The arabic particle بَلْ

In the Noble Qur'an : 122x

---

According to the Lane's Lexicon :

بَلْ is a particle of digression: (Mughnee, Ḳ:) or accord. to Mbr, it denotes emendation, wherever it occurs, in the case of a negation or an affirmation: (T, TA:) or it is a word of emendation, and denoting digression from that which precedes; as also بَنْ, in which the ن is a substitute for the ل, because بل is of frequent occurrence, and بن is rare; or, as IJ says, the latter may be an independent dial. var. (M.) When it is followed by a proposition, the meaning of the digression is either the cancelling of what precedes, as in وَقَالُوا ٱتَّخَذَ ٱلرَّحْمَانُ وَلَدًا سُبْحَانَهُ بَلْ عِبَادٌ مُكْرَمُونَ [And they said, "The Compassionate hath gotten offspring:" extolled be his freeedom from that which is derogatory from his glory! nay, or nay rather, or nay but, they are honoured servants (Ḳur xxi. 26)], or transition from one object of discourse to another, as in :


(Ḳur lxxxvii. 14-16): (Mughanee, Ḳ:*) and in all such cases it is an inceptive particle; not a conjunctive. (Mughnee.) When it is followed by a single word, it is a conjunction (Ṣ,* Mṣb,* Mughnee, Ḳ) and requires that word be in the same case as the word before it: (Ṣ:) and if preceded by a command or an affirmation, as in اٍضْرِبْ زَيْدًا بَلْ عَمْرًا [Beat thou Zeyd: no, 'Amr], (Mṣb, Mughnee, Ḳ,) and قَامَ زَيْدٌ بَلْ عَمْرٌ [Zeyd stood: no, 'Amr], (M, Mughnee, Ḳ,) or جَاءَنِي أَخُوكَ بَلْ أَبُوكَ [Thy brother came to me: no, thy father], (Ṣ,) it makes what precedes it to be as though nothing were said respecting it, (Ṣ,* Mṣb,* Mughnee, Ḳ,) making the command or affirmation to relate to what follows it: (Ṣ,* Mṣb,* Mughnee :) [and similar to these cases is the case in which it is preceded by an interrogation: see أَمْ as syn. with this particle:] but when it is preceded by a negation or a prohibition, it is used to confirm the meaning of what precedes it and to assign the contrary of that meaning to what follows it, (Mughnee, Ḳ,) as in مَا قَامَ زَيْدٌ بَلْ عَمْرٌ [Zeyd stood not, but 'Amr stood], (Mughnee,) or مَا رَأَيْتُ زَيْدًا بَلْ عَمْرًا [I saw not Zeyd, but I saw 'Amr] and لَا يَقُمْ زَيْدٌ بَلْ عَمْرٌ [Let not Zeyd stand, but let 'Amr stand]. (Mughnee,) Mbr and 'Abd-El-Wárith allow its being used to transfer the meaning of the negation and the prohibition to what follows it; so that, accord. to them, one may say, مَا زَيْدٌ قَائِمًا لبَلْ قَعِدًا [as meaning Zeyd is not standing: no, is not sitting], and بَلْ قَاعِدٌ [but is sitting]; the meaning being different [in the two cases]. (Mughnee, Ḳ.*) The Koofees disallow its being used as a conjunction after anything but a negation [so in the Mughnee, but in the Ḳ a prohibition,] or the like thereof; so that one should not say, صَرَبْفُ زَيْدًا بَلْ إِيَّاكَ [I beat Zeyd: no, thee]. (Mughnee, Ḳ.) Sometimes لَا is added before it, to corroborate the meaning of digression, after an affirmation, as in the saying,

[Thy face is the full moon: no, but it would be the sun, were it not that eclipse and setting are appointed to happen to the sun]: and to corroborate what precedes it, after a negation, as in

[And I did not abandon thee, or have not abandoned thee: no, but abandonment and distance, protracted, not to an appointed period, increased, or have increased, my heart-felt love]. (Mughnee, Ḳ.*) _ Sometimes it is used to denote the passing from one subject to another without cancelling [what precedes it], and is syn. with وَ, as in the saying in the Ḳur [Ixxxv. 20 and 21]


[or here it may mean إِنَّ, as in an ex. bellow]: and to this meaning it is made to accord in the saying, لَهُ عَلَيَّ دِينَارٌ بَلْ دِرْهَمٌ. [I owe him deenár and a dirhem]. (Mṣb.) _ In the following saying in the Ḳur [xxxviii. 1 and 2],


it is said to signify إِنَّ; [so that the meaning is, By the Ḳur-án possessed of eminence, verily they who have disbelieved are in a state of pride and opposition;] therefore the oath applies to it. (Akh, Ṣ.) _ Sometimes the Arabs use it in breaking of a saying and commencing another; and thus a man commences with it a citation, or recitation of verse; in which case, it does not form any part of the first verse, but is a sign of the breaking off or ending, of what precedes. (Akh, Ṣ.) _ Sometimes it is put in the place of رُبَّ, (Ṣ, Mughnee,) as in the saying of the rájiz,

[Many a far-extending desert have I traversed, after a far-extending desert]. (Ṣ: [and a similar ex. is given in the Mughnee.]) _ What is deficient in this word [supposing it to be originally of three letters] is unknown; and so in the cases of هَلْ and قَدّ: it may be a final و, or ي; or they may be originally بَلّ and هَلّ and قَدّ. (Akh, Ṣ.)

(voir lane's lexicon page 280 et 281 and Table of lexicological and Grammatical Terms &c. used in the Lane's Lexicon).