Quranic root
حفظ
ḥ · f · ẓ
The root centers on attentive care: holding something under regard so that it is not lost, damaged, neglected, or forgotten.
From active watching and maintenance, the root develops meanings of protection, faithful observance, retention in memory, safekeeping and entrustment, and honor-based defensive anger. These related developments are not automatically meanings of every derived form.
- Maqāyīs · row 1409
- Mufradāt · row 344
- 7
- Quran-attested forms
- 13
- Quran senses
- 44
- Quran occurrences
Forms in the Quran
The forms this root actually takes in the Quran. Select one to jump to its senses and examples.
حَفِظَ
ḥafiẓa
- Part of speech
- Verb · Form I
- Form
- I
- Quran occurrences
- 7 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 preserve, protect, guard, or take careful charge of something.
The Quranic uses include guarding people or things against harm or loss and protecting something entrusted to one's care.
- Lane · entry 15016
- Mufradāt · row 344
Selected Quran examples
Quran 15:17word 1
“And We have protected it”
Quran 13:11word 8
“who guard him”
To keep or observe an oath, including refraining from using it for trivial or improper purposes.
Quranic usage in the command concerning oaths supports both faithful observance and restraint in the use of an oath.
- Lane · entry 15016
Selected Quran examples
Quran 5:89word 37
“And guard”
حَافَظَ
ḥāfaẓa
- Part of speech
- Verb · Form III
- Form
- III
- Quran occurrences
- 4 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 maintain, observe, or attend to something persistently and carefully.
In the Quran this construction is used especially of maintaining the prayers by observing their times, requirements, and performance with sustained care.
- Lane · entry 15018
- Mufradāt · row 344
Selected Quran examples
Quran 2:238word 1
“Guard strictly”
Quran 23:9word 5
“they guard”
اِسْتَحْفَظَ
āistaḥfaẓa
- Part of speech
- Verb · Form X
- Form
- X
- 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 charge or require someone to preserve, guard, or attend to something.
The Quranic passive construction presents people as charged with preserving or maintaining what they received of the Book of God.
- Lane · entry 15022
Selected Quran examples
Quran 5:44word 17
“they were entrusted”
To entrust or place something with someone for safekeeping.
The Quranic passive may also be understood as being entrusted with the thing placed under one's care.
- Lane · entry 15022
Selected Quran examples
Quran 5:44word 17
“they were entrusted”
حَافِظ
ḥāfiẓ
- Part of speech
- Active participle
- Quran occurrences
- 15 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.
A keeper, guardian, or protector; one who watches over a person, thing, or charge.
The Quran also uses the plural for guardians assigned to record human deeds and for people mindful of divinely prescribed duties.
- Lane · entry 15028
- Mufradāt · row 344
Selected Quran examples
Quran 12:64word 14
“Guardian”
Quran 15:9word 7
“(are) surely Guardians”
Quran 82:10word 3
“(are) surely guardians”
One who guards the private parts, maintaining sexual chastity.
This is a Quranic euphemistic construction for preserving chastity; the wording applies to both masculine and feminine forms without making gender itself part of the lexical meaning.
- Mufradāt · row 344
Selected Quran examples
Quran 23:5word 4
“(are) guardians”
Quran 33:35word 20
“and the women who guard (it)”
One who faithfully keeps a marital trust or obligation during a spouse's absence.
In the Quranic construction concerning the unseen, the emphasis is on observing the marital trust in the partner's absence through God's preserving care.
- Mufradāt · row 344
Selected Quran examples
Quran 4:34word 17
“guarding”
حَفِيظ
ḥafīẓ
- Part of speech
- Adjective / active participle
- Quran occurrences
- 12 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.
A guardian or protector; one who watches over something.
The Quran uses this adjective or noun for a guardian or protector, including in statements about responsibility over people.
- Mufradāt · row 344
Selected Quran examples
Quran 11:57word 21
“a Guardian”
Quran 4:80word 12
“(as) a guardian”
Preserving or retaining something, as a record that keeps a person's deeds from being lost.
In the description of the record in Q 50:4, حفيظ may be understood actively as retaining or preserving the recorded deeds.
- Mufradāt · row 344
Selected Quran examples
Quran 50:4word 9
“guarded”
Preserved and not lost.
The same Quranic description of the record also admits a passive interpretation: it is safeguarded from disappearance or loss.
- Mufradāt · row 344
Selected Quran examples
Quran 50:4word 9
“guarded”
حِفْظ
ḥifẓ
- Part of speech
- Verbal noun
- Quran occurrences
- 3 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.
Guarding, protection, or preservation from harm or loss.
The Quranic verbal noun describes divine guarding of created things and protection from destructive influences.
- Lane · entry 15016
- Mufradāt · row 344
Selected Quran examples
Quran 2:255word 47
“(the) guarding of both of them”
Quran 37:7word 1
“And (to) guard”
مَحْفُوظ
maḥfūẓ
- Part of speech
- Adjective / passive participle
- 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.
Kept, preserved, or protected, especially from alteration, harm, or loss.
The Quran applies the passive participle to something safeguarded from destructive interference or alteration.
- Lane · entry 15030
Selected Quran examples
Quran 21:32word 4
“protected”
Quran 85:22word 3
“Guarded”
Occurrences in the Quran
Every place this root appears, in Quran order. The first few are shown here.
