٌ

am ḥasibtum an tadkhulū al-jannata wa-lammā yaʾtikum mathalu alladhīna khalaw min qablikum massathumu al-baʾsāʾu wa-l-ḍarrāʾu wa-zulzilū ḥattā yaqūla al-rasūlu wa-alladhīna āmanū maʿahu matā naṣru Allāhi alā inna naṣra Allāhi qarībun

Proposed Persian translation, rendered here in English:

“Did you suppose that you would enter the Garden when the like of what befell those before you has not yet come to you? Hardship and suffering touched them, and they were severely shaken, until the messenger and those who believed with him said: When will the help of The God arrive? Be aware: the help of The God is near.”

Here zulzilū follows massathumu al-baʾsāʾu wa-l-ḍarrāʾu, “hardship and suffering touched them.”

This sequence connects the shaking with severe hardship and suffering. The people described encounter such pressure that the question of when help will arrive is raised.

Zulzilū here does not mean that a natural earthquake struck their dwelling place. The verse concerns people being shaken and severely agitated under the pressure of afflictions.

The tangible image of shaking is applied to the human condition. Just as shaking ground disrupts the apparent stability of the environment, severe hardship can challenge a person’s peace, sense of security, and ability to stand firm.

Nevertheless, zulzilū should not be taken as definitively meaning loss of faith. The verse itself mentions the messenger and the believers accompanying him, quoting their question at the height of difficulty.

In this context, asking matā naṣru Allāhi, “When is the help of The God?”, expresses the intensity of waiting and the pressure of the situation. In itself, it does not constitute denial of God or abandonment of faith.

The verse concludes by declaring that God’s help is near.

Being shaken here can therefore be a believer’s difficult, disturbing experience without necessarily becoming a collapse of faith or a moral error.

This matters for defining the root: its primary meaning is shaking and the disruption of peace and stability, rather than sin, hypocrisy, or unbelief.

Al-Aḥzāb 33:11: Severe Shaking amid Siege and Threat

Al-Aḥzāb 33:11

هُنَالِكَ ابْتُلِيَ الْمُؤْمِنُونَ وَزُلْزِلُوا زِلْزَالًا شَدِيدًا

hunālika ibtuliya al-muʾminūna wa-zulzilū zilzālan shadīdan

Proposed Persian translation, rendered here in English:

“There the believers were tested and subjected to a severe shaking.”

Zulzilū again describes believers, this time accompanied by the verbal noun zilzālan and its adjective shadīdan, “severe.”

This construction is linguistically significant.

Zulzilū is a masculine plural passive past-tense verb. Zilzālan is an accusative verbal noun functioning as a cognate accusative, and shadīdan describes its intensity.

The phrase thus emphasizes extremely severe shaking and agitation, rather than merely a passing worry.

The preceding context, especially Al-Aḥzāb 33:9 and Al-Aḥzāb 33:10, describes a difficult situation in which enemy groups approached from different directions. Al-Aḥzāb 33:10 mentions staring eyes, hearts reaching throats, and differing thoughts about God.

In this threatening situation, zulzilū zilzālan shadīdan expresses the intensity of agitation and the disturbance of the believers’ circumstances.

The verse does not describe the physical shaking of the ground. Those shaken are people; grammatically, the plural pronoun attached to the passive verb is its passive subject, or nāʾib al-fāʿil. The setting is fear and pressure amid siege and conflict.

This disturbance should not, however, be uniformly interpreted as weakness in the faith of every believer.

Subsequent verses, including Al-Aḥzāb 33:12 and Al-Aḥzāb 33:22, show different responses to the same circumstances. Some fall into suspicion and wrongful speech, whereas true believers increase in faith and submission upon seeing what has happened.

One situation may shake people severely while their moral and religious responses differ.

Being shaken therefore does not, within its lexical meaning, deliver a final verdict on a person’s faith or character. Zalzalah names the intensity of shaking and agitation; its moral and practical consequences must be understood from conduct and context.

Al-Ṭabarī: pressure, fear, and the believers’ trial

4. The Earth’s Shaking and the Convulsion of the Hour

The other two verses containing this root concern great events associated with al-sāʿah, the Hour, and the end of the world’s familiar order.

