Qur'anic Root T R F

Core Meaning

The root ت ر ف indicates broadness of life, expanded enjoyment, pampered ease, and becoming accustomed to comfort and fulfilled desires.

At its base, a mutraf is someone for whom life has been expanded and who has been raised amid blessing and comfort. But in Qur'anic usage, mutraf does not simply mean “rich.” It describes an affluent person for whom expansion has become a settled life-condition, psychological expectation, and sometimes social privilege.

Being given means is not itself the cause of condemnation. The problem emerges when a person turns broad ease into self-sufficiency, special entitlement, lack of restraint, disregard for others, and resistance to truth.

The core of this root may be summarized as being placed in an ease and expansion that accustoms the human being to fulfilled desires, and, when not bounded by limit and responsibility, can lead to pampered entitlement and resistance to restraint and reform.

Important Forms

تَرِفَ is a form I verb in Arabic: to live in luxury and broad ease, to enjoy soft and comfortable life, and to become accustomed to it. This form does not occur in the Qur'an.

تَرَف is the lexical verbal noun: broadness of life, enjoyment, luxury and ease, expanded pleasant means, living in comfort and pleasure. This form also does not occur directly in the Qur'an.

تُرْفَة is used in lexical Arabic for a blessing, pleasant food, something pleasing, or what a person uses for comfort. This is not a Qur'anic form.

أَتْرَفَ is form IV: to place someone in broad ease, expand life for someone, give them blessing and comfort, or raise them in luxury.

وَأَتْرَفْنَاهُمْ فِي الْحَيَاةِ الدُّنْيَا

And We had placed them in broad ease in the life of this world.

Al-Mu'minun 23:33

Form IV here is causative. Expansion and means had been given to them, but their response to this situation belonged to them.

مُتْرَف is the passive participle of form IV: someone placed in broad ease, someone for whom life has been expanded, or someone raised in blessing and luxury.

This form is important. At the beginning, a mutraf is not someone who is the independent source of his own means; he has been placed in a condition of expansion. But this passive form does not remove his responsibility. What was not under his control was the original situation; what belongs to him is how he responds to that situation.

In classical language, mutraf is explained as one for whom life has been expanded, and sometimes as a person whose resolve has weakened through ease. This makes expansion the root and weak resolve a possible consequence, not that every affluent person is corrupt by nature.

مُتْرَفُوهَا:

وَقَالَ مُتْرَفُوهَا إِنَّا بِمَا أُرْسِلْتُمْ بِهِ كَافِرُونَ

And its pampered affluent ones said, “We cover truth regarding what you have been sent with.”

Saba 34:34

The pronoun “ha” returns to the town or society: the mutrafin of that society.

مُتْرَفِيهَا:

أَمَرْنَا مُتْرَفِيهَا فَفَسَقُوا فِيهَا

We commanded its pampered affluent ones, then they departed from the limit within it.

Al-Isra 17:16

The mutrafin are a distinct group inside a town. They are not all the people, but because of their means, influence, and position they can affect the public fate.

مُتْرَفِينَ:

إِنَّهُمْ كَانُوا قَبْلَ ذَٰلِكَ مُتْرَفِينَ

Before that, they had lived as pampered affluent ones.

Al-Waqi'ah 56:45

حَتَّىٰ إِذَا أَخَذْنَا مُتْرَفِيهِمْ بِالْعَذَابِ

Until, when We seized their pampered affluent ones with the punishment.

Al-Mu'minun 23:64

Linguistic Note

The core of T R F is not possessing blessing itself; it is becoming accustomed to broad ease, softness of life, and readily available desires.

A human being may have abundant wealth and still not be mutraf, because he does not treat wealth as absolute, knows limits, accepts responsibility, and perceives the suffering of others.

Conversely, someone may not have enormous wealth and yet be caught in the psychology of tarf: unable to bear limits, treating “no” as an insult, imagining comfort as a natural and permanent right, making personal desire the measure of right and wrong, and treating every call to limit, answerability, or shared responsibility as hostility.

Several layers may meet in the mutraf: expansion of means, easy access to pleasures, habit of comfort, reduced experience of deprivation and waiting, sense of entitlement, distance from public suffering, social influence produced by wealth and position, and resistance to a change in the existing order.

Still, one must distinguish between tarf as a situation and surrendering to the psychology of tarf.

