Как пишется кафир на арабском

Kafir (Arabic: كافر kāfir; plural كَافِرُونَ kāfirūna, كفّار kuffār or كَفَرَة kafarah; feminine كافرة kāfirah; feminine plural كافرات kāfirāt or كوافر kawāfir) is an Arabic and Islamic term which, in the Islamic tradition, refers to a person who disbelieves in God as per Islam, or denies his authority, or rejects the tenets of Islam.^[1][2][3][4] The term is often translated as «infidel»,^[5][6] «pagan», «rejector»,^[7] «denier», «disbeliever»,^[2] «unbeliever»,^[1][2] «nonbeliever»,^[1][2] and «non-Muslim».^[8] The term is used in different ways in the Quran, with the most fundamental sense being «ungrateful» (toward God).^[9][10] Kufr means «unbelief» or «non-belief»,^[1] «to be thankless», «to be faithless», or «ingratitude».^[10] The opposite term of kufr is īmān (faith),^[11] and the opposite of kāfir is muʾmin (believer).^[12] A person who denies the existence of a creator might be called a dahri.^[13][14]

Kafir is sometimes used interchangeably with mushrik (مشرك, those who practice polytheism), another type of religious wrongdoer mentioned frequently in the Quran and other Islamic works. (Other, sometimes overlapping Quranic terms for wrong doers are ẓallām (villain, oppressor) and fāsiq (sinner, fornicator).)^[11] Historically, while Islamic scholars agreed that a polytheist/mushrik is a kafir, they sometimes disagreed on the propriety of applying the term to Muslims who committed a grave sin or to the People of the Book.^[9][10] The Quran distinguishes between mushrikun and People of the Book, reserving the former term for idol-worshippers, although some classical commentators considered the Christian doctrine to be a form of shirk.^[15]

In modern times, kafir is sometimes applied towards self-professed Muslims^[16][17][18] particularly by members of Islamist movements.^[19] The act of declaring another self-professed Muslim a kafir is known as takfir,^[20] a practice that has been condemned but also employed in theological and political polemics over the centuries.^[21] A Dhimmī or Muʿāhid is a historical^[22] term for non-Muslims living in an Islamic state with legal protection.^{[23][22][24]: 470} Dhimmī were 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,^[25][26][27] whereas others state that religious minorities subjected to the status of Dhimmī (such as Christians, Jews, Samaritans, Gnostics, Mandeans, and Zoroastrians) were inferior to the status of Muslims in Islamic states.^[23] Jews and Christians were required to pay the jizya and kharaj taxes,^[23] while others, depending on the different rulings of the four madhhab, might be required to convert to Islam, pay the jizya, be exiled, or killed under the Islamic death penalty.^{[23][28][29][30][31]}

In 2019, Nahdlatul Ulama, the world’s largest independent Islamic organization based in Indonesia, issued a proclamation urging Muslims to refrain from using the word «kafir» to refer to non-Muslims, because the term is both offensive and perceived as «theologically violent».^[32][33]

Etymology[edit]

The word kāfir is the active participle of the verb كَفَرَ kafara, from root ك-ف-ر K-F-R.^[10] 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.^[34] Since farmers cover the seeds with soil while planting, the word kāfir implies a person who hides or covers.^[10] Ideologically, it implies a person who hides or covers the truth. Arabic poets personify the darkness of night as kâfir, perhaps as a survival of pre-Islamic Arabian religious or mythological usage.^[35]

The noun for disbelief, «blasphemy», «impiety» rather than the person who disbelieves, is kufr.^{[10][36][37][note 1]}

Usage[edit]

The practice of declaring another Muslim as a kafir is takfir.^[20] Kufr (unbelief) and shirk (idolatry) are used throughout the Quran and sometimes used interchangeably by Muslims.^[38] According to Salafist scholars, Kufr is the «denial of the Truth» (truth in the form of articles of faith in Islam), and shirk means devoting «acts of worship to anything beside God»^[38] or «the worship of idols and other created beings». So a mushrik may worship other things while also «acknowledging God».

In the Quran[edit]

The distinction between those who believe in Islam and those who do not is an essential one in the Quran. Kafir, and its plural kuffaar, is used directly 134 times in Quran, its verbal noun «kufr» is used 37 times, and the verbal cognates of kafir 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.^[2] The meaning of «disbelief», which has come to be regarded as primary, retains all of these connotations in the Quranic usage.^[2] In the Quranic discourse, the term typifies all things that are unacceptable and offensive to God.^[9] Whereby it is not necessary to deny the existence of God, but it suffices to deviate from his will as seen in a dialogue between God and Iblis, the latter called a kafir.^[40] According to Al-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 a kafir.^[41] The most fundamental sense of kufr 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.^[9]

According to the E. 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 the kafir 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.^[21] Most passages in the Quran referring to unbelievers in general talk about their fate on the day of judgement and destination in hell.^[21]

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 term kafir does not change but «progresses», i.e. «accumulates meaning over time». As the Islamic prophet Muhammad’s views of his opponents change, his use of kafir «undergoes a development». Kafir moves from being one description of Muhammad’s opponents to the primary one. Later in the Quran, kafir becomes more and more connected with shirk. Finally, towards the end of the Quran, kafir begins to also signify the group of people to be fought by the mu’minīn (believers).^[42]

Types of unbelievers[edit]

People of the Book[edit]

The status of the Ahl al-Kitab (People of the Book), particularly Jews and Christians, with respect to the Islamic notions of unbelief is disputed.

