قَوْسَ Qaws
is a bow (i.e., the curved frame that has string attached to shoot arrows).
Curved frame + string = bow used to shoot arrows.
Ayah 53:9 — Visual Explanation
فَكَانَ قَابَ قَوْسَيْنِ أَوْ أَدْنَىٰ
“Then he was the distance of two bow lengths or (even) closer”.
Language points
قَاب Qaab
refers to the short gap between the middle and end of a bow or the short distance between the middle of the bow and its string.
The highlighted span illustrates the short gap (Qaab).
قَابَ قَوْسَيْنِ Qaaba Qawsaini
is also understood to mean the length of two bows and it is an expression which is used to mean extremely close.
A span of “two bows” conveys being extremely close.
Expression and meaning
قَابَ قَوْسَيْنِ — “two bow lengths”The phrase is understood to denote the length of two bows, and is used as an expression meaning “extremely close.”
The imagery relies on precise, physical measurement to convey minimal distance.
“Extremely close” represented by a minimal measured gap.
Statements of the early scholars of Tafsir
Mujahid and Al-Hasan said: قَابَ قَوْسَيْنِ refers to a practice of the Arabs in the period of Jahiliyah (pre-Islam) when they would make a pact or alliance. They would take out two bows (from each tribe) and stick one of them to the other where the arch (قَابَ – Qaab) of the bows would be attached to each other as if it was one arch (قَاب – Qaab). They would then pull them together and shoot one arrow. It would be a sign that the happiness of one would be the happiness of the other, and the anger of one would be the anger of the other, which cannot be opposed (i.e., that they have now become one and are inseparable).
— Reported explanation
A practice of the Arabs in the period of Jahiliyah (pre-Islam) when they would make a pact or alliance.
They would take out two bows (from each tribe) and stick one of them to the other where the arch (قَابَ) of the bows would be attached to each other as if it was one arch (قَاب).
They would then pull them together and shoot one arrow.
It would be a sign that the happiness of one would be the happiness of the other, and the anger of one would be the anger of the other — they have now become one and are inseparable.
Bows attached arch-to-arch, then drawn together to shoot one arrow — a sign of unified joy and anger, inseparable.