وَأَتْرَفْنَاهُمْ فِي الْحَيَاةِ الدُّنْيَا

We placed them in broad ease in the life of this world.

Al-Mu'minun 23:33

The God may give expansion, but the Qur'an attributes denial, fisq, and persistence to the human beings themselves. Therefore the cause of condemnation is not that a person was born in a comfortable house or an affluent society. The question is what he makes of that expansion: gratitude or self-sufficiency, giving or monopoly, responsibility or privilege, humility or arrogance, reform or defense of corruption.

Tarf can also reduce the human being's ability to adapt to difficulty. Someone who assumes security, comfort, and fulfilled desire to be natural and permanent may respond more quickly with despair, anger, or collapse when these disappear. This agrees with the general image of the human being in Hud 11:9, but that verse is not a direct use of the root T R F and should not be presented as the lexical meaning of the root itself.

Material Image

The material image of T R F is a creature raised in a soft, protected, well-provisioned environment. Its food is prepared, its bed is soft, danger is kept away, and its desires are met before they turn into long waiting.

This condition is not sin in itself. A safe environment can become a ground for growth, knowledge, and service. But if comfort is not accompanied by limit, formation, and responsibility, the person may lose the ability to bear deprivation, treat his desire as necessity, become angry at the first limitation, and imagine existing security as the result of his own inherent worth.

At the social level, the image of the mutraf expands: a group holds the best resources, does not directly touch public suffering, an economic and political order preserves its comfort, and change to that order appears as a threat to its natural life.

Therefore the mutraf is not merely someone with expensive food or clothing. A mutraf can be one whose desires are secured at the cost of others' deprivation and whose comfort is preserved through public power.

The claim that old Arabs commonly called an animal left in a watery, safe thicket “mutraf” does not have enough clear support to enter the main text. The image of pampered upbringing is understandable from usages such as a pampered child and an expanded life, without adding an uncertain animal witness.

Classical Usage

In classical Arabic, tarf indicated enjoyment, expanded life, and softened conditions. A mutraf was someone whose life had been expanded, who had been placed in blessing, or who had been raised in comfort. The word was also used for a pampered child who receives abundant food, comfort, and care and whose desires are more easily fulfilled.

In some lexical uses, mutraf is also explained through weak resolve, batr, or persistence in rebelliousness. These meanings are better understood as possible consequences of unrestrained ease: tarf as the situation of luxury and expansion; batr as intoxicated ingratitude caused by blessing; fisq as practical departure from limit; and tughyan as rebellion beyond boundary.

This word is not the name of an economic class with a fixed amount of wealth. Its axis is the quality of a human being's relation to comfort, desire, limit, and responsibility.

If reliable and dateable evidence from pre-Qur'anic poetry or usage is examined, it should only be used to clarify the historical field of the word, not to impose a meaning outside Qur'anic usage.

Given Ease and Human Response

وَقَالَ الْمَلَأُ مِنْ قَوْمِهِ الَّذِينَ كَفَرُوا وَكَذَّبُوا بِلِقَاءِ الْآخِرَةِ وَأَتْرَفْنَاهُمْ فِي الْحَيَاةِ الدُّنْيَا

And the prominent ones of his people, who covered truth, denied the meeting of the akhirah, and whom We had placed in broad ease in the life of this world, said...

Al-Mu'minun 23:33

The order of descriptions matters: they were prominent ones of the people; they covered truth; they denied the meeting of the akhirah; and they had been given broad ease in the life of this world.

The verse does not say that because The God placed them in ease they necessarily became coverers of truth. Ease was a situation; covering and denial were their response. Means were given to them, but they took those means as a sign of self-sufficiency and superiority. Responsibility was not lifted from them, and blessing did not create an automatic and unavoidable action inside them.

So the mutraf is not punished because he is grammatically “one acted upon.” He is answerable for the choices he makes within that situation.

Objection to a Human Messenger

مَا هَٰذَا إِلَّا بَشَرٌ مِثْلُكُمْ يَأْكُلُ مِمَّا تَأْكُلُونَ مِنْهُ وَيَشْرَبُ مِمَّا تَشْرَبُونَ

This is nothing but a human like you; he eats from what you eat from and drinks from what you drink.

Al-Mu'minun 23:33

The mutrafin do not answer the truth of the speech with proof; they use the social position and human form of the messenger as an excuse. In their status-logic, one who brings command and guidance should apparently stand apart from ordinary human life and carry signs of power and class superiority.

