Abode
(dār)

Gibril Fouad Haddad

Abode in this article refers to two Qurʾānic terms: dār  and bayt. Dār occurs 47 times in the Qurʾān while its synonym bayt (“house”) is mentioned 57 times. Both of these terms can be rendered as home, dwelling, habitation, and residence. Dār is more general than bayt as it can mean a precinct—a bounded plot of land on which houses can be built, or an orchard with a well.

Definitions and Usage

Dār, plurals diyār and dūr among others, is the wall-encircled property—originating from dāra, a valley surrounded by mountains, from the verb dāra, to circle, aorist yadūru, infinitive nouns dawr and dawarān—that is home to individuals or collectives, and is sometimes defined as a location with both dwellings and open space (al-maḥall yajmaʿ al-bināʾ wal-ʿarṣa).

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Dār as a Metonym for either Paradise and Madina, or Loss, Destruction, and Hellfire

The Qurʾān often uses dār in the singular as a metonym for the tangible consequences of good and evil in this world and the next (see Life of this World; Hereafter). In this context it variously signifies Paradise  and its true life, or this world and its loss and subsequent destruction, or the everlasting Fire (see Hell):

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Dār as a Label for Islamic and Un-Islamic Societies

Dār has also been used in Arabic as a juridical term in construct with islām and kufr to respectively denote Muslim and non-Muslim territories, polities, and societies. 

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Dār as a Pre-Islamic Proper Name

According to Ibn Durayd (223-321/838-933), Dār was also a proper name in the pre-Islamic era (see Jāhiliyya) for (i) an idol, hence the function-related affiliation (nisba) of ʿAbd al-Dār (Slave of al-Dār), the eldest son of the Arab patriarch Quṣayy b. Kilāb; and (ii) a sub-tribe of Lakhm or Quḍāʿa to which belonged the Companion Tamīm al-Dārī—Allah be well-pleased with him (al-Ishtiqāq p. 155).

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Bayt to Denote the Kaʿba

The Qurʾān mentions al-Bayt to denote the Kaʿba in the following ways:

  1. in absolute terms, as in the verse And when We made the House a resort for mankind and a sanctuary (Q 2:125, cf. 2:127, 158; 3:97; 8:35; 22:26, 32; 106:3).

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Bayt as House, Country, Dowry, Household, and Tribe

Bayt also denotes the following lexical senses:

  • one’s dwelling: until you have a house of gold (17:93); My Lord, forgive me and my parents and whoever enters my house believing (Q 71:28)

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Bayt as an Archetype of False Security

Allah Most High coined a simile between those who rely on other than Him and a spider living in a web: The likeness of those who choose patrons other than Allah is as the likeness of the spider when it takes unto itself a house; and truly the frailest of all houses is the spider’s house, if they but knew (Q 29:41). 

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Bibliography

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Ibn Durayd, Abū Bakr Muḥammad b. al-Ḥasan. al-Ishtiqāq. Ed. ʿAbd al-Salām Muḥammad Hārūn. Beirut: Dār al-Jīl, 1411/1991.

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al-Samhūdī, Nūr al-Dīn ʿAlī b. Aḥmad. Wafāʾ al-wafā bi-akhbār Dār al-Muṣṭafā. Ed. Muḥammad Muḥyī al-Dīn ʿAbd al-Ḥamīd. 4 vols. in 2. Cairo: Maṭbaʿat al-Saʿāda, 1374/1955. Repr. Beirut: Dār Iḥyāʾ al-Turāth al-ʿArabī, n.d.

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al-Ṭanāḥī, Maḥmūd Muḥammad. Min asrār al-lugha fī-l-Kitāb wal-Sunna: Muʿjam lughawī thaqāfī. 2 vols. Makka and ʿAmmān: al-Maktabat al-Makkiyya and Dār al-Fatḥ lil-Dirāsāt wal-Nashr, 1428/2008.

al-Zamakhsharī, Jār Allāh Abul-Qāsim Maḥmūd b. ʿUmar. Asās al-balāgha. Beirut: Dār Ṣādir, 1965. Repr. Beirut: Dār Bayrūt, 1412/1992.

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See also

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