غَفْلَةٌ neglect in Arabic
غَفْلَةٌ is how you say “neglect” in Arabic.
Root غ ف ل ġ-f-l. noun (verbal noun / substantive of the form I verb غَفَلَ). ġaflah.
Arabic
English
The audio uses AI voices.
Meaning of neglect in Arabic
- unmindfulness, heedlessness, inattention the state of being غَافِل — unaware of, or inadvertent to, something; Lane's sources treat it either as the verbal noun of غَفَلَ or as a substantive in its own right
- willful neglect, disregard Lane notes the related verb can also mean deliberately leaving a thing and turning away from it, not merely forgetting it
Example sentence
تتولّد من الْمعْصِيَة والغفلة عَن ذكر الله
They arise from sin and neglect of the remembrance of Allah.
وَالْغَفْلَةِ and neglect
wa- = 'and'; al- = 'the'; ghafla means 'heedlessness' — still governed by 'min' ('from… and heedlessness').
The English is machine-translated.
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How it is used
غَفْلَةٌ names the condition of being غَافِل rather than a single act of forgetting: Lane records that the underlying verb can mean overlooking something even while still remembering it, or simply having one's attention wholly absorbed elsewhere — illustrated by a hadith about a hunter so fixed on the chase that he becomes unmindful of everything else.
Words from the same root
- غَفَلَ to be unmindful, forgetful, neglectful, or heedless of something
- غفّل to make someone unmindful/heedless; also, to conceal a thing
- أغفل to make someone neglectful of something; to leave an animal unbranded
- تغفّل to watch for someone's inattention, catching them off guard
- تغافل to feign unmindfulness, pretending not to notice
- غافِل unmindful, heedless, inadvertent (one in a state of ġaflah)
- غُفْل unmarked or untouched — e.g. land without waymarks, an unnotched gaming arrow, an unbranded animal
More example sentences
اجعل لكل يوم وقفة محاسبة قصيرة ما الذي زادني قربًا من ربي اليوم، وما الذي زاد الغفلة سمكًا حول قلبي
Make a brief accounting each day: What brought me closer to my Lord today, and what increased the thickness of heedlessness around my heart.
الغَفْلَةَ the heedlessness
'al-' = 'the'; 'ghafla' = 'heedlessness, neglect'. Object — the '-a' ending marks it.
فضحك الحاضرون من غفلتهما
So the bystanders laughed at their forgetfulness.
غَفْلَتِهِمَا their forgetfulness
Genitive by the preposition before it, with the attached -huma 'their (two)' as a dual possessor: it points to exactly the two men, buyer and seller. Arabic has a dedicated 'their, the two of them' suffix English lacks.
فوقعوا في حومة غفلة وفي ضيق شعر،
So they fell into the midst of heedlessness and into the narrowness of distress,
غَفْلَةٍ heedlessness
The owner half of the possessive pair, in the 'of' ending right after 'the midst of'. Its indefinite shape keeps it general, 'of heedlessness', and its placement ties it to the preceding noun as what the midst belongs to.
Common questions
- How do you say "neglect" in Arabic?
- غَفْلَةٌ (ġaflah).
- What is the root of غَفْلَةٌ and what does it mean?
- The root is غ ف ل (ġ-f-l), from the verb غَفَلَ 'to be unmindful, forgetful, or heedless of something.'
Related words
Definitions summarised from Lane's Arabic-English Lexicon (E. W. Lane, 1863–1893).