Arabic vocabulary
انْصَرَفَ is how you say “refrain” in Arabic. Hear it pronounced and see it used in real example sentences from classical texts below.
فَانْصَرَفَ النَّبِيُّ صَلَّى اللَّهُ عَلَيْهِ وَسَلَّمَ
Then the Prophet withdrew.
فَانْصَرَفَ — then withdrew. Here fa- is narrative 'then', advancing the story to the Prophet's departure, attached to a derived-pattern past verb that here means 'turned away / withdrew'. The prefix's only job is timing, marking this as the next event after the exchange.
From: Aisha Cleared of Slander →وفى رواية فلما قعدت بين رجليها، قالت اتق الله ولا تفض الخاتم إلا بحقه، فانصرفت عنها وهى أحب الناس إلى وتركت الذهب الذى أعطيتها،
In another version: 'When I sat between her legs, she said: Fear Allah and do not break the seal except with its due right. So I refrained from her though she was the most beloved to me, and I left the gold that I had given her.'
فَانْصَرَفْتُ — so I refrained. This pairs the connector fa- ('so/then') with a self-acting (reflexive) past verb, 'so I turned away'. The fa- marks his withdrawal as the result of her warning, and the verb's pattern carries the 'took myself off' sense.
From: Three Men Saved by Sincerity →OpenArabic teaches words like انْصَرَفَ through real bilingual reading with native audio and spaced-repetition practice.
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