Quranic root
سفر
s · f · r
The root centers on uncovering, clearing, and making something manifest.
From removing a covering or sweeping something clear, the root develops meanings involving the clearing of darkness, radiant appearance, travel as departure from a place, writing that reveals what is hidden, and mediation that removes estrangement.
- Maqāyīs · row 2439
- Mufradāt · row 696
- 5
- Quran-attested forms
- 6
- Quran senses
- 12
- Quran occurrences
Forms in the Quran
The forms this root actually takes in the Quran. Select one to jump to its senses and examples.
أَسْفَرَ
ʾasfara
- Part of speech
- Verb · Form IV
- Form
- IV
- 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 become bright or shine; in the Quran, said of the dawn as it becomes luminous and clear.
The Quranic occurrence is in the perfect active Form IV, with الصبح as subject.
- Lane · entry 41321
- Mufradāt · row 696
Selected Quran examples
Quran 74:34word 3
“it brightens”
أَسْفَار
ʾasfār
- Part of speech
- Noun · plural
- Quran occurrences
- 2 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.
Journeys or travels.
Plural of سَفَر in the Quranic use referring to journeys undertaken or left behind.
- Lane · entry 41328
Selected Quran examples
Quran 34:19word 5
“our journeys”
Books or writings, especially writings that disclose or convey knowledge.
Plural of سِفْر; in the Quranic occurrence, the books are carried without their contents being understood.
- Lane · entry 41327
- Mufradāt · row 696
Selected Quran examples
Quran 62:5word 11
“books”
مُسْفِر
musfir
- 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.
Radiant, shining, or bright with gladness.
The Quranic feminine singular form مُسْفِرَةٌ describes faces; the related lexical use is especially associated with a face whose brightness expresses happiness or beauty.
- Lane · entry 41338
- Mufradāt · row 696
Selected Quran examples
Quran 80:38word 3
“(will be) bright”
سَفَر
safar
- Part of speech
- Noun
- Quran occurrences
- 7 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.
A journey or travel.
Used as a noun for going forth from one's settled place; the Quran also uses it in the legal and practical context of being on a journey.
- Lane · entry 41328
- Mufradāt · row 696
Selected Quran examples
سَافِر
sāfir
- 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.
A writer or scribe; in the Quranic plural سَفَرَة, the noble celestial scribes or recorders.
The Quranic occurrence is the plural سَفَرَةٌ. Classical usage also applies the plural to ordinary writers and to angels who register actions; the Quranic context identifies the intended scribes as honored and righteous.
- Lane · entry 41335
- Mufradāt · row 696
Selected Quran examples
Quran 80:15word 2
“(of) scribes”
Occurrences in the Quran
Every place this root appears, in Quran order. The first few are shown here.
- 2:184سَفَرٍۢa journey
- 2:185سَفَرٍۢa journey
- 2:283سَفَرٍۢa journey
- 4:43سَفَرٍa journey
- 5:6سَفَرٍa journey
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 57 Classical meanings
سَفَرَ
To sweep or clean a house or chamber.
- Lane · entry 41318
سَفَرَ
To sweep away, disperse, or remove something from a covering or surface.
Used of wind sweeping away dust, leaves, or clouds, and of removing what covers something.
- Lane · entry 41318
سَفَرَ
To uncover, expose, or make apparent.
The direct object may be something previously covered; the form is also used of uncovering the face.
- Lane · entry 41318
سَفَرَ
To mediate between people, reconcile them, or settle a dispute.
The conventional expression سَفَرَ بَيْنَ القَوْمِ refers to exposing what is hidden between the parties in order to make peace.
- Lane · entry 41318
سَفَرَ
For the sun to rise.
A tropical use associated with the sun's becoming visible.
- Lane · entry 41318
سَفَرَ
To go away or decline.
Used figuratively of fat disappearing and of war subsiding.
- Lane · entry 41318
سَفَرَ
To go forth on a journey.
An obsolete or little-used verbal sense; the noun سَفَر is the normal surviving form for journey.
