Nadam
na-DAM · 'a' as in 'cat' in both syllables
The remorse that precedes returning — the ache before the turn.
Nadam is the pang of regret — the internal recognition that something was lost by what you chose. It is not yet tawbah, but it is what makes tawbah possible. The Prophet ﷺ said 'al-nadam tawbah' — remorse is repentance — meaning nadam is the essential seed without which the turning cannot take root. But nadam that never moves becomes grief. The question nadam poses is always: will you stay in the feeling, or let it move you?
Root occurrence breakdown
The root ن-د-م appears only ~6 times in the Quran — always marking a moment of recognition after an irreversible action. Its rarity makes each occurrence significant.
Key ayahs
فَأَصْبَحَ مِنَ ٱلنَّٰدِمِينَ
“And he became of the regretful.”
This is Qabil — who killed his brother and then watched a raven show him how to bury a body. The nadam here is devastating because it came too late to change anything and led to no turning back to Allah. This is nadam as dead end: the feeling without the movement. The Quran records it without judgment — simply: he regretted. What that regret became, it does not say.
فَتُصْبِحُوا۟ عَلَىٰ مَا فَعَلْتُمْ نَٰدِمِينَ
“And you would become regretful over what you have done.”
This verse warns against acting on unverified news — you may harm innocent people and then feel nadam. Here nadam is used as a warning, not a state to aspire to. The prevention is better than the cure. This Quranic usage reveals that nadam, while the seed of tawbah, is ideally avoided altogether by careful action.
أَن تَقُولَ نَفْسٌ يَٰحَسْرَتَىٰ عَلَىٰ مَا فَرَّطتُ فِى جَنۢبِ ٱللَّهِ
“Lest a soul should say: 'Alas, what I have neglected in regard to Allah.'”
Though the word nadam does not appear here, this is the Quran's most vivid picture of nadam without redemption — the ultimate regret, on a day when regret cannot help. The word is ḥasra — an even deeper form of grief. The Quran mentions it as motivation: feel the nadam now, while it can still become tawbah.