جفء

Core meaning

What a flood casts off because nothing holds it: refuse, which neither serves nor remains.

Uses

1. جُفَآءً → "as scum" : the fate of the froth, driven off while what is useful remains.

   • «فَأَمَّا ٱلزَّبَدُ فَيَذْهَبُ جُفَآءًۭ» — "the froth goes off as scum" (13:17)

Evidence from the text

The word is used only once, at the end of the parable of 13:17, and its opposite defines it: the froth "goes off as scum", "while what is useful to men remains on the earth" (13:17). The parable holds for the water of the valleys as for metal heated in the fire: what rises to the surface goes off, the substance remains.

See also

زبد (froth) · نفع (to be useful)