The Qur’anic Root L F W (ل ف و)

1. Qur’anic forms and earlier Arabic usage

The Qur’an contains alfaynā (أَلْفَيْنَا), alfayā (أَلْفَيَا), and alfaw (أَلْفَوْا), all from alfā.

Alfaynā is first-person plural perfect, “we found.” Alfayā is the perfect for two subjects, “the two found.” Alfaw is third-person plural perfect, “they found.”

In wa-alfayā (وَأَلْفَيَا), initial wāw is a conjunction, rather than an original part of the verb. The final wāw of alfaw belongs to the plural ending and cannot alone determine the root’s third letter.

Alfā is form IV, with the verbal noun ilfāʾ (إِلْفَاء). Arabic also records alfaytuhu (أَلْفَيْتُهُ), ulfīhi (أُلْفِيهِ), alfāhu (أَلْفَاهُ), and mulfan (مُلْفًى) in the same family.

Alfā: finding and encountering

Lisān al-ʿArab records:

أَلْفَيْتُ الشَّيْءَ أُلْفِيهِ إِلْفَاءً

alfaytu al-shayʾa ulfīhi ilfāʾan

The expression concerns finding, coming upon, and encountering something.

Alfaytu al-rajula (أَلْفَيْتُ الرَّجُلَ) means “I found the man” or “I encountered him.” A description or adverbial phrase may also indicate his condition at the encounter.

In alfaytuhu qāʾiman (أَلْفَيْتُهُ قَائِمًا), for example, the person is found standing. The verb expresses finding, while qāʾiman specifies the condition of the person found.

This illustrates the linguistic construction. Standing is not part of L F W’s meaning, just as being astray in Al-Ṣāffāt 37:69 or being at the door in Yūsuf 12:25 is not part of alfā itself.

Alfā need not mean finding after a long search. Someone may suddenly see something or encounter it in a particular situation. Any search, effort, or expectation must be established through other sentence elements and the event’s setting.

A witness from pre-Islamic poetry

A poem by Zuhayr ibn Abī Sulmā, a pre-Islamic poet, reads:

وَإِنْ جِئْتَهُمْ أَلْفَيْتَ حَوْلَ بُيُوتِهِمْ
مَجَالِسَ قَدْ يُشْفَى بِأَحْلَامِهَا الْجَهْلُ

wa-in jiʾtahum alfayta ḥawla buyūtihim / majālisa qad yushfā bi-aḥlāmihā al-jahlu

“And if you visit them, you will find around their houses gatherings whose people’s wisdom can cure ignorance.”

The poet praises a community whose gatherings bring together people of forbearance and sound judgment.

Alfayta here means “you will find.” The visitor encounters gatherings that already exist.

The witness matters in several ways. First, alfā was used before the Qur’an for finding or observing a situation. Second, what is found need not be a small, individual object: the verb can describe a number of gatherings and their social setting.

Third, alfayta itself does not establish the gatherings’ moral worth. Their praise follows from the rest of the sentence, concerning their people’s wisdom.

Earlier usage could therefore express observing a social situation without the finding verb itself meaning to approve, accept, or follow it.

The wider lexical field: removing and revealing

In Maqāyīs al-Lughah, Ibn Fāris examines L F W forms alongside related hamzated forms under one entry and proposes uncovering and becoming uncovered as its organizing meaning.

His examples include clouds being cleared from the sky and meat being stripped from bone.

Arabic records lafawtu al-laḥma ʿani al-ʿaẓmi (لَفَوْتُ اللَّحْمَ عَنِ الْعَظْمِ) for stripping or removing meat from bone. Here part of something is removed, exposing what was underneath.

This image suits Ibn Fāris’s explanation through uncovering.

It must, however, be distinguished from Qur’anic alfā.

Removing meat from bone is something an agent does to an object. Qur’anic alfā, by contrast, concerns finding or encountering something.

One can imagine a semantic connection between becoming apparent and being found: someone sometimes finds something when it becomes visible. This possibility does not establish that finding historically developed from removing a covering.