Al-Ḥajj 22:1: The Convulsion of the Hour

Al-Ḥajj 22:1

يَا أَيُّهَا النَّاسُ اتَّقُوا رَبَّكُمْ إِنَّ زَلْزَلَةَ السَّاعَةِ شَيْءٌ عَظِيمٌ

yā ayyuhā al-nāsu ittaqū rabbakum inna zalzalata al-sāʿati shayʾun ʿaẓīmun

Proposed Persian translation, rendered here in English:

“People, be mindful of your Lord; surely the shaking of the Hour is a tremendous thing.”

Zalzalah appears here as a noun in a genitive construction with al-sāʿah.

This construction relates the shaking to the Hour, but the verse itself does not yet name the earth as what is directly shaken.

The following verse, Al-Ḥajj 22:2, describes the event’s terrifying effect on people: a nursing mother becomes oblivious to what she is nursing, a pregnant woman delivers her burden, and people appear drunk although they are not drunk.

In context, zalzalata al-sāʿati thus describes a tremendous, terrifying event disrupting peace and the familiar condition of life.

This expression may be related to tangible shaking and transformations of the world described in other Qur’anic verses. Yet the word zalzalah in Al-Ḥajj 22:1 alone does not establish the exact kind of ground movement, its duration, or every natural detail of the event.

Nor should it be reduced to a purely psychological state or inner fear. The verse describes a tremendous event, and the context sets out its widespread effects.

Zalzalata al-sāʿati denotes the great shaking and upheaval associated with the Hour. Determining the event’s full character requires examining the wider network of resurrection verses, rather than expanding the lexical meaning into a detailed theory of the world’s structure.

Al-Ṭabarī: the Hour’s convulsion in context

Al-Zalzalah 99:1: The Earth Itself Shakes

Al-Zalzalah 99:1

إِذَا زُلْزِلَتِ الْأَرْضُ زِلْزَالَهَا

idhā zulzilati al-arḍu zilzālahā

Proposed Persian translation, rendered here in English:

“When the earth is shaken with its own shaking.”

Unlike the two uses concerning believers, the passive verb here directly concerns al-arḍ, the earth.

Zulzilat is a third-person feminine singular passive past-tense verb. The earth is the passive subject, or nāʾib al-fāʿil, receiving the action of shaking.

The following zilzālahā is a verbal noun functioning as a cognate accusative, with the pronoun hā referring to the earth.

The construction zulzilati al-arḍu zilzālahā linguistically emphasizes the occurrence of the earth’s shaking.

The pronoun attached to zilzāl also attributes that shaking to the earth: the shaking associated with it.

Some exegetical explanations understand this construction as the earth’s particular, great, or final earthquake. The surah’s context likewise indicates an extraordinary event associated with the Day of Reckoning. Yet finality or the precise scale of the shaking cannot be derived from the lexical structure of zilzālahā alone.

Al-Ṭabarī: the earth’s shaking in the resurrection context

In the following verses the earth brings out its burdens, the human being asks what has happened to it, and the earth recounts its news. The disclosure of people’s deeds follows.

This sequence places the shaking within events concerning accountability and the disclosure of deeds, rather than an ordinary earthquake during everyday life.

The direct meaning of zulzilati al-arḍu nevertheless remains clear: the earth is shaken.

Its association with resurrection does not justify replacing tangible shaking with a wholly different meaning, such as “the awakening of the earth’s consciousness” or “a purely spiritual transformation of people.”

Conversely, a scientific account of present-day earthquakes, such as tectonic plate movement, cannot by itself explain the manner of the event described here. The Qur’an speaks of the event’s occurrence and place in the sequence, rather than its geological mechanism.

Zilzālahā does not quantify the shaking’s amount, frequency, duration, or magnitude in modern scientific units.

Tangible, physical shaking of the earth is the clearest, most direct reading here, while the event’s place in the surah extends beyond an ordinary natural occurrence.

5. Zalzalah Compared with Related Words

Z L Z L and Z L L

Zalla primarily denotes slipping, leaving a stable position, or making an error. Zalzala emphasizes shaking and disruption of stability, often with intensity and agitation.

In Qur’anic usage, the Z L L family can concern error and deviation in conduct. Zalzala in Al-Baqarah 2:214 and Al-Aḥzāb 33:11, however, describes believers placed under severe pressure.

The two word families should therefore not be equated in moral value.

Z L Z L and R J F

Rajafa likewise concerns trembling, agitation, and severe shaking.

The Qur’an uses al-rajfah in accounts of the destruction of certain peoples and mentions al-rājifah in Al-Nāziʿāt 79:6.

