عفو

Core meaning

To let go, to overlook: not to hold a fault or a due against the one who bears it; hence what one can let go without lacking it, what one can do without: the surplus.

Uses

1. عَفَا عَنْ → "to overlook" : to let someone's fault go, without holding it against him.

   • «ثُمَّ عَفَوْنَا عَنكُم مِّنۢ بَعْدِ ذَٰلِكَ» — "Then We overlooked it for you after that" (2:52)
   • «وَلَقَدْ عَفَا ٱللَّهُ عَنْهُمْ» — "God has indeed already overlooked it for them" (3:155)
   • «وَيَعْفُوا۟ عَن كَثِيرٍۢ» — "and He overlooks much" (42:30)

2. عَفُوّ → "Ever-Overlooking", "the One who overlooks" : God's name, always joined to "Most-Forgiving" or to "Capable".

   • «إِنَّ ٱللَّهَ كَانَ عَفُوًّا غَفُورًا» — "God is indeed Ever-Overlooking, Most-Forgiving" (4:43)
   • «إِنَّ ٱللَّهَ لَعَفُوٌّ غَفُورٌۭ» — "God is surely the One who overlooks, Most-Forgiving" (22:60)

3. عَفَا, عُفِىَ لَهُۥ (a due) → "to overlook" : to let go of what is due.

   • «إِلَّآ أَن يَعْفُونَ» — "unless they overlook" (2:237)
   • «فَمَنْ عُفِىَ لَهُۥ مِنْ أَخِيهِ شَىْءٌۭ» — "But for the one whose brother overlooks something" (2:178)

4. ٱلْعَفْو → "the surplus" : what one can do without, once need is covered.

   • «قُلِ ٱلْعَفْوَ» — "The surplus" (2:219)
   • «خُذِ ٱلْعَفْوَ» — "Take the surplus" (7:199)

5. عَفَوْا۟ (7:95) → "to prosper" : to grow beyond what is needed.

   • «حَتَّىٰ عَفَوا۟» — "until they prospered" (7:95)

Evidence from the text

Overlooking is not the same as forgiving: the gestures follow one another without repetition, "But if you overlook, turn the page, and forgive" (64:14), and God's name joins them, "the One who overlooks, Most-Forgiving" (22:60, 58:2). Forgiving covers the fault; overlooking lets it go, without holding it against the one who did it. It is what God does after the calf (2:52, 4:153) and after the rout (3:152, 3:155), and what He asks in turn (2:109, 24:22, 42:40).

The same gesture bears on a good. The due one lets go: half the fixed obligation, unless they "overlook" (2:237), the brother who overlooks what is owed to him (2:178). What one can do without, once need is covered: what one spends, "The surplus" (2:219), and what one takes from people, "Take the surplus" (7:199). And in 7:95, those who receive good in place of evil grow "until they prospered".

Distinctions

• غفر — to forgive: to cover the fault, whereas عفو lets it go
• صفح — to turn the page: no longer to come back to the fault; it follows overlooking (2:109, 5:13, 24:22, 64:14)
• محو — to efface one thing to establish another, whereas عفو lets go what could have been held

See also

توب (repentance, which God accepts before overlooking, in 42:25)