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Kāfir (Arabic:كَافِر;plural:كَافِرُونkāfirūn,كُفَّارkuffār, orكَفَرَةkafara;feminine:كَافِرَةkāfira;feminine plural:كَافِرَاتkāfirāt orكَوَافِرkawāfir) is an Arabic-language term used byMuslims to refer to a non-Muslim, more specifically referring to someone who disbelieves in theIslamic God, denies his authority, and rejects the message ofIslam as the truth.[1][2][3][4][5]
Kafir is often translated as 'infidel', 'truth denier',[6][7] 'rejector',[8] 'disbeliever',[3] 'unbeliever',[2][3][9] The term is used in different ways in theQuran, with the most fundamental sense being ungrateful toward God.[10][11]Kufr means 'disbelief', 'unbelief', 'non-belief',[2] 'to be thankless', 'to be faithless', or 'ingratitude'.[11] The opposite term ofkufr ('disbelief') isiman ('faith'),[12] and the opposite ofkafir ('disbeliever') ismu'min ('believer').[13] Aperson who denies the existence of a creator might be called adahri.[14][15]
One type ofkafir is amushrik (مشرك), another group of religious wrongdoer mentioned frequently in theQuran and other Islamic works. Several concepts of vice are seen to revolve around the concept ofkufr in the Quran.[12] Historically, while Islamic scholars agreed that amushrik was akafir, they sometimes disagreed on the propriety of applying the term to Muslims who committed a grave sin or thePeople of the Book.[10][11] The Quran distinguishes betweenmushrikūn and People of the Book, reserving the former term for idol worshippers, although some classical commentators considered theChristian doctrine to be a form ofshirk.[16]
In modern times,kafir is sometimes applied to self-professed Muslims,[17][18][19] particularly by members ofIslamist movements.[20] The act of declaring another self-professed Muslim akafir is known astakfir,[21] a practice that has been condemned but also employed in theological and political polemics over the centuries.[22]
Adhimmi ormu'ahid is a historical term[23] for non-Muslims living in anIslamic state with legal protection.[24][23][25]: 470 Dhimmis were exempt from certain duties specifically assigned to Muslims if they paid thejizya poll tax, but otherwise equal under the laws of property, contract, and obligation according to some scholars,[26][27][28] whereas others state religious minorities subjected to the status ofdhimmis (such asHindus,Christians,Jews,Samaritans,Gnostics,Mandeans, andZoroastrians) were inferior to the status of Muslims in Islamic states.[24] Jews and Christians were required to pay thejizya andkharaj taxes,[24] while others, depending on the different rulings of theschools of Islamic jurisprudence, might be required to convert to Islam, pay thejizya, exiled, or subject to thedeath penalty.[24][29][30][31][32]
In 2019,Nahdlatul Ulama, the world's largest independent Islamic organization, issued a proclamation urging Muslims to refrain from using the wordkafir to refer to non-Muslims because the term is both offensive and perceived as "theologically violent".[33][34]
The wordkāfir is the active participle of the verbكَفَرَ,kafara, fromrootك-ف-رK-F-R.[11] As a pre-Islamic term it described farmers burying seeds in the ground. One of its applications in the Quran has also the same meaning as farmer.[35] Since farmers cover the seeds with soil while planting, the wordkāfir implies a person who hides or covers.[11] Ideologically, it implies a person who hides or covers the truth. Arabic poets personify the darkness of night askāfir, perhaps as a survival ofpre-Islamic Arabian religious or mythological usage.[36]
The noun for 'disbelief', 'blasphemy', 'impiety' rather than the person who disbelieves, iskufr.[11][37][38][note 1]
The distinction between those who believe in Islam and those who do not is made in theQuran.Kafir, and its pluralkuffaar, is used directly 134 times in Quran, its verbal nounkufr is used 37 times, and the verbal cognates ofkafir are used about 250 times.[39]
By extension of the basic meaning of the root, 'to cover', the term is used in the Quran in the senses of ignore/fail to acknowledge and to spurn/be ungrateful.[3] The meaning of 'disbelief', which has come to be regarded as primary, retains all of these connotations in the Quranic usage.[3] In the Quranic discourse, the term typifies all things that are unacceptable and offensive to God.[10] Within the Quranic context, the term implies an active offense and often bears the connotation of "ungratefulness".[40] In Surah 26:19, the Pharao accusesMoses of being a kafir for being ungrateful to what he has done to him when Moses was a child.[41] Likewise,Iblis (Satan) does not deny the existence of God, but is called akafir for rejecting God.[42] According toAl-Damiri (1341–1405) it is neither denying God, nor the act of disobedience alone, but Iblis' attitude (claiming that God's command is unjust), which makes him akafir.[43] The most fundamental sense ofkufr in the Quran is 'ingratitude', the willful refusal to acknowledge or appreciate the benefits that God bestows on humankind, including clear signs and revealed scriptures.[10]
