Quranic root
قفل
q · f · l
The root has two principal semantic poles: returning from travel, and firmness or dryness leading to closure and restraint.
The return branch yields words for returning travelers and caravans. The hardness branch yields dry or hardened things, the lock and closing vocabulary, and figurative obstruction.
- Maqāyīs · row 3836
- Mufradāt · row 1200
- 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.
قُفْل
qufl
- Part of speech
- Noun (plural form attested)
- 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.
Figurative locks or barriers over hearts, representing an impediment to engaging in an act.
In أَقْفَالُهَا, the plural lock-image is used metaphorically rather than as a literal reference to hardware; it expresses a barrier affecting the heart.
- Mufradāt · row 1200
Selected Quran examples
Quran 47:24word 7
“(are) locks”
Occurrences in the Quran
Every place this root appears, in Quran order. The first few are shown here.
- 47:24أَقْفَالُهَآ(are) locks
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 10 Classical meanings
قُفْل
A lock, especially a device used to secure a door.
The plural is أَقْفَال.
- Mufradāt · row 1200
أَقْفَلَ
To lock a door.
A transitive Form IV verb describing the act of securing a door by closing it with a lock.
- Lane · entry 21068
مُقْفَل
Closed off or prevented from undertaking something.
Used with عن to describe a person barred or impeded from doing or engaging in something.
- Mufradāt · row 1200
مُقْفَلُ اليدين
Tight-fisted or miserly.
An idiomatic description of a person whose hands are figuratively closed against giving.
- Mufradāt · row 1200
قُفُول
Return from a journey.
A verbal noun for coming back from travel.
- Maqāyīs · row 3836
- Mufradāt · row 1200
قَافِل
A slender or lean horse.
The plural قَوَافِل is also used of lean horses.
- Lane · entry 21070
- Maqāyīs · row 3836
قَافِلَة
A company or caravan traveling together.
It may denote a company returning from a journey, a company setting out, or more generally a group traveling together; it is not restricted to returning travelers.
- Lane · entry 21071
قَفِيل
Dry wood or other material that has become dry and hard.
The term is especially associated with dry wood.
- Maqāyīs · row 3836
- Mufradāt · row 1200
قَفَلَ
To become dry and wasted.
Applied to vegetation; also used of a stallion that becomes dry and thin through intense rutting.
- Maqāyīs · row 3836
- Mufradāt · row 1200
أَقْفَلَ
To dry or emaciate someone through fasting.
A causative construction in which fasting produces dryness or wasting in the person affected.
- Maqāyīs · row 3836
Cautions
Points that affect how this root should be read.
The displayed Quranic headword is normalized to singular قُفْل, while the supplied QAC occurrence is the plural أَقْفَال.