Root · 298 in the Quran · 674 in 25 texts of the library
نفسA single aṣl: the outflow of breeze or breath, of whatever kind. (root nfs)
النون والفاء والسين أصل واحد يدل على خروج النسيم كيف كان من ريح أو غيرها وإليه يرجع فروعه منه التنفس خروج النسيم من …
Ibn Fāris, Maqāyīs al-lugha · English rendering AI
The family of the root
Patterns computed · our dataThe words of ن ف س that our sources attest: the root's letters in green, the added letters in gold.
40 words6 verbs8 verbal nouns7 participles4 intensives and elatives5 other nouns7 plurals3 relatives and abstracts
- نَفْسthe soul
- أَنفُسplural of the soul
- نُفُوسplural of the soul
- نَفَسbreath
- أَنْفَاسplural of breath
The whole family7 groups, by pattern; tap a pattern to see what it does
Verbs6نَفُسَ · تَنَفَّسَ · تَنَافَسَ
The root as an action: the bare Form I, and the Forms made by adding letters before, inside or after the root.grammar →
Form I vowels: فَعُلَ يَفْعُلُ (u – u; the imperfect from Lane's “aor.”)
Verbal nouns8نَفْس · نَفَس · تَنْفِيس
The action itself, named as a noun (maṣdar).grammar →
- نَفْسthe soulLaneForm I · Lane: inf. n.Qurʾān ×295library ×349LaneIbn Fāris
- نَفَسbreathLaneForm I · Lane: inf. n.library ×20LaneIbn Fāris
- تَنْفِيسventilation; airingautoForm II · Lane: inf. n.library ×1Lane
- نَفاسَةpreciousness; costlinessautoForm I · Lane: inf. n.library ×1Lane
Participles7مَنْفُوس · مُتَنَفَّس · مُتَنَافَس
The one who does it, and the one it is done to.grammar →
Intensives, qualities and the elative4نَفِيس · أَنْفَس · نَفُوس
The quality carried far, held as a trait, or compared.grammar →
Other nouns5نَفِيسَة · نَفْساء · نُفَسَاء
Nouns on other patterns; their meaning is learned word by word.grammar →
- نَفِيسَةobject of values; gemsautonounlibrary ×3
- نَفْساءnounlibrary ×1Ibn Fāris
- نُفَسَاءwoman in the state following childbirthLanenounLaneIbn Fāris
- نَفْسِيnounLane
- نُفْسَةdelayLanenounLane
Plurals7أَنفُس · نُفُوس · أَنْفَاس
Broken plurals rebuild the word on a new pattern; sound plurals add an ending.grammar →
- أَنفُسplural of the soulfrom the singularbroken plural of نَفْسQurʾān ×153Lane
- نُفُوسplural of the soulfrom the singularbroken plural of نَفْسQurʾān ×2library ×31
- أَنْفَاسplural of breathfrom the singularbroken plural of نَفَسlibrary ×9Lane
- نَفائِسbroken plural of نَفِيسَةlibrary ×3
Relative and abstract3نَفْسِيّ · نَفْسانِيَّة · نَفْسَانِيّ
-iyy relates a thing to its source; -iyya makes an abstract noun.grammar →
- نَفْسِيّmental; spiritualautorelative adjective (-iyy)library ×4
- نَفْسانِيَّةpsychologyautoabstract noun (-iyya)library ×3
- نَفْسَانِيّmental; psychologicalautorelative adjective (-iyy)library ×1Lane
Reference
Why this shape?What each of the 21 patterns does
What each pattern does. The pattern gives a tendency, not a rule: many words have drifted into meanings of their own.
The pattern machinePour the root into a pattern; see whether the word exists
Choose a pattern; the root's letters pour into it. Then see whether the word exists in our sources. The machine makes shapes; only usage makes words.
Not in our sources. A possible shape, not a word we can show: the Quran, the library and Lane do not have it for this root.
Place noun with -a. The place noun with the feminine -a. Sometimes it is only a variant of mafʿal; often it names the place where a thing is found in abundance (maʾsada, 'a place full of lions'). So maktab is the place of writing, and maktaba, where writings are gathered: a library, a bookshop. Our summary AI
But: maktaba is not in our classical dictionaries for k-t-b: Lane and al-Jawharī give maktab ('a school'), none gives maktaba. Its sense of 'library, bookshop' fits the pattern of abundance, but that is our reading of the pattern, not a classical entry. Many mafʿala words are single items of usage (maqbara 'cemetery'), which the grammarians call heard, not formed by rule.
