Quranic root
فسد
f · s · d
The root centers on departure from proper balance, soundness, or order, opposed to ṣalāḥ; it extends to corruption, disorder, damage, and ruin.
The intransitive Form I denotes becoming unsound or coming to nought, while Form IV causatively denotes making something corrupt or ruined. The related nouns name corruption and its agent or cause.
- Maqāyīs · row 3582
- Mufradāt · row 1113
- 4
- Quran-attested forms
- 6
- Quran senses
- 50
- Quran occurrences
Forms in the Quran
The forms this root actually takes in the Quran. Select one to jump to its senses and examples.
فَسَدَ
fasada
- Part of speech
- Verb · Form I
- Form
- I
- 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.
To become bad, corrupt, unsound, or otherwise disordered.
An intransitive use describing a thing or state as departing from soundness or proper order.
- Lane · entry 34154
- Mufradāt · row 1113
Selected Quran examples
Quran 23:71word 5
“surely (would) have been corrupted”
To become null or void, come to nought, or perish.
A resultative use in which something loses force or fails to endure; this explains the Quranic use concerning the heavens and earth.
- Lane · entry 34154
- Mufradāt · row 1113
Selected Quran examples
Quran 21:22word 7
“surely they (would) have been ruined”
أَفْسَدَ
ʾafsada
- Part of speech
- Verb · Form IV
- Form
- IV
- 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.
To make or render bad, corrupt, disordered, spoiled, or ruined; to cause or spread corruption.
A causative transitive use, with the object sometimes explicit and sometimes understood; Quranic contexts include corrupting in the land, damaging a settlement, and causing disorder or mischief.
- Lane · entry 34157
- Mufradāt · row 1113
Selected Quran examples
Quran 2:205word 6
“to spread corruption”
Quran 27:34word 7
“they ruin it”
فَسَاد
fasād
- Part of speech
- Verbal noun
- Quran occurrences
- 11 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.
Corruption; a state of departure from proper balance, soundness, or order.
An abstract noun for corrupt condition, disorder, damage, or ruin, opposed to صلاح.
- Lane · entry 34161
- Mufradāt · row 1113
Selected Quran examples
Quran 28:77word 19
“corruption”
Drought, barrenness, dearth, or scarcity of good.
A Quranic interpretation of فساد in the expression concerning its appearance in the land and sea; this is a contextual specialization rather than the general meaning of the noun.
- Lane · entry 34161
Selected Quran examples
Quran 30:41word 2
“the corruption”
مُفْسِد
mufsid
- Part of speech
- Active participle
- Quran occurrences
- 21 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.
One who causes or spreads corruption; a corrupter.
The active participle of أفسد, used substantivally in the Quran for persons or groups characterized by such conduct.
- Mufradāt · row 1113
Selected Quran examples
Quran 2:12word 4
“(are) the ones who spread corruption”
Quran 11:85word 14
“spreading corruption”
Occurrences in the Quran
Every place this root appears, in Quran order. The first few are shown here.
- 2:11تُفْسِدُوا۟spread corruption
- 2:12ٱلْمُفْسِدُونَ(are) the ones who spread corruption
- 2:27وَيُفْسِدُونَand [they] spread corruption
- 2:30يُفْسِدُwill spread corruption
- 2:60مُفْسِدِينَspreading corruption
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 11 Classical meanings
فَسَاد
Corrupt conduct, wrongdoing, or mischief; creating disorder, discord, strife, or quarrelling, especially wrongful taking of property.
A broader Classical use of the verbal noun, including the conventional expression of acting corruptly or doing harm.
- Lane · entry 34161
أَفْسَدَ
To injure a nursing child by causing the mother's pregnancy during lactation and thereby vitiating her milk.
A specialized lexical use associated with the harm caused to the child through this circumstance.
- Lane · entry 34157
فَاسَدَ
To become at variance with another and cut, sever, or break the tie of friendship or kinship.
A reciprocal or relational use concerning a tie between people.
- Lane · entry 34156
تَفَاسَدَ
To become mutually at variance and sever ties of kinship or friendship with one another.
A reciprocal plural construction.
- Lane · entry 34158
اِسْتَفْسَدَ
To regard or esteem a thing or person as bad, corrupt, unsound, or otherwise defective.
A Form X evaluative use, opposed to regarding something as صالح or sound.
- Lane · entry 34160
اِسْتَفْسَدَ
To wish or seek for something to become corrupt, or to seek to render it corrupt; to treat someone so as to make that person disaffected or rebellious.
The sought-after result may concern a thing, person, subject, or subordinate relationship.
- Lane · entry 34160
اِسْتَفْسَدَ
To seek to act corruptly or to seek discord and dissension.
A volitional Form X use describing pursuit of corrupt conduct or conflict.
- Lane · entry 34160
اِسْتَفْسَدَ
Of an event, to happen in a bad or evil manner.
Used of the manner in which an event unfolds rather than of an agent causing corruption.
- Lane · entry 34160
فَاسِد
Bad, corrupt, unsound, wrong, improper, unrighteous, wicked, depraved, or dishonest; devoid of virtue or efficacy.
An adjective and active participle of Form I, distinct from the Form IV active participle مُفْسِد.
- Lane · entry 34163
أَفْسَد
More corrupt, unsound, or defective; anomalously, more corrupting or damaging.
A comparative or superlative adjective, with an additional anomalous use derived from إفساد.
- Lane · entry 34164
مَفْسَدَة
A cause, means, or occasion of corruption or evil.
Opposed to مصلحة, a cause or means of benefit.
- Lane · entry 34165
Cautions
Points that affect how this root should be read.
The historical Lane citation for the drought or barrenness interpretation is not converted directly into a modern verse reference; 30:41 is used because QAC independently supplies that occurrence.