سفه

Core meaning

Foolishness: a failing judgment, which makes one act against one's own good, even when one knows.

Uses

1. سَفِيه, ٱلسُّفَهَآء → "foolish", "the fools" : the one whose judgment fails, so that one does not entrust him with goods.

   • «أَنُؤْمِنُ كَمَآ ءَامَنَ ٱلسُّفَهَآءُ» — "Should we believe as the fools have believed?" (2:13)
   • «وَلَا تُؤْتُوا۟ ٱلسُّفَهَآءَ أَمْوَٰلَكُمُ» — "And do not give to the foolish your goods" (4:5)

2. سَفَه, سَفَاهَة → "foolishness" : the failing itself, and the acts that come from it.

   • «إِنَّا لَنَرَىٰكَ فِى سَفَاهَةٍۢ» — "We see you surely in sheer foolishness" (7:66)
   • «قَتَلُوٓا۟ أَوْلَٰدَهُمْ سَفَهًۢا بِغَيْرِ عِلْمٍۢ» — "those who killed their children out of foolishness, without knowledge" (6:140)

3. سَفِهَ نَفْسَهُ → "to make a fool of one's own Self" : foolishness as an act committed against oneself.

   • «إِلَّا مَن سَفِهَ نَفْسَهُۥ» — "but one who makes a fool of his own Self" (2:130)

Evidence from the text

The word is first an accusation, and the text turns it back: those who refuse to believe as the fools have believed are at once named: "Is it not so: it is indeed they who are the fools" (2:13). Hud, accused of being in sheer foolishness, answers: "There is no foolishness in me" (7:67).

Foolishness harms first the one who bears it. The one who falls away from the doctrine of Ibrahim makes a fool of his own Self (2:130); those who kill their children do so out of foolishness (6:140); the foolish one cannot manage his goods nor dictate his engagement, and his legal guardian does it in his place (2:282, 4:5). The failing is not the absence of knowledge: 6:140 names the two apart, out of foolishness, without knowledge.

Distinctions

• جهل — ignorance: the absence of knowledge; foolishness is a failing of judgment

See also

عقل (to reason)