The grammarians on this pattern (4)
ما يكون مفعلة لازمة لها الهاء والفتحة … وذلك إذا أردت أن تكثر الشيء بالمكان، وذلك قولك: أرض مسبعة، ومأسدة
Chapter on what is mafʿala, with the -a and the a-vowel always: that is when you mean that a thing abounds in a place, as you say 'a land of many beasts of prey (masbaʿa), of many lions (maʾsada)' AI
Sībawayh (d. c. 180/796), al-Kitāb, ed. ʿAbd al-Salām Hārūn, 3rd ed. (Cairo: al-Khānjī, 1988), 4:94 · OpenITI line 21027–21028 ↗ · on this site · OpenITI RELEASE v2025.1.9, CC BY-NC-SA 4.0
و نحو المظنة و المقبرة فتحا و ضما ليس بقياس
and words like maẓinna and maqbara (with a or u) are not by rule AI
Ibn al-Ḥājib (d. 646/1249), al-Shāfiya fī ʿilm al-taṣrīf, ed. Ḥasan Aḥmad al-ʿUthmān (Mecca: al-Maktaba al-Makkiyya, 1995), 1:30 · OpenITI line 223 ↗ · on this site · OpenITI RELEASE v2025.1.9, CC BY-NC-SA 4.0
- “designate the place where the object signified by the noun from which they are formed, is found in large numbers or quantities” Wright, Grammar I, §247, p. 148 ↗ · on nouns of abundance, maf'ala · 3rd ed. (Cambridge, 1896) · public domain
- “Nouns of time and place not unfrequently take the feminine form” Wright, Grammar I, §225, p. 128 ↗ · on maf'ala as a variant of maf'al · 3rd ed. (Cambridge, 1896) · public domain
About thisWhat “attested” means here; the sources
Attested means found in our data: the Quranic Arabic Corpus (lemmas, verb Forms, participles, verbal nouns, plurals), the library's words (automatic analysis), Lane's Lexicon (his headwords, the Forms he numbers, the verbal nouns and plurals he names) and Ibn Fāris's entry. Nothing is generated for this list. Meanings are Lane's first gloss in his entry, or else the analyser's gloss (“auto”). Vowelling follows the corpus, then Lane, then the analyser; verbs are given in the regular perfect. Lane's Lexicon thins out after qāf, and a few of his entries cover several roots at once: those roots show no Lane. The patterns, written with ف ع ل, are computed by us.
The dictionaries
English: AI translation AIal-Khalīl · 170Al-nafs (النفس), plural nufūs (النفوس), has [several] meanings.
al-Khalīl b. Aḥmad (d. c. 170/786), Kitāb al-ʿAyn. The first Arabic dictionary, arranged by permutations of the root letters.
AI AI translation of the Arabic belowal-Jawharī · 393Al-nafs (النفس): the spirit (rūḥ).
al-Jawharī (d. c. 393/1003), al-Ṣiḥāḥ. Admits only usage he judged sound.
AI AI translation of the Arabic belowIbn Fāris · 395The nūn, fāʾ, and sīn (ن ف س) is a single root indicating the emission of a breeze/breath (nasīm), whatever it may be, whether wind or something else, and to it its branches return.
Ibn Fāris (d. 395/1004), Maqāyīs al-Lugha. Seeks each root's original sense (aṣl).
AI AI translation of the Arabic belowal-Rāghib · 502Al-nafs (النفس): the spirit, as in His saying, Exalted is He: 'Take out your own souls (anfusakum)' [al-Anʿām 6:93].
al-Rāghib al-Iṣfahānī (d. c. 502/1108), al-Mufradāt. Quranic vocabulary, from core sense to Quranic usage.
AI AI translation of the Arabic belowLisān · 711Al-nafs (النفس): the spirit (rūḥ).
Ibn Manẓūr (d. 711/1311), Lisān al-ʿArab. The great compendium of the earlier dictionaries (entry shortened).
AI AI translation of the Arabic belowLane · 1876English, synthesising the classical dictionaries.
E. W. Lane (d. 1876), An Arabic-English Lexicon. English, synthesising the classical dictionaries.
Lane, Arabic-English Lexiconread Lane's entry online ↗
Technical definitions10 · Ibn ʿArabī’s Iṣṭilāḥ, al-Jurjānī’s Taʿrīfāt
النفس
روح يسلطه الله تعالى على نار القلب ليطفىء شررها.
Al-nafs (النفس): a spirit that Allah, Exalted is He, causes to dominate the fire of the heart in order to extinguish its sparks. AI
النفس
ما كان معلوما من اوصاف العبد.
Al-nafs (النفس): what is known of the attributes/characteristics of the servant [of God]. AI
العلي لنفسه
هو الذي يكون له الكمال الذي يستغرق به جميع الأمور الوجودية، والنسب العدمية محمودة عرفا وعقلا وشرعا، أو مذمومة كذلك.
