An example of this is the whispering of jewelry: its faint movement at the ear. Apparently—and Allah knows best—it is called whispering because of its proximity to, and close contact with, the place where human devils whisper: the ear. Thus, the expression “the whispering of jewelry” describes a sound close to the ear, like the whispered words a devil conveys into the ear of the person to whom he whispers.

Since whispering consists of words that the whisperer repeats and reinforces for the recipient, the Arabs repeated the sounds of the word to reflect the repetition in its meaning. Thus, they said waswasa (to whisper) and waswasa (whispering), making the repetition in the word convey repetition in what it denotes.

This resembles what was discussed earlier: making successive movements in a word’s sounds correspond to successive movements in its meaning, as in dawarān (revolving), ghalayān (boiling), nazawān (leaping), and similar words.

Other examples are zalzala (to shake), dakdaka (to pound down), qalqala (to rattle), and kabkaba (to send tumbling). Shaking involves repeated movement, as do pounding down and rattling. Likewise, kabkaba describes casting something into a distant place, where it tumbles over and over, as in the words of the Most High:

26:94: “Then they will be hurled headlong into it, they and the misguided.”

Similarly, radrada means to crush something again and again. Dhardhara means to scatter something little by little. Sarsara is used of a door when it creaks repeatedly. Matmata describes drawing out one’s speech, prolonging it part after part. Kafkafa means to check or restrain something repeatedly. Such examples are numerous.

This shows that those who equate these four-consonant forms with their corresponding three-consonant forms containing a doubled consonant are mistaken. The latter do not indicate repetition, whereas the reduplicated four-consonant forms do. Thus, saying dharra (he scattered something), sarra (the door creaked), kaffa (he hemmed the garment), or radda (he crushed the grain) does not indicate repetition of the action, unlike dhardhara, sarsara, radrada, and similar forms.

Reflect on this, for it accords with the Arabic principle of shaping words to reflect their meanings. This has already been pointed out, so there is no reason to repeat it.