The Qur’anic Root B KH L (bukhl)
Withholding generosity: from retaining wealth and denying others their dues to encouraging stinginess and harming oneself
Qur’anic and lexical forms
يَبْخَلُونَ
(yabkhalūna)
Plural imperfect; three Qur’anic occurrences
بَخِلُوا
(bakhilū)
Plural perfect; two Qur’anic occurrences
تَبْخَلُوا
(tabkhalū)
Jussive conditional response; Muḥammad 47:37
يَبْخَلُ
(yabkhalu)
Singular imperfect; twice in Muḥammad 47:38
يَبْخَلْ
(yabkhal)
Jussive after conditional man; Muḥammad 47:38
بَخِلَ
(bakhila)
Singular perfect; Al-Layl 92:8
بِالْبُخْلِ
(bi-l-bukhli)
Definite verbal noun with bi-; two Qur’anic occurrences
بَخِيل
(bakhīl)
Lexical description; not Qur’anic
بَاخِل
(bākhil)
Lexical active participle; not Qur’anic
بَخَّال
(bakhkhāl)
Lexical intensive description; not Qur’anic
1. Introducing the root and its Qur’anic forms
Arabic B KH L concerns withholding, refusing to give and retaining something that could be made available to another. It is blameworthy where someone refuses generosity, fulfilment of a due or delivery of what should reach another person. Bukhl contrasts with generosity and openhandedness, but is not identical with every act of retaining wealth or economizing.
Qur’anic bukhl is broader than the familiar image of a wealthy person refusing to spend money to preserve their fortune. The Qur’an also describes people commanding others to be stingy, concealing what they received from the bounty of The God, or ultimately harming themselves by withholding expenditure.
The root occurs twelve times in seven verses across six surahs: ten verbal occurrences and two occurrences of the noun al-bukhl. All verbs are form I; bakhīl, bākhil and bakhkhāl do not occur in the Qur’an.
The Qur’anic forms are yabkhalūna, bakhilū, tabkhalū, yabkhalu, yabkhal, bakhila and bi-l-bukhli. They occur in Āl ʿImrān 3:180, Al-Nisāʾ 4:37, Al-Tawbah 9:76, Muḥammad 47:37, Muḥammad 47:38, Al-Ḥadīd 57:24 and Al-Layl 92:8.
Yabkhalūna is a plural imperfect verb, bakhilū a plural perfect, bakhila a singular perfect, and al-bukhli a definite verbal noun. Yabkhal in Muḥammad 47:38 is jussive because it follows conditional man.
Every Qur’anic occurrence concerns human behaviour. Unlike families applied differently to objects, natural phenomena and humans, B KH L here concerns a human act or disposition. Understanding it requires attending both to what is withheld and to who is deprived of receiving it.
2. The semantic core and word forms in earlier Arabic
Bukhl against generosity
In Maqāyīs al-Lughah, Ibn Fāris introduces an established lexical family, listing bukhl, bakhal, bakhīl, bākhil and bakhkhāl. He relies on these familiar Arabic uses rather than proposing a physical image or an older meaning as the certain origin of every derivative.
Lisān al-ʿArab likewise records bukhl and bakhal and places them opposite karam, generosity. Bakhila yabkhalu concerns someone withholding generosity. Bākhil and bakhīl can both describe a stingy person; bakhkhāl emphasizes the disposition’s intensity or recurrence.
Al-Rāghib al-Iṣfahānī defines bukhl in al-Mufradāt as:
«إِمْسَاكُ الْمُقْتَنَيَاتِ عَمَّا لَا يَحِقُّ حَبْسُهَا عَنْهُ»
imsāku al-muqtanayāti ʿammā lā yaḥiqqu ḥabsuhā ʿanhu
That is, retaining possessions where withholding them is not rightful.
He also distinguishes bākhil and bakhīl by recurrence and persistence, explaining bakhīl as someone frequently exhibiting bukhl.
