Glossary: F

faḍl

() Literally an excess of something; a gift is a faḍl because the giver has no need of it. Calling God's bestowal faḍl alludes to His bounty and His having no need of anything He gives or of those He gives to. → Read
() Grace means something in excess of what is needed; it can be used in the sense of a gift, since one gives only from what exceeds one's needs. In this verse it means sustenance (rizq). → Read

fāḥishah

Derived from al-fuḥsh (indecency), it means indecent behavior. It is generally used for fornication, and the Qur'an has also used it for sodomy, or for sodomy and lesbianism together; here it apparently refers to fornication. → Read at 4:15

faḥshāʾ

Al-Rāghib: abhorrent and repulsive words and deeds; the original meaning of the root likely involves exceeding appropriate bounds. → Read at 16:90

falāḥ

() Al-falāḥ, al-fawz, al-najāḥ, al-ẓafar and al-saʿādah are all similar in meaning. Al-Rāghib: al-falḥ means to cleave (hence fallāḥ, a farmer), and al-falāḥ is victory and achievement of desire, of this world and of the next. → Read
() Al-Rāghib: falḥ means splitting; falāḥ means victory, success and achieving one's goal, and it is of two types, worldly and otherworldly. → Read
() Success is deliverance from every misery, here purification and knowledge; remembrance in the verse is wider than verbal, including the heart's turning to God, and abundant remembrance removes heedlessness and bequeaths Godwariness. → Read
() Falāḥ means “winning what is desired, reaching the goal,” and khaybah is its opposite; tazkiyah is making the soul grow in a proper way, like a plant, while tadassī means fostering it against its natural disposition. → Read

faraḥ

Rejoicing refers to any happiness, while exulting (maraḥ) is going to the extremes of happiness, an undesirable trait. Al-Rāghib: faraḥ is the opening of one's breast because of a present enjoyment, usually bodily, and maraḥ is extreme faraḥ. → Read at 40:75

faraḍa

"God has ordained upon" (faraḍa Allāh ʿalā) denotes an obligation for all Muslims, including the Prophet, while "God has ordained for" (faraḍa Allāhu li-) indicates that the Prophet may not disallow himself the act in question (, ). → Read at 66:2

farāgh

To become unoccupied for a matter is to set aside other matters and devote full attention to it because of its importance; here, God's turning from the original creation to the resurrection and reckoning. → Read at 55:31

farḍ

Al-Rāghib: when farḍ is followed by ʿalā, it refers to what God has made incumbent upon a person; when followed by lām (for), it signifies God's removal of a prohibition, as in (). → Read at 24:1

farq

To separate means to divide two things so as to distinguish them from each other, in contrast to a definitive (ḥakīm) matter, whose parts are not distinct from one another nor its particular qualities or states specified (). → Read at 44:4

fasād

Corruption refers to all the hardships and tribulations on the earth, such as earthquakes, droughts, famines, epidemics, wars and insecurity; in short, whatever spoils the proper natural order of the world, whether ascribed to human free will or not. → Read at 30:41

faṣl

() It is called a day of faṣl (separation, distinction) because God will separate the followers of truth from the followers of falsehood through His decisive judgment between them. → Read
() Faṣl means “distinguishing one thing from another such that there is a gap between them”: the Qur’an is a speech that distinguishes truth from falsehood, not a jest. → Read

faṣl al-khiṭāb

Clear understanding of speech is analyzing the words a person speaks to another and distinguishing the truth from falsehood in them, as relevant to judging between two litigants; the following verse about the litigants supports this over other views. → Read at 38:20

fatḥ

Al-Rāghib: fatḥ means to unbar or remove an obstacle, and fatḥ of an issue means to settle its affair and remove any obstacles from it; hence it is used for judgment. → Read at 32:28

fāṭir

Al-Rāghib: fiṭr means to cleave something apart lengthwise; applied to God figuratively, it means He clove apart nothingness and brought the heavens and the earth into being for the first time. Unlike ibdāʿ, which rests on having no prior model, fiṭr rests on dispelling nothingness and bringing a thing into being for the first time. → Read at 35:1

fatn

The original meaning of "torment" is putting gold into fire to test its quality; from there it was used for all burning and punishment. → Read at 51:13

faṭr

Al-Rāghib: cleaving something vertically. Attributed to God, it is bringing into existence, as though He split nonexistence and brought things forth from within it. → Read at 14:10

al-fattāḥ

Al-Fattāḥ (the Judge) is one of God's beautiful names; fatḥ means finding a distinguishing characteristic (faṣl) between two things in order to arrange them, as opening a door requires a separation between the door and what it blocks, and it encompasses judging and distinguishing between things in their essence, attributes and acts. → Read at 34:26

