Vocabulary

Ḥājjaka (“to argue”): Muḥājja means seeking proof (ḥujja). Proof (ḥujja) is different from demonstration (burhān): demonstration is the evidence of truth, while proof is more general, encompassing both truth and falsehood that appears as truth, as this word is also used in the Qur’an for falsehood: “Their proof stands refuted with their Lord”(661)

Taʿālaw: Plural of taʿāla, imperative form of taʿālā, meaning “come up.” In Arabic, if someone is on the same level as another, they call them with ilayya, and if someone calls from below to someone higher, they use the word inzil, and when someone higher calls someone who is below (like at the foot of a mountain) towards themselves, they use the word taʿāla. Due to frequent usage, this word is used for any command to come with determination.(662)

The root of this word comes from the fact that Arabs built their houses on mountainsides and only farmed in fertile plains. Every morning they would descend to farm, and their children would go down to play in the cultivated areas. In the evening, when someone from the residential area would call the children or farmers home, and they would use the word taʿāla or taʿālaw (come up).(663)

The prophets (a.s.), who had a higher status than their communities and called their communities from the heights of prophethood and revelation, used the word “taʿālaw” by God’s command, to call their communities to ascend spiritually and morally.(664)

Nabtahil (“to invoke a curse”): This word comes from bahl, meaning to leave without supervision. A camel or sheep that is left free so that any young one in need of milk can drink from it is called nāqa bāhila or shāt bāhila. Bahalahu Allāh means God abandoned him and deprived him of His special mercy, so curse is a consequence of bahl, not its meaning. Otherwise, when it is said “the livestock owner left his livestock” (ṣāḥib al-māshiya bahala māshiyatahu), it would have to be metaphorical or a homonym, which it is not.(665)

Ibtihāl (“to implore”) means entrusting matters to God, which gradually came to specifically mean a particular form of supplication and lamentation before God. Taḍarruʿ (“humble supplication”), ibtihāl, and tabattul (“devotion”) are closely related terms. Therefore, “Then let us pray earnestly and call down God’s curse upon the liars” means that we entrust the matter to God and through lamentation place God’s curse upon the liars.(666)