This separates stinginess from merely retaining something. Someone may keep money for their own or their family’s needs, avoid wasting assets or save for future needs. None is inherently bukhl.
Its blameworthy sense becomes clear where someone able to fulfil a due refuses it, or excessive attachment to possessions makes them withhold needed assistance.
Is bukhl always about money alone?
Wealth is a prominent object of Arabic bukhl, but withholding is not restricted to money.
In Al-Nisāʾ 4:37, stingy people also command others to withhold and conceal what they received from the bounty of The God. Some commentators consequently examine concealment of knowledge and refusal to reveal truth alongside withholding wealth.
The root’s basic meaning must be distinguished from its applications. Bukhl concerns withholding or refusing to give; wealth, knowledge, assistance or other resources can be its object where context supports them.
It cannot therefore be defined lexically as concealing knowledge, just as every occurrence cannot be reduced to refusing money.
The object and its relationship with rights and responsibility identify what withholding the Qur’an condemns.
3. Pre-Islamic poetry and Arab social life
Generosity and social standing
In pre-Islamic Arabic poetry, stinginess and generosity concern more than finances: they involve reputation, hospitality, support for relatives and standing among one’s people.
Zuhayr ibn Abī Sulmā’s Muʿallaqah says:
وَمَنْ يَكُ ذَا فَضْلٍ فَيَبْخَلْ بِفَضْلِهِ
wa-man yaku dhā faḍlin fa-yabkhal bi-faḍlihi
عَلَى قَوْمِهِ يُسْتَغْنَ عَنْهُ وَيُذْمَمِ
ʿalā qawmihi yustaghna ʿanhu wa-yudh-mami
Translation: “Whoever possesses abundance but withholds it from his people will be dispensed with and blamed.”
The line occurs in Zuhayr’s Muʿallaqah and its earlier commentaries. Faḍl denotes an advantage or abundance from which others could benefit. Fa-yabkhal bi-faḍlihi means withholding what one possesses.
The poet does not say this person has necessarily appropriated another’s property. He describes someone with resources who fails to share their surplus wealth or capacity.
Bukhl here therefore goes beyond refusing a legally enforceable debt: it can concern withholding generosity expected within social relationships.
The poet’s censure concerns the damage to relationships. Resources that could connect and assist people lose their social value through withholding.
This helps illuminate Āl ʿImrān 3:180 and Muḥammad 47:38, where the withholder may likewise imagine retaining something benefits them, although the outcome contradicts that expectation.
The thematic resemblance does not make poem and Qur’an identical in purpose. Zuhayr concerns social relationships and standing; the Qur’anic passages also address responsibility before The God.
Stinginess and hospitality in poetry attributed to Ḥātim al-Ṭāʾī
The Dīwān attributed to Ḥātim al-Ṭāʾī contains:
إِذَا مَا بَخِيلُ النَّاسِ هَرَّتْ كِلَابُهُ
idhā mā bakhīlu al-nāsi harrat kilābuhu
وَشَقَّ عَلَى الضَّيْفِ الضَّعِيفِ عَقُورُهَا
wa-shaqqa ʿalā al-ḍayfi al-ḍaʿīfi ʿaqūruhā
فَإِنِّي جَبَانُ الْكَلْبِ بَيْتِي مُوَطَّأٌ
fa-innī jabānu al-kalbi baytī muwaṭṭaʾun
أَجُودُ إِذَا مَا النَّفْسُ شَحَّ ضَمِيرُهَا
ajūdu idhā mā al-nafsu shaḥḥa ḍamīruhā
Translation: “When the miser’s dogs snarl and his biting dog troubles the vulnerable guest, my dog is timid and tame, and my house is prepared and welcoming. I give generously even when the inner self inclines to withhold.”
These lines contrast the stingy person with the hospitable host. Jabānu al-kalb pictures a dog lacking the boldness to drive a guest away; muwaṭṭaʾ conveys a house made ready and accessible for hospitality.