According to theE. J. Brill's First Encyclopaedia of Islam, 1913–1936, Volume 4, the term first applied in the Quran to unbelieving Meccans, who endeavoured "to refute and revile the Prophet". A waiting attitude towards thekafir was recommended at first for Muslims; later, Muslims were ordered to keep apart from unbelievers and defend themselves against their attacks and even take the offensive.[22] Most passages in the Quran referring to unbelievers in general talk about their fate on theday of judgement and destination inhell.[22]
According to scholar Marilyn Waldman, as the Quran "progresses" (as the reader goes from the verses revealed first to later ones), the meaning behind the termkafir does not change but "progresses", i.e. "accumulates meaning over time". As theIslamic prophet Muhammad's views of his opponents change, his use ofkafir "undergoes a development".Kafir moves from beingone description of Muhammad's opponents to the primary one. Later in the Quran,kafir becomes more and more connected withshirk. Finally, towards the end of theQuran,kafir begins to also signify the group of people to be fought by themu'minīn ('believers').[44]
Khaled Abou El Fadl argues that Quran 2:62 supports religious pluralism, implying that some non-Muslims are not kafirs: "Those who believe, Jews, Christians, Sabians --whoever believes in God and the Last Day and do good, will have their reward with their Lord and they will not fear, nor grieve."2:62[45]
Charles Adams writes that the Quran reproaches the People of the Book withkufr for rejecting Muhammad's message when they should have been the first to accept it as possessors of earlier revelations, and singles out Christians for disregarding the evidence of God's unity.[10] The Quranic verse5:73 ("Certainly they disbelieve [kafara] who say: God is the third of three"), among other verses, has been traditionally understood in Islam asrejection of the Christian doctrine on the Trinity,[46] though modern scholarship has suggested alternative interpretations.[note 2] Other Quranic verses strongly deny thedeity of Jesus Christ, son of Mary and reproach the people who treat Jesus as equal with God as disbelievers who will have strayed from the path of God which would result in the entrance ofhellfire.[47][48] While the Quran does not recognize the attribute of Jesus as the Son of God or God himself, it respects Jesus as a prophet and messenger of God sent to children of Israel.[49] Some Muslim thinkers such asMohamed Talbi have viewed the most extreme Quranic presentations of the dogmas of the Trinity and divinity of Jesus (5:19,5:75,5:119) as non-Christian formulas that were rejected by the Church.[50]
On the other hand, modern scholarship has suggested alternative interpretations of verse Q.5:73.[citation needed] Cyril Glasse criticizes the use ofkafirun (plural ofkafir) to describe Christians as "loose usage".[4] According to theEncyclopedia of Islam, in traditionalIslamic jurisprudence,ahl al-kitab are "usually regarded more leniently than otherkuffar [plural ofkafir]" and "in theory" a Muslim commits a punishable offense if they say to a Jew or a Christian: "Thou unbeliever".[11] Charles Adams and A. Kevin Reinhart also write that "later thinkers" in Islam distinguished betweenahl al-kitab and the polytheists/mushrikīn.[12]
Historically, People of the Book permanently residing under Islamic rule were entitled to a special status known asdhimmī, while those visiting Muslim lands received a different status known asmusta'min.[11]
The mushrikun are those who believe in shirk 'association', which refers to accepting other gods and divinities alongsideGod.[16] The term is often translated aspolytheist.[16]
The Quran distinguishes between mushrikun and People of the Book, reserving the former term for idol worshipers, although some classical commentators considered Christian doctrine to be a form of shirk.[16] Shirk is held to be the worst form of disbelief and it is identified in the Quran as the only sin that God will not pardon (4:48,4:116).[16]
Accusations ofshirk have been common in religious polemics within Islam.[16] Thus, in the early Islamic debates on free will andtheodicy, Sunni theologians charged theirMutazila adversaries withshirk, accusing them of attributing to man creative powers comparable to those of God in both originating and executing actions.[16] Mu'tazila theologians, in turn, charged the Sunnis with shirk because under their doctrine a voluntary human act results from an "association" between God, who creates the act, and the individual who appropriates it by carrying it out.[16]
