طفل

Core meaning

The child: the human being in the first age, before full maturity and before the threshold at which one becomes aware of intimacy.

Uses

1. طِفْلًا → "a child" : the first age, in the sequence that leads from the drop to old age.

   • «ثُمَّ يُخْرِجُكُمْ طِفْلًۭا» — "then brings you out as a child" (40:67)

2. ٱلطِّفْل, ٱلْأَطْفَال → "children" : those who have not yet crossed the threshold at which the rules of modesty and of entering upon others change.

   • «أَوِ ٱلطِّفْلِ ٱلَّذِينَ لَمْ يَظْهَرُوا۟ عَلَىٰ عَوْرَٰتِ ٱلنِّسَآءِ» — "or children who have no awareness yet of women's private matters" (24:31)
   • «وَإِذَا بَلَغَ ٱلْأَطْفَٰلُ مِنكُمُ ٱلْحُلُمَ» — "And when the children among you reach the age of composure" (24:59)
   • Written exception: "child" shared with ولد: other words are colloquial.

Evidence from the text

Two verses place the child in the sequence of creation: "then brings you out as a child, then lets you reach your full strength, then become old men" (40:67), and likewise in 22:5. Childhood is there the first age, set opposite old age.

Two others fix its limit, not by a number of years, but by a threshold: children "who have no awareness yet of women's private matters" (24:31), and those who have not yet reached "the age of composure" (24:59). Once this threshold is crossed, the rule changes for them.

See also

شيخ (the old man) · حلم (composure)