![]()
Part I
The Semantics of Tawba
![]()
Chapter 1
Is Tawba “Repentance”?
A Lexical and Semantic Survey
The purpose of this short chapter is to explore the semantic relation between “repentance” and the Arabic word commonly accepted as its equivalent. One of the purposes of this inquiry is to demonstrate that although the English term conveys many of the underlying connotations of the Arabic one, it neither sufficiently captures the semantic range nor the primary lexical sense of tawba. The absence of a precise English equivalent of tawba, in turn, occasionally obscures our understanding of the subtle and intricate use of the word both in the Qurʾān and the broader Islamic tradition, particularly in the writings of those representatives of the tradition who paid close attention to the language of Islamic revelation. At the same time, although repentance, as we shall see, is no more than a partial equivalent of tawba, it remains an adequate translation nonetheless, at least insofar as tawba is envisaged at the human level. Moreover, English does not offer us a better alternative to capture the range of meanings conveyed by the Arabic. Repentance can therefore be used as a relatively viable translation of tawba provided one remains aware of its intrinsic limitations within an Islamic context. This chapter will explore some of those limitations.
Repentance refers primarily to a feeling of grief, sorrow, contrition, or regret for something one has either done or left undone. The word entered Modern and Middle English through the Old French repentaunce (v. repentir). Structurally, it is formed from a combination of the intensifying prefix re with the Latin paenitēre, from which the word ultimately derives, which means to experience dissatisfaction, sorrow, regret, or even torture. The Latin root conveys the principle meaning of the English term, which refers to the negative psychological experience that follows in the wake of the commission of an ethical or religious wrong.
The primary and most basic meaning of tawba (root t-w-b), on the other hand, is that of a “return” (rujūʿ). This return, according to the classical lexical authorities, is either a “return to God from sin,” a “return to God from something” (min kadhā or ʿan kadhā), a “return to God,” a “return to obedience after sin,” or simply a “return from sin.” Tawba thus entails a fundamental reorientation, a change of direction, toward a moral, ethical, or even ontological higher ground. Since it can never imply turning away from God or what is virtuous, its meaning is always positive. For tawba to be complete, it must be accepted by God. Thus, one of the poets sings in a couplet cited by Ibn Manẓūr (d. 1311):
I have turned in tawba towards You, so accept my tawba
And I have fasted my Lord, so accept my fast.
Tubtu ilayka fa taqabbal tābatī
Wa ṣumtu rabbī fa taqabbal ṣāmatī
Tawba, unlike repentance, can also be an act of God. As a divine act, it means to relent, forgive, accept, turn, or return toward the human being in mercy and compassion. This turning or returning can either be from divine wrath to mercy, from rejection to acceptance, or from punishment to forgiveness. It can also refer to a divine initiative that ultimately leads to the first glimmerings of human tawba. In all of these cases, the turning or returning is an act of mercy, compassion, and grace, and for the ultimate felicity of the human soul. The subject of the verbal form of tawba can usually be identified by the preposition that follows it: tāba ʿalā usually refers to divine tawba; tāba ilā usually refers to human tawba. But this is not, strictly speaking, always the case. In the Qurʾān, however, this is the norm.
The primary sense of tawba as “return” can be illustrated by a word that many of the lexical authorities consider to be a derivate of t-w-b, namely tābūt, which refers to a chest or box (ṣundūq). Zabīdī (d. 1790) explains this derivation on the grounds that “whatever is taken out of it always returns to it.” Tābūt can also refer to the ribs, bosom, or chest (aḍlāʿ), and what they contain, such as the heart and lungs. The reason for this is almost certainly because the blood and air that leave the organs enclosed within the chest return back, so that what lies within it, like a ṣundūq, is not lost. Tabūt is also used in the Qurʾān to refer to the Ark of the Covenant, which in biblical tradition held God’s self-revelation in the form of the sacred tablets received by Moses at Mt. Sinai, and in which, says the Qurʾān, “is peace from your Lord” (fīhi sakīna min rabbikum) (Q 2:248). This may have been—though it is mere speculation—because it was through the contents of the tābūt that the fallen and exiled human being was able to return to God.
Tawba also has another meaning that cannot be extrapolated simply through linguistic analysis, namely that of “regret” or “contrition.” The ḥadīth on which this meaning rests is often cited by the lexicographers alongside the religious sense of the term: al-nadam tawba, “regret is [a sign of] of tawba.” This was the Prophet’s response on being asked by his companions, “what is the sign of tawba?” But many of the leading lexicographers, such as Khalīl b. ʿAyn (d. 776–791), Zamakhsharī (d. 1144), Ibn Sīda (d. 1065), Fīrūzābādī (d. 1413), Fayyūmī (d. 1368), Ibn Durayd (d. 933), and Ibn ʿAbbād (d. 995), to name but a few, exclude nadam, which can also mean “remorse,” “contrition,” “sorrow,” or “sadness,” altogether from their definitions of tawba. This is most likely because it lies outside of taʿrīf al-tawba fī al-lugha, that is to say, the principally linguistic meaning of the term. Thus, al-Rāghib al-Iṣfahānī (d. 1060) in his Mufradāt alfāẓ al-qurʾān includes nadam under a separate subsection on the religious meaning of the term (tawba fī al-sharʿ).
It is also of some relevance to note that the advent of Islam has been called zaman al-tawba, the “time of return.” This is because Islam caused the polytheists to turn away from shirk and return to God. Tawba in this sense carries the general meaning of “conversion,” insofar as it entails a return to One God, and a concomitant “aversion” from polytheism, even though the usual word for the idea is aslama (lit. “he surrendered”). In this light we can see why, as Ibn ʿAbbād contends, “tawba is Islam [itself]” (al-tawba al-islām).
The semantic field of tawba can be more fully grasped by drawing attention to three words besides rujūʿ that are frequently used to explain its meaning. The lexicographers also employ ināba, and to a lesser extent, awba and ʿawd, to define tawba. Ibn Manẓūr, Ibn Sīda, and Zabīdī write that one who performed tawba to God, “anāba and rajaʿa from sin towards obedience.” Ibn Manẓūr, citing a previous authority, adds that the one who performed tawba, “ʿāda towards God, rajaʿa and anāba.” All of these terms, like rujūʿ, convey the basic idea of “return,” but with different emphases. ʿAwd and awba, along with their respective roots, ʿ-w-d and ʾ-w-b, are closest in their meanings to rujūʿ. Like it, they are neutral terms that can be used for nonreligious acts such as “returning home.” But they can also take on very significant religious senses. Al-maʿād, from the same root as ʿawd, is used for the Hereafter or Resurrection. Literally, it is a “place to which one returns.” As such, it is also a name of Mecca, because pilgrims frequently return to it. A maʾāb, from the same root as awba, carries the same meaning, and is used to refer to “that place to which one is translated, or removed, by death.” The maʾāb can therefore also be God Himself (Q 36:13, 38:78). The awwāb, from the same root, is one who frequently turns to God in tawba. Ināba, from the root n-w-b, includes among its meanings, “to replace,” “to substitute,” and “to come by in turns.” Ināba also means “to do tawba and return.” An act of ināba may, unlike thes...