In classical jurisprudence, Islamicreligious tolerance applied only to the People of the Book, while mushrikun, based on theSword Verse, faced a choice between conversion to Islam and fight to the death,[51] which may be substituted by enslavement.[52] In practice, the designation of People of the Book and the dhimmī status was extended even to non-monotheistic religions of conquered peoples, such as Hinduism.[51] Following destruction of major Hindu temples during theMuslim conquests in South Asia, Hindus and Muslims on the subcontinent came to share a number of popular religious practices and beliefs, such as veneration ofSufi saints and worship at Sufidargahs, although Hindus may worship at Hindu shrines also.[53]
In the 18th century, followers ofMuhammad ibn Abd al-Wahhab, known asWahhabis, believed kufr or shirk was found in the Muslim community itself, especially in "the practice of popular religion":
[S]hirk took many forms: the attribution to prophets, saints, astrologers, and soothsayers of knowledge of the unseen world, which only God possesses and can grant; the attribution of power to any being except God, including the power of intercession; reverence given in any way to any created thing, even to the tomb of the Prophet; such superstitious customs as belief in omens and in auspicious and inauspicious days; and swearing by the names of the Prophet, ʿAlī, the Shīʿī imams, or the saints. Thus the Wahhābīs acted even to destroy the cemetery where many of the Prophet's most notable companions were buried, on the grounds that it was a center of idolatry.[12]
While ibn Abd al-Wahhab and the Wahhābīs were "the best-known premodern" revivalist and "sectarian movement" of that era, other revivalists includedShah Ismail Dehlvi andAhmed Raza Khan Barelvi, leaders of theMujāhidīn movement on the North-West frontier of India in the early 19th century.[12]
Whether a Muslim could commit a sin great enough to become akafir was disputed by jurists in the early centuries of Islam. The most tolerant view (that of theMurji'ah) was that even those who had committed a major sin (kabira) were still believers and "their fate was left to God".[22] The most strict view (that of Kharidji Ibadis, descended from theKharijites) was that every Muslim who dies having not repented of their sins was considered akafir. In between these two positions, theMu'tazila believed that there was a status between believer and unbeliever called "rejected" orfasiq.[22]
TheKharijites' view that the self-proclaimed Muslim who had sinned and "failed to repent had ipso facto excluded himself from the community, and was hence akafir" (a practice known astakfir)[54] was considered so extreme by theSunni majority that they in turn declared theKharijites to bekuffar,[55] following the hadith that declared, "If a Muslim charges a fellow Muslim withkufr, he is himself akafir if the accusation should prove untrue".[22]
Nevertheless, inIslamic theological polemicskafir was "a frequent term for the Muslim protagonist" holding the opposite view, according toBrill's Islamic Encyclopedia.[22]
Present-day Muslims who make interpretations that differ from what others believe are declaredkafirs;fatwas (edicts by Islamic religious leaders) are issued ordering Muslims to kill them, and some such people have been killed also.[56]
Another group that are "distinguished from the mass ofkafirun"[22] are themurtad, or apostate ex-Muslims, who are considered renegades and traitors.[22] Their traditional punishment is death, even, according to some scholars, if they recant their abandonment of Islam.[57]
Dhimmī are non-Muslims living under the protection of anIslamic state.[58][59]Dhimmī are exempt from certain duties assigned specifically to Muslims if they paid the poll tax (jizya) but were otherwise equal under the laws of property, contract, and obligation according to some scholars,[26][27][28] whereas others state that religious minorities subjected to the status ofDhimmī (such asJews,Samaritans,Gnostics,Mandeans, andZoroastrians) were inferior to the status of Muslims in Islamic states.[24] Jews and Christians were required to pay thejizyah while pagans, depending on the different rulings of the fourmadhhab, might be required to accept Islam, pay the jizya, be exiled, or be killed under the Islamic death penalty.[24][29][30][31][32] Some historians believe that forced conversion was rare in Islamic history, and most conversions to Islam were voluntary. Muslim rulers were often more interested in conquest than conversion.[32]
Upon payment of the tax (jizya), thedhimmī would receive a receipt of payment, either in the form of a piece of paper or parchment or as a seal humiliatingly placed upon their neck, and was thereafter compelled to carry this receipt wherever they went within the realms of Islam. Failure to produce an up-to-datejizya receipt on the request of a Muslim could result in death or forced conversion to Islam of thedhimmī in question.[60][failed verification]
Various types of unbelief recognized by legal scholars include:
Muslim belief/doctrine is often summarized in "the Six Articles of Faith",[62] (the first five are mentioned together in the2:285).
