يَخْلُ لَكُمْ وَجْهُ أَبِيكُمْ — The Idiom of an Empty Face
خَلَا / يَخْلُو means to become empty. Paired with وَجْه (face, countenance), it forms an idiom — خُلُوُّ الوَجْهِ — meaning complete attention or complete affection. It cannot be translated literally.
The Verb خَلَا
خَلَا / يَخْلُو / خُلُوّ — a place or a bowl becomes empty: void of whatever was in it, which has been taken away.
The Idiom
Undivided Attention
خُلُوُّ الوَجْهِ is a metaphor for complete attention — and complete affection (الْتِفَات).
The Phone
Your child comes to you while you are busy on your phone and you reply without looking up — that is not complete attention. Put the phone down and sit facing them — that is complete attention, and complete affection.
The Book's Illustration
I want to ask you about something, but so many people ask questions in class; may I visit you at home لِيَخْلُوَ لِي وَجْهُكَ — so that you can give me your complete attention. Not "so that your face becomes empty for me."
لِيَخْلُوَ is manṣūb because after this لَام there is always an implied أَنْ.
Examples from the Quran
اقْتُلُوا يُوسُفَ أَوِ اطْرَحُوهُ أَرْضًا يَخْلُ لَكُمْ وَجْهُ أَبِيكُمْ وَتَكُونُوا مِن بَعْدِهِ قَوْمًا صَالِحِينَ (Yūsuf 9)
"Kill Yūsuf or cast him out to [some] land; your father's countenance will [then] be only for you, and you will be after that a righteous people."
The fāʿil of يَخْلُ is وَجْهُ أَبِيكُمْ. The brothers' reasoning: remove the objects of his affection whom he loves more than us, and his attention and affection will be ours alone.
Find the Fāʿil
A student's translation stumbled here. Identifying وَجْهُ أَبِيكُمْ as the fāʿil unlocks the meaning.
Session References
- Surah Yusuf Session 11: يَخْلُ لَكُمْ وَجْهُ أَبِيكُمْ as an idiom of complete attention and affection; the phone illustration; the book's لِيَخْلُوَ لِي وَجْهُكَ example.