غفر

Core meaning

To cover the fault so that it ceases to weigh: to forgive. God forgives, His forgiveness is asked, and the human forgives in turn.

Uses

1. غَفَرَ, يَغْفِرُ, ٱغْفِرْ → "to forgive" : to cover someone's offense; God does so for whom He wills, except association.

   • «فَغَفَرَ لَهُۥٓ» — "He forgave him" (28:16)
   • «إِنَّ ٱللَّهَ لَا يَغْفِرُ أَن يُشْرَكَ بِهِۦ» — "God indeed does not forgive that anything be associated with Him" (4:48)
   • «رَبَّنَا فَٱغْفِرْ لَنَا ذُنُوبَنَا» — "Our Guardian, forgive us, then, our offenses" (3:193)

2. مَغْفِرَة, غُفْرَان → "forgiveness" : what God promises and calls to; it is asked for, one hastens toward it.

   • «وَٱللَّهُ يَدْعُوٓا۟ إِلَى ٱلْجَنَّةِ وَٱلْمَغْفِرَةِ» — "while God calls toward the Garden and forgiveness" (2:221)
   • «غُفْرَانَكَ رَبَّنَا» — "Your forgiveness, our Guardian" (2:285)

3. ٱسْتَغْفَرَ → "to ask forgiveness" : to ask that the fault be covered, for oneself or for others.

   • «وَٱسْتَغْفِرُوا۟ ٱللَّهَ» — "and ask God's forgiveness" (2:199)
   • «وَبِٱلْأَسْحَارِ هُمْ يَسْتَغْفِرُونَ» — "and, in the last hours of the night, they would implore forgiveness" (51:18)

4. غَفُور → "Most-Forgiving" : the most frequent name of God from the root, almost always followed by "Benevolent".

   • «وَٱللَّهُ غَفُورٌۭ رَّحِيمٌۭ» — "And God is Most-Forgiving, Benevolent" (2:218)
   • «إِنَّهُۥ هُوَ ٱلْغَفُورُ ٱلرَّحِيمُ» — "it is indeed He, the Most-Forgiving, the Benevolent" (39:53)

5. غَفَّار → "Great Forgiver" : the intensive form: He who forgives ceaselessly whoever turns back.

   • «ٱلْعَزِيزُ ٱلْغَفَّٰرُ» — "the All-Powerful, the Great Forgiver" (38:66)
   • «وَإِنِّى لَغَفَّارٌۭ لِّمَن تَابَ» — "And I am surely a Great Forgiver toward whoever repents" (20:82)

6. غَافِر, ٱلْغَٰفِرِين → "He who forgives", "those who forgive" : the participle: the one who performs the act of forgiving.

   • «غَافِرِ ٱلذَّنۢبِ وَقَابِلِ ٱلتَّوْبِ» — "He who forgives offense and accepts repentance" (40:3)
   • «وَأَنتَ خَيْرُ ٱلْغَٰفِرِينَ» — "You are the best of those who forgive" (7:155)

Evidence from the text

Forgiveness bears on what weighs: the offense, which God forgives and whose repentance He accepts (40:3). He covers it so that it no longer counts: the invocation of 3:193 joins the two gestures, "forgive us, then, our offenses, cover for us our evil deeds". It is promised to those who have believed and done sound deeds, with an immense reward (5:9, 48:29).

It remains in God's hand: "He forgives whom He wills, and He punishes whom He wills" (5:18). Only one thing is excluded from it, association (4:48, 4:116). That is why it is asked for: by the messenger for his own (3:159, 4:64), by Ibrahim for his father because of a promise (9:114), by the Agents for whoever is on the earth (42:5); and that is why asking is of no use to those who refuse it: "even if you asked forgiveness for them seventy times, God will never forgive them" (9:80).

The same verb says human forgiveness, which the text asks for: the believers who, "when angered, forgive" (42:37); those who believe, called to forgive those who do not hope for the days of God (45:14). In 64:14, three gestures follow one another, overlooking, turning the page, forgiving, and the sentence closes on God Most-Forgiving: the forgiveness the human grants answers the forgiveness he receives.

Distinctions

• عفو — to overlook: to let the fault go, whereas غفر covers it; the two follow each other in 64:14
• كفر — in 3:193, كَفِّرْ "to cover" the misdeeds, beside "to forgive" the offenses
• توب — repentance: the return of the one who has erred, which forgiveness welcomes

See also

ذنب (the offense) · رحم (benevolence)