ʿAfw in the Qurʾan

The Qurʾanic root of pardon (ʿafw) means, at its core, to leave a thing alone: to leave the trace of a wrong unpursued until, like the vestiges of an abandoned dwelling, it fades of its own accord. True pardon is neither forced forgetfulness nor feigned indifference, and it reaches its height in one who has full power to requite.

By Dr. Ahmed Muhammad Ali Abouseif, President of the American Imams Academy (AIA)

The Prophet ﷺ gave his Companions a command that is simple on its surface and profound in its implication: "أَحْفُوا الشَّوَارِبَ وَأَعْفُوا اللِّحَى" — "Trim the moustaches and let the beards be (aʿfū al-liḥā)."^[1] That is: cut the moustaches, and leave the beards untrimmed, that they may grow and become full. The verb aʿfū means, literally, "leave." Leave the hair to itself; do not meddle with it; let it grow as it will. And this very verb, from this very root, will name in the Qurʾan the loftiest quality of mercy between human beings: pardon, ʿafw. What, then, joins the leaving of a beard to grow with the leaving of another's lapse to be effaced? This is the question with which the present article opens the Qurʾanic concept of ʿafw.

Delimiting the Word and Counting Its Occurrences

The root ʿ-f-w occurs thirty-five times in the Qurʾan, in four forms. The verb ʿafā occurs twenty-seven times, most of them describing God's pardon of His servants; the intensive noun ʿafuww occurs five times, describing God as "Pardoning, Forgiving"; the active participle al-ʿāfīn occurs once (3:134); and the noun al-ʿafw occurs twice, though in a sense wholly distinct from forbearance:

﴿يَسْأَلُونَكَ مَاذَا يُنْفِقُونَ قُلِ الْعَفْوَ﴾ [2:219] "They ask you what they should spend. Say: the surplus (al-ʿafw)."

Here the word means "what exceeds one's need," not "pardon of a sin." It is an independent juristic sense belonging to the chapter on spending, and falls outside the axis of this article. Another striking instance is the word of God:

﴿ثُمَّ بَدَّلْنَا مَكَانَ السَّيِّئَةِ الْحَسَنَةَ حَتَّىٰ عَفَوْا﴾ [7:95] "Then We replaced the evil with good, until they increased (ʿafaw)."

Here the verb means "they multiplied and flourished," not "they forgave." And this is the original sense of the root, upon which the whole of this article will be built.

The Linguistic Root: A Leaving That Leads to Growth or to Effacement

Ibn Fāris records in Maqāyīs al-Lughah that the root formed of ʿayn, fāʾ, and a weak letter goes back to the meaning of "leaving a thing." From this leaving arise two related meanings that seem at first glance to be opposites. If hair is left untrimmed, it multiplies, grows, and lengthens; hence "let the beards be," and the saying of God "until they increased (ʿafaw)," that is, until they multiplied. And if a trace is left untended and unpreserved, it is effaced and wiped out by the work of time and wind; hence "the dwellings were effaced (ʿafat al-diyār)," that is, their vestiges were obliterated. The common factor is one: leaving is the act they share. What is left alive grows and multiplies; what is left as a trace, without renewal, fades and disappears. When the Qurʾan speaks of God's pardon, or of people's pardon toward one another, it summons the second aspect in particular: to leave the trace of a sin or an offense unpursued, until it is effaced as the traces of abandoned dwellings are effaced.

The Central Structure: A Leaving, Not a Forcible Erasure

This fine distinction, between natural leaving and forcible erasure, is what sets Qurʾanic pardon apart from a mere "forgetting" of the offense or a temporary suppression of anger. Pardon does not mean the attempt to tear the trace of the offense out of memory by force and strain. It means leaving that trace without pursuit and without a demand for revenge, until it withers of itself, as the traces of abandoned dwellings wither when they are left to the winds. This is why the Qurʾan so often pairs pardon with another act that clarifies the meaning:

﴿فَاعْفُ عَنْهُمْ وَاصْفَحْ﴾ [5:13] "So pardon them, and overlook."

Here ṣafḥ, "overlooking," means turning the face away from the matter, that is, giving it no further attention once it has been left, and not merely tolerating it while it remains present in the mind.

Pardon, Overlooking, and Forgiveness: Degrees, Not Synonyms

It is fitting here to distinguish pardon from its two sisters, with which it is often confused: overlooking (ṣafḥ) and forgiveness (maghfirah). When the Qurʾan joins the first two in a single verse, as in

