استضعف
Istaḍʿafa
To exploit the weak or to impose domination over them; the act of the oppressor toward the vulnerable.
What it means
Istaḍʿafa means to treat someone as weak and so to exploit or dominate him. The Quran uses the verb for Pharaoh, who “oppressed a group of them, killing their sons and sparing their women” (28:4). The passive form describes the victims, “those who were oppressed in the land” (28:5), whom God promises to favour. The related word mustaḍʿafūn, the oppressed, appears in 4:75, where believers are urged to fight for the oppressed men, women and children who cry out for a protector. Faruqi includes the verb among the key terms because it names a basic wrong: to take advantage of the helplessness of others or to impose imperial rule over them.
Term and Arabic as listed in Ismail al Faruqi, Toward Islamic English (International Institute of Islamic Thought, 1995), p. 36, listed as ISTAḌ'AFA. The definition is restated here.