حَافِظٌ

Full Definition

حَافِظٌ and حَفِيظٌ Keeping, preserving, guarding, or taking care of, a thing; or a keeper, preserver, &c.: keeping and tending, or pasturing and defending, camels or the like; or a keeper and tender thereof: keeping a secret [and an oath]: keeping, or retaining, the Kur-án [&c.] in the mind, or memory; knowing it, or learning it, by heart: intrusted with a thing, to keep it, preserve it, guard it, or take care of it: [careful, mindful, attentive, or considerate: ] and the latter, a keeper, or person mindful, of the ordinances prescribed by God: pl. of the former حَفَظَةٌ and حُفَّاظٌ: the latter pl. particularly applied to persons endowed with a faculty of retaining in the mind what they have heard, and seldom forgetting what they learn by heart. You say, فُلَانٌ عَلَيْكُمْ i. e. حَافِظُنَا [Such a one is our keeper over you]. It is said in the S that حَفِيظٌ is syn. with مُحَافِظٌ ; [but this seems to be a mistranscription for حَافِظٌ;] and hence the saying in the Kur [vi. 104, and xi. 88], وَمَا أَنَا عَلَيْكُمْ [And I am not a defender, or a watcher, or, as I rather think, a keeper, over you]. You say also, رَجُلٌ حَافِظٌ لِدِينِهِ وَأَمَانَتِهِ وَيَمِينِهِ [A man who is a keeper, &c., of his religion and his deposite and his oath]; and حَفِيظٌ likewise: but حَافِظٌ لِيَمِينِهِ signifies also who keeps his oath from being used, or uttered, on, or for, ordinary, mean, or vile, occasions, or purposes. And رَجُلٌ حَافِظُ العَيْنِ A man whom sleep does not overcome: because the eye guards the person when sleep does not overcome it. is also a name of God; meaning [The Preserver of all things;] He from whose preservation nothing is excluded, not even a thing of the weight of a ذَرَّة [q. v.], in the heavens, nor on the earth; who preserves from oblivion, for, or against, his creatures and his servants, what they do of good or evil; who preserves the heavens and the earth by his power, and whom the preservation of both does not burden. And الحَفَظَةُ is an appellation of The recording angels, who write down the actions of the sons of Adam, or mankind; as also الحَافِظُونَ. حَفِيظٌ is sometimes trans.; as in the saying, هُوَ حَفِيظٌ عِلْمَكَ وَعِلْمَ غَيْرِكَ [He knows by heart thy science, and the science of others beside thee]. [القُوَّةُ الحَافِظَةُ, and simply الحَافِظَةُ, signify The retentive faculty of the mind; retentiveness of mind; or memory; as also , for حِفْظُ القَلْبِ.]
2 حَافِظٌ also signifies A distinct and direct road; not one that is apparent at one time and then ceases to be traceable.

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