n-s-a

Description

The Arabic root نسأ (n-s-a) carries the core meaning of delaying, deferring, or postponing something from its original time or position. In the Quran, it appears in reference to the creature that ate Prophet Solomon's staff (nasaʾa - causing it to fall or be moved from its place) and the practice of nasīʾ (postponing sacred months), which was a pre-Islamic Arab custom of delaying the sanctity of certain months for convenience. The root emphasizes the concept of temporal or spatial displacement, highlighting in its Quranic usage both physical deterioration over time and the prohibited manipulation of sacred time periods.