The Dual Usage of Isrāf in the Qurʾān: A Semantic Analysis

The root SRF is used in the Holy Quran 23 times in different forms. Out of this number, the form of active noun (al-musref, al-musrifīn/ al-musrifūn) plus an additional case (man asrafa) is found in 16 uses, and only 7 other uses of this root have other forms. Despite the significant difference in applications, the understanding of Israf in the interpretive tradition and in Islamic culture, especially in the contemporary period, is based on 7 applications in Islamic economic theories. This research aims to answer this question with the approach of constructivist semantics, what are the differences between the two categories of uses of the word "Iserf" from each other? The most important result in differentiating the usages is that the construction of the active noun "Al-Musrafin" in the Holy Qur'an has been upgraded from the level of meaning and turned into a term meaning a group against the prophets whose actions are against divine commands, but the other morphological constructions of this article remain at the level of meaning. They have remained and are considered equivalent to a kind of obscene and abnormal behavior, a meaning that today is mostly mentioned in the understanding of Israf in the Qurʾān as a kind of behavioral and moral abnormality.