Quran glossary · draft

العَبَث

act pointlessly

Purposeless or frivolous action disconnected from a worthy outcome.

Lexical scope

Scope: curated segment set · Occurrences: 2

Roots: عبث

Lemmas: عبث · تعبث

Forms: عَبَثًا · تَعْبَثُ

Occurrence examples (2 of 2)

Scoped occurrences shown in Quran order: 2.

23:115

أَفَحَسِبْتُمْ أَنَّمَا خَلَقْنَٰكُمْ عَبَثًا وَأَنَّكُمْ إِلَيْنَا لَا تُرْجَعُونَ

26:128

أَتَبْنُونَ بِكُلِّ رِيعٍ ءَايَةً تَعْبَثُونَ

Why this meaning was chosen

Both occurrences were reviewed. The abstract noun denies purposeless creation, while the form I verb rebukes monumental building undertaken as frivolous display.