Rising-place and setting-place (mashriq / maghrib)
ٱلْمَشْرِقُ وَٱلْمَغْرِبُ
al-mashriqu wa-l-maghribu — the place of sunrise and the place of sunset
In the verses given, the roots ش ر ق and غ ر ب appear as a fixed pair naming the two opposite ends of the sun's daily course, and the pair is used to frame totality: what lies between the two, or both together, belongs to God.
In the verses given, the two roots occur as a matched pair within a single verse, always in the same order — the ش ر ق word first, the غ ر ب word second — and joined by wa- in every verse except 2:258, where the two stand in separate clauses. The nouns are built on the same pattern (al-mashriq / al-maghrib in 2:115, 2:142, 2:177, 2:258, 26:28 and 73:9; mashāriq / maghārib plurals in 7:137 (indefinite, the second with a pronoun) and al-mashāriq / al-maghārib in 70:40), so the pairing is morphologically parallel as well as positional. The pair functions in several ways. In 2:115, 2:142, 26:28 and 73:9 both places belong to God or God is their Lord; 26:28 and 73:9 make this explicit with rabb, and 26:28 adds "whatever is between them," extending the pair to the whole span it defines. In 2:177 the pair marks the two directions of facing, and the verse states that righteousness is not turning the faces toward them. In 2:258 the pair supplies the terms of a test: God brings the sun from the mashriq, so the disputant is challenged to bring it from the maghrib — the pair keeps its usual order, but the challenge falls on its second member: the demand is to bring the sun from the maghrib. In 7:137 and 70:40 the pair is plural, "eastern parts and western parts" and "points of rising and points of setting." 55:17 has both nouns in the dual, "the two eastings and the two westings." 24:35 uses adjectival forms, "neither eastern nor western," of the olive tree, the only occurrence in the sample where the pair describes something other than a place or direction.
Where it occurs
- 2:115 Both places are said to belong to Allah, grounding the claim that wherever one turns, there is the presence of Allah.
- 2:142 The pair is cited as belonging to God in answer to the question about the direction of facing.
- 2:177 The pair names the two directions of facing, which the verse says do not constitute righteousness.
- 2:258 The pair supplies the terms of Abraham's challenge: God brings the sun from the east, so bring it from the west.
- 7:137 The pair appears as plurals, "the eastern parts of the land and its western parts," which the weakened people are made to inherit.
- 24:35 Adjectival forms of both roots describe the blessed olive tree as "neither eastern nor western."
- 26:28 God is Lord of the east and the west and whatever is between them.
- 55:17 Both nouns appear in the dual: Lord of the two eastings and Lord of the two westings.
- 70:40 The pair appears as plurals in an oath by the Lord of the points of rising and the points of setting.
- 73:9 God is Lord of the east and the west, joined to the statement that there is no god except Him.
All Qur'anic expressions