Alfā also need not mean uncovering the truth. In Joseph’s account, two people find someone at a door; in Al-Baqarah, a group describe their fathers’ situation. Neither use itself denotes discovering a hidden truth.

Ibn Fāris’s analysis therefore helps study semantic relationships, but the direct Qur’anic meaning remains finding and encountering.

Talāfā: catching up and remedying

Arabic sources also examine talāfā (تَلَافَى) within this family.

Talāfā al-amra (تَلَافَى الْأَمْرَ) can mean attending to a matter, dealing with it before the opportunity is lost, or remedying a shortcoming.

In some uses, someone becomes aware of a problem and acts to correct it. In others, talāfā concerns reaching or attaining something.

Lisān al-ʿArab transmits a line through Ibn al-Aʿrābī:

يُخْبِرُنِي أَنِّي بِهِ ذُو قَرَابَةٍ
وَأَنْبَأْتُهُ أَنِّي بِهِ مُتَلَافِي

yukhbirunī annī bihi dhū qarābatin / wa-anbaʾtuhu annī bihi mutalāfī

Following Ibn al-Aʿrābī’s transmitted explanation, its sense is: “He tells me that I am related to him; I told him that through him I shall attain my blood vengeance.” In this explanation, mutalāfī (مُتَلَافِي) concerns attaining blood vengeance. The report does not establish the poet’s name or the line’s exact composition date.

This shows that earlier talāfā was not confined to the modern sense of compensating for damage.

Talāfā must not, however, make Qur’anic alfā mean compensating or correcting. The forms belong to a related lexical family but have distinct constructions and uses.

Talāfā does not occur in the Qur’an. Finding and encountering therefore provide the clearer basis for translating alfā’s three occurrences.

2. Alfaynā: finding one’s fathers following a way

Al-Baqarah states:

وَإِذَا قِيلَ لَهُمُ اتَّبِعُوا مَا أَنْزَلَ اللَّهُ قَالُوا بَلْ نَتَّبِعُ مَا أَلْفَيْنَا عَلَيْهِ آبَاءَنَا أَوَلَوْ كَانَ آبَاؤُهُمْ لَا يَعْقِلُونَ شَيْئًا وَلَا يَهْتَدُونَ

wa-idhā qīla lahumu ittabiʿū mā anzala llāhu qālū bal nattabiʿu mā alfaynā ʿalayhi ābāʾanā a-wa-law kāna ābāʾuhum lā yaʿqilūna shayʾan wa-lā yahtadūna

“When they are told, ‘Follow what The God has sent down,’ they say, ‘Rather, we follow what we found our fathers adhering to.’ Even if their fathers reasoned about nothing and were not guided, would they still follow them?” (Al-Baqarah 2:170)

Alfaynā here is first-person plural perfect: “we found.”

Mā alfaynā ʿalayhi ābāʾanā (مَا أَلْفَيْنَا عَلَيْهِ آبَاءَنَا) concerns the way on which the speakers found their fathers.

Ābāʾanā is the direct object of finding; ʿalayhi expresses the condition or way their fathers followed. Mā refers to what the speakers make the object of their following.

The statement therefore does not mean the fathers discovered something. The later generation says it found its fathers following a way and follows that same way.

Finding conduct and accepting it

Linguistically, the sentence presents two actions: finding and following.

Alfaynā expresses finding; nattabiʿu (نَتَّبِعُ) expresses following.

The verbs are not synonymous. Someone may observe conduct among their fathers without continuing it, or find something in society and judge it right or wrong after examination.

Here the speakers move from finding an inherited way to following it. Nattabiʿu establishes that choice, rather than the meaning of alfā itself.

The phrase also concerns a situation already present for the current generation.

They are not presented as its original creators. They have encountered it and now intend to continue it.

Is every inheritance wrong?

The verse’s final question shows that criticism does not arise merely because conduct is old.

It speaks of fathers not reasoning and not being guided. The central issue is making earlier conduct a standard to follow without examining its truth or guidance.