﴿فَاعْفُوا وَاصْفَحُوا حَتَّىٰ يَأْتِيَ اللَّهُ بِأَمْرِهِ﴾ [2:109] "So pardon and overlook, until God brings about His command,"

it does not repeat one meaning in two words for emphasis; it names two successive degrees. Al-Rāghib al-Aṣfahānī says that "ṣafḥ is the abandoning of reproach, and it is more eloquent than ʿafw."^[2] For pardon, as its linguistic origin has shown, is to leave the trace of the sin without pursuing it with punishment; yet it may leave a hidden mark in the soul or a visible mark in dealings. Overlooking goes beyond this to the total erasure of blame, and to regarding the matter as though it had never been. Shaykh al-Islām Ibn Taymiyyah draws the degrees out more finely when he distinguishes pardon from forgiveness: "Pardon comprises the dropping of His right against them and His forbearance toward them in it, while forgiveness comprises protecting them from the evil of their sins, His turning toward them, and His being pleased with them."^[3] Forgiveness, then, reaches further than pardon, for it is not content with dropping the right but adds to it a turning-toward and a pleasure. It follows that when the verses before us describe God as ʿAfuww, "Pardoning," they describe the lowest of the degrees of forbearance, and the easiest for the servant himself to attain when he is asked to take on the quality. Whoever cannot reach the degree of forgiveness or of complete overlooking should at least reach the degree of pardon: to leave the trace without pursuit.

A Model That Discloses the Essence of the Quality: Pardon Despite Power

Among the most exact disclosures of the nature of Qurʾanic pardon is its repeated pairing with the attribute of power rather than of incapacity:

﴿فَإِنَّ اللَّهَ كَانَ عَفُوًّا قَدِيرًا﴾ [4:149] "Indeed, God is ever Pardoning and All-Powerful."

God does not pardon because He is unable to take vengeance; He pardons while perfectly able to call to account. The pairing of ʿafuww and qadīr in a single verse sets a measure for true pardon among human beings as well: the pardon worthy of the name is that of one who holds the right to call to account and has the power to do so, not that of one who has no recourse but silence. Whoever forgives because he is powerless to avenge himself has not pardoned in the Qurʾanic sense; he has merely yielded to his own incapacity.

Another Model from the Prophetic Biography: A Verse Sent Down upon a Wounded Heart

Among the clearest applications of this meaning in the Prophet's biography is what followed the affair of the slander (al-ifk). Abū Bakr al-Ṣiddīq (may God be pleased with him) swore that he would never again spend upon Misṭaḥ ibn Uthāthah, his kinsman, who had joined in that calumny against his daughter ʿĀʾishah (may God be pleased with her). Then the verse was revealed:

﴿وَلْيَعْفُوا وَلْيَصْفَحُوا أَلَا تُحِبُّونَ أَنْ يَغْفِرَ اللَّهُ لَكُمْ﴾ [24:22] "Let them pardon and overlook. Do you not love that God should forgive you?"

Abū Bakr withdrew his oath and resumed his support of Misṭaḥ. This episode embodies the central structure with precision. Abū Bakr was not asked to forget the offense or to pretend it had not occurred; he was asked to leave off pursuing it with punishment, so that God might likewise leave off pursuing his own sins. And the verse's explicit link between the servant's pardon of his brother and God's pardon of the servant shows that pardon among people is no isolated social virtue. It is a transaction by which the servant's worthiness of his Lord's pardon is measured.

A Third Model: Pardon as a Quality Inseparable from Restraining Anger

In Āl ʿImrān the Qurʾan describes the God-fearing by two qualities that cannot be parted:

﴿وَالْكَاظِمِينَ الْغَيْظَ وَالْعَافِينَ عَنِ النَّاسِ﴾ [3:134] "…those who restrain their anger and pardon people."

The order of the words is deliberate. Restraining anger comes first because it is the first stage, the mastery of the momentary passion. Pardon follows as the second and deeper stage: leaving the whole trace behind, with no hidden wish for revenge at a later hour. One who curbs his anger in the moment but goes on watching for an opportunity to retaliate has achieved half the virtue, not the whole of it. One who joins the immediate restraint of anger to the later leaving of the trace has reached the station of "those who pardon people."

This also connects with what was established in another article of this series, on modesty (ḥayāʾ), where it became clear that restraining a passing emotion is a necessary first step but insufficient alone. Just as true modesty goes beyond fleeting shyness to a settled stance that does not veil the truth, so true pardon goes beyond the momentary restraint of anger to the final leaving of the trace, and is not a mere postponement of the explosion to another time.

A Fourth Model: Pardon Even in the Smallest Details of Family Life

Pardon in the Qurʾan is not confined to great disputes; it extends to the finest details of marital life. In the context of divorce before consummation, when half of the dowry is owed to the woman, the Qurʾan says:

﴿إِلَّا أَنْ يَعْفُونَ أَوْ يَعْفُوَ الَّذِي بِيَدِهِ عُقْدَةُ النِّكَاحِ وَأَنْ تَعْفُوا أَقْرَبُ لِلتَّقْوَىٰ﴾ [2:237] "…unless they pardon, or he in whose hand is the marriage tie pardons; and that you pardon is nearer to God-consciousness."

Here one party may forgo what is purely a material right, and not an offense committed. This widens the concept of pardon from the mere leaving off of a demand for punishment to the leaving off of a legitimate right itself, out of generosity. The verse calls this "nearer to God-consciousness": pardon, even of financial dues rightfully owed, is a rung on the ladder of nearness to God, and not a merely neutral social concession.