- 2:238حَـٰفِظُوا۟Guard strictly
- 2:255حِفْظُهُمَا ۚ(the) guarding of both of them
- 4:34حَـٰفِظَـٰتٌۭguarding
- 4:34حَفِظَ(orders) them to guard
- 4:80حَفِيظًۭا(as) a guardian
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 24 Classical meanings
حَفِظَ
To retain something in the mind or memory; to remember or learn it by heart, including something heard from another person.
This is the cognitive-retention use of the Form I verb, distinct from physical guarding or preservation.
- Lane · entry 15016
حَفِظَ
To keep a secret.
A conventional object construction for preserving confidential information.
- Lane · entry 15016
حَفِظَ
To keep oneself or one's speech from base, trivial, or irrelevant use.
This construction expresses restraint from using a person, one's tongue, or something else for mean or improper purposes.
- Lane · entry 15016
حَفِظَ
To regard and respect another's honor, inviolable rights, or claims to defense.
The meaning concerns attentiveness to what is entitled to reverence or protection, rather than simple physical preservation.
- Lane · entry 15016
حَفَّظَ
To cause someone to commit a book, narration, or tradition to memory.
Form II is causative: the subject induces another person to learn or retain material by heart.
- Lane · entry 15017
مُحَافَظَة
Defense of persons or things held sacred, inviolable, or worthy of honor, especially in circumstances of conflict; hence an honor-conscious or scornful stance.
This is the honor-defense branch of the Form III verbal noun and related حِفَاظ terminology.
- Lane · entry 15018
حِفَاظ
Mindful observance of a covenant and fulfillment of a promise, with continued forgiveness and affection.
A conventional relational use of حِفَاظ distinct from the Quranic persistent observance of prayer.
- Lane · entry 15018
أَحْفَظَ
To anger someone, especially by foul or offensive speech.
Form IV may describe causing anger by making someone hear what he dislikes.
- Lane · entry 15019
تَحَفَّظَ
To guard oneself, become cautious, or remain watchful and heedful so as to avoid a slip or fault.
The reflexive form expresses vigilance in affairs, speech, and conduct.
- Lane · entry 15020
تَحَفَّظَ
To learn or retain a book by heart progressively, one part after another.
This is a progressive memorization use, distinct from the general state of knowing something by heart.
- Lane · entry 15020
اِحْتَفَظَ
To appropriate, take, or choose something for oneself.
The construction with لنفسه expresses retaining something for one's own use or possession.
- Lane · entry 15021
اِحْتَفَظَ
To become angry or indignant, especially because of foul or offensive speech.
This is the intransitive anger development of the Form VIII verb.
- Lane · entry 15021
حُفَظَة
A person possessing strong retention in the mind or memory.
The expression is a lexical designation for a man of much memorizing or retention.
- Lane · entry 15025
حَفِيظَة
Defense of persons or things regarded as sacred, inviolable, honorable, or deserving protection.
The noun denotes the honor-defense obligation itself.
- Lane · entry 15027
حَفِيظَة
Indignation or anger caused by injury to something one is bound to honor or defend, by harm to a protected relation, or by breach of a covenant.
This is the emotional result of threatened honor or violated protective obligation.
- Lane · entry 15027
حَفِيظَة
An inscribed amulet or charm hung on a child to ward off the evil eye or similar harm.
This is a specialized concrete noun use, not the general meaning of preservation.
- Lane · entry 15027
حَافِظ
A memorizer or person with a retentive faculty who seldom forgets what has been learned by heart.
This specialized nominal use belongs to the cognitive-retention branch rather than the guardian sense.
- Lane · entry 15028
حَافِظ
A keeper of a secret or oath.
The noun may describe a person who maintains confidential information or observes an oath; the Quranic oath command is separately represented under the Form I verb.
- Lane · entry 15028
حَافِظ
A divine preserver from whose preservation nothing is excluded, including the deeds of creatures and the heavens and earth.
This is a theological epithet describing comprehensive preservation.
- Lane · entry 15028
حَافِظ
A person whose sleep does not overcome the eye, so that the eye remains watchful.
A specialized expression based on the eye's guarding the person while wakefulness is maintained.
- Lane · entry 15028
حَافِظ
A distinct and direct road that remains traceable rather than disappearing from view.
This is a figurative or dialectal extension of continuity and keeping to a clear course.
- Lane · entry 15028
مُحْفِظَات
Things or protected persons whose injury provokes a man's anger and protective response, especially women or dependents under his protection.
The plural noun can refer both to provoking circumstances and to the persons whose protection occasions the anger.
- Lane · entry 15029
مَحْفُوظ
A young child, used as a term of good omen in the dialect of Mecca.
This is a specialized substantivized use derived from the idea of being kept or protected.
- Lane · entry 15030
مَحْفُوظ
Something retained in the mind or memory and known or learned by heart.
This passive-participial use applies to memorized material rather than to something physically guarded.
- Lane · entry 15030
Cautions
Points that affect how this root should be read.
The Quranic use of حَفِيظٌ in 50:4 is explicitly open to both an active interpretation, “preserving or retaining,” and a passive interpretation, “preserved”; both are represented separately.
The Form X public headword is normalized to the active perfect اِسْتَحْفَظَ, while the supplied Quran occurrence is passive and is interpreted through its passive construction.