QURTUBI (al-Jāmiʿ li-Aḥkām al-Qurʾān) :

﴿وَالْكَاظِمِينَ الْغَيْظَ﴾ (“Those who restrain their anger”)

What kaẓm means: kaẓm al-ghayẓ is pushing the anger back down inside (radduhu fī al-jawf). You say kaẓama ghayẓahu — “he swallowed his rage, stayed silent over it, and did not let it out, even though he was able to act on his enemy.”

The word’s roots (Qurtubī’s linguistic tour):

• kaẓamtu al-siqāʾ = I filled the waterskin and tied it shut; al-kiẓāma = what you block a watercourse with; al-kiẓām = the strap that closes the mouth of a waterskin.
• kaẓama al-baʿīr jirratahu = the camel returned its cud to its belly (didn’t chew it) — reported by al-Zajjāj.
• A camel or she-camel “kaẓama” when it stops chewing the cud. Al-Rāʿī’s verse:
  

  فَأَفَضْنَ بَعْدَ كُظُومِهِنَّ بِجِرَّةٍ … مِنْ ذِي الأبارقِ إذ رَعَيْنَ حَقِيلَا

  (al-Ḥaqīl is a place — also said to be a plant.)

• Camels do this out of fear and strain (fazaʿ wa jahd) and stop chewing. Aʿshā Bāhila, describing a man so fierce at slaughtering camels that they dread him:
  

  قَدْ تَكْظِمُ الْبُزْلَ مِنْهُ حِينَ تُبْصِرُهُ … حَتَّى تَقَطَّعَ فِي أجوافها الجِرَرُ

Related forms: rajul kaẓīm and makẓūm = a man filled with grief and sorrow. In the Qurʾān:

• ﴿وَابْيَضَّتْ عَيْنَاهُ مِنَ الْحُزْنِ فَهُوَ كَظِيمٌ﴾ [يوسف: ٨٤]
• ﴿ظَلَّ وَجْهُهُ مُسْوَدًّا وَهُوَ كَظِيمٌ﴾ [النحل: ٥٨]
• ﴿إِذْ نَادَىٰ وَهُوَ مَكْظُومٌ﴾ [القلم: ٤٨]

Ghayẓ vs. ghaḍab: al-ghayẓ is the root of anger (aṣl al-ghaḍab). They usually go together, but the difference is: ghayẓ does not show on the limbs, whereas ghaḍab does show on the limbs along with action. That is why ghaḍab (not ghayẓ) is attributed to Allah — because it expresses His actions toward those He is angry with. Some explained ghayẓ as simply ghaḍab — but that is not sound (wallāhu aʿlam).

Insight / Lesson: Look at the imagery Qurtubī uncovers — the same root means tying a full waterskin shut and a camel holding its cud down. To “restrain anger” is to be full to bursting yet sealed — the pressure is real, but it doesn’t leak out. And notice the precision: ghayẓ is the hidden, inner boiling; ghaḍab is anger that has broken out into action. The verse praises mastering the inner fire before it ever reaches your hands or tongue.