Quran glossary · draft

وَسْوَسَ، وَسْوَاس

concealed inward prompting

A source introduces a recurrent prompt into a person's inward awareness without making public address part of the lexical assertion.

Lexical scope

Scope: semantic unit · Occurrences: 5

Roots: وسوس

Lemmas: وسوس · وسواس

Forms: وَسْوَسَ · تُوَسْوِسُ · وَسْوَاسِ · يُوَسْوِسُ

Occurrence examples (5 of 5)

Scoped occurrences shown in Quran order: 5.

7:20

فَوَسْوَسَ لَهُمَا ٱلشَّيْطَٰنُ لِيُبْدِىَ لَهُمَا مَا وُۥرِىَ عَنْهُمَا مِن سَوْءَٰتِهِمَا وَقَالَ مَا نَهَىٰكُمَا رَبُّكُمَا عَنْ هَٰذِهِ ٱلشَّجَرَةِ إِلَّآ أَن تَكُونَا مَلَكَيْنِ أَوْ تَكُونَا مِنَ ٱلْخَٰلِدِينَ

20:120

فَوَسْوَسَ إِلَيْهِ ٱلشَّيْطَٰنُ قَالَ يَٰٓـَٔادَمُ هَلْ أَدُلُّكَ عَلَىٰ شَجَرَةِ ٱلْخُلْدِ وَمُلْكٍ لَّا يَبْلَىٰ

50:16

وَلَقَدْ خَلَقْنَا ٱلْإِنسَٰنَ وَنَعْلَمُ مَا تُوَسْوِسُ بِهِۦ نَفْسُهُۥ وَنَحْنُ أَقْرَبُ إِلَيْهِ مِنْ حَبْلِ ٱلْوَرِيدِ

114:4

مِن شَرِّ ٱلْوَسْوَاسِ ٱلْخَنَّاسِ

114:5

ٱلَّذِى يُوَسْوِسُ فِى صُدُورِ ٱلنَّاسِ

Where other meanings fail

human self-talk only

7:20

فَوَسْوَسَ لَهُمَا ٱلشَّيْطَٰنُ لِيُبْدِىَ لَهُمَا مَا وُۥرِىَ عَنْهُمَا مِن سَوْءَٰتِهِمَا وَقَالَ مَا نَهَىٰكُمَا رَبُّكُمَا عَنْ هَٰذِهِ ٱلشَّجَرَةِ إِلَّآ أَن تَكُونَا مَلَكَيْنِ أَوْ تَكُونَا مِنَ ٱلْخَٰلِدِينَ

Alternative: the pair's own selves prompted them

Research rendering: the adversary whispered inwardly to the pair

The adversary is the explicit grammatical subject, so the core cannot require self-agency even though the self is source at 50:16.

public proclamation

50:16

وَلَقَدْ خَلَقْنَا ٱلْإِنسَٰنَ وَنَعْلَمُ مَا تُوَسْوِسُ بِهِۦ نَفْسُهُۥ وَنَحْنُ أَقْرَبُ إِلَيْهِ مِنْ حَبْلِ ٱلْوَرِيدِ

Alternative: the self publicly proclaims it to an audience

Research rendering: the self prompts inwardly with it

The self is the source within the person, and no external audience or public-address frame appears.

speech content

114:4

مِن شَرِّ ٱلْوَسْوَاسِ ٱلْخَنَّاسِ

Alternative: the evil of the retreating sentence

Research rendering: the evil of the retreating persistent whisperer

The definite noun is an agent antecedent whose following relative clause states what it does; it does not name the proposition itself.

ordinary audible conversation

114:5

ٱلَّذِى يُوَسْوِسُ فِى صُدُورِ ٱلنَّاسِ

Alternative: the one who converses audibly in the chests of people

Research rendering: the one who whispers within the chests of people

The في phrase explicitly locates the prompting inside people's chests rather than between audible conversational partners.