Charles Adams writes that the Quran reproaches the People of the Book with kufr 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.^[9] The Quranic verse 5:73 («Certainly they disbelieve [kafara] who say: God is the third of three»), among other verses, has been traditionally understood in Islam as rejection of the Christian doctrine on the Trinity,^[43] though modern scholarship has suggested alternative interpretations.^{[note 2]} Other Quranic verses strongly deny the deity 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 of hellfire.^[44][45] 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.^[46] Some Muslim thinkers such as Mohamed Talbi have viewed the most extreme Quranic presentations of the dogmas of the Trinity and divinity of Jesus ( 5:19, 5:75–76, 5:119) as non-Christian formulas that were rejected by the Church.^[47]

On the other hand, modern scholarship has suggested alternative interpretations of verse Q. 5:73.^{[citation needed]} Cyril Glasse criticizes the use of kafirun [pl. of kafir] to describe Christians as «loose usage».^[3] According to the Encyclopedia of Islam, in traditional Islamic jurisprudence, ahl al-kitab are «usually regarded more leniently than other kuffar [pl. of kafir]» and «in theory» a Muslim commits a punishable offense if he says to a Jew or a Christian: «Thou unbeliever».^[10] (Charles Adams and A. Kevin Reinhart also write that «later thinkers» in Islam distinguished between ahl al-kitab and the polytheists/mushrikīn).^[11]

Historically, People of the Book permanently residing under Islamic rule were entitled to a special status known as dhimmī, while those visiting Muslim lands received a different status known as musta’min.^[10]

Mushrikun[edit]

Mushrikun (pl. of mushrik) are those who practice shirk, which literally means «association» and refers to accepting other gods and divinities alongside the god of the Muslims – Allah (as God’s «associates»).^[15] The term is often translated as polytheism.^[15] 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.^[15] 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).^[15]

Accusations of shirk have been common in religious polemics within Islam.^[15] Thus, in the early Islamic debates on free will and theodicy, Sunni theologians charged their Mu’tazila adversaries with shirk, accusing them of attributing to man creative powers comparable to those of God in both originating and executing his own actions.^[15] Mu’tazila theologians, in turn, charged the Sunnis with shirk on the grounds that under their doctrine a voluntary human act would result from an «association» between God, who creates the act, and the individual who appropriates it by carrying it out.^[15]

In classical jurisprudence, Islamic religious tolerance applied only to the People of the Book, while mushrikun, based on the Sword Verse, faced a choice between conversion to Islam and fight to the death,^[48] which may be substituted by enslavement.^[49] 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.^[48] Following destruction of major Hindu temples during the Muslim conquests in South Asia, Hindus and Muslims on the subcontinent came to share a number of popular religious practices and beliefs, such as veneration of Sufi saints and worship at Sufi dargahs, although Hindus may worship at Hindu shrines also.^[50]

In the 18th century, followers of Muhammad ibn Abd al-Wahhab (aka Wahhabis) believed «kufr or shirk» was found in the Muslim community itself, especially in «the practice of popular religion»:

shirk 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.^[11]

While ibn Abd al-Wahhab and Wahhābīs was/were «the best-known premodern» revivalist and «sectarian movement» of that era, other revivalists included Shah Ismail Dehlvi and Ahmed Raza Khan Barelvi, leaders of the Mujāhidīn movement on the North-West frontier of India in the early nineteenth century.^[11]

Sinners[edit]

Whether a Muslim could commit a sin great enough to become a kafir was disputed by jurists in the early centuries of Islam. The most tolerant view (that of the Murji’ah) was that even those who had committed a major sin (kabira) were still believers and «their fate was left to God».^[21] The most strict view (that of Kharidji Ibadis, descended from the Kharijites) was that every Muslim who dies having not repented of his sins was considered a kafir. In between these two positions, the Mu’tazila believed that there was a status between believer and unbeliever called «rejected» or fasiq.^[21]

Takfir[edit]

The Kharijites view that the self-proclaimed Muslim who had sinned and «failed to repent had ipso facto excluded himself from the community, and was hence a kafir» (a practice known as takfir)^[51] was considered so extreme by the Sunni majority that they in turn declared the Kharijites to be kuffar,^[52] following the hadith that declared, «If a Muslim charges a fellow Muslim with kufr, he is himself a kafir if the accusation should prove untrue».^[21]

Nevertheless, in Islamic theological polemics kafir was «a frequent term for the Muslim protagonist» holding the opposite view, according to Brill’s Islamic Encyclopedia.^[21]

Present-day Muslims who make interpretations that differ from what others believe are declared kafirs; fatwas (edicts by Islamic religious leaders) are issued ordering Muslims to kill them, and some such people have been killed also.^[53]

Murtad[edit]

Another group that are «distinguished from the mass of kafirun»^[21] are the murtad, or apostate ex-Muslims, who are considered renegades and traitors.^[21] Their traditional punishment is death, even, according to some scholars, if they recant their abandonment of Islam.^[54]

Muʿāhid / Dhimmī[edit]

Dhimmī are non-Muslims living under the protection of an Islamic state.^[55][56] Dhimmī were 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,^[25][26][27] whereas others state that religious minorities subjected to the status of Dhimmī (such as Jews, Samaritans, Gnostics, Mandeans, and Zoroastrians) were inferior to the status of Muslims in Islamic states.^[23] Jews and Christians were required to pay the jizyah while pagans, depending on the different rulings of the four madhhab, might be required to accept Islam, pay the jizya, be exiled, or be killed under the Islamic death penalty.^{[23][28][29][30][31]} 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.^[31]

Upon payment of the tax (jizya), the dhimmī 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 he went within the realms of Islam. Failure to produce an up-to-date jizya receipt on the request of a Muslim could result in death or forced conversion to Islam of the dhimmī in question.^{[57][failed verification]}

Types of disbelief[edit]

Various types of unbelief recognized by legal scholars include:

• kufr bi-l-qawl (verbally expressed unbelief)^[58]
• kufr bi-l-fi’l (unbelief expressed through action)^[58]
• kufr bi-l-i’tiqad (unbelief of convictions) ^[58]
• kufr akbar (major unbelief)^[58]
• kufr asghar (minor unbelief)^[58]
• takfir ‘amm (general charge of unbelief, i.e. charged against a community like ahmadiyya^[58]
• takfir al-mu’ayyan (charge of unbelief against a particular individual)^[58]
• takfir al-‘awamm (charge of unbelief against «rank and file Muslims» for example following taqlid.^[58]
• takfir al-mutlaq (category covers general statements such as ‘whoever says X or does Y is guilty of unbelief’)^[58]
• kufr asli (original unbelief of non-Muslims, those born to non-Muslim family)^[58]
• kufr tari (acquired unbelief of formerly observant Muslims, i.e. apostates)^[58]

Iman

Muslim belief/doctrine is often summarized in «the Six Articles of Faith»,^[59] (the first five are mentioned together in the Quran 2:285).