According to theSalafi scholarMuhammad Taqi-ud-Din al-Hilali, "kufr is basically disbelief in any of the articles of faith." He also lists several different types of major disbelief, (disbelief so severe it excludes those who practice it completely from the fold of Islam):
Minor disbelief orKufran-Ni'mah indicates "ungratefulness of God's Blessings or Favours".[63]
According to another source, a paraphrase of thetafsir byIbn Kathir,[6][unreliable source?] there are eight kinds ofAl-Kufr al-Akbar (major unbelief), some are the same as those described by Al-Hilali (Kufr-al-I'rad,Kufr-an-Nifaaq) and some different.
In Islam,jahiliyyah ('ignorance') refers to the time ofArabia before Islam.
When the Islamic empire expanded, the wordkafir was broadly used as a descriptive term for allpagans and anyone else who disbelieved in Islam.[73][74]Historically, the attitude toward unbelievers in Islam was determined more by socio-political conditions than by religious doctrine.[22] A tolerance toward unbelievers "impossible to imagine in contemporary Christendom" prevailed even to the time of theCrusades, particularly with respect to the People of the Book.[22] However, due to animosity towardsFranks, the termkafir developed into a term of abuse. During theMahdist War, theMahdist State used the termkuffar against Ottoman Turks,[22] and the Turks themselves used the termkuffar towards Persians during theOttoman-Safavid wars.[22] In modern Muslim popular imagination, thedajjal (Antichrist-like figure) will have k-f-r written on his forehead.[22]
However, there was extensivereligious violence in India between Muslims and non-Muslims during theDelhi Sultanate andMughal Empire (before the political decline of Islam).[75][76][77] In their memoirs on Muslim invasions, enslavement and plunder of this period, many Muslim historians in South Asia used the termkafir forHindus,Buddhists,Sikhs andJains.[73][74][78][79]Raziuddin Aquil states that "non-Muslims were often condemned askafirs, in medieval Indian Islamic literature, including court chronicles, Sufi texts and literary compositions" andfatwas were issued that justified persecution of the non-Muslims.[80]
Relations betweenJews and Muslims in the Arab world and use of the wordkafir were equally as complex, and over the last century, issues regardingkafir have arisen over the conflict inIsrael andPalestine.[81] Calling the Jews of Israel, "the usurpingkafir",Yasser Arafat turned on the Muslim resistance and "allegedly set a precedent for preventing Muslims from mobilizing against 'aggressor disbelievers' in other Muslim lands, and enabled 'the cowardly, alienkafir' to achieve new levels of intervention in Muslim affairs."[81]
In 2019,Nahdlatul Ulama, the largest independent Islamic organization in the world, issued a proclamation urging Muslims to refrain from using the wordkafir to refer to non-Muslims, as the term is both offensive and perceived to be "theologically violent".[33][82]
According to Islamic sources, none of forefathers ofMuhammad werekafirs.[83][84] According to Ibn Hajar, the Quran clearly declares thatAhl al-Fatrah were among the Muslims.[85] Ibn Hajar is of opinion that none of the Muhammad's parents who were non-prophets werekafirs (disbelievers) and all the hadiths on this subject (although some hadiths[which?] seem to contradict it) mean that.[85] Ibn Hajar says about Muhammad saying hisab is in the Hell, that theab in the hadith refers tothe paternal uncle and that Arabs widely useab to refer to'amm (paternal uncle).[86] MostSunni scholars hold the view that the parents of Muhammad are saved and inhabitants ofHeaven.[87]
Shia Muslim scholars likewise consider Muhammad's parents to be in Paradise.[88][89] In contrast, theSalafi[90] websiteIslamQA.info, founded by theSaudi Arabian Salafi scholarMuhammad Al-Munajjid, argues that Islamic tradition teaches that Muhammad's parents werekuffār ('disbelievers') who are in Hell.[91]