"Go, for You Are the Freed"

If the story of Abū Bakr and Misṭaḥ embodied pardon within the circle of family and kinship, the widest historical application of "Pardoning and All-Powerful" came on the day Mecca was opened. The Prophet ﷺ entered the city that had expelled him, fought him, and tortured his Companions for twenty years, and he stood at the summit of military and political power over it. It is well known in the books of biography that the Prophet ﷺ asked Quraysh, "What do you think I will do with you?" They said, "Good: a noble brother, and the son of a noble brother." And he said: "اذهبوا فأنتم الطُّلَقاء" — "Go, for you are the freed (al-ṭulaqāʾ)." This exact wording is not established by a sound, continuous chain. But the designation al-ṭulaqāʾ itself, for those of the people of Mecca whom the Prophet ﷺ pardoned that day, is firmly established in the books of biography and Sunnah, and through the effect of that pardon the people of Mecca entered the religion of God in throngs. In its widest historical application, this event embodies exactly the meaning of "Pardoning and All-Powerful." One who held in his hand the decision over the fate of the enemy who had harmed him most grievously, and who yet left off calling to account when he was most able to do so, offers the truest human exemplification of this divine name.

The Prophetic Witness

Abū Hurayrah (may God be pleased with him) reported, and Muslim recorded in his Ṣaḥīḥ, that the Prophet ﷺ said: "مَا نَقَصَتْ صَدَقَةٌ مِنْ مَالٍ، وَمَا زَادَ اللَّهُ عَبْدًا بِعَفْوٍ إِلَّا عِزًّا، وَمَا تَوَاضَعَ أَحَدٌ لِلَّهِ إِلَّا رَفَعَهُ اللَّهُ" — "Charity never diminishes wealth; God never increases a servant in pardon except in honor; and no one humbles himself for God but God raises him."^[4] The hadith overturns a common human equation, which counts pardon a weakness that abases its possessor before the one who wronged him. The Prophet ﷺ establishes the very opposite: pardon is an honor that grows, not a loss to be feared. This accords entirely with the pairing of "Pardoning and All-Powerful" in the Qurʾan: whoever pardons when he is able to do otherwise rises by that pardon in the esteem of hearts, and does not sink in weakness within them.

A Reading in Light of the Higher Objectives (Maqāṣid)

The scholars observe that when the Qurʾan mentions the requital of an offense with its like, in the verse

﴿وَجَزَاءُ سَيِّئَةٍ سَيِّئَةٌ مِثْلُهَا﴾ [42:40] "The recompense of an evil is an evil like it,"

it does not stop at establishing the right of equal retaliation, but follows it at once with the words

﴿فَمَنْ عَفَا وَأَصْلَحَ فَأَجْرُهُ عَلَى اللَّهِ﴾ "…but whoever pardons and sets things right, his reward is with God."

Justice permits retaliation in kind without requiring it, and pardon is a choice of higher rank. It passes beyond the bounds of the merely permitted into that for which its doer is rewarded directly by God, and not by people. Some link this with the naming of the entire sura in which this verse occurs, al-Shūrā ("Consultation"). They see that a society whose affairs are conducted through consultation needs, more than any other, a culture of pardon, one that keeps disagreements from hardening into accumulated feuds that would disable consultation itself.

The Contemporary Application

Many confuse pardon with the suppression of feeling or the pretense of forgetting. They carry the trace of the offense in their breasts while displaying a verbal pardon that does not match their hearts. But the linguistic root disclosed in this article proposes a different measure: true pardon is to leave the trace to be effaced with the passing of time, neither erasing it by force in a single moment nor pretending that it is absent. This means that pardon may need time to be completed, just as the traces of abandoned dwellings need time to be effaced by the wind. Whoever has given up the demand for revenge and refrained from pursuing the wrongdoer is on the path of true pardon, even if he goes on feeling the pain of the offense for a time, so long as he leaves the trace alone and does not feed it with continual pursuit.

Abū Bakr's conduct toward Misṭaḥ serves as a practical model of this gradation. He was not asked to feel toward Misṭaḥ the same affection he had felt before the incident, but to return to treating him with kindness despite the wound the offense had left. Pardon does not require feelings to return to what they were; it is content that conduct return to what it ought to be, leaving to time the task of completing whatever remains of the trace's effacement.

Conclusion

From a beard left to grow, to dwellings whose traces are left to fade, to Abū Bakr setting aside his oath in answer to a verse that came upon a wounded heart, to Mecca opened and its people left as the freed after twenty years of enmity, the Qurʾan and the prophetic biography draw for pardon one unchanging meaning: to leave the trace without pursuit until it withers of its own accord, neither erasing it by force nor pretending it is absent. Its highest degree is reached when it proceeds from one who holds complete power over another.

And God knows best; He is the Most Merciful of the merciful.