سرف

Core meaning

To go beyond the measure: in spending, where it is waste, as in conduct, where it is excess.

Uses

1. أَسْرَفَ, إِسْرَاف → "excess", "to be excessive" : the overstepping itself, in an act or in conduct.

   • «وَإِسْرَافَنَا فِىٓ أَمْرِنَا» — "and our excesses in our conduct" (3:147)
   • «فَلَا يُسْرِف فِّى ٱلْقَتْلِ» — "but let him not be excessive in taking life" (17:33)
   • «وَكَذَٰلِكَ نَجْزِى مَنْ أَسْرَفَ» — "Thus do We recompense whoever has been excessive" (20:127)

2. لَا تُسْرِفُوا۟ → "do not waste" : in food and spending: to use beyond need.

   • «وَلَا تُسْرِفُوٓا۟» — "but do not waste" (6:141)
   • «إِذَآ أَنفَقُوا۟ لَمْ يُسْرِفُوا۟ وَلَمْ يَقْتُرُوا۟» — "when they spend, neither waste nor withhold excessively" (25:67)

3. مُسْرِف → "excessive" : one who has made excess his way of being.

   • «بَلْ أَنتُمْ قَوْمٌۭ مُّسْرِفُونَ» — "Rather, you are a people of the excessive" (7:81)
   • «وَأَنَّ ٱلْمُسْرِفِينَ هُمْ أَصْحَٰبُ ٱلنَّارِ» — "and the excessive ones are the companions of the Fire" (40:43)

Evidence from the text

The word always supposes a measure that one crosses. 25:67 names it: those who spend without waste or stinting stand "between the two with just measure". 17:33 sets it even in taking life: the authority granted to the legal guardian has its limit. In 4:6, the goods of orphans are not to be devoured "wastefully and hastily".

From spending, the word passes to the whole of conduct. Lut's people are "a people of the excessive" (7:81); Fir'awn "was surely among the excessive ones" (10:83); the excessive one is named with the great liar (40:28) and with the one full of doubt (40:34). The verb and the noun say the same thing: "whoever has been excessive" (20:127), "our excesses" (3:147). Yet excess is not without return: "O My obedient ones who have been excessive against yourselves, do not lose heart regarding the benevolence of God" (39:53).

Distinctions

• طغو — immoderation: rising above every limit, whereas سرف is the overstepping of a measure in an act

See also

قتر (to withhold)