Quranic root
عفو
ʿ · f · w
The root centers on leaving or relinquishing something, with a related orientation toward seeking or taking what is available. From these principles develop meanings of effacement, pardon, remission, unspent abundance, and approaching a source of provision.
The leaving principle yields both the removal of a trace and the relinquishing of punishment or a due. What is left untouched may become abundant, while what is freely available may be sought or given without constraint. The lexical tradition also recognizes a distinct seeking branch in words for petitioners and guests.
- Maqāyīs · row 3260
- Mufradāt · row 994
- 4
- Quran-attested forms
- 7
- Quran senses
- 35
- Quran occurrences
Forms in the Quran
The forms this root actually takes in the Quran. Select one to jump to its senses and examples.
عَفَا
ʿafā
- Part of speech
- Verb · Form I
- Form
- I
- Quran occurrences
- 27 occurrences
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 pardon or forgive; to refrain from punishing and remove the blame or offense.
Commonly construed with عَنْ or with a sin, fault, or offense as its object. The use includes both divine pardon and a person's pardon of another.
- Lane · entry 3951
- Mufradāt · row 994
Selected Quran examples
Quran 2:52word 2
“We forgave”
Quran 3:159word 15
“Then pardon”
Quran 24:22word 16
“And let them pardon”
Quran 42:40word 6
“pardons”
To relinquish or waive a right, due, claim, or demand.
A construction in which the holder of a right turns away from seeking or enforcing it; this is distinct from merely forgiving an offense.
- Lane · entry 3951
Selected Quran examples
Quran 2:237word 18
“forgoes”
To become numerous, abundant, or increased.
Quran-attested in the description of people becoming numerous; the broader Classical uses for hair and vegetation becoming abundant are recorded separately below.
- Lane · entry 3951
- Mufradāt · row 994
Selected Quran examples
Quran 7:95word 7
“they increased”
عَافٍ
ʿāfin
- Part of speech
- Active participle
- 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.
One who pardons or forgives.
Presented under the singular active-participle citation form عَافٍ; the supplied Quran occurrence is plural and refers to people who pardon.
- Lane · entry 3951
- Mufradāt · row 994
Selected Quran examples
Quran 3:134word 8
“and those who pardon”
عَفْو
ʿafw
- Part of speech
- Noun
- Quran occurrences
- 2 occurrences
Selected examples are shown with the sense they illustrate — chosen to teach that sense, not the complete list of this form’s Quran occurrences.
Surplus or excess remaining beyond one's needs and available to give or spend.
In the Quranic spending construction, it denotes what can be readily expended after necessary provision.
- Lane · entry 3951
- Lane · entry 3961
- Mufradāt · row 994
Selected Quran examples
Quran 2:219word 19
“The surplus”
What is easy to accept or obtain, especially the readily acceptable course in dealing with people.
In the instruction خُذِ الْعَفْوَ, the noun denotes what is easy and unobjectionable in people's conduct rather than a material surplus.
- Lane · entry 3961
- Mufradāt · row 994
Selected Quran examples
Quran 7:199word 2
“(to) forgiveness”
عَفُوّ
ʿafuww
- Part of speech
- Adjective
- Quran occurrences
- 5 occurrences
Selected examples are shown with the sense they illustrate — chosen to teach that sense, not the complete list of this form’s Quran occurrences.
Very or repeatedly forgiving; one who pardons much.
Used as an epithet of God in the supplied Quran occurrences, with the intensive sense of abundant or frequent pardon.
- Lane · entry 3968
- Mufradāt · row 994
Selected Quran examples
Quran 4:43word 47
“Oft-Pardoning”
Quran 22:60word 15
“(is) surely Oft-Pardoning”
Quran 58:2word 22
“(is) surely, Oft-Pardoning”
Occurrences in the Quran
Every place this root appears, in Quran order. The first few are shown here.
- 2:52عَفَوْنَاWe forgave
- 2:109فَٱعْفُوا۟So forgive
- 2:178عُفِىَis pardoned
- 2:187وَعَفَاand He forgave
- 2:219ٱلْعَفْوَ ۗThe surplus
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 46 Classical meanings
عَفَا
To become effaced, erased, obliterated, imperceptible, or to perish and die.
