and it is related by major derivation to āsin water—water that has changed and become foul-smelling—and by minor derivation to masnūn in the expression hamaʾ masnūn (“foul-smelling mud”), for masnūn derives from sanna. The verb sanantu is used when one rubs one stone against another, and the runoff that flows between them (1) is called sanan (2); it is invariably foul-smelling (3).

This is sounder than the view that masnūn means “poured into the form of a face,” or “poured (4) and cast”—that is, that He brought the human form into being. For that occurred only after man had been created from hamaʾ (mud) (5) that was masnūn; the mud itself was neither in human form nor in the form of a face. Rather, the intended meaning is “foul-smelling.”

Thus, His words, “It did not change with time,” differ from His words, “water unaltered” [Surah Muhammad: 15], for the latter derives from the expression asana–yaʾsinu (“to become foul”). This belongs to major derivation because the two expressions share the letters sīn, nūn, and the other nūn (6), while hamzah and hā are close in articulation, since both are guttural letters. This is a broad field.

The point is that when two words share most of their letters but differ in some, one is said to derive from the other; this is major derivation. Intermediate derivation is when they share the same letters but not their order, as in the Kufan grammarians’ view that ism (“noun”) derives from simah (“mark”). Derivation in the specific minor sense consists in sharing both the letters and their order. This is the familiar kind, as with ʿalima–yaʿlamu–ʿālim (“he knew—he knows—one who knows”).