Semantics of Patience in the Qur an

The most consistent and certain method in exposition of the verses is finding the way into the profundity of the meaning of the Qur’an’s vocabulary, which paves the way for enunciation of the intention of the All-wise Allah. This method has been employed by the orientalists such as Izutsu and some Muslim researchers. The present research addresses the semantics of the concept of patience in the Qur’an in three steps of lexical semantics, semantic fields, and textual studies. In the first step, the concept of patience in the Qur’an is compared with the concept of patience in the pre-Islamic period by presenting the semantic definition of patience and enunciation of its worldview from the viewpoint of the Qur’an. In the second step, the fields of semantics and the semantic extent of words in the Qur’an are examined. And in the third step, the textual studies of patience are taken into consideration.
The first outcome of the study of the lexical semantics of patience based on basic meaning and with the study of the worldview and the ethnic culture of the pagan Arabs in the pre-Islamic period, is that this word has been used before Islam and the major meaning of the word patience and other words synonymous with it are the same as perseverance and tolerance and it has not undergone semantic evolution. However, according to the Islamic worldview, this word has had a sublime ethical semantic evolution and certain spiritual worldly and other-worldly values have been delineated for it.