Alfaynā itself cannot establish that every inherited belief or practice is wrong. Finding a way among ancestors proves neither its truth nor its falsehood.

In Yūsuf 12:38, Joseph speaks of following the religious way of his fathers Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. Following ancestors can therefore, in another context, accompany guidance and divine oneness.

The distinction concerns the criterion for following, rather than a belief’s age alone.

This conclusion arises from related verses and the contrast between mā anzala llāhu (مَا أَنْزَلَ اللَّهُ) and the speakers’ reply. L F W itself continues to mean finding or encountering something.

3. Wa-alfayā: encountering a person in a particular place

Yūsuf states:

وَاسْتَبَقَا الْبَابَ وَقَدَّتْ قَمِيصَهُ مِنْ دُبُرٍ وَأَلْفَيَا سَيِّدَهَا لَدَا الْبَابِ قَالَتْ مَا جَزَاءُ مَنْ أَرَادَ بِأَهْلِكَ سُوءًا إِلَّا أَنْ يُسْجَنَ أَوْ عَذَابٌ أَلِيمٌ

wa-stabaqā al-bāba wa-qaddat qamīṣahu min duburin wa-alfayā sayyidahā ladā al-bābi qālat mā jazāʾu man arāda bi-ahlika sūʾan illā an yusjana aw ʿadhābun alīmun

“They both raced towards the door, and she tore his shirt from behind; they found her husband at the door. She said, ‘What is the recompense for someone who intended evil towards your household, except imprisonment or a painful punishment?’” (Yūsuf 12:25)

Wa-alfayā is a perfect verb for two subjects. Its dual ending refers to Joseph and the woman.

They hurry towards the door and find someone there.

Sayyidahā (سَيِّدَهَا) is the person found; ladā al-bābi (لَدَا الْبَابِ) specifies the place of the encounter.

Here alfā concerns encountering someone in a particular location. The verse also gives the subsequent conversation and the woman’s accusation, but that conversation is not part of the finding verb’s meaning.

Finding without a prior search

The Qur’an does not say they raced to the door in order to find her husband.

They are moving towards the door during another event and find him there on arrival.

Alfayā here therefore expresses an encounter that need not result from a previous search for the person.

This use is compatible with an unexpected finding or incidental encounter.

It must not become an exceptionless rule that alfā always means an accidental finding. Zuhayr’s visitor finds a community’s gatherings. The verb is shared, but the situations and expectations differ.

Finding and encountering are the common element; whether expected or incidental follows from context.

Finding and judging what happened

The woman immediately accuses Joseph. In Yūsuf 12:26 he replies that she sought to draw him to herself. The evidence of the shirt is then examined.

This continuation shows that encountering two people at the door did not itself reveal the whole event to the third person.

Alfayā merely expresses encountering someone in a specified situation.

It neither establishes the truth of the woman’s accusation nor judges Joseph’s intentions. Understanding what happened depends on the evidence and subsequent statements.

Finding a scene must therefore be distinguished from understanding its true cause.

4. Alfaw: finding one’s fathers astray

Al-Ṣāffāt states:

إِنَّهُمْ أَلْفَوْا آبَاءَهُمْ ضَالِّينَ

innahum alfaw ābāʾahum ḍāllīna

“Indeed, they found their fathers astray.” (Al-Ṣāffāt 37:69)

Alfaw is third-person plural perfect.

In a common analysis, ābāʾahum is the verb’s first object and ḍāllīn (ضَالِّينَ) its second. Some grammatical analyses instead treat ḍāllīn as a circumstantial expression. Either way, the sentence concerns finding their fathers in a particular condition.

Ḍāllīn belongs to Ḍ L L and expresses being astray. That meaning must not be attributed to alfaw itself.

The next verse describes them rushing along in their fathers’ footsteps. (Al-Ṣāffāt 37:70)

Together, the verses show that the later generation continued its misguided fathers’ way.

Did they recognize their fathers’ error?

Structurally, alfaw ābāʾahum ḍāllīn concerns the condition in which the fathers were found.