1. God^[60]
2. His angels^[60]
3. His Messengers^[60]
4. His Revealed Books,^[60]
5. The Day of Resurrection^[60]
6. Al-Qadar, Divine Preordainments, i.e. whatever God has ordained must come to pass^[60]

According to the Salafi scholar Muhammad 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):

1. Kufr-at-Takdhib: disbelief in divine truth or the denial of any of the articles of Faith (quran 39:32)^[60]
2. Kufr-al-iba wat-takabbur ma’at-Tasdiq: refusing to submit to God’s Commandments after conviction of their truth (quran 2:34)^[60]
3. Kufr-ash-Shakk waz-Zann: doubting or lacking conviction in the six articles of Faith. (quran 18:35–38)^[60]
4. Kufr-al-I’raadh: turning away from the truth knowingly or deviating from the obvious signs which God has revealed. (quran 46:3)^[60]
5. Kufr-an-Nifaaq: hypocritical disbelief (quran 63:2–3)^[60]

Minor disbelief or Kufran-Ni’mah indicates «ungratefulness of God’s Blessings or Favours».^[60]

According to another source, a paraphrase of the Tafsir by Ibn Kathir,^{[5][unreliable source?]} there are eight kinds of Al-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.

1. Kufrul-‘Inaad: Disbelief out of stubbornness. This applies to someone who knows the Truth and admits to knowing the Truth, and knowing it with his tongue, but refuses to accept it and refrains from making a declaration. God says: Throw into Hell every stubborn disbeliever.^[61]
2. Kufrul-Inkaar: Disbelief out of denial. This applies to someone who denies with both heart and tongue. God says: They recognize the favors of God, yet they deny them. Most of them are disbelievers.^[62]
3. Kufrul-Juhood: Disbelief out of rejection. This applies to someone who acknowledges the truth in his heart, but rejects it with his tongue. This type of kufr is applicable to those who call themselves Muslims but who reject any necessary and accepted norms of Islam such as Salah and Zakat. God says: They denied them (our signs) even though their hearts believed in them, out of spite and arrogance.^[63]
4. Kufrul-Nifaaq: Disbelief out of hypocrisy. This applies to someone who pretends to be a believer but conceals his disbelief. Such a person is called a munafiq or hypocrite. God says: Verily the hypocrites will be in the lowest depths of Hell. You will find no one to help them.^[64]
5. Kufrul-Kurh: Disbelief out of detesting any of God’s commands. God says: Perdition (destruction) has been consigned to those who disbelieve and He will render their actions void. This is because they are averse to that which God has revealed so He has made their actions fruitless.^[65]
6. Kufrul-Istihzaha: Disbelief due to mockery and derision. God says: Say: Was it at God, His signs and His apostles that you were mocking? Make no excuses. You have disbelieved after you have believed.^[66]
7. Kufrul-I’raadh: Disbelief due to avoidance. This applies to those who turn away and avoid the truth. God says: And who is more unjust than he who is reminded of his Lord’s signs but then turns away from them. Then he forgets what he has sent forward (for the Day of Judgement).^[67]
8. Kufrul-Istibdaal: Disbelief because of trying to substitute God’s Laws with man-made laws. God says: Or have they partners with God who have instituted for them a religion that God has not allowed.^[68] God says: Say not concerning that which your tongues put forth falsely (that) is lawful and this is forbidden so as to invent a lie against God. Verily, those who invent a lie against God will never prosper.^[69]

Ignorance[edit]

In Islam, jahiliyyah («ignorance») refers to the time of Arabia before Islam.

History of the usage of the term[edit]

Usage in the proper sense[edit]

When the Islamic empire expanded, the word «kafir» was broadly used as a descriptive term for all pagans and anyone else who disbelieved in Islam.^[70][71]
Historically, the attitude toward unbelievers in Islam was determined more by socio-political conditions than by religious doctrine.^[21] A tolerance toward unbelievers «impossible to imagine in contemporary Christendom» prevailed even to the time of the Crusades, particularly with respect to the People of the Book.^[21] However, due to animosity towards Franks, the term kafir developed into a term of abuse. During the Mahdist War, the Mahdist State used the term kuffar against Ottoman Turks,^[21] and the Turks themselves used the term kuffar towards Persians during the Ottoman-Safavid wars.^[21] In modern Muslim popular imagination, the dajjal (antichrist-like figure) will have k-f-r written on his forehead.^[21]

However, there was extensive religious violence in India between Muslims and non-Muslims during the Delhi Sultanate and Mughal Empire (before the political decline of Islam).^[72][73][74]
In their memoirs on Muslim invasions, enslavement and plunder of this period, many Muslim historians in South Asia used the term Kafir for Hindus, Buddhists, Sikhs and Jains.^{[70][71]
[75][76]}
Raziuddin Aquil states that «non-Muslims were often condemned as kafirs, in medieval Indian Islamic literature, including court chronicles, Sufi texts and literary compositions» and fatwas were issued that justified persecution of the non-Muslims.^[77]

Relations between Jews and Muslims in the Arab world and use of the word «kafir» were equally as complex, and over the last century, issues regarding «kafir» have arisen over the conflict in Israel and Palestine.^[78] Calling the Jews of Israel, «the usurping kafir», 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, alien kafir’ to achieve new levels of intervention in Muslim affairs.»^[78]

In 2019, Nahdlatul Ulama, the largest independent Islamic organization in the world based in Indonesia, issued a proclamation urging Muslims to refrain from using the word kafir to refer to non-Muslims, as the term is both offensive and perceived to be «theologically violent».^[32][79]

Muhammad’s parents[edit]

A hadith in which Muhammad states that his father, Abdullah ibn Abd al-Muttalib, was in Hell, has become a source of disagreement among Islamic scholars about the status of Muhammad’s parents. Over the centuries, Sunni scholars have dismissed this hadith despite its appearance in the authoritative Sahih Muslim collection. It passed through a single chain of transmission for three generations, so that its authenticity was not considered certain enough to supersede a theological consensus which stated that people who died before a prophetic message reached them—as Muhammad’s father had done—could not be held accountable for not embracing it.^[80] Shia Muslim scholars likewise consider Muhammad’s parents to be in Paradise.^[81][82] In contrast, the Salafi^[83] website IslamQA.info, founded by the Saudi Arabian Salafi scholar Muhammad Al-Munajjid, argues that Islamic tradition teaches that Muhammad’s parents were kuffār («disbelievers») who are in Hell.^[84]

Other uses[edit]