Used of traces, footprints, dwellings, and similar things that disappear or become unrecognizable.
- Lane · entry 3951
- Maqāyīs · row 3260
عَفَا
To efface, erase, or obliterate a trace, dwelling, or other mark.
A transitive use, including the wind's effacing of a trace or house.
- Lane · entry 3951
عَفَا
To leave hair, a beard, or an animal uncut or unused so that it becomes abundant, long, or fat.
This is the Classical use for hair, a beard, or a camel left to develop; it is not treated as a separate Quranic sense from the Quranic statement about people becoming numerous.
- Lane · entry 3951
- Lane · entry 3952
عَفَا
To exceed, outdo, or give more than is expected, including giving a person what is fully due.
Used of surpassing another in knowledge or exceeding a person's request or entitlement in giving.
- Lane · entry 3951
عَفَا
To give the first or preferred portion of broth, or to leave the final broth in a borrowed cooking-pot.
A specialized culinary usage describing preferential serving or the remainder returned with the pot.
- Lane · entry 3951
عَفَا
To ask, petition, or come seeking someone's favor or hospitality.
Used of a person approaching another to seek beneficence or hospitality.
- Lane · entry 3951
عَفَا
Of camels, to crop or take the nearby pasture.
A pastoral construction with the pasture as the object.
- Lane · entry 3951
عَفَا
Of water, to remain untrodden and clear of whatever would make it turbid.
Describes water not disturbed by traffic or other turbidity-producing contact.
- Lane · entry 3951
عَفَّى
To efface what has happened or what remains; figuratively, to make amends after having acted wrongly.
The Form II verb intensifies the effacing sense and may be used figuratively of correcting prior wrongdoing.
- Lane · entry 3952
عَافَى
To grant health, soundness, safety, or protection from disease, trial, or harm.
May describe divine defense from illness and affliction, or reciprocal protection from harm between people.
- Lane · entry 3953
التَّعَافِي
To pardon one another or mutually relinquish punishment.
A reciprocal construction, including the relinquishing of prescribed penalties between people.
- Lane · entry 3953
- Lane · entry 3956
التَّعَافِي
To find, experience, or obtain health and soundness.
An intransitive or reciprocal recovery sense, distinct from causing another person to be healthy.
- Lane · entry 3956
أَعْفَى
To make someone free or exempt from an affair, duty, or inconvenient task.
Used in requests to be excused or released from an undertaking such as going out with someone.
- Lane · entry 3954
أَعْفَى
To spend or use the surplus portion of one's property.
The object is the عَفْو of property, understood as its clear or redundant portion.
- Lane · entry 3954
أَعْفَى
To become a possessor of abundant property and independent of others.
A Classical intransitive use describing wealth and self-sufficiency.
- Lane · entry 3954
الاِسْتِعْفَاءُ
To seek or request exemption from a difficult, troublesome, or inconvenient task.
The requester asks the person imposing the task to excuse or release him from performing it.
- Lane · entry 3958
الاِسْتِعْفَاءُ
Of camels, to pick clear dry herbage from above the dust.
A specialized pastoral use describing selection of the cleaner or better parts of dry vegetation.
- Lane · entry 3958
عَفْو
An untracked or uninhabited tract with no visible path, dwelling, cultivation, or footprint.
Describes land left without human occupation or cultivation.
- Lane · entry 3961
عَفْو
The clear, choice, most pleasant, or best portion of wealth, food, or another thing.
A broader Classical extension of the notion of an unencumbered or readily available portion, distinct from the Quranic spending and conduct constructions.
- Lane · entry 3961
عَفْو
Goodness, beneficence, or a beneficial gift.
Synonymous in this use with a recognized act or quality of kindness.
- Lane · entry 3961
عَفْو
The portion of water left over beyond what is required and available without crowding.
Used of excess water that can be taken freely after the immediate need has been met.
- Lane · entry 3961
عَفْو
A horse's first run before a subsequent, more forceful run.
A specialized equestrian expression.
- Lane · entry 3961
عَفْو
A young male ass; the feminine and plural forms are separately attested.
A lexical noun for the young animal, explained as one left unused for riding or carrying.