Al-ʿAlī li-nafsihi (العلي لنفسه) [the Self-Exalted]: He is the One who possesses the perfection that encompasses all existential matters, and negative relations [ascribed to Him] are praiseworthy according to custom, reason, and revealed law, or are otherwise blameworthy in the same way. AI
النفس
هي الجوهر البخاري اللطيف الحامل لقوة الحياة والحس والحركة الإرادية، وسماها الحكيم: الروح الحيوانية، فهو جوهر مشرق للبدن فعند الموت ينقطع ضوؤه عن ظاهر البدن وباطنه. وأما في وقت النوم فينقطع عن ظاهر البدن دون باطنه، فثبت أن النوم والموت من جنس واحد؛ لأن الموت هو الانقطاع الكلي، والنوم هو الانقطاع الناقص، فثبت أن القادر الحكيم دبر تعلق جوهر النفس بالبدن على ثلاثة أضرب: الأول إن بلغ ضوء النفس إلى جميع أجزاء البدن ظاهره وباطنه، فهو اليقظة، وإن انقطع ضوؤها عن ظاهره دون باطنه، فهو النوم، أو بالكلية، فهو الموت.
Al-nafs (النفس, the soul/self): it is the fine vaporous substance that carries the power of life, sensation, and voluntary motion, which the sage (al-ḥakīm) called 'the animal spirit' (al-rūḥ al-ḥayawāniyya); it is a substance that illuminates the body. At death, its light is cut off from the body's exterior and interior alike. As for during sleep, its light is cut off from the body's exterior but not its interior; thus it is established that sleep and death are of one genus, since death is total cessation while sleep is partial/incomplete cessation. Thus it is established that the Wise, Powerful [God] arranged the attachment of the substance of the soul to the body in three modes: First, if the light of the soul reaches all parts of the body, its exterior and interior, that is wakefulness; if its light is cut off from its exterior but not its interior, that is sleep; and if cut off entirely, that is death. AI
النفس الأمارة
هي التي تميل إلى الطبيعة البدنية، وتأمر باللذات والشهوات الحسية، وتجذب القلب إلى الجهة السفلية، فهي مأوى الشرور، ومنبع الأخلاق الذميمة.
Al-nafs al-ammāra (النفس الأمارة, the soul commanding [to evil]): it is that which inclines toward bodily nature, commands sensory pleasures and desires, and draws the heart toward the lower direction; it is thus the abode of evils and the source of blameworthy character traits. AI
النفس اللوامة
هي التي تنورت بنور القلب قدر ما تنبهت به عن سنة الغفلة، كلما صدرت عنها سيئة، بحكم جبلتها الظلمانية، أخذت تلوم نفسها وتتوب عنها.
Al-nafs al-lawwāma (النفس اللوامة, the reproaching soul): it is that which has been illumined by the light of the heart to the extent that it has become alert from the sleep of heedlessness; whenever an evil deed issues from it, by virtue of its dark constitution, it begins to reproach itself and repent from it. AI
النفس المطمئنة
هي التي تم تنورها بنور القلب حتى انخلعت عن صفاتها الذميمة، وتخلقت بالأخلاق الحميدة.
Al-nafs al-muṭmaʾinna (النفس المطمئنة, the tranquil soul): it is that whose illumination by the light of the heart has become complete, such that it has divested itself of its blameworthy attributes and has become characterized by praiseworthy character traits. AI
النفس النباتي
هو كمال أول لجسم طبيعي آلي من جهة ما يتولد ويزيد ويغتذي، والمراد بالكمال: ما يكمل به النوع في ذاته، ويسمى: كمالا أول، كهيئة السيف للحديدة، أو في صفاته، ويسمى كمالا ثانيا، كسائر ما يتبع النوع من العوارض، مثل القطع للسيف، والحركة للجسم، والعلم للإنسان.
Al-nafs al-nabātī (النفس النباتي, the vegetative soul): it is a first perfection (kamāl awwal) of a natural organic body, in respect of that by which it is generated, grows, and is nourished. What is meant by 'perfection' is that by which the species is perfected in its essence — called 'first perfection', like the form of a sword for the [raw] iron — or in its attributes — called 'second perfection', like all that follows upon the species among accidents, such as cutting for the sword, motion for body, and knowledge for man. AI
النفس الحيواني
هو كمال أول لجسم طبيعي، آلي من جهة ما يدرك الجزئيات ويتحرك بالإرادة.
النفس الإنساني
هو كمال أول لجسم طبيعي، آلي من جهة ما يدرك الأمور الكليات ويفعل الأفعال الفكرية.
The same letters, turned
The same three letters in all six orders. Choose one.