fawj

Al-Rāghib: a group passing by in a hurry; the disbelievers are cast into Hell in groups, followers with those they followed. → Read at 67:8

fawt

Al-Rāghib: the distance of something from a person such that it becomes difficult or unfeasible for him to reach it. → Read at 60:11

fawz

Al-Rāghib: fawz means “achieving good in security,” which implies deliverance from evil and attaining good. → Read at 78:31

fazʿ

Al-Rāghib: fazaʿa means to shrink back in terror and to abhor a fearsome thing. Since fazʿ, like khawf and unlike khashyah, belongs to the realm of act rather than sense, it is not blameworthy in itself but praiseworthy, so there is no harm in saying David experienced it, although prophets fear none but God. → Read at 38:22

fazaʿ

Blowing the Trumpet is a metaphor for informing a multitude to act collectively. According to al-Rāghib, fazaʿ is a feeling of psychological contraction and aversion due to a frightening event, of the same nature as jazaʿ. → Read at 27:87

fisq

Fisq (iniquity, transgression) means stepping out of the boundaries of servitude. → Read at 24:55

fitnah

() Fitnah is the means of testing a thing; it is also used for the test itself and related things like difficulty and hardship, and for punishment and the sins that bring it, like polytheism, disbelief and going astray; the Qur'an uses it in all these meanings. → Read
() Literally mischief; here it means misleading the people, mischief-making and misleading being near in meaning. The perverse follow the ambiguous verses in order to mislead people. → Read
() It is used for numerous meanings, but when the Qur'an uses it in connection with disbelievers and polytheists, it refers to the atrocities, such as murder and torture, that they inflicted on the Muslims. → Read
() A thing that tries and pains a person; it is usually used for fighting, insecurity and violating peace treaties. Here it is the Quraysh's arresting and torturing of believers to force them to leave Islam. → Read
() Originally the testing of gold by fire to reveal its quality; later used for any form of trial or torture. → Read
() Al-Rāghib: fatn originally meant putting gold in the fire to distinguish good gold from bad; it was then used for putting a person in the fire, for punishment, for what leads to punishment, and for testing. → Read
() Fitnah (in ) means a test or trial that results in deception and error. → Read
() To test (fitna) means to examine (imtiḥān); it is sometimes used for afflictions and persecution, but the first meaning best fits the context. → Read
() That by which a person is tested and tried; wealth and children are a trial because, as adornments of this life, the soul inclines to them and is distracted by them from the Hereafter and obedience to its Lord. → Read
() Fitnah here means “torture, trouble, distress,” inflicted on believing men and women to make them abandon their faith. → Read

fiṭrah

() Apparently, bringing something forth from utter nonexistence. It is more than "creation" (khalq), which is forming a shape from matter by assembling parts. → Read
() Fiṭra means the way in which something was originated; the God-given human nature, in which there is no change, guides human beings to follow this religion. → Read

fuʾād

Afʾidah is the plural of fuʾād, synonymous with qalb (heart); in Qur’anic nomenclature both refer to the principle of consciousness and reasoning, the human soul, so hellfire burns the interior as well as the exterior. → Read at 104:7

fujjār

Al-abrār are those who performed good deeds, and al-fujjār are those who rent the veil of piety with their sins; apparently the latter here are sinners among the disbelievers, since sinful believers would not abide in hell eternally. → Read at 82:14

fujūr

Al-Rāghib: fajr means “splitting and cleaving something wide open,” and fujūr means “rending the curtain of piety and religiosity.” → Read at 75:5

furqān

() Al-Ṣiḥāḥ: what distinguishes truth from falsehood. Literally, it is that which distinguishes one thing from another; the distinction God approves in guidance is between truth and falsehood in belief and knowledge, so the word may be used for all the principles revealed to His prophets, whether in the form of a book or not. → Read
() Something that distinguishes between one thing and another. Coming as the fruit of taqwā, it here distinguishes truth from falsehood in belief, guidance from misguidance, obedience from disobedience, and whatever pleases God from what displeases Him; it is used unconditionally. → Read
() Furqān is an infinitive like farq (separating, distinguishing) but more expressive of the root meaning; the Torah is called furqān because it separates truth from falsehood in belief and action. → Read
() Furqān is synonymous with farq (distinction); the Qur'an is called al-Furqān because it distinguishes truth from falsehood, which is confirmed by the Torah, revealed at once, also being called al-Furqān. Al-Rāghib adds that furqān is stronger than farq, being used only for distinguishing truth from falsehood. → Read

furūj

Furūj is the plural of furjah and farj, meaning a split between two things; it is used metaphorically for the private organs. → Read at 24:30

fuṭūr

Disorder, deficiency, imperfection, weakness; "look again" figures scrupulous, repeated looking. → Read at 67:3

Glossary: F ​

Glossary: F