Thus, a devil is one in whom the quality of being exceedingly far removed from goodness is firmly and powerfully established. This is unlike someone who is far from it at one time but close to it at another, for such a person is not a devil.

One indication of this is that the Arabs say: tashaytana–yatashaytanu–shaytanah (“to become devilish”). Had the word derived from shāta–yashītu, they would instead have said: tashayyata–yatashayyatu.

The one who held that it derives from shāta–yashītu, meaning “to burn and blaze,” considered the letter nūn augmentative and said that the word follows the pattern faʿlān. As the poet said:

“A champion may indeed perish upon our spears.” (1)

This is tenable under what is known as major derivation, which takes correspondence in the class of the consonants into account. It is related that Abū Jaʿfar said:

“Al-ʿāmmah (the common people) derives from al-ʿamā (blindness). Allah was not content merely to liken them (2) to cattle, but went so far as to say:

‘Rather, they are even farther astray from the way.’”

It is similarly said that surriyyah (a concubine) is derived from sirr, meaning sexual intercourse. Had it followed regular analogy, the form would have been sarīrah (3), since that follows the pattern faʿīlah (4). The Arabs, however, interchange a geminated consonant and a weak consonant, as when they say both taqaddā al-bāzī and taqaddada (“the falcon swooped”). The poet said:

“The falcon’s swoop when (5) the falcon folds its wings” (6).

Another instance of this is the statement of Allah Most High:

“So look at your food and your drink; it has not changed with time.”

[Surah al-Baqarah: 259]

The final hā may be a root consonant, with the verb placed in the jussive by lam, in which case it derives from the form sānahtu; alternatively, it may be the pausal hā, like the hā in kitābiyah,