ن ف س
النون والفاء والسين أصل واحد يدل على خروج النسيم كيف كان من ريح أو غيرها وإليه يرجع فروعه منه التنفس خروج النسيم من الجوف ونفس الله كربته وذلك أن في خروج النسيم روحا وراحة والنفس كل شيء يفرج به عن مكروب وفي الحديث لا تسب …
N-f-s is a single root indicating the emission of breath, however it occurs, whether of wind or something else, and to this all its derivatives return, from which comes al-tanaffus, the emission of breath from within; and naffasa Allāh karbahu, this being because in the emission of breath there is relief and ease; and al-nafas is anything by which one who is distressed is relieved; and in the ḥadīth: do not curse … AI
an entry in Ibn Fārislater sources onlyin none of them
Do these six share one core meaning?
Reference
About thisal-Khalīl, Ibn Jinnī, Ibn Fāris; the counts across the dictionary
al-Khalīl (d. c. 170/786), Kitāb al-ʿAyn, as transmitted by al-Layth: a two-letter word “turns in two ways”, a three-letter word “in six ways” (masdūsa), four letters in 24, five in 120; “its used forms are written down and its unused ones dropped” (line 975 ↗). The dictionary is built on this: each chapter takes a set of letters and names which orders are used (mustaʿmal) and which unused (muhmal). The ring shows that verdict, from the chapter heading as edited (documented in the text; how much of the book is al-Khalīl's own is disputed).
A reported total. al-Suyūṭī transmits, from Ḥamza al-Iṣfahānī, that al-Khalīl put the possible forms, used and unused, of two to five letters at 12,305,412 (al-Muzhir, line 1347 ↗). It is reported, not found in the ʿAyn. It equals exactly the arrangements of 2 to 5 different letters out of 28 (756 + 19,656 + 491,400 + 11,793,600); the breakdown printed beside it is corrupt, and al-Zubaydī's count, given next, differs (6,659,400).
Ibn Jinnī (d. 392/1002), al-Khaṣāʾiṣ, names the greater derivation (al-ishtiqāq al-akbar): bind a three-letter root and its six orders to one meaning, and bring stray members back “by the subtlety of the craft and interpretation” (line 7536 ↗). He says himself that it does not hold for every root (line 167 ↗; line 7603 ↗).
Ibn Fāris (d. 395/1004) gives each root its own aṣl and treats a rearranged word as maqlūb, “turned round”, and so not a root of its own: “j-b-dh is not a root, because it is a single word, turned round” (Maqāyīs, line 6147 ↗). The ring sets his aṣl for each order side by side; whether they meet is the question.
Neighbours on the ring differ by one swap of two letters.
The critique. A source quoted by al-Suyūṭī calls the greater derivation Ibn Jinnī's innovation, “not relied on in the language” (al-Muzhir, line 6159 ↗).
The other axis. The root's letters also go into patterns that keep their order and change the frame: the patterns (awzān) and the verb Forms I–X.
Across Ibn Fāris's dictionary. Of the 2,300 possible sets of three different sound letters (no hamza, w or y), 1,021 have at least one order as an entry. How many of their six orders are entries:
- 1 of 6319
- 2 of 6218
- 3 of 6164
- 4 of 6155
- 5 of 6107
- 6 of 658
- 1 of 6148
- 2 of 6108
- 3 of 6157
- 4 of 6179
- 5 of 6111
- 6 of 643
Of the orders al-Khalīl calls used, 2,097 are entries in Ibn Fāris and 267 are not; 17 that he calls unused are entries in Ibn Fāris.
Attested here means found in our digital texts (Ibn Fāris, Lisān al-ʿArab, Lane, the Quranic Arabic Corpus), with w and y kept apart and hamza spellings merged; it is our data, not a classical verdict. English beside the Arabic is AI translation. Sources and grades: docs/research/root-permutations.md.
Letters & sound
- نnūntip of the tongue · voiced, in betweenSīb. · I. Jinnī
- فfāʾlower lip and upper teeth · voiceless, continuantSīb. · I. Jinnī
- سsīntongue-tip, by the front teeth · voiceless, continuantSīb. · I. Jinnī
How each letter is made, in brief, from Sībawayh's and Ibn Jinnī's own sentences (linked); their words are under Reference.
