Meaning: your evil deeds · Also translated as: evil, the evil deeds, misfortune, our evil deeds
Forms in the Quran
ٱلسَّيِّـَٔاتِ×14
سَيِّئَةً×12
سَيِّـَٔاتِهِمْ×7
سَيِّـَٔاتُ×6
سَيِّـَٔاتِكُمْ×5
بِٱلسَّيِّئَةِ×5
ٱلسَّيِّئَةِ×5
سَيِّـَٔاتِهِۦ×2
Its root in the classical dictionaries
السوء: كل ما يغم الإنسان من الأمور الدنيوية، والأخروية، ومن الأحوال النفسية، والبدنية، والخارجة، من فوات مال، وجاه، وفقد حميم، وقوله: بيضاء من غير سوء
فأما السين والواو والهمزة فليست من ذلك، إنما هي من باب القبح. تقول رجل أسوأ، أي قبيح، وامرأة سوآء، أي قبيحة. قال رسول الله صلى الله عليه وآله وسلم: «سوآء ولود خير من حسناء عقيم». ولذلك سميت السيئة سيئة. وسميت النار سوأى، لقبح منظرها. قال الله تعالى: ﴿ثم كان عاقبة الذين أساءوا السوءى﴾ [الروم: 10]. وقال أبو زبيد:
Nor can Goodness and Evil
Be equal. Repel (Evil)
With what is better:
Then will he between whom
And thee was hatred
Become as it were
Thy friend and intimate!
The recompense for an injury
Is an injury equal thereto
(In degree): but if a person
Forgives and makes reconciliation,
His reward is due
From God: for (God)
Loveth not those who
Do wrong.
If then they turn away,
We have not sent thee
As a guard over them.
Thy duty is but to convey
(The Message). And truly,
When We give man
A taste of a Mercy
From ourselves, he doth
Exult thereat, but
When some ill happens
To him, on account
Of the deeds which
His hands have sent forth,
Truly then is man ungrateful!
What! do those who
Seek after evil ways
Think that We shall
Hold them equal with
Those who believe and
Do righteous deeds,—that
Equal will be their
Life and their death?
Ill is the judgment
That they make.
Such are they from whom
We shall accept the best
Of their deeds and pass by
Their ill deeds: (they shall
Be) among the Companions
Of the Garden: a promise!
Of truth, which was
Made to them
(In this life).
But those who believe
And work deeds of
Righteousness, and believe
In the (Revelation) sent down
To Muhammad—for it is
The Truth from their Lord,
He will remove from them
Their ills and improve
Their condition.
That He may admit
The men and women
Who believe, to Gardens
Beneath which rivers flow,
To dwell therein for aye,
And remove their ills
From them;—and that is,
In the sight of God,
The highest achievement
(For man),—
The Day that He assembles
You (all) for a Day
Of Assembly,—that will be
A day of mutual loss
And gain (among you).
And those who believe
In God and work righteousness,—
He will remove from them
Their ills, and He will admit
Them to gardens beneath which
Rivers flow, to dwell therein
For ever: that will be
The Supreme Achievement.
O ye who believe!
Turn to God
With sincere repentance:
In the hope that
Your Lord will remove
From you your ills
And admit you to Gardens
Beneath which Rivers flow,—
The Day that God
Will not permit
To be humiliated
The Prophet and those
Who believe with him.
Their Light will run
Forward before them
And by their right hands,
While they say, "Our Lord!
Perfect our Light for us,
And grant us Forgiveness:
For Thou hast power
Over all things."