Another question remains: did the children recognize the error and knowingly follow what was wrong, or does the Qur’an describe the fathers’ actual condition from the standpoint of divine judgment?

These possibilities differ epistemically.

Alfaw alone cannot establish with certainty that they recognized the truth about that error and then deliberately chose it. Finding can express an observed or established situation while judgment of its reality follows from the speaker and context.

Here the Qur’an describes the fathers as ḍāllīn. Assessing the children’s knowledge and responsibility requires other verses concerning warning, recognition, denial, reasoning, and following ancestors.

The sentence’s lexical meaning must therefore not become “they knew their fathers were astray and followed with full knowledge,” unless independent evidence establishes that awareness.

Repeating an inherited path

In Al-Baqarah 2:170, people say they found their fathers following a way and follow it themselves.

Al-Ṣāffāt 37:69 and Al-Ṣāffāt 37:70 likewise describe finding fathers astray and hurrying in their footsteps.

The accounts are related, but differ.

Al-Baqarah quotes the people who prefer following their fathers; Al-Ṣāffāt describes the fathers’ condition and the next generation’s conduct.

The viewpoints matter. One shows the reason people offer for continuing an earlier way; the other judges that following’s result and direction.

In both, alfā’s meaning remains finding a person or group in an already established situation.

5. Distinctions from nearby roots

L F W (alfā) compared with W J D (wajada)

Study of W J D

Wajada is a widely used Arabic verb for finding.

The Qur’an uses it for finding people and things and recognizing a situation. Other branches of the family also concern inward experience and feeling.

Alfā’s three Qur’anic uses are very close to wajada.

The overlap is such that the Qur’an expresses a similar subject using alfaynā in one place and wajadnā in another.

Al-Baqarah 2:170 has mā alfaynā ʿalayhi ābāʾanā.

Luqmān 31:21 gives the same basic construction with mā wajadnā ʿalayhi ābāʾanā (مَا وَجَدْنَا عَلَيْهِ آبَاءَنَا).

Al-Zukhruf 43:22 and Al-Zukhruf 43:23 also use wajadnā ābāʾanā ʿalā ummatin (وَجَدْنَا آبَاءَنَا عَلَىٰ أُمَّةٍ) concerning following an inherited way.

These witnesses demonstrate actual overlap in finding and encountering an existing situation.

There is therefore no basis for claiming that alfā always means accidental encounter and wajada always discovery after searching.

Nor is one necessarily sensory finding and the other intellectual finding. Qur’anic usage does not support an absolute division.

The roots’ histories and derivational ranges may be studied separately, but “finding” is their clear shared equivalent in these sentences.

L F W (alfā) compared with L Q Y (laqiya)

Study of L Q Y

Laqiya concerns meeting, encountering, and coming face to face.

It can concern two people meeting, confronting an event, or reaching a situation.

Alfā in Yūsuf 12:25 likewise concerns encountering someone in a particular location.

Their grammatical capacities are not identical, however. Laqiya more directly expresses the encounter itself, while alfā in constructions such as alfaw ābāʾahum ḍāllīn presents both the person found and that person’s condition.

Laqiya also extends beyond bodily encounters in different uses. Distinctions therefore require each sentence’s construction, rather than an absolute rule.

L F W (alfā) compared with A L F (alifa and allafa)

Study of A L F

Despite their similar spelling, the families differ in root and meaning.

Alfā belongs to L F W and concerns finding and encountering.

Alifa (أَلِفَ) and allafa (أَلَّفَ) belong to A L F. Its familiarity and bringing-together uses concern becoming accustomed, forming bonds, and assembling.

Āl ʿImrān 3:103 describes hearts brought together after enmity. Al-Anfāl 8:63 also uses the family for uniting hearts.

Īlāf (إِيلَاف) in Quraysh 106:1 and Quraysh 106:2 belongs to that family.

Alfaynā in Al-Baqarah 2:170 therefore means neither “we became accustomed to it” nor “we assembled it.” It means finding their fathers in that condition.

