h-y-m

Description

The Arabic root هيم (h-y-m) conveys the core meaning of intense thirst and the resulting wandering or roaming in search of water, particularly describing camels driven mad by thirst that wander aimlessly. In its Quranic usage, this root appears in Surah Al-Waqi'ah (56:55) where it describes people drinking like thirst-crazed camels (تشربون شرب الهيم), using the imagery of desperate, uncontrolled consumption to illustrate the hellfire's inhabitants drinking boiling water. The term emphasizes both the severity of thirst and the loss of rational behavior that accompanies extreme deprivation, serving as a powerful metaphor for spiritual desperation and divine punishment.