Sharing two of its three letters (computed; kinship of form, not of meaning)
Reference
How it is madeSībawayh and Ibn Jinnī · phonetics
English throughout: AI translation of the Arabic AI
ن
ومن حافة اللسان من أدناها إلى منتهى طرف اللسان ما بينها وبين ما يليها من الحنك الأعلى وما فويق الثنايا مخرج النون
From the edge of the tongue, from its nearest part to the end of its tip, between it and the upper palate next to it and what is just above the front teeth, is the place of the nūn. Sībawayh, lines 26555–26556 ↗
ومن طرف اللسان بينه وبين ما فويق الثنايا، مخرج النون
From the tip of the tongue, between it and what is just above the front teeth, is the place of the nūn. Ibn Jinnī, line 979 ↗
ف
ومن باطن الشفة السفلى وأطراف الثنايا العلى مخرج الفاء
From the inside of the lower lip and the edges of the upper front teeth is the place of the fāʾ. Sībawayh, line 26562 ↗
ومن باطن الشفة السفلى وأطراف الثنايا العلى، مخرج الفاء
From the inside of the lower lip and the edges of the upper front teeth is the place of the fāʾ. Ibn Jinnī, line 985 ↗
س
ومما بين طرف اللسان وفويق الثنايا مخرج الزاي، والسين، والصاد
From between the tip of the tongue and just above the front teeth is the place of the zāy, the sīn and the ṣād. Sībawayh, line 26560 ↗
ومما بين الثنايا وطرف اللسان، مخرج الصاد والزاي والسين
From between the front teeth and the tip of the tongue is the place of the ṣād, the zāy and the sīn. Ibn Jinnī, line 983 ↗
Sībawayh, al-Kitāb (ed. Hārūn) and Ibn Jinnī, Sirr ṣināʿat al-iʿrāb; OpenITI digital texts (CC BY-NC-SA 4.0). Full credits on each letter's page.
In the Breath of the All-MercifulIbn ʿArabī · metaphysics
English throughout: AI translation of the Arabic AI
ن
Level of existence: السماء الرابعة · the fourth heaven
Divine Name: النور · the Light (al-Nūr)
Lunar mansion: السماك · al-Simāk
Futūḥāt ch. 198, line 64663Spheres of its simples (ch. 2): 8 line 2571 ↗
Nature (ch. 2)
الثمانية فحروفها حارة يابسة
The eightfold [rank]: its letters are hot and dry.
Ibn ʿArabī, al-Futūḥāt al-Makkiyya, line 2580ف
Level of existence: الملائكة · the angels
Divine Name: القوى · the Strong (al-Qawī)
Lunar mansion: سعد الأخبية · Saʿd al-Akhbiya
Futūḥāt ch. 198, line 65823Spheres of its simples (ch. 2): 10 line 2573 ↗
Nature (ch. 2)
المرتبة العشرية فحروفها حارة يابسة
The tenfold rank: its letters are hot and dry.
Ibn ʿArabī, al-Futūḥāt al-Makkiyya, line 2582س
Level of existence: ما ظهر في الماء · what appears in water
Divine Name: المحيي · al-Muḥyī, the Life-Giver
Lunar mansion: النعائم · al-Naʿāʾim
Futūḥāt ch. 198, line 62110Spheres of its simples (ch. 2): 9 line 2572 ↗
Nature (ch. 2)
السين والشين فطبعهما الحرارة واليبوسة
Sīn and shīn: their nature is heat and dryness.
Ibn ʿArabī, al-Futūḥāt al-Makkiyya, line 2581Meaning by vowelal-Dabbāgh · a visionary claim about a primordial “Syriac”, not historical Syriac
English throughout: AI translation of the Arabic AI
ن
With fatḥa ـَ
فهي الخير الساكن في الذات الشاعل فيها.
It is the good that dwells in the self, kindling [al-shāʿil, as written] within it.
With ḍamma ـُ
فهي إشارة إلى الخير الكامل أو النور الساطع.
It is an indication of perfect good or radiant light.
With kasra ـِ
فهي إشارة إلى شيء يدركه المتكلم أو هو له.
It is an indication of something that the speaker perceives or that belongs to him.
ف
With fatḥa ـَ
فهي لنفي الخبث بعد ما كان جنسه معلوما بالخبث، فهي إشارة إلى أنه طاهر وجنسه خبيث، والخبث مثل المعاصي وما أشبهها.
It is for negating foulness in something whose genus is known for foulness. It thus indicates that the thing is pure while its genus is foul; foulness being like sins and the like.
With ḍamma ـُ
فهي لتزويل الخبث.
It is for removing foulness.
With kasra ـِ
فهي إشارة إلى الذات وما احتوت عليه، وفي بعض الأحيان قد يكون معها التقليل.
It is an indication of the self and what it contains; at times it may carry a sense of diminution.
س
With fatḥa ـَ
فهي إشارة إلى الشيء المليح الذي من طبعه الرقة.
It is an indication of the comely thing whose nature is delicacy.
With ḍamma ـُ
فهي إشارة إلى الشيء القبيح الخشن، أو إشارة إلى سواد حسا ومعنى.
It is an indication of the ugly, rough thing, or of blackness, sensible and figurative.
With kasra ـِ
وبالكسر إشارة إلى الشيء الطابع وتكون الإشارة منه.
With kasra it is an indication of the impressing/stamping thing, and the indication proceeds from it.
