Quranic root
شغف
sh · gh · f
The root centers on the shighāf, the covering or inner part of the heart, and conveys penetration to the heart’s interior and intense emotional attachment.
From the anatomical heart covering, the root develops the sense of love reaching or striking the heart’s interior, then extends to deep attachment, vehement fondness, and figurative disturbance of the mind.
- Maqāyīs · row 2657
- Mufradāt · row 773
- Lane · entry 38761
- 1
- Quran-attested forms
- 1
- Quran senses
- 1
- Quran occurrences
Forms in the Quran
The forms this root actually takes in the Quran. Select one to jump to its senses and examples.
شَغَفَ
shaghafa
- Part of speech
- Verb · Form I
- Form
- I
- Quran occurrences
- 1 occurrence
Selected examples are shown with the sense they illustrate — chosen to teach that sense, not the complete list of this form’s Quran occurrences.
To penetrate to the shighāf of the heart with love, thereby deeply affecting, impassioning, or taking hold of someone.
In the Quranic construction, love is described as reaching, striking, or passing beneath the heart’s inner covering. The related noun شَغَفٌ denotes love that reaches the shighāf; the underlying anatomical term may be understood as the heart’s covering or inner part.
- Lane · entry 38761
- Mufradāt · row 773
Selected Quran examples
Quran 12:30word 12
“he has impassioned her”
Occurrences in the Quran
Every place this root appears, in Quran order. The first few are shown here.
- 12:30شَغَفَهَاhe has impassioned her
Broader Classical Arabic meanings
Recorded for this root in the Classical lexicons beyond its Quran usage. These are secondary to the Quran senses above.
Show 10 Classical meanings
شَغَفَ
To strike or smite the shighāf, the heart’s covering or inner part.
A literal bodily use, compared with striking the liver; the Quranic love construction is the figurative emotional development of this action.
- Lane · entry 38761
شَغِفَ / شُغِفَ بِالشَّيْءِ
To become attached to or love someone; to be vehemently fond of or desirous of something.
The forms and constructions vary in vocalization and voice, while expressing the same branch of intense attachment or fondness.
- Lane · entry 38761
شَغِفَهُ المَالُ
Of property: to become embellished or pleasing to someone, so that the person loves it.
A construction in which property is the subject and its pleasing appearance produces attachment in the person concerned.
- Lane · entry 38761
شَغِفَ بِالشَّيْءِ
To become disquieted or disturbed by something.
A distinct emotional result from the construction expressing fondness or desire.
- Lane · entry 38761
تَشَغَّفَ
Figuratively, to put vain suggestions into people’s minds and separate them.
Reported of a saying or judicial sentence in an expression comparing its effect to entering the shighāf of people’s hearts.
- Lane · entry 38762
شَغَفٌ
The bark or outer layer of the ghāf tree.
A homonymous botanical noun, distinct from the emotional and anatomical branches.
- Lane · entry 38764
شَغَافٌ / شُغَافٌ
The pericardium or covering of the heart; by extension or variant, an inner part, core, or fatty layer of the heart.
Classical authorities also identify it with the heart’s membrane, a place associated with the entry of phlegm, or in one report the heart itself; these are variant anatomical identifications.
- Lane · entry 38765
شَغَافٌ
A disease or pain beneath the ribs or in the right side, including abdominal pain or a disease affecting the heart’s shighāf.
One reported description says that the disease is fatal if it reaches the spleen.
- Lane · entry 38765
مَشْغُوفٌ
Insane or mad.
An adjectival use recorded alongside the sense of being intensely attached or enamored.
- Lane · entry 38767
مَشْغُوفٌ بِمَالٍ
Deeply enamored of property because it has been made pleasing or attractive to the person.
A passive-participial construction describing intense fondness for wealth or property.
- Lane · entry 38767
Cautions
Points that affect how this root should be read.
The verb has one supplied Quranic occurrence, in 12:30; its contextual translation as “impassioned” reflects the image of love reaching the heart’s inner covering.
Classical descriptions of the shighāf’s precise anatomy vary, including the heart’s covering, inner core, fatty layer, and related structures.