By the 15th century, Muslims in Africa were using the word Kaffir in reference to the non-Muslim African natives. Many of those kufari were enslaved and sold to European and Asian merchants by their Muslim captors, most of the merchants were from Portugal, which had established trading outposts along the coast of West Africa by that time. These European traders adopted the Arabic word and its derivatives.^[85]

Some of the earliest records of European usage of the word can be found in The Principal Navigations, Voyages, Traffiques and Discoveries of the English Nation (1589) by Richard Hakluyt.^[86] In volume 4, Hakluyt writes: «calling them Cafars and Gawars, which is, infidels or disbelievers».^[87] Volume 9 refers to the slaves (slaves called Cafari) and inhabitants of Ethiopia (and they use to go in small shippes, and trade with the Cafars) by two different but similar names. The word is also used in reference to the coast of Africa as land of Cafraria.^[88] The 16th century explorer Leo Africanus described the Cafri 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 as Cafraria.^[89]

By the late 19th century, the word was in use in English-language newspapers and books.^{[90][91][92][93][94]} One of the Union-Castle Line ships operating off the South African coast was named SS Kafir.^[95] In the early twentieth century, in his book The Essential Kafir, Dudley Kidd writes that the word kafir 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».^[96] Currently in South Africa, however, the word kaffir is regarded as a racial slur, applied pejoratively or offensively to blacks.^[97]

The song «Kafir» by the American technical death metal band Nile on its sixth album Those Whom the Gods Detest uses the violent attitudes that Muslim extremists have towards kafirs as subject matter.^[98]

The Nuristani people were formerly known as the Kaffirs of Kafiristan before the Afghan Islamization of the region.

The Kalash people who live in the Hindu Kush mountain range which is located south west of Chitral are referred to as kafirs by the Muslim population of Chitral.^[99]

In modern Spanish, the word cafre, derived from the Arabic word kafir by way of the Portuguese language, also means «uncouth» or «savage».^[100]

See also[edit]

References[edit]

Notes[edit]

Citations[edit]

External links[edit]

• Nonbelief: An Islamic Perspective
• Qur’an verses that speak about non-Muslims
• Takfir – Anathematizing
• Universal Validity of Religions and the Issue of Takfir
• Inminds.co.uk
• Hermeneutics of takfir

Kafir (Arabic: كافر kāfir; plural كَافِرُونَ kāfirūna, كفّار kuffār or كَفَرَة kafarah; feminine كافرة kāfirah; feminine plural كافرات kāfirāt or كوافر kawāfir) is an Arabic and Islamic term which, in the Islamic tradition, refers to a person who disbelieves in God as per Islam, or denies his authority, or rejects the tenets of Islam.^[1][2][3][4] The term is often translated as «infidel»,^[5][6] «pagan», «rejector»,^[7] «denier», «disbeliever»,^[2] «unbeliever»,^[1][2] «nonbeliever»,^[1][2] and «non-Muslim».^[8] The term is used in different ways in the Quran, with the most fundamental sense being «ungrateful» (toward God).^[9][10] Kufr means «unbelief» or «non-belief»,^[1] «to be thankless», «to be faithless», or «ingratitude».^[10] The opposite term of kufr is īmān (faith),^[11] and the opposite of kāfir is muʾmin (believer).^[12] A person who denies the existence of a creator might be called a dahri.^[13][14]

Kafir is sometimes used interchangeably with mushrik (مشرك, those who practice polytheism), another type of religious wrongdoer mentioned frequently in the Quran and other Islamic works. (Other, sometimes overlapping Quranic terms for wrong doers are ẓallām (villain, oppressor) and fāsiq (sinner, fornicator).)^[11] Historically, while Islamic scholars agreed that a polytheist/mushrik is a kafir, they sometimes disagreed on the propriety of applying the term to Muslims who committed a grave sin or to the People of the Book.^[9][10] The Quran distinguishes between mushrikun and People of the Book, reserving the former term for idol-worshippers, although some classical commentators considered the Christian doctrine to be a form of shirk.^[15]

In modern times, kafir is sometimes applied towards self-professed Muslims^[16][17][18] particularly by members of Islamist movements.^[19] The act of declaring another self-professed Muslim a kafir is known as takfir,^[20] a practice that has been condemned but also employed in theological and political polemics over the centuries.^[21] A Dhimmī or Muʿāhid is a historical^[22] term for non-Muslims living in an Islamic state with legal protection.^{[23][22][24]: 470} Dhimmī were 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,^[25][26][27] whereas others state that religious minorities subjected to the status of Dhimmī (such as Christians, Jews, Samaritans, Gnostics, Mandeans, and Zoroastrians) were inferior to the status of Muslims in Islamic states.^[23] Jews and Christians were required to pay the jizya and kharaj taxes,^[23] while others, depending on the different rulings of the four madhhab, might be required to convert to Islam, pay the jizya, be exiled, or killed under the Islamic death penalty.^{[23][28][29][30][31]}

In 2019, Nahdlatul Ulama, the world’s largest independent Islamic organization based in Indonesia, issued a proclamation urging Muslims to refrain from using the word «kafir» to refer to non-Muslims, because the term is both offensive and perceived as «theologically violent».^[32][33]

Etymology[edit]

The word kāfir is the active participle of the verb كَفَرَ kafara, from root ك-ف-ر K-F-R.^[10] 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.^[34] Since farmers cover the seeds with soil while planting, the word kāfir implies a person who hides or covers.^[10] Ideologically, it implies a person who hides or covers the truth. Arabic poets personify the darkness of night as kâfir, perhaps as a survival of pre-Islamic Arabian religious or mythological usage.^[35]

The noun for disbelief, «blasphemy», «impiety» rather than the person who disbelieves, is kufr.^{[10][36][37][note 1]}

Usage[edit]

The practice of declaring another Muslim as a kafir is takfir.^[20] Kufr (unbelief) and shirk (idolatry) are used throughout the Quran and sometimes used interchangeably by Muslims.^[38] According to Salafist scholars, Kufr is the «denial of the Truth» (truth in the form of articles of faith in Islam), and shirk means devoting «acts of worship to anything beside God»^[38] or «the worship of idols and other created beings». So a mushrik may worship other things while also «acknowledging God».

