Discover the meaning of the term Qadhf (قذف) in Islamic vocabulary.
Contents :
Updated on 11 April 2026 at 1:05 AM
📖 3 min readLexically: casting absolutely. In the Law: casting the fornication-accusation, that is, insulting thereby: if a man slandered his wife of fornication and two admissible witnesses present, she is of those her slanderer penalizes: the li’an obligatory, not the qadhf penalty; the husband inadmissible witness, the qadhf penalty obligatory; the husband admissible witness and she of those her slanderer penalizes not: neither penalty nor li’an. If he slandered a chaste stranger woman or chaste man of fornication: eighty lashes’ penalty. The slandered’s chastity: responsible, that is, reasonable, major, free, Muslim, chaste of fornication: five conditions.
Lexically: the far casting; by the casting’s regard, said: a qadhf lodging, a qadhoub land: far. Qadhf borrowed for insult and defect as for casting; hence al-qadhafa and al-qadhi: the sling; their word: « between a stone-caster and stick-caster ». At-taqadhof: mutual casting.
With kasra. Of the thing, qadhfa: casting it forcefully. In the noble Quran: « but We cast the truth upon the false: it crushes it, and it vanishes » (al-Anbiya 18), that is, We cast it him, erasing it. So-and-so by his speech: speaking without deliberation nor regard; in the mighty Revelation: « they had denied it before and conjecture of the unseen from a far place » (Saba 53), that is, saying by conjecture no raising, no Paradise, no Fire. So-and-so of the thing: striking him. The chaste: casting fornication at her: he a slanderer; plural qadhafa. Al-qadhf: verbal noun. Rendering the penalty legally due: attributing a man reasonable, other than him free, chaste, Muslim, major, or a small one bearing intercourse, of fornication, or cutting Muslim kinship, said Ibn ’Arfa. Al-qoudhf: the neighborhood, the region. Al-qoudhfa: the casting; plural qoudhaf, qoudhafat. The terrace.
Insulting a responsible one of a responsible one by formulas rendering the penalty due.
The far casting; by the casting’s regard (al-ba’d came in ar-Raghib’s Moufradat), said: a qadhf lodging and qadhoub land far. Qadhf borrowed for insult and defect as casting.