Quranic root
صفح
ṣ · f · ḥ
The root centers on breadth and the side or surface of a thing, and extends to turning one’s side away, overlooking, and contact between surfaces such as the palms.
Physical meanings of width, side, and surface underlie expressions for turning away from an offense, passing beyond it, and related constructions of facing or joining hands.
- Maqāyīs · row 2801
- Mufradāt · row 838
- 2
- Quran-attested forms
- 4
- Quran senses
- 8
- Quran occurrences
Forms in the Quran
The forms this root actually takes in the Quran. Select one to jump to its senses and examples.
صَفَحَ
ṣafaḥa
- Part of speech
- Verb · Form I
- Form
- I
- Quran occurrences
- 6 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 turn away from someone or something, leave it, or disregard it.
Used with عن for turning away from a person, affair, or matter; Quranic imperative and imperfect forms express commands or injunctions to turn away.
- Lane · entry 26062
- Mufradāt · row 838
Selected Quran examples
Quran 43:89word 1
“So turn away”
To turn away from an offense without reproach; to forgive.
Used with عن when the object is a crime, sin, fault, or offense. This is a stronger form of overlooking than merely remitting a penalty, emphasizing gracious forbearance.
- Lane · entry 26062
- Mufradāt · row 838
Selected Quran examples
Quran 2:109word 23
“and overlook”
Quran 24:22word 17
“and let them overlook”
صَفْح
ṣafḥ
- 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.
Forbearance that leaves an offense without reproach; forgiveness or gracious overlooking.
In الصَّفْحُ الْجَمِيلُ, the noun denotes beautiful or gracious forbearance from an offense.
- Mufradāt · row 838
Selected Quran examples
Quran 15:85word 13
“(with) forgiveness”
Turning aside or disregarding; passing over something rather than continuing to address it.
In the construction ضَرْبُ الذِّكْرِ صَفْحًا, it expresses turning the reminder aside or passing beyond the page or record on which a matter is noted.
- Lane · entry 26062
- Mufradāt · row 838
Selected Quran examples
Quran 43:5word 4
“disregarding (you)”
Occurrences in the Quran
Every place this root appears, in Quran order. The first few are shown here.
- 2:109وَٱصْفَحُوا۟and overlook
- 5:13وَٱصْفَحْ ۚand overlook
- 15:85فَٱصْفَحِSo overlook
- 15:85ٱلصَّفْحَ(with) forgiveness
- 24:22وَلْيَصْفَحُوٓا۟ ۗand let them overlook
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 44 Classical meanings
صَفَحَ
Of a she-camel, ewe, or she-goat: to cease yielding milk, so that its milk goes away.
A Form I use describing loss of milk; a she-camel that has lost its young is also included.
- Lane · entry 26062
صَفَحَ
Of a dog: to spread or stretch out its forelegs.
Used of the posture of a dog extending its forelegs toward something.
- Lane · entry 26062
صَفَحَ
To strike someone with the side or flat of a sword rather than its edge.
The object is construed with the sword as the instrument and the side or breadth of the blade as the striking surface.
- Lane · entry 26062
صَفَحَ
To turn a petitioner away, refuse a request, or deny someone what was sought.
Used transitively, including with a person and the thing he requested.
- Lane · entry 26062
صَفَحَ
To give to someone.
A reported contrary extension of the transitive Form I verb, opposite in result to refusing a request.
- Lane · entry 26062
صَفَحَ
To give someone a drink of any beverage.
The lexical use is reported without restriction on the kind or time of the beverage.
- Lane · entry 26062
صَفَحَ
To make camels pass by a watering trough, apparently to water them.
Used in the construction صَفَحَ الإِبِلَ عَلَى الْحَوْضِ.
- Lane · entry 26062
صَفَّحَ
To make a thing broad or wide; of a sword, to forge it broad and elongated.
Form II causative or intensive use, especially of the shape of a sword.
- Lane · entry 26063
صَفَّحَ
To clap the hands.
Synonymous in this use with صَفَّقَ; the clapping may be described as striking one hand against the other.
- Lane · entry 26063
مُصَافَحَة
Hand-taking or shaking hands by placing one person’s hand or palm in another’s.
A conventional act of meeting and salutation, involving palms or hands placed together.
- Lane · entry 26064
صِفَاح
A face-to-face meeting, or a meeting in which one turns the side of the face toward the other; also a sudden or unexpected encounter.
Used in the expression لَقِيَهُ صِفَاحًا.
- Lane · entry 26064
أَصْفَحَ
Of a sword: to invert or reverse it.
A Form IV sword use, associated with turning the blade in its orientation.
- Lane · entry 26065
أَصْفَحَ
To strike with the side or flat of a sword rather than its edge.
A Form IV alternative to the corresponding transitive Form I sword construction.
- Lane · entry 26062
تَصَفَّحَ
To examine carefully by inspecting sides, pages, faces, or details; to inspect people or look into an affair.
Used of turning through a book page by page, examining people one by one or their faces, and investigating a matter or condition.
- Lane · entry 26066
تَصَافَحَ
To take one another’s hands or shake hands.
A reciprocal Form VI use describing mutual hand-taking.
- Lane · entry 26067
تَصَافَحَ
Of eyelids: to close together.
A figurative use in the expression تَصَافُحُ الأَجْفَانِ.
- Lane · entry 26067
اِسْتَصْفَحَ
To ask or beg someone to forgive an offense.