Two-letter nucleus18 roots in Ibn Fāris’s chapterن ف
Ibn Fāris groups his roots under two-letter chapters (“the X and the Y and what makes them three”). These are the roots of this root's chapter with the core sense he gives each. Setting them side by side is our juxtaposition; he does not himself draw a shared meaning. His chapter heading, line 32184 ↗
- نفلالنون الفاء واللام أصل صحيح يدل على عطاء وإعطاء منه النافلة عطية الطوع من حيث لا تجب ومنه نافلة الصلاة والنوفل الرجل الكثير العطاءQ 4 · L32199
- نفهالنون والفاء والهاء أصل واحد يدل على إعياء وضعف منه نفهت النفس أعيت وكلت وهو نافه ونفهL32208
- نفيالنون والفاء والحرف المعتل أصيل يدل على تعرية شيء من شيء وإبعاده منه ونفيت الشيء أنفيه نفيا وانتفى هو انتفاء والنفاية الردى ينفي ونفى الريح ما تنفيه مQ 1 · L32212
- نفتالنون والفاء والتاء يقولون نفتت القدر غلت ويبس مرقها عليهاL32220
- نفثالنون والفاء والثاء أصل صحيح يدل على خروج شيء من فم أو غيره بأدنى جرس منه نفث الراقي ريقه وهو أقل من التفل والساحرة تنفث السم ولا بد للمصدور أن ينفث مQ 1 · L32223
- نفجالنون والفاء والجيم أصل يدل على ثؤور شىء وارتفاع ونفج اليربوع ثار وأنفجه صائده ونفجت الفروجة من بيضها خرجت وانتفج جنبا البعير ارتفعا والنوافج مؤخرات اL32228
- نفحالنون والفاء والحاء أصل يدل على اندفاع الشيء أو رفعه ونفحت رائحة الطيب نفحا انتشرت واندفعت ولهذا الطيب نفحة طيبة ثم قيس عليه فقيل نفح بالمال نفحا كأنهQ 1 · L32234
- نفخالنون والفاء والخاء أصل صحيح يدل على انتفاخ وعلو منه انتفخ الشيء انتفاخا ويقال انتفخ النهار علا ونفخة الربيع إعشابه لأن الأرض تربو فيه وتنتفخ والمنفوخQ 20 · L32241
- نفدالنون والفاء والدال أصل صحيح يدل على انقطاع شيء وفنائه ونفد الشيء ينفد نفادا وأنفدوا فني زادهم ويقال للخصم منافد وذلك أن يتخاصم الرجلان يريد كل منهما Q 5 · L32246
- نفذالنون والفاء والذال أصل صحيح يدل على مضاء في أمر وغيره ونفذ السهم الرمية نفاذا وأنفذته أنا وهو نافذ ماض في أمرهQ 3 · L32251
- نفرالنون والفاء والراء أصل صحيح يدل على تجاف وتباعد منه نفر الدابة وغيره نفارا وذلك تجافيه وتباعده عن مكانه ومقره ونفر جلده ورم وفي الحديث أن رجلا تخلل بQ 18 · L32254
- نفزالنون والفاء والزاء أصيل يدل على الوثوب وشبه الوثوب ونفز الظبي وثب في عدوه والمرأة تنفز ولدها ترقصه وأنفزت السهم على ظهر يدي أدرتهL32267
- نفسالنون والفاء والسين أصل واحد يدل على خروج النسيم كيف كان من ريح أو غيرها وإليه يرجع فروعه منه التنفس خروج النسيم من الجوف ونفس الله كربته وذلك أن في خQ 298 · L32272
- نفشالنون والفاء والشين أصل صحيح يدل على انتشارQ 2 · L32290
- نفصالنون والفاء والصاد كلمات يتقارب قياسها وهي تدل على إخراج شيء من البدن أو إلقائه بقوة منه أنفص فلان في ضحكه استغرب وأنفص ببوله مثل أوزع ويقال إن النفصL32294
- نفضالنون والفاء والضاد أصل صحيح يدل على تحريك شيء لتنظيفه من غبار أو نحوه ثم يستعار ونفضت الثوب وغيره نفضا والنفض ما نفضته الشجرة من ثمرها وامرأة نفوض نفL32300
- نفطالنون والفاء والطاء ثلاث كلمات النفط معروف مكسور النون والنفط قرح يخرج في اليد من العمل ونفط الصبي نفيطا صوت وما له عافطة ولا نافطة فالنافطة الشاة تنفL32314
- نفعالنون والفاء والعين كلمة تدل على خلاف الضر ونفعه ينفعه نفعا ومنفعة وانتفع بكذا والله أعلم بالصوابQ 50 · L32318
In the sister scriptsHebrew נ פ ס/שSyriac ܢ ܦ ܣ/ܫ
| Arabic | ن ف س |
| Hebrew | נ פ ס/ש |
| Syriac | ܢ ܦ ܣ/ܫ |
| Ancient South Arabian (musnad) | 𐩬 𐩰 𐩯/𐩦 |
| Phoenician | 𐤍 𐤐 𐤎/𐤔 |
Letter for letter, by the regular sound correspondences of the Semitic languages (Arabic keeps several sounds the others merged). This shows how the root would be spelled; whether a related word exists is a separate question, answered in the Semitic lens. Where an Arabic sibilant (s, sh) continues two older sounds, both spellings are shown.