In the Quran[edit]

The distinction between those who believe in Islam and those who do not is an essential one in the Quran. Kafir, and its plural kuffaar, is used directly 134 times in Quran, its verbal noun «kufr» is used 37 times, and the verbal cognates of kafir 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.^[2] The meaning of «disbelief», which has come to be regarded as primary, retains all of these connotations in the Quranic usage.^[2] In the Quranic discourse, the term typifies all things that are unacceptable and offensive to God.^[9] Whereby it is not necessary to deny the existence of God, but it suffices to deviate from his will as seen in a dialogue between God and Iblis, the latter called a kafir.^[40] According to Al-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 a kafir.^[41] The most fundamental sense of kufr 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.^[9]

According to the E. 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 the kafir 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.^[21] Most passages in the Quran referring to unbelievers in general talk about their fate on the day of judgement and destination in hell.^[21]

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 term kafir does not change but «progresses», i.e. «accumulates meaning over time». As the Islamic prophet Muhammad’s views of his opponents change, his use of kafir «undergoes a development». Kafir moves from being one description of Muhammad’s opponents to the primary one. Later in the Quran, kafir becomes more and more connected with shirk. Finally, towards the end of the Quran, kafir begins to also signify the group of people to be fought by the mu’minīn (believers).^[42]

Types of unbelievers[edit]

People of the Book[edit]

The status of the Ahl al-Kitab (People of the Book), particularly Jews and Christians, with respect to the Islamic notions of unbelief is disputed.

Charles Adams writes that the Quran reproaches the People of the Book with kufr 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.^[9] The Quranic verse 5:73 («Certainly they disbelieve [kafara] who say: God is the third of three»), among other verses, has been traditionally understood in Islam as rejection of the Christian doctrine on the Trinity,^[43] though modern scholarship has suggested alternative interpretations.^{[note 2]} Other Quranic verses strongly deny the deity 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 of hellfire.^[44][45] 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.^[46] Some Muslim thinkers such as Mohamed Talbi have viewed the most extreme Quranic presentations of the dogmas of the Trinity and divinity of Jesus ( 5:19, 5:75–76, 5:119) as non-Christian formulas that were rejected by the Church.^[47]

On the other hand, modern scholarship has suggested alternative interpretations of verse Q. 5:73.^{[citation needed]} Cyril Glasse criticizes the use of kafirun [pl. of kafir] to describe Christians as «loose usage».^[3] According to the Encyclopedia of Islam, in traditional Islamic jurisprudence, ahl al-kitab are «usually regarded more leniently than other kuffar [pl. of kafir]» and «in theory» a Muslim commits a punishable offense if he says to a Jew or a Christian: «Thou unbeliever».^[10] (Charles Adams and A. Kevin Reinhart also write that «later thinkers» in Islam distinguished between ahl al-kitab and the polytheists/mushrikīn).^[11]

Historically, People of the Book permanently residing under Islamic rule were entitled to a special status known as dhimmī, while those visiting Muslim lands received a different status known as musta’min.^[10]

Mushrikun[edit]

Mushrikun (pl. of mushrik) are those who practice shirk, which literally means «association» and refers to accepting other gods and divinities alongside the god of the Muslims – Allah (as God’s «associates»).^[15] The term is often translated as polytheism.^[15] 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.^[15] 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).^[15]

Accusations of shirk have been common in religious polemics within Islam.^[15] Thus, in the early Islamic debates on free will and theodicy, Sunni theologians charged their Mu’tazila adversaries with shirk, accusing them of attributing to man creative powers comparable to those of God in both originating and executing his own actions.^[15] Mu’tazila theologians, in turn, charged the Sunnis with shirk on the grounds that under their doctrine a voluntary human act would result from an «association» between God, who creates the act, and the individual who appropriates it by carrying it out.^[15]

In classical jurisprudence, Islamic religious tolerance applied only to the People of the Book, while mushrikun, based on the Sword Verse, faced a choice between conversion to Islam and fight to the death,^[48] which may be substituted by enslavement.^[49] 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.^[48] Following destruction of major Hindu temples during the Muslim conquests in South Asia, Hindus and Muslims on the subcontinent came to share a number of popular religious practices and beliefs, such as veneration of Sufi saints and worship at Sufi dargahs, although Hindus may worship at Hindu shrines also.^[50]

In the 18th century, followers of Muhammad ibn Abd al-Wahhab (aka Wahhabis) believed «kufr or shirk» was found in the Muslim community itself, especially in «the practice of popular religion»:

shirk 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.^[11]

While ibn Abd al-Wahhab and Wahhābīs was/were «the best-known premodern» revivalist and «sectarian movement» of that era, other revivalists included Shah Ismail Dehlvi and Ahmed Raza Khan Barelvi, leaders of the Mujāhidīn movement on the North-West frontier of India in the early nineteenth century.^[11]

Sinners[edit]

Whether a Muslim could commit a sin great enough to become a kafir was disputed by jurists in the early centuries of Islam. The most tolerant view (that of the Murji’ah) was that even those who had committed a major sin (kabira) were still believers and «their fate was left to God».^[21] The most strict view (that of Kharidji Ibadis, descended from the Kharijites) was that every Muslim who dies having not repented of his sins was considered a kafir. In between these two positions, the Mu’tazila believed that there was a status between believer and unbeliever called «rejected» or fasiq.^[21]

Takfir[edit]

The Kharijites view that the self-proclaimed Muslim who had sinned and «failed to repent had ipso facto excluded himself from the community, and was hence a kafir» (a practice known as takfir)^[51] was considered so extreme by the Sunni majority that they in turn declared the Kharijites to be kuffar,^[52] following the hadith that declared, «If a Muslim charges a fellow Muslim with kufr, he is himself a kafir if the accusation should prove untrue».^[21]

Nevertheless, in Islamic theological polemics kafir was «a frequent term for the Muslim protagonist» holding the opposite view, according to Brill’s Islamic Encyclopedia.^[21]

Present-day Muslims who make interpretations that differ from what others believe are declared kafirs; fatwas (edicts by Islamic religious leaders) are issued ordering Muslims to kill them, and some such people have been killed also.^[53]

Murtad[edit]

Another group that are «distinguished from the mass of kafirun»^[21] are the murtad, or apostate ex-Muslims, who are considered renegades and traitors.^[21] Their traditional punishment is death, even, according to some scholars, if they recant their abandonment of Islam.^[54]

Muʿāhid / Dhimmī[edit]