Because the messenger eats and drinks, they conclude that he is not worthy of being followed. This judgment shows how the culture of privilege can measure human worth by station and appearance rather than by the truth of speech.

The Mutrafin as First Defenders of the Existing Order

وَمَا أَرْسَلْنَا فِي قَرْيَةٍ مِنْ نَذِيرٍ إِلَّا قَالَ مُتْرَفُوهَا إِنَّا بِمَا أُرْسِلْتُمْ بِهِ كَافِرُونَ

And We did not send a warner into any town except that its pampered affluent ones said, “We cover truth regarding what you have been sent with.”

Saba 34:34

The verse does not say that every wealthy or affluent person in every time is a denier. It speaks of a recurring social pattern: those who benefit most from the existing order are often its first defenders.

The warner may question inherited superiority, monopoly of resources, class-based measures of status, power without answerability, indifference to the needy, and turning wealth into the measure of honor. Thus the mutrafin are not only defending one belief; at times they are defending a way of life and a structure that secures their privilege.

Turning Affluence into Proof of Truth

وَقَالُوا نَحْنُ أَكْثَرُ أَمْوَالًا وَأَوْلَادًا وَمَا نَحْنُ بِمُعَذَّبِينَ

And they said, “We have more wealth and children, and we will not be punished.”

Saba 34:35

This verse exposes the inner logic of tarf. From a material fact, they construct an ethical and unseen conclusion: we have more wealth; we have more children and power; therefore our position is correct; and if our way were wrong, these means would not have been given to us.

Thus blessing becomes a proof of being right. Instead of increasing responsibility, expansion becomes evidence of immunity. This is the moment when affluence becomes an epistemic veil: instead of measuring truth, the human being takes outward success as the measure of truth.

Amarna Mutrafiha and the Exposure of Fisq

وَإِذَا أَرَدْنَا أَنْ نُهْلِكَ قَرْيَةً أَمَرْنَا مُتْرَفِيهَا فَفَسَقُوا فِيهَا فَحَقَّ عَلَيْهَا الْقَوْلُ فَدَمَّرْنَاهَا تَدْمِيرًا

And when We intend to destroy a town, We command its pampered affluent ones, then they depart from the limit within it; then the word becomes binding upon it, and We destroy it completely.

Al-Isra 17:16

This verse is sensitive grammatically and theologically. The Qur'an states explicitly:

قُلْ إِنَّ اللَّهَ لَا يَأْمُرُ بِالْفَحْشَاءِ

Say: The God does not command indecency.

Al-A'raf 7:28

For this reason, “amarna mutrafiha fa-fasaqu fiha” cannot be understood as The God commanding the mutrafin to commit fisq.

A stable reading is this: the command of truth and obedience reaches them; instead of obeying, they commit fisq; their fisq becomes manifest and social; and the society reaches the point where the outcome becomes binding.

This reading is also reported in classical explanations: the command to obedience was given, and they rebelled against the command and departed from it. Alongside it, other readings and explanations, such as increasing or empowering the mutrafin, have also been discussed; therefore the grammatical disagreement of the verse should not be hidden.

Within the semantic field of T R F, the main point is that the command of truth does not create the hidden fisq of the mutrafin; it reveals it. As long as no limit restrains their desire, pampered ease may appear harmless. But when a command comes toward justice, answerability, and preserving right, their real relation to limit becomes clear.

Why the Fisq of the Mutrafin Affects a Town

The verse does not say that every individual in the town committed exactly the same sin as the mutrafin. But the mutrafin may have special influence over the distribution of resources, political power, public culture, measures of status, systems of reward and deprivation, patterns of consumption, and the normalization of departure from limit.

When an influential group turns fisq into a dominant norm and society accepts it, benefits from it, or loses the ability to reform it, corruption moves from a personal act into a public structure.

This sociological layer is supported by the role of mutrafiha in the verse, but the whole lexical meaning of mutraf should not be reduced to a political or economic class.

From Imagined Security to Crying Out

حَتَّىٰ إِذَا أَخَذْنَا مُتْرَفِيهِمْ بِالْعَذَابِ إِذَا هُمْ يَجْأَرُونَ

Until, when We seized their pampered affluent ones with the punishment, suddenly they cry out.

Al-Mu'minun 23:64

The mutrafin have become accustomed to security, choice, and access to resources. When this safety margin collapses, their reaction appears as ju'ar, crying out and wailing.