Stinginess is not pictured merely as a closed purse: the miser’s home is also closed to the guest, while the generous person’s is ready for the needy and the traveller.
The second line also helps compare bukhl and shuḥḥ. An inward inclination to retain possessions remains, but the speaker overcomes it and gives.
A wish to preserve wealth and an act of generosity may thus coexist. A person may fear a decrease in resources yet choose to assist others.
A historical qualification remains necessary. Attribution to pre-Islamic poets in collected Dīwāns does not provide a contemporary record for each line. Nevertheless, Zuhayr’s established Muʿallaqah tradition and Ḥātim’s collected poems supply clearer support than isolated anonymous sayings.
What bukhl means in these witnesses
The earlier witnesses place bukhl opposite generosity, concerning failure to pass on what one has available.
Unlike B J S, with its image of an outlet opening and water emerging, this investigation establishes no original physical image beyond withholding itself.
The family must not be assumed to derive from a closed hand, a tied purse, constriction or a closed door. These can illustrate stinginess without establishing its historical lexical origin.
4. Āl ʿImrān 3:180: does withholding benefit the owner?
Āl ʿImrān 3:180
وَلَا يَحْسَبَنَّ الَّذِينَ يَبْخَلُونَ بِمَا آتَاهُمُ اللَّهُ مِنْ فَضْلِهِ هُوَ خَيْرًا لَهُمْ ۖ بَلْ هُوَ شَرٌّ لَهُمْ ۖ سَيُطَوَّقُونَ مَا بَخِلُوا بِهِ يَوْمَ الْقِيَامَةِ ۗ وَلِلَّهِ مِيرَاثُ السَّمَاوَاتِ وَالْأَرْضِ ۗ وَاللَّهُ بِمَا تَعْمَلُونَ خَبِيرٌ
wa-lā yaḥsabanna alladhīna yabkhalūna bi-mā ātāhumu llāhu min faḍlihi huwa khayran lahum bal huwa sharrun lahum sa-yuṭawwaqūna mā bakhilū bihi yawma al-qiyāmati wa-li-llāhi mīrāthu al-samāwāti wa-l-arḍi wa-llāhu bi-mā taʿmalūna khabīrun
Translation: “Those who withhold what The God has given them of His bounty must not think it benefits them; rather, it harms them. On the Day of Resurrection, what they withheld will be put around their necks. To The God belongs the inheritance of the heavens and earth, and The God is fully aware of what you do.”
The root occurs twice, as yabkhalūna and bakhilū. Both identify the withheld object through bi-.
Bi-mā ātāhumu llāhu min faḍlihi identifies something received from His bounty that they refuse to share.
Wealth is a clear instance in a context of possessions and generosity. Mā itself nevertheless does not separately name wealth, so the expression should not be restricted without reason to cash or a specified amount.
Why does withholding harm the withholder?
The central concern is rejecting the stingy person’s assumption that their behaviour benefits them.
They may imagine that giving less leaves more for themselves and therefore increases their benefit.
The Qur’an rejects this calculation in terms of ultimate responsibility. What was withheld to preserve it becomes something held against the person on the Day of Resurrection.
Sa-yuṭawwaqūna pictures something placed around their necks as a collar. The image should remain in translation, but B KH L alone does not determine its bodily or afterlife manner.
A particular chain or material must therefore not be imposed without independent evidence. Bukhl itself does not mean covering the neck or making a collar: another verb supplies that image.
Wa-li-llāhi mīrāthu al-samāwāti wa-l-arḍ emphasizes the impermanence of human possession and everything reverting to the ownership of The God.
An owner therefore cannot regard what they have as independently and eternally theirs. This follows from the whole verse rather than the root itself.