Dhimmī are non-Muslims living under the protection of an Islamic state.^[55][56] Dhimmī were 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,^[25][26][27] whereas others state that religious minorities subjected to the status of Dhimmī (such as Jews, Samaritans, Gnostics, Mandeans, and Zoroastrians) were inferior to the status of Muslims in Islamic states.^[23] Jews and Christians were required to pay the jizyah while pagans, depending on the different rulings of the four madhhab, might be required to accept Islam, pay the jizya, be exiled, or be killed under the Islamic death penalty.^{[23][28][29][30][31]} 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.^[31]

Upon payment of the tax (jizya), the dhimmī 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 he went within the realms of Islam. Failure to produce an up-to-date jizya receipt on the request of a Muslim could result in death or forced conversion to Islam of the dhimmī in question.^{[57][failed verification]}

Types of disbelief[edit]

Various types of unbelief recognized by legal scholars include:

• kufr bi-l-qawl (verbally expressed unbelief)^[58]
• kufr bi-l-fi’l (unbelief expressed through action)^[58]
• kufr bi-l-i’tiqad (unbelief of convictions) ^[58]
• kufr akbar (major unbelief)^[58]
• kufr asghar (minor unbelief)^[58]
• takfir ‘amm (general charge of unbelief, i.e. charged against a community like ahmadiyya^[58]
• takfir al-mu’ayyan (charge of unbelief against a particular individual)^[58]
• takfir al-‘awamm (charge of unbelief against «rank and file Muslims» for example following taqlid.^[58]
• takfir al-mutlaq (category covers general statements such as ‘whoever says X or does Y is guilty of unbelief’)^[58]
• kufr asli (original unbelief of non-Muslims, those born to non-Muslim family)^[58]
• kufr tari (acquired unbelief of formerly observant Muslims, i.e. apostates)^[58]

Iman

Muslim belief/doctrine is often summarized in «the Six Articles of Faith»,^[59] (the first five are mentioned together in the Quran 2:285).

1. God^[60]
2. His angels^[60]
3. His Messengers^[60]
4. His Revealed Books,^[60]
5. The Day of Resurrection^[60]
6. Al-Qadar, Divine Preordainments, i.e. whatever God has ordained must come to pass^[60]

According to the Salafi scholar Muhammad 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):

1. Kufr-at-Takdhib: disbelief in divine truth or the denial of any of the articles of Faith (quran 39:32)^[60]
2. Kufr-al-iba wat-takabbur ma’at-Tasdiq: refusing to submit to God’s Commandments after conviction of their truth (quran 2:34)^[60]
3. Kufr-ash-Shakk waz-Zann: doubting or lacking conviction in the six articles of Faith. (quran 18:35–38)^[60]
4. Kufr-al-I’raadh: turning away from the truth knowingly or deviating from the obvious signs which God has revealed. (quran 46:3)^[60]
5. Kufr-an-Nifaaq: hypocritical disbelief (quran 63:2–3)^[60]

Minor disbelief or Kufran-Ni’mah indicates «ungratefulness of God’s Blessings or Favours».^[60]

According to another source, a paraphrase of the Tafsir by Ibn Kathir,^{[5][unreliable source?]} there are eight kinds of Al-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.

1. Kufrul-‘Inaad: Disbelief out of stubbornness. This applies to someone who knows the Truth and admits to knowing the Truth, and knowing it with his tongue, but refuses to accept it and refrains from making a declaration. God says: Throw into Hell every stubborn disbeliever.^[61]
2. Kufrul-Inkaar: Disbelief out of denial. This applies to someone who denies with both heart and tongue. God says: They recognize the favors of God, yet they deny them. Most of them are disbelievers.^[62]
3. Kufrul-Juhood: Disbelief out of rejection. This applies to someone who acknowledges the truth in his heart, but rejects it with his tongue. This type of kufr is applicable to those who call themselves Muslims but who reject any necessary and accepted norms of Islam such as Salah and Zakat. God says: They denied them (our signs) even though their hearts believed in them, out of spite and arrogance.^[63]
4. Kufrul-Nifaaq: Disbelief out of hypocrisy. This applies to someone who pretends to be a believer but conceals his disbelief. Such a person is called a munafiq or hypocrite. God says: Verily the hypocrites will be in the lowest depths of Hell. You will find no one to help them.^[64]
5. Kufrul-Kurh: Disbelief out of detesting any of God’s commands. God says: Perdition (destruction) has been consigned to those who disbelieve and He will render their actions void. This is because they are averse to that which God has revealed so He has made their actions fruitless.^[65]
6. Kufrul-Istihzaha: Disbelief due to mockery and derision. God says: Say: Was it at God, His signs and His apostles that you were mocking? Make no excuses. You have disbelieved after you have believed.^[66]
7. Kufrul-I’raadh: Disbelief due to avoidance. This applies to those who turn away and avoid the truth. God says: And who is more unjust than he who is reminded of his Lord’s signs but then turns away from them. Then he forgets what he has sent forward (for the Day of Judgement).^[67]
8. Kufrul-Istibdaal: Disbelief because of trying to substitute God’s Laws with man-made laws. God says: Or have they partners with God who have instituted for them a religion that God has not allowed.^[68] God says: Say not concerning that which your tongues put forth falsely (that) is lawful and this is forbidden so as to invent a lie against God. Verily, those who invent a lie against God will never prosper.^[69]

Ignorance[edit]

In Islam, jahiliyyah («ignorance») refers to the time of Arabia before Islam.