The contrast of the verse is clear: before seizure, expansion and a sense of control; at seizure, crying out and the exposure of helplessness. This does not necessarily mean that every affluent human being has less resilience. But unrestrained tarf can accustom the human being to stable conditions and reduce the ability to accept change.

The Mutrafin and Defense of the Fathers' Legacy

وَكَذَٰلِكَ مَا أَرْسَلْنَا مِنْ قَبْلِكَ فِي قَرْيَةٍ مِنْ نَذِيرٍ إِلَّا قَالَ مُتْرَفُوهَا إِنَّا وَجَدْنَا آبَاءَنَا عَلَىٰ أُمَّةٍ وَإِنَّا عَلَىٰ آثَارِهِمْ مُقْتَدُونَ

And likewise, before you, We did not send a warner into any town except that its pampered affluent ones said, “We found our fathers upon a path, and we follow upon their traces.”

Al-Zukhruf 43:23

For the mutrafin, the tradition of the fathers is not only an intellectual inheritance. Their position and privilege may also have been built within that inherited order. Therefore defending the past can at the same time be defending identity, status, property, authority, class structure, and the legitimacy of the existing position.

The reforming message threatens not only a belief, but a mechanism that presents their affluence as natural, sacred, or unavoidable.

Tarf and Persistence in Grave Hinth

إِنَّهُمْ كَانُوا قَبْلَ ذَٰلِكَ مُتْرَفِينَ ۝ وَكَانُوا يُصِرُّونَ عَلَى الْحِنْثِ الْعَظِيمِ

Before that, they had lived as pampered affluent ones, and they used to persist upon the grave hinth.

Al-Waqi'ah 56:45-46

Tarf and hinth do not have the same meaning. Tarf is life in ease and luxury. Persistence is conscious continuation and not leaving a path. Hinth is sin, violation, or breaking an oath and commitment.

Lexically, hinth is connected with sin and breaking an oath, but in this verse it should not be restricted without evidence only to “breaking firm covenants.” Hinth azim can indicate grave sin or a major violation of responsibility.

Its pairing with tarf shows that the problem of their affluence was not limited to a hidden feeling. Alongside pampered life, they persisted in a major violation. Behaviorally, the relation is understandable: someone accustomed to lack of restraint may see limit and covenant as obstacles to desire. But this relation should be stated as contextual analysis, not as though hinth were the direct meaning of tarf.

T R F: Situation or Crime?

Tarf in its first meaning is a situation of affluence. The Qur'an clarifies the cause of condemnation through other verbs and descriptions: kafaru, kadhdhabu, fasaqu, asarru, qalu, and iqtadaw.

These structures show that the mutrafin are not punished merely because they had comfort; they are responsible for their response to comfort and truth.

The boundary may be stated like this: expansion is a test. Pampered ease is its psychological danger. Self-sufficiency is an interpretation the person makes. Denial and fisq are actions he chooses. The outcome is the consequence of those choices.

Is Every Affluent Person Mutraf?

No. The Qur'an does not condemn wealth, adornment, food, homes, or gardens in themselves. Righteous people may also possess means.

The Qur'anic mutraf is distinguished from the responsible affluent person by several signs: he treats blessing as his inherent right; takes affluence as proof of superiority; refuses limits; ignores the pain of others; uses influence to preserve privilege; measures truth by his own benefit; resists reform; and persists in fisq or hinth.

For this reason, translating mutraf as “rich” is too broad and unjust. Not every wealthy person is mutraf, and the axis of the word is not the amount of wealth alone.

Distinguishing Similar Uses

Given tarf and accepted tarf: Expansion may be given to a person and be outside his first choice. But turning expansion into entitlement, self-sufficiency, and lack of restraint is the human response to that situation. Thus atrafnahum means “We placed them in broad ease”; the mutrafin covered truth and committed fisq means they chose their response.

Ni'mah and tarf: Ni'mah is any good or means that reaches the human being. Tarf is a specific state in which expansion and comfort become the person's settled life-environment and psychological expectation. Ni'mah can lead to gratitude and responsibility. Unrestrained tarf can lead to self-sufficiency and resistance to truth. Not every ni'mah is tarf, and not every person enjoying blessing is a Qur'anic mutraf.

Wealth and tarf: Wealth is the amount of possessions. Tarf is the quality of life and the human being's relation to comfort, desire, and limit. A wealthy person may be responsible and giving, while someone with less property may flee every limitation and carry the psychology of pampering.