R J F and Z L Z L have closely related semantic fields, and both can describe severe shaking.

This overlap does not make all their derivatives identical. Some Arabic uses of R J F concern agitation and trembling as well as the circulation of disturbing reports, while Z L Z L maintains a more specific image of shaking and disrupted settledness.

In many contexts, the precise difference must be understood from the sentence structure and what is shaken, rather than by asserting an absolute boundary between the roots.

Z L Z L and R J J

Rajja also means to shake violently.

Al-Wāqiʿah 56:4 states:

إِذَا رُجَّتِ الْأَرْضُ رَجًّا

idhā rujjati al-arḍu rajjan

“When the earth is shaken with a violent shaking.”

This construction resembles zulzilati al-arḍu zilzālahā grammatically. In both, the earth is the subject of a passive verb, followed by a verbal noun for emphasis.

Their shared description of the earth’s shaking does not establish that rajja and zalzala are entirely synonymous in every use.

Rajj focuses on forceful shaking and movement. Zalzalah, alongside movement itself, has a clear semantic connection with instability and the disruption of settledness.

This can be recognized as a semantic tendency, rather than an absolute rule binding every use of either root.

Z L Z L and H Z Z

Hazza means to move or shake something.

In Maryam 19:25, the command wa-huzzī ilayki bi-jidhʿi al-nakhlati concerns shaking the trunk of a date palm.

The resulting movement does not necessarily mean disturbance or destruction.

Hazza can therefore describe controlled, purposeful movement. The principal uses of zalzala, by contrast, usually emphasize shaking and agitation that tangibly or severely disrupt a settled condition.

This distinction helps prevent reducing zalzalah to any small, ordinary movement.

Z L Z L and Z W L

Zāla and zawāl concern moving away, disappearing, or a condition coming to an end.

Shaking may cause displacement or destruction, but zalzalah does not itself mean disappearance or destruction.

The earth can shake without being destroyed. A person can likewise be shaken by hardship without their faith or life ending.

Shaking and loss of stability should therefore be distinguished from possible consequences such as displacement, collapse, or destruction.

6. Conclusion and Translation Proposals

Z L Z L is a quadriliteral root with a repeated structure, denoting shaking, severe movement, and disruption of stability and settledness.

In early Arabic this word family concerns both tangible movement of objects and land, and human agitation, hardships, and severe upheavals in life.

Its semantic relationship with Z L L is understandable, but zalzalah cannot be confined to moral lapses or error.

The root occurs six times in four Qur’anic verses: three passive verbs, two instances of zilzāl, and one of zalzalah.

In Al-Baqarah 2:214 and Al-Aḥzāb 33:11, people are shaken under the pressure of severe events. Al-Ḥajj 22:1 speaks of the tremendous convulsion of the Hour, while Al-Zalzalah 99:1 directly describes the earth shaking.

These uses share a semantic field, but their referents differ.

In one case the earth leaves its calm condition; in another, people under the pressure of fear, threat, and suffering lose their peace and sense of stability.

Not every use should therefore be reduced to a natural earthquake, just as the use concerning the earth should not be converted into purely psychological anxiety.

Brief root meaning: Shaking and severe movement; disruption of stability and settledness, whether in the tangible world or in the human condition.

Meanings of the Qur’anic forms and translation proposals:

Wa-zulzilū — Al-Baqarah 2:214: They were severely shaken and unsettled under the pressure of hardship. Proposed translation: “and they were severely shaken.”

Wa-zulzilū zilzālan shadīdan — Al-Aḥzāb 33:11: They experienced extremely severe shaking and agitation. Proposed translation: “and were subjected to a severe shaking.”

Zalzalata al-sāʿati — Al-Ḥajj 22:1: The great shaking and upheaval associated with the Hour. Proposed translation: “the shaking of the Hour.”

Zulzilati al-arḍu zilzālahā — Al-Zalzalah 99:1: The earth was shaken with the shaking associated with it. Proposed translation: “when the earth is shaken with its own shaking.”

The study’s central finding is that zalzalah in Qur’anic language does not name only a natural event; it is shaking that disrupts stability and settledness.

This shaking may move the earth or cause intense human agitation in difficult circumstances. Yet being shaken establishes neither destruction in every case nor moral and religious failure.

The Qur’anic uses themselves make this distinction clear: believers too can be severely shaken while continuing in faith and perseverance.