حفو

Core meaning

To give someone or something an attention carried to the end: attentiveness toward a person, thorough knowledge of a thing, the request that presses.

Uses

1. حَفِىّ بِـ → "attentive to" : the constant attention paid to someone.

   • «إِنَّهُۥ كَانَ بِى حَفِيًّۭا» — "He has ever been attentive to me" (19:47)

2. حَفِىّ عَن → "to search out to the end" : attention paid to a thing until it is known through and through.

   • «كَأَنَّكَ حَفِىٌّ عَنْهَا» — "as if you had searched it out to the end" (7:187)

3. أَحْفَىٰ → "to press" : to push a request to the end.

   • «فَيُحْفِكُمْ تَبْخَلُوا۟» — "If He were to ask you for it and press you, you would become stingy" (47:37)

Evidence from the text

The three uses state the same attention carried to its end. God is attentive to Ibrahim (19:47): on this assurance Ibrahim answers threat and rupture with peace. The messenger is asked about the Hour "as if you had searched it out to the end" (7:187); the answer is that knowledge of it is only with God.

In 47:37 the same insistence becomes a test: were goods demanded to the end, stinginess would appear, "and He would bring out your malice".

Distinctions

• سئل — to ask: the request itself, whereas أَحْفَىٰ pushes it to the end

See also

لحف (the insistence of one who solicits (2:273))