5. Al-Nisāʾ 4:37: personal withholding and encouraging it in others
Al-Nisāʾ 4:37
الَّذِينَ يَبْخَلُونَ وَيَأْمُرُونَ النَّاسَ بِالْبُخْلِ وَيَكْتُمُونَ مَا آتَاهُمُ اللَّهُ مِنْ فَضْلِهِ ۗ وَأَعْتَدْنَا لِلْكَافِرِينَ عَذَابًا مُهِينًا
alladhīna yabkhalūna wa-yaʾmurūna al-nāsa bi-l-bukhli wa-yaktumūna mā ātāhumu llāhu min faḍlihi wa-aʿtadnā li-l-kāfirīna ʿadhāban muhīnan
Translation: “Those who are stingy, command people to be stingy and conceal what The God has given them of His bounty—and We have prepared a humiliating punishment for the disbelievers.”
Yabkhalūna is an imperfect verb and al-bukhli a definite noun. The passage first identifies the behaviour, then commanding others to practise it.
The construction places three behaviours together: withholding, commanding people to withhold, and concealing what one received from His bounty.
They are related, but not synonymous.
A person may withhold personally; a further step is recommending that conduct and obstructing generosity’s spread. Concealment is another act, related here to what the person received from the bounty of The God.
The connection with people’s dues
Al-Nisāʾ 4:36 addresses kindness to parents, relatives, orphans, the needy, neighbours, companions and others within relationships of responsibility and coexistence.
Bukhl in verse 37 should therefore not be read apart from this human setting.
A wealthy person might refuse assistance to needy parents. Another able person might withhold necessary help from a distressed relative or neighbour and encourage others to do likewise.
The concern is not merely how much money remains: it is the relationship between ability, another’s need and the responsibility to be respected.
A request does not create an obligatory due simply by being made. Fulfilling a due, commendable generosity and an unjustified demand must be distinguished through the circumstances and relevant evidence.
Can bukhl concern knowledge?
Earlier commentaries differ over wa-yaktumūna mā ātāhumu llāhu min faḍlihi. Some explain concealing wealth and blessings; others, concealing knowledge that should be disclosed.
Al-Ṭabarī transmits both groups of reports.
The expression itself is general and names neither wealth nor knowledge separately.
Concealing truth others have a right to know can therefore relate ethically to withholding. Bukhl must nevertheless not be redefined as concealing knowledge, nor the whole verse restricted without evidence to one historical group.
It describes conduct assessable in different circumstances, even where its historical referent is debated.
6. Al-Tawbah 9:76: withholding after receiving bounty
Al-Tawbah 9:76
فَلَمَّا آتَاهُمْ مِنْ فَضْلِهِ بَخِلُوا بِهِ وَتَوَلَّوْا وَهُمْ مُعْرِضُونَ
fa-lammā ātāhum min faḍlihi bakhilū bihi wa-tawallaw wa-hum muʿriḍūna
Translation: “When He gave them of His bounty, they withheld it and turned away, remaining averse.”
Bakhilū bihi refers to what they received from His bounty.
Al-Tawbah 9:75 supplies the preceding context: people pledged to The God that, if given of His bounty, they would give charity and be among the righteous.
Bukhl in verse 76 is therefore not an isolated financial trait: it accompanies breaking a pledge and turning away.
Before acquiring resources, they promised generosity; after receiving them, they failed to fulfil that promise.
This makes neither every rich person stingy nor everyone receiving wealth necessarily disloyal to a pledge. The verse censures people whose promise and conduct diverged.
These verses name no particular individual. Identifying the story definitively with someone without independent evidence is unnecessary for understanding the root.
Bukhl accompanies tawallī and iʿrāḍ, without any being the lexical meaning of another. Bakhilū bihi concerns withholding; the other expressions concern turning away. Tawallaw is a verb, whereas muʿriḍūn is an active participle within a circumstantial clause.
7. Muḥammad 47:37 and Muḥammad 47:38: ability and harm to oneself
These passages are particularly significant: one connects withholding with a pressing demand, the other with an invitation to spend.