By the 15th century,Muslims in Africa were using the wordkaffir in reference to the non-Muslim African natives. Many of thosekufari wereenslaved and sold to European and Asian merchants by their Muslim captors, most of the merchants were fromPortugal, which had established trading outposts along the coast of West Africa by that time. These European traders adopted the Arabic word and its derivatives.[92]
Some of the earliest records of European usage of the word can be found inThe Principal Navigations, Voyages, Traffiques and Discoveries of the English Nation (1589) byRichard Hakluyt.[93] In volume 4, Hakluyt writes: "calling themCafars andGawars, which is, infidels or disbelievers".[94] Volume 9 refers to the slaves (slaves calledCafari) and inhabitants of Ethiopia ("and they use to go in small shippes, and trade with theCafars") by two different but similar names. The word is also used in reference to the coast of Africa as "land of Cafraria".[95] The 16th century explorerLeo Africanus described theCafri as "negroes", and he also stated that they constituted one of five principal population groups in Africa. He identified their geographical heartland as being located in a remote region of southern Africa, an area which he designated asCafraria.[96]
By the late 19th century, the word was in use in English-language newspapers and books.[97][98][99][100][101] One of theUnion-Castle Line ships operating off the South African coast was named SSKafir.[102] In the early 20th century, in his bookThe EssentialKafir, Dudley Kidd writes that the wordkafir had come to be used for all dark-skinned South African tribes. Thus, in many parts of South Africa,kafir became synonymous with the word "native".[103] Currently inSouth Africa, however, the wordkaffir is regarded as a racial slur, applied pejoratively or offensively to blacks.[104]
The song "Kafir" by the American technical death metal bandNile on its sixth albumThose Whom the Gods Detest uses the violent attitudes thatMuslim extremists have towardskafirs as subject matter.[105][unreliable source?]
TheNuristani people were formerly known as the Kaffirs ofKafiristan before theAfghanIslamization of the region.
TheKalash people who live in the Hindu Kush mountain range which is located south west ofChitral are referred to askafirs by the Muslim population of Chitral.[106]
In modernSpanish, the wordcafre, derived from the Arabic wordkafir by way of thePortuguese language, also means 'uncouth' or 'savage'.[107]
Kufr: Unbelief; non-Muslim belief (Kāfir = a non-Muslim, one who has received no Dispensation or Book;Kuffār plural ofKāfir).
dhimmis are non-Muslims who live within Islamdom and have a regulated and protected status. [...] In the modern period, this term has generally has occasionally been resuscitated, but it is generally obsolete.
According to the dhimma status system, non-Muslims must pay a poll tax in return for Muslim protection and the privilege of living in Muslim territory. Per this system, non-Muslims are exempt from military service, but they are excluded from occupying high positions that involve dealing with high state interests, like being the president or prime minister of the country. In Islamic history, non-Muslims did occupy high positions, especially in matters that related to fiscal policies or tax collection.
To begin with, there was no forced conversion, no choice between "Islam and the Sword". Islamic law, following a clear Quranic principle (2:256), prohibited any such things [...] although there have been instances of forced conversion in Islamic history, these have been exceptional.
Tolerance may in no circumstances be extended to the apostate, the renegade Muslim, whose punishment is death. Some authorities allow the remission of this punishment if the apostate recants. Others insist on the death penalty even then. God may pardon him the world to come; the law must punish him in this world.