History of the usage of the term[edit]

Usage in the proper sense[edit]

When the Islamic empire expanded, the word «kafir» was broadly used as a descriptive term for all pagans and anyone else who disbelieved in Islam.^[70][71]
Historically, the attitude toward unbelievers in Islam was determined more by socio-political conditions than by religious doctrine.^[21] A tolerance toward unbelievers «impossible to imagine in contemporary Christendom» prevailed even to the time of the Crusades, particularly with respect to the People of the Book.^[21] However, due to animosity towards Franks, the term kafir developed into a term of abuse. During the Mahdist War, the Mahdist State used the term kuffar against Ottoman Turks,^[21] and the Turks themselves used the term kuffar towards Persians during the Ottoman-Safavid wars.^[21] In modern Muslim popular imagination, the dajjal (antichrist-like figure) will have k-f-r written on his forehead.^[21]

However, there was extensive religious violence in India between Muslims and non-Muslims during the Delhi Sultanate and Mughal Empire (before the political decline of Islam).^[72][73][74]
In their memoirs on Muslim invasions, enslavement and plunder of this period, many Muslim historians in South Asia used the term Kafir for Hindus, Buddhists, Sikhs and Jains.^{[70][71]
[75][76]}
Raziuddin Aquil states that «non-Muslims were often condemned as kafirs, in medieval Indian Islamic literature, including court chronicles, Sufi texts and literary compositions» and fatwas were issued that justified persecution of the non-Muslims.^[77]

Relations between Jews and Muslims in the Arab world and use of the word «kafir» were equally as complex, and over the last century, issues regarding «kafir» have arisen over the conflict in Israel and Palestine.^[78] Calling the Jews of Israel, «the usurping kafir», 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, alien kafir’ to achieve new levels of intervention in Muslim affairs.»^[78]

In 2019, Nahdlatul Ulama, the largest independent Islamic organization in the world based in Indonesia, issued a proclamation urging Muslims to refrain from using the word kafir to refer to non-Muslims, as the term is both offensive and perceived to be «theologically violent».^[32][79]

Muhammad’s parents[edit]

A hadith in which Muhammad states that his father, Abdullah ibn Abd al-Muttalib, was in Hell, has become a source of disagreement among Islamic scholars about the status of Muhammad’s parents. Over the centuries, Sunni scholars have dismissed this hadith despite its appearance in the authoritative Sahih Muslim collection. It passed through a single chain of transmission for three generations, so that its authenticity was not considered certain enough to supersede a theological consensus which stated that people who died before a prophetic message reached them—as Muhammad’s father had done—could not be held accountable for not embracing it.^[80] Shia Muslim scholars likewise consider Muhammad’s parents to be in Paradise.^[81][82] In contrast, the Salafi^[83] website IslamQA.info, founded by the Saudi Arabian Salafi scholar Muhammad Al-Munajjid, argues that Islamic tradition teaches that Muhammad’s parents were kuffār («disbelievers») who are in Hell.^[84]

Other uses[edit]

By the 15th century, Muslims in Africa were using the word Kaffir in reference to the non-Muslim African natives. Many of those kufari were enslaved and sold to European and Asian merchants by their Muslim captors, most of the merchants were from Portugal, which had established trading outposts along the coast of West Africa by that time. These European traders adopted the Arabic word and its derivatives.^[85]

Some of the earliest records of European usage of the word can be found in The Principal Navigations, Voyages, Traffiques and Discoveries of the English Nation (1589) by Richard Hakluyt.^[86] In volume 4, Hakluyt writes: «calling them Cafars and Gawars, which is, infidels or disbelievers».^[87] Volume 9 refers to the slaves (slaves called Cafari) and inhabitants of Ethiopia (and they use to go in small shippes, and trade with the Cafars) by two different but similar names. The word is also used in reference to the coast of Africa as land of Cafraria.^[88] The 16th century explorer Leo Africanus described the Cafri 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 as Cafraria.^[89]

By the late 19th century, the word was in use in English-language newspapers and books.^{[90][91][92][93][94]} One of the Union-Castle Line ships operating off the South African coast was named SS Kafir.^[95] In the early twentieth century, in his book The Essential Kafir, Dudley Kidd writes that the word kafir 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».^[96] Currently in South Africa, however, the word kaffir is regarded as a racial slur, applied pejoratively or offensively to blacks.^[97]

The song «Kafir» by the American technical death metal band Nile on its sixth album Those Whom the Gods Detest uses the violent attitudes that Muslim extremists have towards kafirs as subject matter.^[98]

The Nuristani people were formerly known as the Kaffirs of Kafiristan before the Afghan Islamization of the region.

The Kalash people who live in the Hindu Kush mountain range which is located south west of Chitral are referred to as kafirs by the Muslim population of Chitral.^[99]

In modern Spanish, the word cafre, derived from the Arabic word kafir by way of the Portuguese language, also means «uncouth» or «savage».^[100]

See also[edit]

References[edit]

Notes[edit]

Citations[edit]

External links[edit]

• Nonbelief: An Islamic Perspective
• Qur’an verses that speak about non-Muslims
• Takfir – Anathematizing
• Universal Validity of Religions and the Issue of Takfir
• Inminds.co.uk
• Hermeneutics of takfir

Kafir (Arabic: كافر‎ kāfir, plural كفّار kuffār) is an Arabic provocative slur used in an Islamic doctrinal sense, usually translated as «unbeliever,» «disbeliever,» or «infidel.» The term refers to a person who rejects God in Islam or who hides, denies, or covers the «Islamic version of truth.» The practise of declaring another Muslim as a kafir is takfir. The term is considered offensive by non-Muslims.^[1]

Contents[]

 [hide] 

• 1 Etymology
• 2 In the Qur’an
• 3 Types of disbelief
• 4 Muslim and non-Muslim relations regarding Kafir
  • 4.1 Historical relations between Muslims and non-Muslims
  • 4.2 Kafir and Jihad
• 5 In the afterlife
• 6 Use outside Islam
• 7 See also
• 8 References
• 9 External links

Etymology[edit][]

The word kāfir is the active participle of the root K-F-R «to cover». As a pre-Islamic term it described farmers burying seeds in the ground, covering them with soil while planting.^[2] Thus, the word kāfir implies the meaning a person who hides or covers.