Lenses
AIClassical lexiconAl-Khalīl lists many senses side by side.well attested
The lexicographers in chronological order, from al-Khalīl to Lane.
Al-Khalīl lists many senses side by side. Nafs is the spirit by which the body lives and the very self of any thing; a man 'with nafs' has character, endurance and generosity. Nafas is breathing, as in 'drinking in three breaths'. He also records nafīs ('precious'), nafāsa ('grudging'), and nifās, childbirth. Al-Jawharī adds the senses blood (citing the hadith on creatures 'without flowing nafs'), body, and the evil eye (nāfis, 'one who casts it'). Ibn Fāris brings every branch back to one origin, the outflow of breath: relief (naffasa kurbatahu), the wind as 'from the breath of the All-Merciful', and blood, since losing one's blood is losing one's nafs. Al-Rāghib glosses nafs as rūḥ and reads God's nafs (3:30, 5:116) as His essence (dhāt). He notes that the annexation suggests two things in wording while there is no duality in meaning. Ibn Manẓūr reports al-Zajjāj's two senses, the departing soul and 'the totality and reality of a thing', and Ibn Barrī's correction that the verse al-Jawharī attributed to Abū Khirāsh is by Ḥudhayfa b. Anas. Lane develops nafusa, 'to be precious, desired with emulation'.
Draws on: al-Khalīl · al-Jawharī · Ibn Fāris · al-Rāghib · Ibn Manẓūr · Lane
- al-Khalīl, Kitāb al-ʿAyn, s.v. n-f-s
- al-Jawharī, al-Ṣiḥāḥ, s.v. n-f-s
- Ibn Fāris, Maqāyīs al-lugha, s.v. n-f-s
- al-Rāghib, Mufradāt, s.v. n-f-s
- Ibn Manẓūr, Lisān al-ʿArab, s.v. n-f-s
- Lane, Arabic-English Lexicon, s.v. نفس
Letters & soundIn the data supplied from Futūḥāt chapter 198, where Ibn ʿArabī maps the letters onto the levels of the Breath, fāʾ corresponds to the angels.speculative
What the theorists of sound symbolism would say of these letters. Speculative by nature.
In the data supplied from Futūḥāt chapter 198, where Ibn ʿArabī maps the letters onto the levels of the Breath, fāʾ corresponds to the angels. Al-Dabbāgh reads nūn as the good dwelling and kindling within the self, fāʾ as marking purity in something whose genus is foul, and sīn as a comely thing of delicate nature. In the phonetic tradition of Sībawayh, which Ibn Jinnī draws on, fāʾ and sīn are 'breathed' (mahmūs) consonants, produced with free-flowing air. An iconic reading would therefore connect two of the root's three letters with breath. Mainstream linguistics treats such correspondences as suggestive at most.
Draws on: Ibn ʿArabī, Futūḥāt ch. 198 · al-Dabbāgh · Sībawayh's phonetics
- Ibn ʿArabī, al-Futūḥāt al-Makkiyya, ch. 198
- al-Dabbāgh (via Ibn al-Mubārak), al-Ibrīz
- Sībawayh, al-Kitāb, chapter on idghām
Root structureSeveral of Ibn Fāris's n-f siblings concern something leaving or spreading from a source.plausible
The two-letter nucleus (Ibn Fāris's own chapters) and the permutations of the letters (Ibn Jinnī).
Several of Ibn Fāris's n-f siblings concern something leaving or spreading from a source. N-f-th is emission from the mouth with the slightest sound, as in a healer's spitting, and gives the 'nafthiyya' wisdom of the Seth chapter. N-f-ḥ is the spreading of a scent. N-f-kh is swelling and rising. N-f-dh is passing through, and n-f-y is stripping one thing from another. Among the permutations, n-s-f (uncovering, scattering by wind) and s-f-n (removing a surface, as in peeling) share a sense of removal; s-n-f means binding. F-s-n is not attested. Ibn Jinnī's greater derivation does not produce a convincing common sense across these permutations, so the links remain juxtapositions.
Draws on: Ibn Fāris nucleus n-f · permutations
- Ibn Fāris, Maqāyīs, s.vv. n-f-th, n-f-ḥ, n-f-kh, n-s-f, s-f-n
- Qurʾān 20:97 ↗
Semitic kin & loanwordsThis is a secure common Semitic root.well attested
Cognates in the sister languages, and whether the word was borrowed.
