States of the Heart
زُهْد

Zuhd

ZUHD

Detachment from the world — not hating it, but not being owned by it.

ز–ه–د
Root
To be indifferent to something, to have no desire for it
Meaning
1
Occurrences

A synthesized overview will appear here as content grows.

Root Analysis

ز–ه–د/To be indifferent to something, to have no desire for it

The root z–h–d means to turn away from something without contempt — to regard it as beneath one's concern. This differs from hatred or rejection: the zahid does not hate the world; they simply find it uncompelling compared to what they have found in Allah. The word zahid (one with zuhd) appears in the Quran once — the merchants who sold Yusuf ﷺ 'regarded him with indifference' (zahidin), undervaluing the precious.

Quranic Occurrence

1times in the Quran

The root z–h–d appears only once explicitly in the Quran, but zuhd pervades the Quran through its frequent contrasting of dunya and akhira, descriptions of believers' indifference to worldly pleasures, and consistent reorientation toward the eternal.