Arabic vocabulary
How to say “evil” in Arabic, with pronunciation and real example sentences from OpenArabic texts.
بِحَسْبِ امْرِئٍ مِنْ الشَّرِّ أَنْ يَحْقِرَ أَخَاهُ الْمُسْلِمَ،
It is enough evil for a person to look down on his Muslim brother.
الشَّرِّ — evil. In the genitive after 'of', naming evil, from a doubled root. With the idiom it gives 'evil enough', the kind of failing the next clause specifies.
From: Brotherhood in Islam →ولكن ضلال من لم يدر ما جاءت به الرسل كما ينبغي بالحكمة شر ممن يدري،
But the misguidance of one who does not know what the messengers brought, as he should through wisdom, is worse than that of one who knows.
شَرٌّ — is worse. This word is a comparative, 'worse', and it is the punchline-predicate of the whole 'lakinna' sentence built far back at the start. Notice it is an irregular comparative: Arabic does not bend it into the usual 'more...' mold but uses this short, fixed form for 'worse / more evil'.
From: Revelation Over Philosophy →فَقَالُوا شَرُّنَا وَابْنُ شَرِّنَا وَوَقَعُوا فِيهِ
So they said, "Our evil and the son of our evil," and they fell into it.
شَرُّنَا — our evil. A noun 'evil/worst' carrying an attached 'our', so 'our worst' is one word. The suffix supplies the first-person plural owner, and the phrase functions as their dismissive label for the man.
From: What Was Created First →فَقَالُوا شَرُّنَا وَابْنُ شَرِّنَا وَوَقَعُوا فِيهِ
So they said, "Our evil and the son of our evil," and they fell into it.
شَرِّنَا — our evil. A noun 'evil/worst' with an attached 'our' as the owner-half under 'son': the son of our worst. Its 'of'-type role marks it as possessed by 'son', completing the second jab.
From: What Was Created First →وَالْسَّلَامَةِ مِنْ كُلِّ شَرٍّ
and safety from every evil.
شَرٍّ — evil. An indefinite noun in the genitive serving as the second term after 'every'. Its indefinite, singular shape is exactly what 'every X' requires, letting the phrase cover each individual evil rather than a single named one.
From: The Bridge to Paradise →فتختبر ذلك اليوم حتى يظهر خيرها من شرها ومؤديها من مضيعها وما كان لله مما لم يكن له
Then that humiliation will be tested that day until its good is revealed from its evil, its deliverer from its destroyer, and what was for God from what was not for Him.
شَرِّهَا — its evil. A noun with an attached '-its' pointing back to the same humiliation, set in the genitive by the preceding 'from'. It is the second pole of the good-versus-evil contrast, so the suffix and the case together place it as what the good is being distinguished from.
From: Creation Points to Resurrection →OpenArabic teaches words like شَرٌّ through real bilingual reading with native audio and spaced-repetition practice.
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