Quranic root
فني
f · n · y
The clearest semantic orientation is cessation: something is cut off, passes away, is exhausted, or comes to an end.
The root's main branch develops from intransitive perishing and transience to causative destruction. The lexical record also preserves several specialized branches and nouns that are not all reducible to this central idea.
- Maqāyīs · row 3659
- Lane · entry 35088
- Lane · entry 35090
- 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.
فَانٍ
fānin
- 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.
Passing away, perishing; transient and destined to cease to exist.
An active participle used predicatively of what is subject to cessation or disappearance. The form describes transience; a future rendering such as “will perish” reflects the Quranic context rather than a separate lexical sense.
- Lane · entry 35088
- Lane · entry 35095
Selected Quran examples
Quran 55:26word 4
“(will) perish”
Occurrences in the Quran
Every place this root appears, in Quran order. The first few are shown here.
- 55:26فَانٍۢ(will) perish
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 13 Classical meanings
فَنِيَ / فَانٍ
To become extremely aged or infirm, approaching death; extremely aged or infirm.
A figurative extension associated with nearness to perishing. The participial use may describe an aged man and, in one attestation, an aged she-camel or camels.
- Lane · entry 35088
- Lane · entry 35095
فَانَى
To soothe, coax, still, or quiet someone or something; figuratively, to beguile or make time pass easily.
Used transitively for calming or gently dealing with someone or something, including a refractory animal. A reported alternative reading connects the form with fraternizing or acting brotherly, but that reading is presented as possibly corrupt.
- Lane · entry 35089
فَانَى
To tend, care for, or manage cattle, camels, or other property well.
Attested in a construction describing whether people properly care for or manage their property; the supplied example is phrased negatively.
- Lane · entry 35089
أَفْنَى
To cause to pass away; to destroy or annihilate.
The transitive causative counterpart of فَنِيَ, applied to causing a person or thing to cease or perish.
- Lane · entry 35090
أَفْنَى
In an alternative interpretation of a poetic utterance, to cause the plant called الفَنَى to grow.
This is a reported alternative reading of a poetic line, distinct from the ordinary causative sense of destroying.
- Lane · entry 35090
تَفَانَى
To destroy one another or share in destruction, especially by slaughter in war or battle.
A reciprocal Form VI usage describing mutual destruction.
- Lane · entry 35091
الفَنَى
A plant identified as عِنَبُ الثَّعْلَبِ, the fox-grape; also described as a plant or herb with red berries.
The lexical sources give variant botanical descriptions, including a plant growing in rugged places and grazed by livestock; the orthography and number are also discussed as variant.
- Lane · entry 35092
فِنَاءٌ
A yard, exterior court, or open space in front of or alongside a house.
Its plurals include أَفْنِيَةٌ and فُنِيٌّ.
- Lane · entry 35094
فَانٍ فِي اللَّهِ
In mystical usage, spiritually lost in contemplation of God and insensible to everything else.
A specialized figurative expression, not the ordinary physical sense of passing away.
- Lane · entry 35095
الأَفَانِي
A species of plant, described as yellow and red and as a herb or leguminous plant that dries and becomes scattered.
The item is also identified by some with عِنَبُ الثَّعْلَبِ; its singular is given as أَفَانِيَةٌ.
- Lane · entry 35097
مَفْنَاةٌ
Land suitable for people to alight and abide in.
A rare lexical noun attested in a poetic verse, with a reported dialectal or textual variant in its consonant.
- Lane · entry 35098
أَفْنَاءُ مِنَ النَّاسِ
People whose group or lineage is not known.
Attested in the phrase أَفْنَاءُ الْعَرَبِ for people whose origin is unknown.
- Maqāyīs · row 3659
فَنَاةٌ
A cow.
The plural is given as فَنَوَاتٌ.
- Maqāyīs · row 3659
Cautions
Points that affect how this root should be read.
The Quranic occurrence is the inflected active participle فَانٍ; the public headword has been normalized to that singular citation form.
Several plant, animal, place, and phrase entries in the lexical record are distinct specialized items and should not be inferred as additional meanings of the Quranic active participle.
The alternative poetic interpretation of أَفْنَى and the mystical expression فَانٍ فِي اللَّهِ are marked as specialized or qualified usages rather than ordinary Quranic senses.