- Lane · entry 3961
عَفْوَة
A bloodwit or compensation by which pardon is obtained from the heirs of a slain person.
A technical legal and customary term.
- Lane · entry 3963
عَفْوَة
The foam or best portion of a cooking-pot's contents, especially the first and favored serving of broth.
A culinary term for the portion set aside to honor someone; related forms may denote the final broth left for the lender of the pot.
- Lane · entry 3963
عَفْوَة
The abundant herbage that has not yet been grazed.
Used of untouched pasture.
- Lane · entry 3963
عَفْوَة
The supply of water that has collected before anyone draws from it.
A specialized water term describing accumulated water prior to use.
- Lane · entry 3963
عِفْوَة
The best, choicest, softest, or most abundant portion of a thing, property, food, or drink.
Used of a tender and readily usable portion, including untouched or superior herbage.
- Lane · entry 3965
عِفْوَة
The hair of a man's head.
A nominal use distinct from the meanings of choice or abundant provision.
- Lane · entry 3965
عَفَاء
The state of being effaced, obliterated, or perished.
A verbal noun used substantivally for disappearance and ruin.
- Lane · entry 3966
عَفَاء
Dust.
Used in expressions invoking dust or an effaced condition.
- Lane · entry 3966
عَفَاء
Rain.
A figurative extension explained by rain's effacing traces of dwellings and stopping-places.
- Lane · entry 3966
عَفَاء
A whiteness over the black of the eye.
An anatomical use.
- Lane · entry 3966
عِفَاء
Dense, abundant, or long plumage, fur, or hair.
Used of an ostrich's plumage, a camel's fur, or other dense hair left to grow.
- Lane · entry 3967
عِفَاء
A nap- or pile-like surface on clouds.
A figurative description of dense cloud texture, associated with rain-bearing clouds.
- Lane · entry 3967
عَافٍ
Being or becoming effaced, erased, or obliterated.
An active-participial adjective describing something undergoing disappearance; this is separate from the Quranic pardoner sense of the supplied plural form.
- Lane · entry 3972
عَافٍ
Having long hair.
A descriptive adjective for hair or a hair-bearing creature.
- Lane · entry 3972
عَافٍ
Fleshy or plump; a person or camel having much flesh.
Used descriptively of a plump boy or a well-fleshed she-camel.
- Lane · entry 3972
عَافٍ
Of land, having abundant herbage that has not been grazed.
A descriptive use for untouched, luxuriant pasture.
- Lane · entry 3972
عَافٍ
The broth left in a cooking-pot and returned by its borrower.
A specialized culinary noun for the remainder reserved for the lender.
- Lane · entry 3972
عَافٍ
A guest or any seeker of favor, sustenance, herbage, or water.
The term can include human guests and petitioners as well as animals or birds approaching food, pasture, or water.
- Lane · entry 3972
عَافِيَة
Health, soundness, safety, or freedom from evil.
A noun for protection and well-being, especially understood as divine defense from disease, trial, or harm.
- Lane · entry 3973
أَعْفَى
Easier or less burdensome in respect of sustenance and guardianship.
A rare comparative or descriptive use attested in a statement about the relative upkeep of animals.
- Lane · entry 3974
مُعْفٍ
One who associates with another without seeking to obtain the other's bounty.
Describes reciprocal companionship without a request for material benefit.
- Lane · entry 3975
مُعَفًّى
A camel left unridden.
A passive participial description of an animal spared from riding.
- Lane · entry 3976
عَفَا
In a reported contrary usage, to become few or scant in quantity or number.
This opposing sense is attributed in the lexical evidence and is not the meaning of the supplied Quran occurrence at 7:95.
- Lane · entry 3951
Cautions
Points that affect how this root should be read.
The Quranic plural active participle عَافِينَ is presented under the singular citation form عَافٍ. The Quranic context supports the pardon sense, while the Classical lexical record also contains additional senses under the same written form.
Lane Quran references are retained as lexical evidence but were not converted into modern verse keys unless the corresponding QAC location was supplied and secure. Quran examples here use only supplied QAC/Quran Foundation locations.
The Classical evidence records an attributed contrary use in which عَفَا means becoming few; this is kept separate from the Quranic increase sense rather than treated as its interpretation.