The Semantics of the Word "Wizr" in the Qur’an with Emphasizing on Syntagmatic and Paradigmatic Relationships

Abstract

The Qur'an holds individuals accountable for all their actions and behavior, asserting that the consequences of one's deeds will be borne by the individual on the Day of Judgment. One of the key terms in the Qur'an is wizr, whose meaning has not been fully comprehended. This term appears in fourteen verses of the Qur'an, in various forms, with the phrase "Wa lā Taziru Wāziratin Wizra Ukhrā" (And no one shall bear another's burden) being repeated in five verses. The common theme underlying these formulations is the weight of the burden, which manifests both materially as a "Bār (burden)" and spiritually as "Sin." The present study aims to examine the word Wizr through a linguistic lens, employing semantic analysis by extracting its syntagmatic and paradigmatic relationships. To this aim, explore the semantic fields and interrelations of the term Wizr, revealing associated words such as Ḥaml (to carry), Iḍlāl (misguidance), Kufr (disbelief), Mafarr (escape place), Marjiʻ (reference), Ḥarb (war), and I‘rāḍ (turning away), all of which exhibit a strong semantic connection to Wizr. Additionally, words such as I‘rāḍ (turning away), Kasb (acquisition), Thiql (heaviness), Athar (effect), Masʻūlīyyat (responsibility), and Jazāʼ (reward) function as substitute terms for Wizr, aligning more closely with its core semantic meaning.