بقيa single aṣl, al-dawām — continuance, duration. (root bqy)

[The Arabs say: 'I adjure you by God'] and by al-buqyā (البقيا), which is al-baqīyah (البقية). [The poet] said: "Khālid did not turn from me out of baqīyah (بقية)..." Baqiya (بقي) — the thing yabqā (يبقى) baqāʾ (بقاء) — is the opposite of fanāʾ (فناء). One says: mā baqiyat minhum bāqiyah (ما بقيت منهم باقية) wa-lā waqāhum min Allāhi wāqiyah (ولا وقاهم من الله واقية) ['none of them remained, and no protector shielded them from God']. And baqā, yabqā (بقى يبقى) is [also] a dialect form; every yāʾ carrying kasra in the verb they convert to alif, as in baqā (بقى), raḍā (رضى), and fanā (فنى). Istabqaytu fulānan (استبقيت فلانا) [is used] when you had incurred [a right to] his death and pardoned him; and istabqaytu fulānan is also used in the sense of pardoning his lapse and thereby preserving his affection. [The poet] said: "I am not one who spares a brother whom you do not fault for some disorder — which of men is free of blemish?!" And when you give something while withholding part of it, you say: istabqaytu baʿḍahu (استبقيت بعضه) 'I retained part of it.' And fulānun yabqīnī bi-baṣarihi (فلان يبقيني ببصره) 'so-and-so watches me with his eye,' when he keeps looking at and observing me. [The poet] said, describing an [wild] ass: "It stood, and ʿAdhūb stood, atop a hill, watching it with the pierced (makhzūmah) sweet eyes."

Baqā (بقى) — the thing yabqā (يبقى) baqāʾ (بقاء) [it remained/endured]. Likewise baqiya al-rajulu zamānan ṭawīlan (بقي الرجل زمانا طويلا) means he lived [a long time]. And abqāhu Allāh (أبقاه الله) ['God preserved him/kept him alive']. Baqiya min al-shayʾi baqīyah (بقي من الشيء بقية) ['there remained of the thing a remnant']. Al-bāqiyah (الباقية) is used in place of the verbal noun, as God Almighty says: "fa-hal tarā lahum min bāqiyah" (فهل ترى لهم من باقية) [Q. 69:8, 'Do you see any remnant of them?'], i.e., baqāʾ (بقاء). Abqaytu ʿalā fulān (أبقيت على فلان) [is said] when you show mercy and pity to him. One says: lā abqā Allāhu ʿalayka in abqayta ʿalayya (لا أبقى الله عليك إن أبقيت على) ['may God not spare you if you spare me']. The noun from it is al-buqyā (البقيا). The poet said: "What sparing (buqyā) for me did you two leave, but rather you feared the whizzing of the arrows?" Likewise al-buqwā (البقوى), with fatḥa on the bāʾ. Baqaytuhu abqīhi (بقيته أبقيه) means I looked at him and watched him. Kuthayyir said: "I kept watching (abqā) the departing riders until they seemed like threads laid on a loom, destroyed by the weavers." He likens the departing riders, receding from his sight and entering the mirage, to the yarn which weavers lay on the loom, which diminishes little by little. In the hadith: 'baqīnā Rasūl Allāh ﷺ' (بقينا رسول الله صلى الله عليه وسلم), meaning 'we waited for him.' Baqqaytuhu (بقيته) with doubling, abqaytuhu (أبقيته), and tabaqqaytuhu (تبقيته) — all bear the same meaning. Istabqaytu min al-shayʾ (استبقيت من الشيء) means I retained/left some of it. Istabqāhu (استبقاه) means he spared his life. Ṭayyiʾ (طيء) say baqā and baqat (بقا وبقت) in place of baqā and baqītu/baqiyat (بقى وبقيت), and likewise their sister forms among the defective verbs. Al-Būlānī said: "We kindle fire from the arrow-shafts on the lowland, and hunt down souls built (banat) upon generosity," meaning banīyat (بنيت) ['were built'] — i.e., when he fails to strike fire [with flint].