In actual life, something inherited may gradually become familiar. That human connection does not merge the roots lexically.

The Qur’anic index also places alf, “a thousand,” under A L F; it is not semantically identical with alfā.

L F W (alfā) compared with L F F (laffa)

Study of L F F (Not yet published)

Laffa concerns wrapping and gathering something around something else.

Alfāfan (أَلْفَافًا) in Al-Nabaʾ 78:16, lafīfan (لَفِيفًا) in Al-Isrāʾ 17:104, and iltaffati (الْتَفَّتِ) in Al-Qiyāmah 75:29 belong to L F F.

These forms concern interweaving, entwining, or gathering together.

The resemblance of alfāfan to alfaw must therefore not merge the roots.

Alfaw in Al-Ṣāffāt 37:69 means “they found,” rather than “they entwined” or “gathered.”

L F W (alfā) compared with L F A (lafaʾa)

Lexicons examine hamzated forms such as lafaʾa (لَفَأَ) alongside L F W forms.

Lafaʾa can concern removing or stripping something, such as clearing clouds or stripping meat from bone.

Ibn Fāris relates them semantically, but similar letters and a possible connection do not make every construction and use identical.

The Qur’an uses alfā for finding. None of its three verses concerns physical stripping, peeling, or clearing away.

These earlier uses therefore inform the family’s history and range without changing its direct Qur’anic meaning.

6. Translation proposals for Forqan

The principal rendering of alfā is “find.” Depending on context, “encounter,” “come upon,” or “find in a particular condition” can clarify its sense.

In Al-Baqarah 2:170, alfaynā naturally means “we found” or “we have found.” The complete phrase can be rendered “what we found our fathers adhering to.”

This preserves finding and indicates the condition or way followed by the fathers.

“What we learned from our fathers” is not precise: learning and the direct transmission of knowledge do not follow from alfā itself.

In Yūsuf 12:25, wa-alfayā is best rendered “and the two found.” A fluent sentence can read: “and they both found the woman’s husband at the door.”

An accidental encounter is conceivable in the narrative, but “accidentally” is not explicit in the verb and should not enter the base translation unnecessarily.

Alfaw in Al-Ṣāffāt 37:69 means “they found.” “They found their fathers astray” preserves the verb and ḍāllīn’s description.

The contextual explanation should keep clear that the Qur’an describes the fathers’ error, while the finding verb alone does not establish the children’s degree of awareness.

Among non-Qur’anic forms, ilfāʾ is the verbal noun for finding and encountering. Talāfā can mean attending to, remedying, or compensating, depending on use. Lafā (لَفَا), with the verbal noun lafw (لَفْو), concerns stripping or removing meat from bone in that context.

These meanings should retain their own places. Membership in a related lexical group must not force one equivalent upon all forms.

Conclusion

Qur’anic L F W is represented by alfā, finding or encountering someone or something. A person may be found at a location, or an established situation may be encountered.

Other earlier forms concern removal, separation, and remedying. Ibn Fāris proposes a connection through uncovering or becoming uncovered. His analysis helps study the historical field but must not be imposed on the direct Qur’anic meaning.

Yūsuf 12:25 concerns encountering a person in a location; Al-Baqarah 2:170 concerns finding fathers following an inherited way; Al-Ṣāffāt 37:69 describes people who found their fathers astray and hurried in their footsteps.

Finding a situation is not identical with accepting, approving, or following it. In the ancestral passages, following is another action that comes after encountering the fathers’ legacy.

Finding an inherited belief proves neither its truth nor its falsehood. Its worth and correctness require the relevant evidence.

Alfā is very close to wajada in Qur’anic meaning: both occur in similar verses about finding fathers following a way. It remains distinct from A L F concerning familiarity and bringing together, and L F F concerning wrapping and gathering.

The Qur’anic semantic core of L F W is finding or encountering an existing person, thing, or situation. It may concern a concrete encounter or an inherited situation; recognizing its value, accepting it, or following it does not follow from the verb itself, but from context and human conduct.