Expiation (kaffāra, pl. kaffārāt) is an expiatory or propitiatory act performed to make amends for a sin, crime, or other wrong action. 1. Origins and etymology There has been debate about how closely the Qurʾānic concept of kaffāra is related to the biblical concept of expiation. While Margoliouth, Jeffery, and Paret all derive the word from Hebrew kappārā , Chelhod points out that in the Qurʾān, kaffāra is not primarily a blood sacrifice, as kappārā is in the Levitical system. Chelhod claims that the root k-f-r is "genuinely Arabic,"