shakk murīb — doubt paired with disturbance
شَكٍّ مُّرِيبٍ
shakkin murībin — a doubt that stirs contention / causes disturbance / arouses suspicion
In all six verses given, shakk ("doubt") is accompanied by the active participle murīb (Form IV of ر ي ب), so that the doubt is never named alone: each occurrence characterizes it by an effect it produces—contention, disturbance, suspicion—while the object doubted varies.
The pair shakk + murīb appears six times in the verses given, and in each case the two words stand together in the genitive indefinite, the participle qualifying the noun. The participle murīb is active (Form IV), so the construction presents the doubt itself as an agent doing something to those in it. The surrounding words name that effect differently in our translation: "a doubt that stirs contention" (11:62), "a doubt that causes disturbance" (11:110, 41:45, 42:14), "a doubt that stirs suspicion" (14:9), and "a doubt that arouses suspicion" (34:54). What the doubt attaches to, however, shifts: in (11:62) and (14:9) it is "that to which you are calling us"—the addressees are Ṣāliḥ in (11:62) and the messengers in (14:9), and in both the call is refused; in (11:110) and (41:45) it is a Book brought to Moses and differed about; in (42:14) it is a Book inherited after a split, concerning which its inheritors are in doubt; in (34:54) no object is stated, only that the people "had been in" such doubt. Reading the occurrences side by side shows a fixed pairing applied to different situations: the words put in the mouths of those refusing what Ṣāliḥ (11:62) and the messengers (14:9) call them to are the same words used of those who differed about the Book given to Moses (11:110, 41:45) and of those who split up after knowledge came to them (42:14). In (11:62) and (14:9) the phrase is part of a spoken refusal; in the book-verses it is the narrator's description; in (34:54) it is a retrospective statement about people already barred from what they desire. The pair thus marks a stated or described stance toward something presented to its holders.
Where it occurs
- 11:62 Spoken by those addressed: they state they are in shakk murīb regarding what Ṣāliḥ calls them to.
- 11:110 Describes those who differed about the Book given to Moses as being in shakk murīb about it.
- 14:9 Spoken by peoples to their messengers: they reject what the messengers were sent with and declare shakk murīb about what is called to.
- 34:54 States retrospectively that the people had been in shakk murīb, with no object named.
- 41:45 Describes those who differed about the Book given to Moses as being in shakk murīb about it.
- 42:14 Describes those who inherited the Book after the split as being in shakk murīb concerning it.
All Qur'anic expressions