Bāʾ, qāf, and yāʾ (بقي) is one root, meaning continuance/duration. Al-Khalīl said: one says baqiya (بقي) — the thing baqiya, yabqā (يبقى), baqāʾ (بقاء) — and it is the opposite of fanāʾ (فناء) 'annihilation.' He said: the dialect of Ṭayyiʾ (طيء) is baqā, yabqā (بقى يبقى), and likewise their dialect in every [defective verb] whose penultimate letter carries kasra — they convert it to an alif, as in baqiya (بقي) and raḍiya (رضي). They do this because they dislike the combination of kasra and yāʾ, so they open [with fatḥa] what precedes the yāʾ and the yāʾ is converted to alif; they say for jāriyah (جارية): jārāh (جاراة), for bāniyah (بانية): bānāh (باناة), and for nāṣiyah (ناصية): nāṣāh (ناصاة). A poet said: "Khālid did not turn from me out of baqīyah (بقية), but the fierce lions came between him and me." By baqīyah here he means al-buqyā (البقيا) [clemency/sparing] shown him. The Arabs say: nashadtuka Allāh wa-l-buqyā (نشدتك الله والبقيا) ['I adjure you by God, and by clemency'], and sometimes they say al-buqwā (البقوى). Al-Khalīl said: istabqaytu fulānan (استبقيت فلانا) means that you pardon his lapse and thereby preserve his affection. Al-Nābighah said: "I am not one who spares (mustabqin) a brother whom you do not fault for some disorder — which of men is free of blemish?" The Arabs say: huwa yabqā al-shayʾa bi-baṣarihi (هو يبقى الشيء ببصره) when he keeps looking at and watching it. Al-Kumayt said, describing a wild ass: "It stood, and ʿAdhūb stood, atop a hill, watching it (tabqīhi) with eyes deprived of the sweet [water]." He describes the ass wanting to return to his she-asses [but remaining] atop the hill, awaiting sunset. Likewise one says: fulānun bāta yabqā al-barq (فلان بات يبقى البرق) 'so-and-so spent the night watching the lightning,' when he keeps looking to see where it flashes. Al-Fazārī said: "Flashing lightning stirred me tonight, so I spent the night watching it (abqīhi), my eye streaming." Ibn al-Sikkīt said: baqaytu fulānan abqīhi (بقيت فلانا أبقيه) means you tended and awaited him. One says: ibqi lī al-adhān (ابق لي الأذان) — 'watch for the call to prayer for me,' i.e., observe it for me. And he cited: "I kept watching (abqā) the departing riders until they seemed like threads laid on a loom, destroyed one by one by the weavers." From this is the hadith of Muʿādh (may God be pleased with him): 'baqīnā Rasūl Allāh (بقينا رسول الله) ﷺ,' meaning 'we waited for him.' This returns to the original meaning, since waiting is a kind of steadfastness and continuance.

Al-baqāʾ (البقاء) is the constancy of a thing in its original state; it is opposed to fanāʾ (فناء). One says baqiya, baqāʾ (بقي بقاء); it has been said that baqiya (بقي) in the past stands in place of [another form of] baqiya (بقي). In the hadith: "baqīnā Rasūl Allāh" (بقينا رسول الله) means 'we waited for him and watched for him for a long while.' Al-bāqī (الباقي) is of two kinds: one that endures by itself, not for [a limited] duration — this is the Creator (Exalted), for whom fanāʾ cannot hold true; and one that endures through something other [than itself] — this is everything besides Him, for which fanāʾ can hold true. What endures 'by God' is of two kinds: — enduring in its individual entity until God wills to annihilate it, like the endurance of the celestial bodies; — enduring in its species and genus, not in its individual instance, like man and [other] animals. Likewise in the Hereafter: one endures in its individual entity, like the people of Paradise, for they endure forever, not for [only] a period, as He (Exalted) said: "khālidīna fīhā" (خالدين فيها) [Q. 2:162, 'abiding therein forever']. And the other endures in its species and genus, as reported from the Prophet ﷺ: 'The fruits of the people of Paradise are picked by their people and eaten, then their like takes their place.' And since what is in the Hereafter is everlasting, God (Exalted) said: "wa-mā ʿinda Allāhi khayrun wa-abqā" (وما عند الله خير وأبقى) [Q. 28:60, 'What is with God is better and more lasting']. And His saying: "wa-l-bāqiyātu al-ṣāliḥāt" (والباقيات الصالحات) [Q. 18:46, 'the enduring good deeds'], i.e., the deeds whose reward endures for a person; it has been explained as the five [daily] prayers, and it has been said [it means] 'Glory be to God and praise be to God' [etc.]. The correct view is that it is every act of worship by which the countenance of God (Exalted) is intended. On this basis is His saying: "baqiyyatu Allāhi khayrun lakum" (بقية الله خير لكم) [Q. 11:86, 'What remains with God is better for you'], attributing it to God (Exalted). And His saying (Exalted): "fa-hal tarā lahum min bāqiyah" (فهل ترى لهم من باقية) [Q. 69:8], i.e., a remaining group, or a remaining deed of theirs; it has also been said its meaning is baqīyah (بقية) [remnant]. He said: among the verbal nouns there occur ones on the pattern fāʿil (فاعل) and ones on the pattern of the passive participle (مفعول); the first is more correct.