Comfort and tarf: Comfort indicates ease and broadness. Tarf adds becoming accustomed to pampering and softness. Comfort can be healthy and balanced. In Qur'anic usage, tarf is often highlighted when ease becomes a veil, privilege, or lack of restraint.

Tarf and batr: Batr is intoxication, ingratitude, and loss of balance caused by blessing. Tarf is the situation of broad ease; batr is one possible reaction to it.

Tarf and fisq: Fisq is departure from limit and framework. Tarf is a condition in which a person has become accustomed to comfort and fulfilled desire. When the command of truth limits his desire, fisq may appear. Tarf is the ground and condition; fisq is the practical departure from limit.

Tarf and kufr: Kufr is covering or refusing truth. Tarf is not itself kufr, but it can motivate denial of a reforming message, especially when truth threatens a person's privileges.

Tarf and istikbar: Istikbar is the posture of seeing oneself as great and refusing truth. Tarf may produce a feeling of superiority and self-sufficiency, but istikbar is the human being's own stance before truth.

Tarf and israf: Israf is crossing the limit in consumption or behavior. Tarf is living in broad ease and becoming accustomed to it. A mutraf may commit israf, but not every person committing israf is necessarily mutraf.

Tarf and tughyan: Tughyan is crossing the boundary and rebelling. Tarf can become a psychological ground for tughyan because the person sees limit as a threat to his desires. But tarf and tughyan are not synonyms.

Tarf and despair when blessing disappears: Despair is a reaction to losing hope or good. Tarf can accustom the human being to the stability of blessing and make its disappearance harder, but despair is not the meaning of tarf itself. This relation is behavioral and possible, not lexical and certain.

Grammar and Structure

Atrafnahum:

وَأَتْرَفْنَاهُمْ فِي الْحَيَاةِ الدُّنْيَا

We placed them in broad ease in the life of this world.

Atrafa is a form IV transitive verb: We placed them in broad ease; We expanded life for them; We gave them blessing and comfort. The preposition fi defines the environment of this expansion: in the life of this world.

Mutraf as passive participle: In form, mutraf is someone who has been placed in broad ease. This form preserves two points at the same time: his means have been granted or made available, and his ethical response to those means still belongs to him.

Mutrafuha and mutrafiha: The pronoun “ha” returns to the town. Mutrafuha means its pampered affluent ones; mutrafiha means the pampered affluent ones within it. They are a group inside society, not all the residents.

Amarna mutrafiha fa-fasaqu:

أَمَرْنَا مُتْرَفِيهَا فَفَسَقُوا فِيهَا

In the reading that understands amarna as “We commanded,” the object of the command is omitted and is understood from clear Qur'anic principles: command to truth and obedience, not to fisq. The fa in fa-fasaqu shows their subsequent response and behavior: the command arrived; they departed from the limit.

To clarify the meaning, an explanatory translation may add: We commanded its pampered affluent ones to obedience, then they departed from the limit within it. The words “to obedience” do not appear explicitly in the Arabic, but according to this reading they are the omitted object of the command.

Kanu mutrafin:

إِنَّهُمْ كَانُوا قَبْلَ ذَٰلِكَ مُتْرَفِينَ

Kanu shows that being mutrafin had been their settled prior condition. The issue was not one passing or one-time blessing; luxury and expansion had become their way of life.

Yusirruna ala al-hinth: The preposition ala in yusirruna ala highlights remaining and persisting upon a path. They had not merely committed hinth; they stayed upon it and did not return from it.

Nearby Roots

T R F and N A M (ni'mah): Ni'mah indicates a good, means, or comfort that reaches the human being. Tarf emphasizes the expansion of blessing and becoming accustomed to soft and affluent life. Ni'mah can lead to gratitude and service; tarf becomes dangerous when blessing turns into lack of restraint and self-sufficiency.

T R F and R F H (rafah): Rafah emphasizes ease and broadness of life. Tarf adds pampered upbringing and becoming accustomed to fulfilled desires.

T R F and Gh N Y (ghina): Ghina indicates self-sufficiency, sufficiency, or possession of means. Tarf focuses on the quality of enjoyment and living in expansion. A person may be ghani but not mutraf.

T R F and B T R (batr): Batr is the intoxicated and ungrateful response to blessing. Tarf is the situation of luxury and expansion; batr is one possible consequence.

