Quranic root
قفو
q · f · w
The root is oriented around the rear or nape and following what lies behind it: tracking, pursuit, and succession.
From the nape and the act of following a trace, the usage develops into pursuing a matter, causing one thing to come after another, and related derivatives for poetic endings and attentive provision.
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- 2
- Quran-attested forms
- 3
- Quran senses
- 5
- Quran occurrences
Forms in the Quran
The forms this root actually takes in the Quran. Select one to jump to its senses and examples.
قَفَا
qafā
- Part of speech
- Verb · Form I
- Form
- I
- 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.
To follow or pursue; literally, to track a person's footsteps or trace.
The Quranic occurrence extends the idea of following a trace to pursuing something about which one lacks knowledge; the use is not limited to physical tracks.
- Lane · entry 21072
- Mufradāt · row 1199
Selected Quran examples
Quran 17:36word 2
“pursue”
To make a judgment by speculative tracing or conjecture.
In the interpretation of 17:36, the prohibition is explained as forbidding judgment by qiyāfah and conjecture. This is a Quran-specific figurative application of following or tracing, not a restriction on every use of the verb.
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Selected Quran examples
Quran 17:36word 2
“pursue”
قَفَّى
qaffā
- Part of speech
- Verb · Form II
- Form
- II
- Quran occurrences
- 4 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 cause someone or something to follow after another; to send in succession.
The Quranic construction describes messengers being sent after an earlier messenger or group, with the Form II causative sense of making one follow behind another.
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Selected Quran examples
Quran 2:87word 5
“and We followed up”
Quran 5:46word 1
“And We sent”
Occurrences in the Quran
Every place this root appears, in Quran order. The first few are shown here.
- 2:87وَقَفَّيْنَاand We followed up
- 5:46وَقَفَّيْنَاAnd We sent
- 17:36تَقْفُpursue
- 57:27قَفَّيْنَاWe sent
- 57:27وَقَفَّيْنَاand We followed
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 7 Classical meanings
قَفًا
The back of the neck; also the back or flat reverse surface of the hand, a knife, or a similar object.
The hand and knife applications are explicit extensions of the designation of a rear or back surface.
- Lane · entry 21073
- Mufradāt · row 1199
قَفَا
To reach or strike someone's nape.
Attested in the expression قَفَوْتُهُ, with the nape as the object.
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قَفًا
In the expression عَيْنَاهُ فِي قَفَاهِ, to describe a fleeing person who keeps looking back in fear of pursuit.
This is a conventional idiomatic description rather than a general anatomical claim.
- Lane · entry 21073
اِقْتِفَاءٌ
Following a person's rear or track; figuratively, backbiting and tracing a person's faults.
The figurative sense is presented as an euphemistic extension of following someone's rear.
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قِيَافَةٌ
A craft or practice of conjectural tracing or inference.
Its connection with اِقْتِفَاءٌ is reported as a reversal or metathesis, and the term is used in an explanation involving judgment by conjecture.
- Mufradāt · row 1199
قَافِيَةٌ
The final part of a poetic line whose wording is observed and repeated across the poem; by extension, a verse or line, and then an ode or poem.
The meanings move from the ending of a line to the whole line and, by synecdoche and further extension, to a complete poem.
- Lane · entry 21075
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قَفَاوَةٌ
Food provided to someone as an act of personal attention or care.
The term refers to food supplied for a person whom one attends to or looks after.
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Cautions
Points that affect how this root should be read.
The public verb headwords are normalized citation forms; the Quranic occurrences themselves are the inflected forms تَقْفُ and وَقَفَّيْنَا.
The explanation linking قِيَافَةٌ with اِقْتِفَاءٌ is reported as a proposed reversal, so the derivational relationship should not be treated as certain.