Among the Beautiful Names of God, al-Bāqī (الباقي) [the Everlasting]: He is the One whose estimated existence does not terminate in the future at any limit it reaches; He is described as abadī al-wujūd (أبدي الوجود) ['eternal in existence']. Al-baqāʾ (البقاء) is the opposite of fanāʾ (فناء); baqiya al-shayʾu yabqā baqāʾan (بقي الشيء يبقى بقاء), and baqā yabqā baqyan (بقى يبقى بقيا) — the latter being a dialect of the [tribe of] al-Ḥārith ibn Kaʿb (الحارث بن كعب). And abqāhu (أبقاه), baqqāhu (بقاه), tabaqqāhu (تبقاه), istabqāhu (استبقاه) [all mean: he spared/preserved him]; the noun (ism) is al-buqyā and al-buqyā (البقيا) [with differing vocalizations]. Ibn Sīdah said: I think Thaʿlab related al-buqwā (البقوى), with wāw and ḍamma on the bāʾ. Al-buqwā and al-buqyā are two nouns placed in the position of al-ibqāʾ (الإبقاء) ['sparing/preservation']. If it is asked: why did the Arabs convert the lām of the pattern fuʿlā (فعلى), when it is a noun whose lām is a yāʾ, into a wāw, so that they said al-buqwā and the like, such as al-taqwā (التقوى) and al-ʿiwā (العوى)? — the answer is: they did this in fuʿlā because they had [already], for the same pattern when its lām was a wāw, converted that wāw into a yāʾ, seeking lightness, as in al-dunyā (الدنيا), al-ʿulyā (العليا), al-quṣyā (القصيا), which come from danawtu (دنوت), ʿalawtu (علوت), and qaṣawtu (قصوت). So when they had converted wāw to yāʾ in this and other [words] too numerous to list, they compensated the wāw — since yāʾ predominates over it in most positions — by converting it, in cases like al-buqwā and al-thunwā (الثنوى), into a wāw, so that this should be a kind of compensation and mutual balancing between the two [letters]. Baqiya al-rajulu zamānan ṭawīlan (بقي الرجل زمانا طويلا) means he lived [a long time], and abqāhu Allāh (أبقاه الله) ['God kept him alive']. Al-Layth: the Arabs say: 'nashadtuka Allāh wa-l-buqyā' (نشدتك الله والبقيا) ['I adjure you by God, and by clemency']; it is al-ibqāʾ (الإبقاء), like al-riʿwā (الرعوى) and al-riʿyā (الرعيا) from al-irʿāʾ ʿalā al-shayʾ (الإرعاء على الشيء) ['showing consideration for a thing'], which is al-ibqāʾ ʿalayhi (الإبقاء عليه). The Arabs say to a defeated enemy: al-baqīyah (البقية)! meaning 'spare us and do not exterminate us.' From this is the saying of al-Aʿshā: "They cried: al-baqīyah! while the Khaṭṭī lances seized them." In the hadith of al-Najāshī and the Hijra: 'wa-kāna abqā al-rajulayni fīnā' (وكان أبقى الرجلين فينا) means 'he was the more sparing (abqā) of the two men toward our people'; it is also transmitted with tāʾ, from al-taqā (التقى) ['piety']. Al-bāqiyah (الباقية) is used in place of the verbal noun. One says: mā baqiyat minhum bāqiyah wa-lā waqāhum Allāh min wāqiyah (ما بقيت منهم باقية ولا وقاهم الله من واقية) ['none of them remained, and God did not shield them with any protector']. In the Mighty Book: "fa-hal tarā lahum min bāqiyah" (فهل ترى لهم من باقية) [Q. 69:8]; al-Farrāʾ said: he means 'of baqāʾ.' One may also say: 'hal tarā minhum bāqiyā' (هل ترى منهم باقيا) — all of this is correct and acceptable in Arabic. Baqiya min al-shayʾi baqīyah (بقي من الشيء بقية) ['there remained of the thing a remnant']. Abqaytu ʿalā fulān (أبقيت على فلان) [is said] when you show mercy and pity to him. One says: 'lā abqā Allāhu ʿalayka in abqayta ʿalayya' (لا أبقى الله عليك إن أبقيت علي); the noun is al-buqyā (البقيا). Al-Luʿayn (اللعين) said: "I shall judge between the Banū Kalb and al-Qayn — Qayn of the Banū ʿIqāl. For the dog's food is foul, and the Qayn [smith] works basely. So what sparing (buqyā) for me did you two leave, but rather you feared the whizzing of the arrows?" Likewise al-buqwā (البقوى), with fatḥa on the bāʾ. One says al-buqyā and al-buqwā, like al-fatyā and al-fatwā (الفتيا والفتوى). Abū al-Qamqām al-Asadī said: "I am remembered with clemency (bi-l-buqwā) for what befell me, and my clemency (buqwāya) is that I am striving, not..." [entry continues]