نزول

What it means

نزول (nozul) is an Arabic-origin noun built on the root ن-ز-ل (n-z-l), meaning “to descend” or “to come down.” Persian uses it in three distinct registers. In religious speech, نزول قرآن (nozul-e Qur’ân) refers to the revelation of the Quran, the divine word descending to the Prophet. In classical and literary writing, نزول can describe any kind of descent or arrival from above. In everyday financial speech, نزول means interest on a loan or usury, the idea being that money “comes down” from lender to borrower and must return augmented. The financial sense is the one most speakers encounter in daily life: کسی که نزول می‌گیره (kasi ke nozul migire) is a moneylender who charges interest, often at rates considered exploitative, and Iranian law distinguishes between legal bank interest and نزول in the sense of predatory private lending.

How to use it

• داره نزول می‌گیره (dâre nozul migire) “He is charging interest / He is a moneylender.”
• نزول قرآن تو ماه رمضون بوده (nozul-e Qur’ân tu mâh-e Ramzun bude) “The revelation of the Quran was in the month of Ramadan.”
• ازش قرض گرفت ولی نزول گرفت ازش (azash gharz gereft vali nozul gereft azash) “He borrowed from him but ended up paying heavy interest.”
• نزول بدون اجازه قانونیه (nozul bedun-e ejâze ghânuniye) “Charging interest without authorization is illegal.”

Cultural note

In Iran’s Islamic legal framework, ribâ (ربا), meaning usurious interest, is forbidden, and نزول is often used as a colloquial label for exactly this forbidden practice. The figure of the نزول‌خور (nozul-khur, “interest eater”), a predatory private lender, appears as a villain in Iranian folk stories, proverbs, and bazaar gossip. The religious weight of the word means calling someone a نزول‌خور is a genuine insult, not just a financial description.

References

• Dehkhoda
• Vajehyab