A. Muḥammad 47:37: withholding under a pressing demand
Muḥammad 47:37
إِنْ يَسْأَلْكُمُوهَا فَيُحْفِكُمْ تَبْخَلُوا وَيُخْرِجْ أَضْغَانَكُمْ
in yasʾalkumūhā fa-yuḥfikum tabkhalū wa-yukhrij aḍghānakum
Translation: “If He asks you for it and presses you insistently, you will withhold, and He will bring out your hidden resentments.”
Tabkhalū is a jussive imperfect in the conditional response, describing withholding under a specified condition.
The -hā in yasʾalkumūhā refers contextually to property. Muḥammad 47:36 speaks of your wealth and your deeds’ rewards.
Fa-yuḥfikum is grouped under Ḥ F W in the Qur’anic Arabic Corpus classification; lexicons also discuss forms of this family with Ḥ F Y. Here it conveys insistence and pressing demand. That verb supplies the demand’s intensity, rather than bukhl itself.
The construction shows how a pressing demand can prompt withholding and expose hidden resentments.
It identifies not only bukhl but a situation in which it arises. People may incline to retain resources when a demand seems especially heavy.
This does not make every heavy demand an unquestionable justification for refusal, nor make everyone unable to meet one stingy.
Actual ability, the request’s scale and the responsibility involved need separate examination. The conditional construction describes a particular situation, rather than issuing one judgment on every kind of saving, family need or inability to pay.
Bukhl can thus relate to felt pressure and attachment to possessions, without itself meaning fear, pressure or resentment.
B. Muḥammad 47:38: fa-innamā yabkhalu ʿan nafsihi
Muḥammad 47:38
هَا أَنْتُمْ هَٰؤُلَاءِ تُدْعَوْنَ لِتُنْفِقُوا فِي سَبِيلِ اللَّهِ فَمِنْكُمْ مَنْ يَبْخَلُ ۖ وَمَنْ يَبْخَلْ فَإِنَّمَا يَبْخَلُ عَنْ نَفْسِهِ ۚ وَاللَّهُ الْغَنِيُّ وَأَنْتُمُ الْفُقَرَاءُ ۚ وَإِنْ تَتَوَلَّوْا يَسْتَبْدِلْ قَوْمًا غَيْرَكُمْ ثُمَّ لَا يَكُونُوا أَمْثَالَكُمْ
hā antum hāʾulāʾi tudʿawna li-tunfiqū fī sabīli llāhi fa-minkum man yabkhalu wa-man yabkhal fa-innamā yabkhalu ʿan nafsihi wa-llāhu al-ghaniyyu wa-antumu al-fuqarāʾu wa-in tatawallaw yastabdil qawman ghayrakum thumma lā yakūnū amthālakum
Translation: “Here you are, invited to spend in the way of The God, yet some among you withhold. Whoever withholds does so only to their own detriment. The God is free of need, while you are the needy. If you turn away, He will replace you with another people, who will not be like you.”
The root occurs three times: yabkhalu identifies those refusing expenditure; yabkhal follows conditional man; and yabkhalu recurs in its response.
This repetition emphasizes the behaviour’s outcome.
Yabkhalu bihi and yabkhalu ʿan nafsihi
Āl ʿImrān 3:180 and Al-Tawbah 9:76 use bi- to identify what is withheld.
Muḥammad 47:38 instead has yabkhalu ʿan nafsihi.
ʿAn matters. The verse does not merely say someone withholds property belonging to themselves from another person: it makes their withholding return to their own detriment.
“Withholds to their own detriment” or “deprives themselves of good by withholding” conveys the construction naturally.
The withholder outwardly retains property but, in the verse’s perspective, deprives themselves of good obtainable through spending.
The next sentence states: wa-llāhu al-ghaniyyu wa-antumu al-fuqarāʾ.
The God’s freedom from need contrasts with human need. Spending cannot therefore be understood as satisfying a financial need on His part.