- Lane · entry 41318
سَفَرَ
To write a book or written text.
The object is a book or writing.
- Lane · entry 41318
سَفَرَ
To put a سِفَار, or nose-gear, on a camel.
A specialized camel-handling construction.
- Lane · entry 41318
سَفَرَ
To sell the best of one's sheep or goats.
A specialized livestock-trade use.
- Lane · entry 41318
سَفَّرَ
To send someone on a journey.
Form II causative usage.
- Lane · entry 41319
سَفَّرَ
To pasture or feed animals at twilight, or to train an animal for strength in travelling.
Used of camels pastured in the pre-night whiteness and of a horse fed or trained for travel.
- Lane · entry 41319
سَفَّرَ
To kindle a fire or make it blaze brightly.
Form II causative usage.
- Lane · entry 41319
سَافَرَ
For winds to vie with one another in sweeping away or effacing traces.
A reciprocal Form III construction used of winds successively erasing one another's tracks.
- Lane · entry 41320
سَافَرَ
To journey or travel to a place.
Form III verbal usage with a destination; the noun سَفَر and the traveller noun are related but distinct lexical forms.
- Lane · entry 41320
سَافَرَ
To die.
A figurative or euphemistic Form III use.
- Lane · entry 41320
سَافَرَ
For the sun to decline from the middle of the sky.
A figurative Form III use describing the sun's movement away from the zenith.
- Lane · entry 41320
سَافَرَ
For a fever to depart from someone.
A figurative Form III use with an illness as subject.
- Lane · entry 41320
أَسْفَرَ
For a tree to become stripped of its leaves, with the leaves changed in color and whitened.
A specialized Form IV use of a tree affected by wind and loss of foliage.
- Lane · entry 41321
أَسْفَرَ
For the moon to cause a shining in the sky before rising.
A specialized Form IV use concerning pre-rise illumination.
- Lane · entry 41321
أَسْفَرَ
To enter the time of dawn or perform prayer in the dawn's brightness.
The construction أَسْفَرَ بِالصَّلَاةِ concerns performing the dawn prayer when dawn has become manifest or white.
- Lane · entry 41321
أَسْفَرَ
For war to become vehement.
A tropical Form IV use.
- Lane · entry 41321
تَسَفَّرَ
To come or remain during the whiteness of day, especially the twilight before night.
Used of a person arriving and of camels pasturing in the pre-night whiteness.
- Lane · entry 41322
تَسَفَّرَ
To seek the brightest or most beautiful women for marriage.
The object is women considered in respect of facial brightness and beauty.
- Lane · entry 41322
تَسَفَّرَ
To attain or obtain part of what one wants before it becomes unreachable.
A tropical Form V use concerning partial attainment of an objective.
- Lane · entry 41322
تَسَفَّرَ
To seek from someone part of a claim or debt owed by him.
A specialized use referring especially to obtaining an equitable half of a claim.
- Lane · entry 41322
تَسَفَّرَ
For skin to receive a mark or impression.
Derived from سَفْر in the sense of a trace or mark.
- Lane · entry 41322
اِنْسَفَرَ
For clouds to disperse or be removed from the face of the sky.
Form VII inchoative or middle usage.
- Lane · entry 41323
اِنْسَفَرَ
For the forepart of the head to become divested of hair.
A specialized Form VII use describing loss of covering.
- Lane · entry 41323
اِنْسَفَرَ
For camels to go away into the country.
A Form VII use describing animals dispersing into open land.
- Lane · entry 41323
اِسْفَرَّ
For the sun to become white before setting.
An attributed or tentative Form IX usage.
- Lane · entry 41324
اِسْتَسْفَرَ
To send someone as a messenger or سفير.
Form X usage with a person as the dispatched representative.
- Lane · entry 41325
سَفْر
A mark, impression, trace, or vestige that remains.
The noun may refer to a remaining track or mark.
- Lane · entry 41326
سِفْر
An erased mark or trace, in a reported interpretation of a poetic usage.