Form X takes the offense as the object of the request for forgiveness.
- Lane · entry 26068
صَفْح
The side, lateral portion, outward part, face, or surface of a thing.
Used of the sides of a person, animal, mountain, sword, paper or book, hand, scapula, and other objects; the exact physical referent is supplied by context.
- Lane · entry 26069
صَفَح
Excessive width of the forehead.
An anatomical description of the forehead.
- Lane · entry 26071
صَفْحَة
To show someone one’s side openly, hence to display open enmity or reveal a concealed deed.
A figurative use of أَبْدَى لَهُ صَفْحَتَهُ; the hostile or revelatory interpretation depends on context.
- Lane · entry 26072
صِفَاح
Excessive width or flatness in the side of a horse’s cheek.
A conformation regarded as undesirable in horses.
- Lane · entry 26073
صَفُوح
One who habitually turns aside others’ offenses and forgives; as an epithet of God, the Very Forgiving. It can also mean generous because generosity includes forgiving injury.
An intensive personal or divine epithet; the generosity sense is explained through the connection between forgiveness and generosity.
- Lane · entry 26074
صَفُوح
A woman who turns away from someone or forsakes his society, as though giving him only her side.
A gender-specific lexical use explicitly reported for the feminine referent.
- Lane · entry 26074
صَفِيح
Anything made flat and broad or wide, especially an expanded solid or metal plate.
A collective or generic noun; a single piece may be expressed with the feminine form صَفِيحَة.
- Lane · entry 26075
الصَّفِيحُ الأَعْلَى
A name for Heaven, understood as the expanded or solid upper expanse.
A specialized traditional designation derived from the notion of an expanded solid surface.
- Lane · entry 26075
صَفِيحَة
A broad, flat slab or plate, including a wide stone, plank, board, thin stone placed over a grave, or broad sword.
The term applies to broad flat materials and to a broad sword; its plural can denote boards, slabs, or swords according to context.
- Lane · entry 26076
صَفِيحَة
One of the principal broad bones of the skull.
An anatomical use referring to the frontal, occipital, or parietal bones.
- Lane · entry 26076
صَفِيحَة
The face or surface of a broad thing; also the outer skin or cuticle of the face.
A surface sense extended to the exterior skin of the face.
- Lane · entry 26076
صُفَّاح
Camels whose humps have become large enough to occupy the whole back.
A plural or collective descriptive use, likening the large, hard humps to broad stones.
- Lane · entry 26078
صَافِح
A she-camel, ewe, or she-goat whose milk is going away; also a she-camel that has lost its young and consequently its milk.
An active-participial description of the animal’s loss of milk.
- Lane · entry 26079
صَافِح
In a traditional expression, one who puts forth the cheek or inclines to one side.
The expression contrasts not lifting the head with putting forth the cheek or leaning to one side.
- Lane · entry 26079
أَصْفَح
A man excessively wide in the forehead.
An adjectival anatomical description derived from صَفَح.
- Lane · entry 26080
مُصْفَح
Wide or broad; applied especially to a sword or other thing, and to a broad or specially shaped head.
Of a head, the description includes compressed sides near the temples, projecting forehead or occiput, or fore and hind parts projecting; these are reported physical specifications of the head shape.
- Lane · entry 26081
مُصْفَح
Of a nose: straight in the bone, with the bone even with the forehead.
An anatomical description of the nose.
- Lane · entry 26081
مُصْفَح
Of a face: smooth, soft, and beautiful.
An adjectival description of facial appearance.
- Lane · entry 26081
مُصْفَح
Of a sword: inclined, bent, inverted, or reversed; turned onto its edge when striking or inclined when being sheathed.
A specialized description of the sword’s orientation or movement.
- Lane · entry 26081
مُصْفَح
Of a believer’s heart: inclined toward the truth.
A figurative use in which the heart’s side is imagined as placed upon the truth.
- Lane · entry 26081
مُصْفَح
Of a heart: turned away from the truth, insincere or harboring rancor, or double-faced between believers and unbelievers.
A figurative use reported with divergent traditional interpretations, including a heart combining faith and hypocrisy or falling short in religious duty.
- Lane · entry 26081
المُصْفَح
The name of the sixth arrow used in the game of maysir.
A specialized term of the traditional arrow game.
- Lane · entry 26081
مُصْفِح بالسيف
One who strikes with the side or face of a sword rather than its edge.
The instrument is explicitly the sword and the striking surface its flat side.
- Lane · entry 26082
مُصَفَّحَة
A sword, especially a broad or wide sword.
The plural مُصَفَّحَات is used for swords; the broadness is associated with their forging.
- Lane · entry 26083
مُصَفَّحَة
In an alternative reading of a poetic passage, women clapping their hands.
This is a reported alternative interpretation of the poetic plural form and should not be treated as the ordinary sword sense.
- Lane · entry 26083
مُصَفَّح
A she-camel kept from being milked so that she may become fat.
A passive-participial description of a camel deliberately withheld from milking.
- Lane · entry 26083
مُصَافِح
One who commits adultery or fornication with a woman.
The lexical definition is reported without restriction on whether the woman is free or enslaved.
- Lane · entry 26086
Cautions
Points that affect how this root should be read.
The classical record preserves several derived-form and figurative extensions, including reported contrary senses such as “to give” versus “to refuse” and divergent interpretations of the figurative heart expression; these should not be conflated with the Quranic Form I senses.