Its benefit concerns people and their responsibility; He does not require their gifts to complete His possessions or power.
This agrees with Āl ʿImrān 3:180: the withholder imagines a benefit, but the Qur’an identifies harm. Fa-innamā yabkhalu ʿan nafsihi makes the same point explicit.
Self-harm must nevertheless not become bukhl’s lexical definition. Bukhl remains withholding; detriment to oneself is the stated outcome.
8. Al-Ḥadīd 57:24: withholding and self-exaltation
Al-Ḥadīd 57:24
الَّذِينَ يَبْخَلُونَ وَيَأْمُرُونَ النَّاسَ بِالْبُخْلِ ۗ وَمَنْ يَتَوَلَّ فَإِنَّ اللَّهَ هُوَ الْغَنِيُّ الْحَمِيدُ
alladhīna yabkhalūna wa-yaʾmurūna al-nāsa bi-l-bukhli wa-man yatawalla fa-inna llāha huwa al-ghaniyyu al-ḥamīdu
Translation: “Those who are stingy and command people to be stingy. Whoever turns away—The God is indeed the One free of need, the Praiseworthy.”
Yabkhalūna and al-bukhli occur together again, as in Al-Nisāʾ 4:37.
Their settings nevertheless differ.
Al-Nisāʾ 4:36 concerns kindness and people’s dues. Al-Ḥadīd 57:23 concerns excessive grief over loss, self-satisfied rejoicing over gain, and censure of the arrogant boaster.
Bukhl here relates to one’s outlook on possessions and advantages.
Someone using their resources to claim superiority may refuse to share their benefits. They retain resources and encourage others to follow suit.
This does not make every stingy person a boaster, or every wealthy person possess these traits. The passage describes a group through associated qualities, without making each the lexical definition of the others.
His freedom from need is stated again: fa-inna llāha huwa al-ghaniyyu al-ḥamīd.
The connection with Muḥammad 47:38 is clear. Whether people give changes their responsibility and their conduct’s outcome, rather than His freedom from need.
Commanding others to withhold extends bukhl beyond an individual act into a social phenomenon. That extension is expressed by wa-yaʾmurūna al-nāsa bi-l-bukhl, not by yabkhalūna alone.
9. Al-Layl 92:8: withholding and assumed self-sufficiency
Al-Layl 92:8
وَأَمَّا مَنْ بَخِلَ وَاسْتَغْنَىٰ
wa-ammā man bakhila wa-staghnā
Translation: “As for the one who withholds and considers themselves self-sufficient.”
This short verse contains an important use.
It belongs within the contrasts at the surah’s opening.
Al-Layl 92:5 states fa-ammā man aʿṭā wa-ttaqā: someone gives and is mindful. Al-Layl 92:6 adds affirmation of al-ḥusnā.
Conversely, Al-Layl 92:8 describes withholding and assumed self-sufficiency, while Al-Layl 92:9 adds denial of al-ḥusnā.
The contrast is therefore more than two financial acts: giving and withholding accompany two further orientations.
Bukhl against giving
Aʿṭā and bakhila distinguish the two paths clearly.
Aʿṭā concerns giving; bakhila, withholding.
The verse does not explicitly name what is withheld: no particular sum, assistance or resource is specified.
The contrast with aʿṭā makes withholding clear without permitting a particular amount or object to be inserted without evidence.
Is istaghnā part of bukhl’s meaning?
No. Istaghnā belongs to GH N Y and has its own meaning.
Here it approaches regarding oneself as sufficient or feeling free of need. It accompanies bukhl without being its lexical meaning.
Felt independence from others and disregard of responsibility may prompt withholding. That is a conceptual and ethical relationship, not a definition of bukhl as self-sufficiency everywhere.
Possessing resources alone is not the criterion of blame. The concern is conduct and one’s orientation toward giving, mindfulness and truth.
As in earlier passages, the Qur’an encourages generosity without equating bukhl with possessing wealth or retaining some of it.
