Arabic root

غ-ف-ل

Ghayn-Fa-Lam

1 word from this root family

About this root

Ghayn-Fa-Lam (غ-ف-ل) has 1 word in the Fahm dictionary: ghaflah (heedlessness / negligence / unawareness).

In the Quran, words built on this root occur 35 times in 35 verses, across 21 of the 114 suras. The first is in 2:74. The form غَفْلَةٌ (heedlessness / negligence / unawareness) accounts for 5 of them.

Themes: Quranic

Words from this root

Word	Meaning	Type	In the Quran	Taught in
غَفْلَةٌ ghaflah	heedlessness / negligence / unawareness	noun, B1	5×	Character, Community, and Worship

“In the Quran” counts every occurrence of that dictionary form, in any of its senses.

In the Quran

أَمْ تَقُولُونَ إِنَّ إِبْرَٰهِـۧمَ وَإِسْمَـٰعِيلَ وَإِسْحَـٰقَ وَيَعْقُوبَ وَٱلْأَسْبَاطَ كَانُوا۟ هُودًا أَوْ نَصَـٰرَىٰ ۗ قُلْ ءَأَنتُمْ أَعْلَمُ أَمِ ٱللَّهُ ۗ وَمَنْ أَظْلَمُ مِمَّن كَتَمَ شَهَـٰدَةً عِندَهُۥ مِنَ ٱللَّهِ ۗ وَمَا ٱللَّهُ بِغَـٰفِلٍ عَمَّا تَعْمَلُونَ

Or say ye that Abraham, and Ishmael, and Isaac, and Jacob, and the tribes were Jews or Christians? Say: Do ye know best, or doth Allah? And who is more unjust than he who hideth a testimony which he hath received from Allah? Allah is not unaware of what ye do.

Quran 2:140

وَأَنذِرْهُمْ يَوْمَ ٱلْحَسْرَةِ إِذْ قُضِىَ ٱلْأَمْرُ وَهُمْ فِى غَفْلَةٍ وَهُمْ لَا يُؤْمِنُونَ

And warn them of the Day of anguish when the case hath been decided. Now they are in a state of carelessness, and they believe not.

Quran 19:39

إِنَّ ٱلَّذِينَ يَرْمُونَ ٱلْمُحْصَنَـٰتِ ٱلْغَـٰفِلَـٰتِ ٱلْمُؤْمِنَـٰتِ لُعِنُوا۟ فِى ٱلدُّنْيَا وَٱلْـَٔاخِرَةِ وَلَهُمْ عَذَابٌ عَظِيمٌ

Lo! as for those who traduce virtuous, believing women (who are) careless, cursed are they in the world and the Hereafter. Theirs will be an awful doom.

Quran 24:23

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).

Word cards with examples

B1noun

غَفْلَةٌ

ghaflah

heedlessness / negligence / unawareness

Example

اقْتَرَبَ لِلنَّاسِ حِسَابُهُمْ وَهُمْ فِي غَفْلَةٍ مُعْرِضُونَ

iqtaraba lin-nāsi ḥisābuhum wa-hum fī ghaflatin muʿriḍūn

The reckoning has drawn near for people while they are turning away in heedlessness (21:1)

Root: غ-ف-ل Quranic

Grammar

Feminine noun. Adjective: غَافِلٌ (heedless). Verb: غَفَلَ (to be heedless). Plural: غَافِلُونَ. The opposite of dhikr (remembrance).

Culture

Ghaflah is considered one of the greatest spiritual diseases - being oblivious to God, death, and the afterlife while absorbed in worldly distractions.