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What is the interpretation of the Holy Quran's mention of more than one term for the same meaning of forgiveness among people, such as: "And let them pardon and overlook" and "But whoever pardons and makes reconciliation," and why did the noble verse related to family mention three terms and not just two?

1 min readAlso available in العربية

The mention of multiple terms for this great matter, such as 'safh' (overlooking), 'afw' (pardoning), 'maghfirah' (forgiveness), 'islah' (reconciliation/amendment), 'ihsan' (benevolence), and 'kathm al-ghaiz' (suppressing rage), is a form of elaboration to encourage its realization. Some scholars have interpreted 'afw' as overlooking the apparent transgression, and 'safh' as overlooking the inner transgression. 'Safh' is more profound than 'afw' because it entails completely overlooking the sin as if it never occurred, whereas 'afw' implies dropping the apparent blame but not necessarily the inner blame.

Summarized from the full answer at Ftawy · reviewed Sep 2, 2026

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