adjectival. Thus one says imraʾa sawm (“a fasting woman”), imraʾatān sawm (“two fasting women”), and nisāʾ sawm (“fasting women”), since the implied expressions are dhāt sawm, dhātā sawm, and dhawāt sawm—one woman, two women, or several women characterized by fasting. By contrast, fa‘lāl used adjectivally takes dual, plural, and feminine forms. Thus tharthār (“talkative”) is used of a man, tharthāra of a woman, and tharthārūn of men. The hadith states: “The most hateful of you to me are the chatterers and the pompous speakers.”

They also say rīh raqrāqa, meaning a wind that shakes the trees; rīh safsāfa, a wind that sifts the dust; and dir‘ fadfāda, a spacious coat of mail. The verb in all these cases follows the pattern fa‘lala, while the verbal noun follows fa‘lala or fi‘lāl, with i as its first vowel. No verbal noun on the pattern fa‘lāl, with a as its first vowel, has been transmitted for any of these.

Likewise, they use tamtām, faʾfāʾ, and ladlād, meaning someone skilled in giving directions; fajfāj, someone who talks a great deal; harhār, someone who laughs a great deal; kahkāh; watwāt, meaning weak; hashhāsh; and ‘as‘ās, meaning light. There are many such examples. Their verbal nouns all follow fa‘lala, while the adjective follows fa‘lāl, with a as its first vowel. Similar examples include hafhāf, meaning slender-bellied; dahdāh, short; bajbāj, large-bodied; takhtāj, inarticulate; shamshām, swift; and something described as khashkhāsh, meaning noisy, with qa‘qā‘ having the same meaning. A lion is described as qadqād, meaning crushing, and a snake as nadnād, meaning that it flicks its tongue.

You have thus seen that fa‘lāl is an adjective, not a verbal noun, in all these examples. Why, then, should waswās be treated differently from its counterparts and the regular pattern to which it belongs?

It is therefore established that waswās is an adjective, not a verbal noun, like tharthār, tamtām, dahdāh, and other words of this class.

Another consideration supports this: it is qualified by a word that cannot possibly be a verbal noun and must instead be an adjective, namely al-khannās (“the one who repeatedly retreats”). Thus al-waswās (“the whisperer”) and al-khannās are two adjectives describing an omitted noun: Satan.

Omitting the noun here is appropriate because the epithet has become so predominant that it is virtually a proper name for him. Omitting the noun is objectionable only when the adjective can describe different things, giving rise to ambiguity, as with “tall,” “ugly,” “beautiful,” and the like. In such cases, the noun must be mentioned so that it is clear that the quality belongs to it rather than to something else.

But when an epithet becomes the predominant, distinctive designation, without ambiguity from shared usage, it functions