Ayn-Fa-Waw (ع-ف-و) has 3 words in the Fahm dictionary: ʿafwan (you're welcome / excuse me), ʿafā (he pardoned / he excused), ʿafuww (The Pardoner (divine name) / Most Forgiving).
In the Quran, words built on this root occur 35 times in 31 verses, across 11 of the 114 suras. The first is in 2:52. The form عَفَا (he pardoned / he excused) accounts for 27 of them.
Those who spend (of that which Allah hath given them) in ease and in adversity, those who control their wrath and are forgiving toward mankind; Allah loveth the good;
That (is so). And whoso hath retaliated with the like of that which he was made to suffer and then hath (again) been wronged, Allah will succour him. Lo! Allah verily is Mild, Forgiving.
Quran 22:60
Arabic text: Tanzil Quran Text (Uthmani 1.1), CC BY 3.0, tanzil.net. English: Marmaduke Pickthall, The Meaning of the Glorious Koran (1930), public domain, via Project Gutenberg. Counts and verse choice: Quranic Arabic Corpus morphology data (corpus.quran.com).
Defective verb. Noun: عَفْوٌ (pardon). God's name: الْعَفُوُّ (The Pardoner). Present: يَعْفُو. Distinguished from مَغْفِرَة (forgiveness).
Culture
ʿAfw (pardon) goes beyond forgiveness - it means erasing the sin entirely as if it never happened. It is a divine quality Muslims are urged to emulate.
B1noun
عَفُوٌّ
ʿafuww
The Pardoner (divine name) / Most Forgiving
Example
إِنَّ اللَّهَ كَانَ عَفُوًّا غَفُورًا
inna Allāha kāna ʿafuwwan ghafūrā
Indeed, Allah is ever Pardoning and Forgiving (4:43)
Intensive adjective (faʿūl pattern). From عَفَا (to pardon). الْعَفُوُّ goes beyond الْغَفُورُ - it means to erase the sin completely, as if it never existed.
Culture
The Prophet ﷺ taught Aisha to say on Laylat al-Qadr: 'O Allah, You are ʿAfuww, You love pardoning, so pardon me.' A beloved duʿāʾ.