This is a secure common Semitic root. Cognates include Hebrew nefeš ('breath, life, self'), Aramaic and Syriac nafšā, Ugaritic npš, Akkadian napištu ('life, throat') with the verb napāšu ('to breathe'), and Geʿez nafs ('soul'). In Sabaic and in Nabataean and other Aramaic inscriptions, nfs/npš also means a funerary monument, the 'self' of the dead. The Arabic word is inherited and is not a loanword.
Draws on: common Semitic · BDB
- Brown–Driver–Briggs, s.v. נֶפֶשׁ
- Wiktionary: נפש ↗
- Wiktionary: Arabic root n-f-s ↗
- Leslau, Comparative Dictionary of Geʿez, s.v. nafsa
Quranic exegesisOn 2:9 ('they deceive none but themselves'), al-Zamakhsharī explains that the harm of their deception returns upon their own selves.plausible
How the classical exegetes read the word in the Quran.
On 2:9 ('they deceive none but themselves'), al-Zamakhsharī explains that the harm of their deception returns upon their own selves. On 2:44 the exegetes read 'you forget yourselves' as neglecting to practise the piety one commands in others. On 81:18 ('the dawn when it breathes'), al-Zamakhsharī treats the verb as metaphor: dawn arrives with a breeze and refreshment, so its coming is called breathing, which matches Ibn Fāris's aṣl. On 83:26 al-Ṭabarī takes tanāfus as vying for something precious (nafīs), namely the delights of Paradise. Al-Rāzī elsewhere discusses the soul's Qurʾānic states: the commanding (12:53), the reproaching (75:2) and the tranquil (89:27).
Draws on: al-Ṭabarī · al-Zamakhsharī · al-Rāzī · al-Rāghib
- Qurʾān 2:9 ↗
- Qurʾān 2:44 ↗
- Qurʾān 81:18 ↗
- Qurʾān 83:26 ↗
- al-Zamakhsharī, al-Kashshāf, ad loc.
- al-Ṭabarī, Jāmiʿ al-bayān, ad 83:26
Philosophy & kalāmIn falsafa, nafs translates Greek psychē.well attested
The word as a technical term in falsafa and theology.
In falsafa, nafs translates Greek psychē. Following Aristotle, Avicenna defines it as the first perfection of a natural body possessing organs. He argues through the 'flying man' thought experiment that the rational soul knows itself immediately and is an immaterial, self-subsisting substance. In the Tahāfut, al-Ghazālī disputes the philosophers' claim to have demonstrated the soul's immateriality by reason alone, while he does not deny the doctrine itself. In the Iḥyāʾ he distinguishes nafs as the seat of appetite and anger from nafs as the subtle reality of the human being. Many mutakallimūn, working within atomism, identified the soul with a subtle body or with the living body and its accidents.
Draws on: Avicenna · al-Ghazālī · mutakallimūn
Akbarian readingIn Faṣṣ Ādam, nafs is the reflexive self at the centre of the mirror passage.well attested
The word in Ibn ʿArabī's text and terminology.
In Faṣṣ Ādam, nafs is the reflexive self at the centre of the mirror passage. The Real wished to see Himself in a comprehensive being, because a thing's seeing itself by itself differs from its seeing itself in another thing that serves as its mirror. Adam is the polishing of that mirror. The Iṣṭilāḥ supplies two definitions. Nafas (breath) is 'a spirit God sets over the fire of the heart to quench its sparks'. Nafs is 'what is maʿlūm of the servant's qualities'; this is probably a copyist's slip for maʿlūl, 'defective', following al-Qushayrī's definition of the nafs as the servant's blameworthy traits. In his wider teaching, the pairing nafs/nafas supports the doctrine of the Breath of the All-Merciful, in which the cosmos is articulated as divine exhalation.
Draws on: Faṣṣ Ādam · Iṣṭilāḥ al-ṣūfiyya · nafas al-raḥmān
- Ibn ʿArabī, Fuṣūṣ al-ḥikam, Faṣṣ Ādam
- Ibn ʿArabī, Iṣṭilāḥ al-ṣūfiyya, s.vv. nafas, nafs
- al-Qushayrī, al-Risāla, bāb al-nafs
Illuminationist readingSuhrawardī recasts the rational soul as a managing light (nūr mudabbir), which in the human being he calls the isfahbad light, governing the body as a commander.plausible
The word in Suhrawardī's philosophy of light.
Suhrawardī recasts the rational soul as a managing light (nūr mudabbir), which in the human being he calls the isfahbad light, governing the body as a commander. His argument turns on self-awareness: because the soul is never absent from itself, it must be pure incorporeal light, 'manifest to itself'. Nafs thus becomes a grade within his hierarchy of lights, and the soul's self-knowledge is its luminosity.
Draws on: Suhrawardī, Ḥikmat al-ishrāq
- Suhrawardī, Ḥikmat al-ishrāq, part II
Reference