11. Is bukhl only failure to pay an obligatory due?
This is a central semantic boundary.
Restricting bukhl to legally obligatory payments loses part of its range in earlier Arabic witnesses.
Zuhayr censures withholding one’s abundance from one’s people without necessarily naming a debt or a specified legal obligation.
Conversely, calling every refusal of help or request bukhl would extend it too far.
Someone may be unable to help, face an improper request or need to reserve limited resources for a more pressing responsibility.
Three cases must therefore be distinguished: fulfilling a due owed; generosity fitting one’s capacity and others’ need; and a request or expense not necessarily right to fulfil.
Blameworthy bukhl can appear in failing to fulfil a due or improperly withholding generosity. Each application nevertheless requires identifying what is requested, who needs it, and the person’s capacity and responsibilities.
This fits the Qur’anic passages together more closely: encouragement to spend accompanies prohibitions of excess and waste, with responsibility considered in actual circumstances.
12. Translation proposals for Forqan
“Stinginess” is a natural principal equivalent for bukhl; “miserliness” can also fit. Each should convey wrongful withholding rather than mere economy.
For bakhila, context may favour “was stingy” or “withheld generosity.” “Withheld” is particularly clear where the sentence names what is retained.
Yabkhalūna bi-mā ātāhumu llāhu in Āl ʿImrān 3:180 can be “withhold what The God has given them,” preserving both verb and object.
For yabkhalūna wa-yaʾmurūna al-nāsa bi-l-bukhl in Al-Nisāʾ 4:37 and Al-Ḥadīd 57:24, “are stingy and command people to be stingy” is clear and faithful to the construction.
Bakhilū bihi in Al-Tawbah 9:76 can be “withheld it”; -hi refers to what they received from His bounty.
Tabkhalū in Muḥammad 47:37 is the conditional response, fitting “you will withhold.”
The preposition matters in Muḥammad 47:38. “Withholds only to their own detriment” naturally conveys fa-innamā yabkhalu ʿan nafsihi; commentary can explain self-deprivation of good.
Bakhila in Al-Layl 92:8 has no stated object. “Withheld” is preferable to “refused to pay money,” which inserts an unstated object.
Every occurrence should not be reduced to calling someone “a miser.” That personal label can be more insulting and less precise than identifying the behaviour the verse addresses.
Greed, covetousness, selfishness and injustice may accompany bukhl, but are not its direct equivalents.
13. Conclusion
B KH L occurs twelve times in seven Qur’anic verses, always concerning human conduct and withholding generosity.
Earlier Arabic places it against karam and jūd. Poetry shows its importance in hospitality, assistance and social reputation as well as finances.
The Qur’an examines retaining His bounty, failing a pledge of generosity, commanding others to withhold and refusing expenditure in the way of The God.
Āl ʿImrān 3:180 and Muḥammad 47:38 share a reversal: retaining possessions may appear beneficial to the withholder, while the Qur’an identifies harm.
Al-Nisāʾ 4:37 and Al-Ḥadīd 57:24 extend beyond personal conduct to commanding others to follow it.
Al-Tawbah 9:76 connects withholding with a broken pledge and turning away. Al-Layl 92:8 contrasts it with giving and joins it with assumed self-sufficiency.
Neighbouring words show that bukhl is not every retention, financial constraint or economy. Shuḥḥ sometimes emphasizes stronger greed and attachment, without an absolute boundary across all uses.
An appropriate final definition for Forqan:
Arabic B KH L concerns withholding or refusing to give something in one’s possession. Its blameworthy uses can involve failing to fulfil a due, improperly withholding generosity or obstructing others’ giving. The Qur’an relates it to divine bounty, spending, keeping pledges and human responsibility, showing that contrary to the withholder’s expectation, it may harm them before anyone else. Retaining resources or avoiding an expense is not inherently bukhl: judgment requires the object, ability, due and context.