Quranic root
كفي
k · f · y
The supplied lexical evidence centers the root on sufficiency: filling a need and bringing an intended matter to its desired result.
Related attested extensions include standing in for another by undertaking an affair, warding off harm, and being content with what suffices. These extensions are not automatically meanings of every Quranic form.
- Mufradāt · row 1259
- Lane · entry 32905
- Lane · entry 32906
- 2
- Quran-attested forms
- 3
- Quran senses
- 33
- Quran occurrences
Forms in the Quran
The forms this root actually takes in the Quran. Select one to jump to its senses and examples.
كَفَىٰ
kafāā
- Part of speech
- Verb · Form I
- Form
- I
- Quran occurrences
- 32 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 suffice for someone or something; to be enough to fill a need, attain an intended result, or make further provision unnecessary.
Quranic uses include an agent sufficing a person or group, including by making a threat, opposition, or required action unnecessary. The agent may also be introduced with بِـ in a sufficiency construction such as كَفَى بِنَا.
- Lane · entry 32905
- Mufradāt · row 1259
Selected Quran examples
Quran 2:137word 15
“So will suffice you against them”
Quran 15:95word 2
“[We] are sufficient for you”
To suffice or serve in a specified capacity, especially to be sufficient as a witness.
In the Quranic construction كَفَى بِاللَّهِ شَهِيدًا, بِـ may be understood as introducing the agent of “Allah suffices as witness.” The supplied lexical discussion also records an alternative construal equivalent to taking or being content with Allah as witness.
- Lane · entry 32905
- Mufradāt · row 1259
Selected Quran examples
Quran 4:79word 16
“and is sufficient”
كَافٍ
kāfin
- 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.
Sufficient or enough to meet a need.
An active participle used predicatively or after بِـ, as in بِكَافٍ, “sufficient.”
- Mufradāt · row 1259
Selected Quran examples
Quran 39:36word 3
“sufficient”
Occurrences in the Quran
Every place this root appears, in Quran order. The first few are shown here.
- 2:137فَسَيَكْفِيكَهُمُSo will suffice you against them
- 3:124يَكْفِيَكُمْenough for you
- 4:6وَكَفَىٰAnd is sufficient
- 4:45وَكَفَىٰand (is) sufficient
- 4:45وَكَفَىٰand sufficient
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 8 Classical meanings
كَفَى
To be satisfied or content with something.
A Classical Arabic use distinct from merely supplying what another person needs.
- Lane · entry 32905
كَفَى
To take an affair upon oneself, undertaking its accomplishment or averting it, and thereby stand in place of another.
The undertaking may concern accomplishing a beneficial matter or preventing and averting a harmful one.
- Lane · entry 32905
كَفَى
To repel or prevent something from someone; to defend or free someone from it.
This construction is classically used with مِنْ, as in كَفَاهُ الشَّرَّ, “he repelled evil from him.”
- Lane · entry 32905
اِكْتَفَى بِالشَّيْءِ
To content oneself with a thing, needing nothing more.
Form VIII construction with بِـ.
- Lane · entry 32906
كِفَايَةٌ
Sufficiency or adequacy: what fills a need and enables one to obtain what is sought.
An abstract noun for the state or quality of being sufficient.
- Lane · entry 32907
كِفَايَةٌ
Maintenance or support provided for someone's needs.
In the conventional expression قَامَ بِكِفَايَتِهِ, meaning to undertake or provide someone's upkeep.
- Lane · entry 32907
كُفْيَةٌ
A sufficient portion of food or sustenance.
A provision sufficient for one's needs; the source also reports a plural كُفًى.
- Mufradāt · row 1259
أَكْفَى
More satisfying, or most satisfying.
A comparative or superlative lexical use reported for أَكْفَى.
- Lane · entry 32908
Cautions
Points that affect how this root should be read.
The construction كَفَى بِاللَّهِ شَهِيدًا is reported with two grammatical interpretations: Allah suffices as witness, or contentment with Allah as witness.
The supplied Mufradat row for كاف discusses the homonymous simile particle and is not evidence for the active participle كَافٍ; it is excluded from the form senses.
Unassigned or ambiguous evidence
mufradat:row:1227 was matched to the nominal lemma string كاف, but its text concerns الكافُ للتشبيه, the particle of comparison, rather than كَافٍ as the active participle of كفى.