T R F and F S Q (fisq): Fisq is departure from limit and command. The mutraf is someone placed in comfort and luxury; if he breaks the limit, he becomes fasiq.

T R F and T Gh Y (tughyan): Tughyan is crossing the boundary and rebelling. Tarf may be a ground for tughyan, but it is not tughyan itself.

T R F and S R F (israf): Israf is crossing the limit in consumption or behavior. Tarf is becoming accustomed to life in broad ease. A mutraf may be musrif, but the two words do not share one angle.

T R F and M L A (mala): Mala are the prominent and influential people of society, those whose presence fills the public scene. The mutrafin are the pampered affluent ones. These two groups may overlap, but they are not synonyms: mala points to influence and social station; mutraf points to the type of affluence and the habit of broad ease.

T R F and K N Z (kanz): Kanz is gathering and storing wealth. Tarf is using and living in expansion. Someone may hoard wealth while living outwardly harshly, or live in luxury without a great hoard.

T R F and H N Th (hinth): Hinth relates to sin or breaking an oath and commitment. Tarf is a situation of luxury and expansion. In Al-Waqi'ah 56:45-46, the two stand together, but one is not the meaning of the other. Tarf can become a ground for low tolerance toward covenant and limit; hinth is the violation or sin itself.

Translation Suggestions for Forqan

For تَرَف: broadness of life; enjoyment; pampered luxury; life in expanded comfort; abundant affluence.

For أَتْرَفَ: placed in broad ease; expanded life for him; gave him blessing and comfort; raised him in luxury and ease.

For وَأَتْرَفْنَاهُمْ فِي الْحَيَاةِ الدُّنْيَا: and We had placed them in broad ease in the life of this world; and We had expanded worldly life for them; and We had given them comfort and blessing in the world.

For مُتْرَف, depending on context: pampered one; pampered affluent one; unrestrained pampered one; self-sufficient affluent one; person of comfort and privilege; one accustomed to broad ease and comfort. “Unrestrained pampered one” conveys many negative Qur'anic contexts well, but “unrestrained” is a contextual result, not the initial morphological meaning of the word.

For مُتْرَفُوهَا: its pampered affluent ones; the privileged pampered ones of that town; the people of comfort and influence in that society.

For مُتْرَفِيهَا: its pampered affluent ones; the people of expansion and privilege within it; the influential pampered ones of that town.

For أَمَرْنَا مُتْرَفِيهَا فَفَسَقُوا فِيهَا: We commanded its pampered affluent ones, then they departed from the limit within it; We commanded its pampered affluent ones to obedience, but they committed fisq within it; We conveyed the command of truth to its affluent ones, then they departed from the framework within it. The second and third options are explanatory. In direct translation, the interpretive addition should remain clear.

For إِنَّهُمْ كَانُوا قَبْلَ ذَٰلِكَ مُتْرَفِينَ: Before that, they had lived in luxury and broad ease; they had previously been pampered affluent ones; before that, they had lived in the imagined security of luxury and comfort. “Imagined security” is contextual explanation and should not be treated as the direct meaning of mutrafin.

For وَقَالَ مُتْرَفُوهَا: and its pampered affluent ones said; and the people of comfort and privilege of that town said; and the influential pampered ones of that society said.

Summary

The root ت ر ف indicates broadness of life, enjoyment, pampered luxury, and becoming accustomed to comfort and fulfilled desires. Morphologically, a mutraf is someone placed in broad ease; therefore the original fact of his affluence is not necessarily his own choice.

But the Qur'an does not condemn him merely for having means. Condemnation begins when expansion becomes an epistemic veil, self-sufficiency, entitlement, and resistance to limit and truth. The God gives expansion, but the human being turns it into gratitude or arrogance, responsibility or privilege, giving or monopoly.

In the Qur'an, the mutrafin are often the first defenders of the existing order. They take wealth and children as proof of security, defend the legacy of the fathers, judge the messenger through standards of status, and when the command of truth limits their desires, their hidden fisq becomes manifest.

Tarf is close to ni'mah, comfort, ghina, batr, fisq, tughyan, israf, mala, and hinth, but it is not identical with any of them. Its distinctive core is broad ease and pampered habit that accustoms a person to softness and fulfilled desires and, when not bounded by limit and responsibility, can drive the person toward self-sufficiency and defense of privilege.