s-h-l

Description

The Arabic root س-ح-ل (s-ḥ-l) carries the core meaning of dragging, pulling along the ground, or scraping something across a surface. In its single Quranic occurrence, it appears in the derived form سَاحِل (sāḥil), meaning shore or bank of a body of water, which relates to the root meaning as the place where water meets and drags along the land. This term is significant in the Quranic narrative of Moses, where the shore serves as the location of divine intervention and salvation, marking the boundary between danger and safety.