زَلْcease

Example sentences

• فَلَمْ يَزَلْ بِذَلِكَ حَتَّى قَتَلَهُ اللَّهُ عَزَّ وَجَلَّ بِبَدْرٍ

  He continued like that until God, the Exalted and Glorious, killed him at Badr.

  يَزَلْ — he cease. Although this looks like a present-tense verb, the lam in front of it has thrown it into the clipped (jussive) shape and pulled its meaning into the past, so together they mean 'he did not cease'. Paired with the next phrase, 'cease' sets up an idiom: 'he did not cease doing X' is how Arabic says 'he kept on doing X'.

  From: Warning Before the Battle of Badr →