This is a specialized and interpretive poetic application, distinct from the ordinary meaning of book or writing.
- Lane · entry 41327
سَفَر
The whiteness of dawn, daylight, or the twilight whiteness before night.
The noun can refer to morning brightness, remaining daylight after sunset, or pre-night whiteness according to context.
- Lane · entry 41328
سُفْرَة
Food prepared for a traveller or for a journey.
The basic nominal sense of the journey provisions.
- Lane · entry 41330
سُفْرَة
The receptacle or piece of skin in which travel food is placed.
A derived concrete use of the same noun.
- Lane · entry 41330
سُفْرَة
A spread, tray, or other surface on which food is eaten.
The object is named for being spread out for eating.
- Lane · entry 41330
سِفَار
A piece of iron, cord, or leather placed over a camel's nose and jaws as a control device.
A specialized item of camel tack.
- Lane · entry 41331
سَفِير
Leaves swept away by the wind, including fallen leaves and plant matter.
The noun emphasizes the leaves' being swept away.
- Lane · entry 41332
سَفِير
A messenger, especially a mediator or peacemaker between parties.
The messenger exposes or communicates what is at issue between people.
- Lane · entry 41332
سَفِير
A commissioned agent, factor, deputy, or representative.
A broader representative role derived from acting in another person's place.
- Lane · entry 41332
سُفَارَة
Sweepings or material swept together.
A concrete noun for what has been swept away.
- Lane · entry 41333
سِفَارَة
Mediation, reconciliation, or the office of a messenger or ambassador.
A verbal noun and institutional designation connected with سَفَرَ بَيْنَ القَوْمِ and سَفِير.
- Lane · entry 41334
سِفَارَة
The falling of hair from above the forehead.
A specialized nominal use.
- Lane · entry 41334
سَافِر
A woman whose face is uncovered.
A feminine active-participial use; this classical specialization is not a separate Quranic form.
- Lane · entry 41335
سَافِر
A horse having little flesh.
A rare figurative or specialized animal description.
- Lane · entry 41335
مَسْفَر
The part or parts of the face that appear.
A noun denoting an exposed portion of the face.
- Lane · entry 41337
مَسْفَر
A place or tract for travelling through.
The plural مَسَافِر may denote extensive tracts between places.
- Lane · entry 41337
مُسْفِر
A she-camel somewhat beyond the صَهْبَاء degree of redness.
A specialized description of an animal's color.
- Lane · entry 41338
مِسْفَر
A person or animal that travels much or is strong for travelling.
Applied especially to a camel, and also to a man or woman accustomed to travel.
- Lane · entry 41339
مِسْفَرَة
A broom or implement with which one sweeps.
An instrument noun derived from sweeping.
- Lane · entry 41340
مُسَفِّر
A person who binds books or covers them with leather.
The books in question are أَسْفَار, books or writings.
- Lane · entry 41341
مَسْفُور
Distressed or fatigued by journeying.
A passive-participial description of the result of travel.
- Lane · entry 41343
مُسَافِر
A person journeying or travelling; a traveller or wayfarer.
Form III active participle; it may also function as a collective or quasi-plural expression.
- Lane · entry 41344
مُسَافِرَة
A name applied to a wild cow.
A specialized poetic usage.
- Lane · entry 41344
سَفَرْجَل
The quince; also, in a specialized expression, a species of custard-apple called Indian quince.
A botanical noun with a conventional plural سَفَارِج; the Indian species is a distinct specialized application of the same expression.
- Lane · entry 41345
Cautions
Points that affect how this root should be read.
أَسْفَار is a single Quranic form group with two vocalized lexical bases: the plural of سَفَر, journeys, and the plural of سِفْر, books or writings.
The classical interpretation of سِفْر as an erased trace in the cited poetic passage is specialized and reported as an interpretation rather than the ordinary book sense.
Some rare Form I, derived-form, animal, and technical uses are classical extensions and should not be read as additional Quranic senses.