The Hebrew words «kipper» and «kofer» share the same root as «kafir» כִּפֵּר, or K-F-R. «Kipper» has many meanings including, to «atone for,» «cover,» «purge,» or «represent» or «transfer.» The last two meanings involve, «kofer» which mean «ransom.» «Kipper» and «kofer» are mostly likely used together in the Jewish faith to indicate God’s transfer of guilt from innocent parties using guilty parties as «ransom».^[3]

In a number of tribes located South of Natal in South Africa, the word «kafir» is used synonymously with, «native.» ^[4]

In the Qur’an[edit][]

The Qur’an uses the word kafir to signify various negative qualities of a person, all of which assist in the precise defining of kufr. Kafir, kuf and words with the K-F-R root designate disbelievers and infidels, and an important Qur’anic concept for distinguishing believers and non-believers of Islam.^[5] Kafir, and its plural kafirun, is directly used 134 times in Qur’an, its verbal noun «kufr» is used 37 times, and the verbal cognates of kafir are used about 250 times.^[6]

In the structure of Islamic thought, kufr represents all things unacceptable and offensive to God (Allāh).^[7] In its most fundamental sense in the Qur’an, kufr means «ingratitude,» however the Qur’an contains numerous verses in which more detailed definitions are provided; the kafir is referred to as:^[8]

• Odious: «(Such) as dispute about the signs of God, without any authority that hath reached them. Grievous and odious (is such conduct) in the sight of God and of the Believers.» [40: 35]
• Mocked: «But on this Day the Believers will laugh at the Unbelievers.» [83: 34]
• Punished: «But ye have indeed rejected (Him), and soon will come the inevitable (punishment)!» [25: 77]
• Terrorized: «[Remember] when your Lord inspired to the angels, «I am with you, so strengthen those who have believed. I will cast terror into the hearts of those who disbelieved, so strike [them] upon the necks and strike from them every fingertip.»» [8: 12]
• Destroyed: «Of the wrong-doers the last was remnant was cut off. Praise be to God, the Cherisher of the Worlds.» [6: 45]
• Slain: «You will find others who wish to obtain security from you and [to] obtain security from their people. Every time they are returned to [the influence of] disbelief, they fall back into it. So if they do not withdraw from you or offer you peace or restrain their hands, then seize them and kill them wherever you overtake them. And those — We have made for you against them a clear authorization.» [4: 91]
• Crucified: «Indeed, the penalty for those who wage war against Allah and His Messenger and strive upon earth [to cause] corruption is none but that they be killed or crucified or that their hands and feet be cut off from opposite sides or that they be exiled from the land. That is for them a disgrace in this world; and for them in the Hereafter is a great punishment.» [5: 33]
• Evil: «Say thou: ‘Yea, and ye shall then be humiliated (on account of your evil).» [37: 18]
• Cursed: «Accursed wherever they are found, [being] seized and massacred completely.» [33: 61]^[9]

As the Qur’an progresses, the meaning behind the term kafir also progresses. Kafir does not change its meaning over the course of the Qur’an, but rather it accumulates meaning over time. At first, kafir undergoes a development connected with Muhammad’s changing views of his opponents. More so, because the term depicts such a diverse range of behavior, kafir moves from being one of many ideas used to describe Muhammad’s opponents to being the primary description. Later in the Qur’an, as kafir becomes more and more connected with shirk, the term accumulates even more meaning with the inflexibility of Muhammad’s opponents. At this point in time, kafir develops into a concept in itself. Lastly, towards the end of the Qur’an, kafir begins to also signify the group of people to be fought by themu’minīn.^[10]

Types of disbelief[edit][]

Adapted from ‘Tafseer ibn Katheer.^[11] The Qur’an uses the word kufr to denote a person who covers up or hides realities, one who refuses to accept the dominion and authority of God (Allāh). There are several types of Al-Kufr al-Akbar:

1. Kufrul-‘Inaad: Disbelief out of stubbornness. This applies to someone who knows the Truth and admits to knowing the Truth, and knowing it with his tongue, but refuses to accept it and refrains from making a declaration. Allah says: Throw into Hell every stubborn disbeliever ^[12]
2. Kufrul-Inkaar: Disbelief out of denial. This applies to someone who denies with both heart and tongue. Allah says: They recognize the favors of Allah, yet they deny them. Most of them are disbelievers.^[13]
3. Kufrul-Kibr: Disbelief out of arrogance and pride. An example of this type of Kufr is the disbelief by the devils (Iblees).
4. Kufrul-Juhood: Disbelief out of rejection.This applies to someone who acknowledges the truth in his heart, but rejects it with his tongue. This type of kufr is applicable to those who calls themselves Muslims but who reject any necessary and accepted norms of Islam such as Salaat and Zakat. Allah says: They denied them (OUR SIGNS) even though their hearts believed in them, out of spite and arrogance.^[14]
5. Kufrul-Nifaaq: Disbelief out of hypocrisy.This applies to someone who pretends to be a believer but conceals his disbelief. Such a person is called a munafiqor hypocrite. Allah says: Verily the hypocrites will be in the lowest depths of Hell. You will find no one to help them.^[15]
6. Kufrul-Istihaal: Disbelief out of trying to make haraam into halal. This applies to someone who accepts as lawful Halal that which Allah has made unlawfulHaram like alcohol or adultery. Only Allah has the prerogative to make things Halal and Haram and those who seek to interfere with His right are like rivals to Him and therefore fall outside the boundaries of faith.
7. Kufrul-Kurh: Disbelief out of detesting any of Allah’s commands. Allah says: Perdition (destruction) has been consigned to those who disbelieve and He will render their actions void. This is because they are averse to that which Allah has revealed so He has made their actions fruitless.^[16]
8. Kufrul-Istihzaha: Disbelief due to mockery and derision. Allah says: Say: Was it at Allah, His signs and His apostles that you were mocking? Make no excuses. You have disbelieved after you have believed.^[17]
9. Kufrul-I’raadh: Disbelief due to avoidance. This applies to those who turn away and avoid the truth. Allah says: And who is more unjust than he who is reminded of his Lord’s signs but then turns away from them. Then he forgets what he has sent forward (for the Day of Judgement) ^[18]
10. Kufrul-Istibdaal: Disbelief because of trying to substitute Allah’s Laws. This could take the form of:
    1. Rejection of Allah’s law, Shari’ah without denying it
    2. Denial of Allah’s law and therefore rejecting it, or
    3. Substituting Allah’s laws with man-made laws. Allah says: Or have they partners with Allah who have instituted for them a religion which Allah has not allowed.^[19] Allah says: Say not concerning that which your tongues put forth falsely (that) is lawful and this is forbidden so as to invent a lie against Allah. Verily, those who invent a lie against Allah will never prosper.^[20]

Muslim and non-Muslim relations regarding Kafir[edit][]

Relations between Muslims and non-Muslims and non-believers regarding the term «kafir» varies, and conflicts have arisen since the origin of Islam. Current discourse occurs through many different forms, including scholarly research and the blogosphere. Such discourse must be understood through a historical perspective and with knowledge of the writer of that source and the writer’s intended audience.

Historical relations between Muslims and non-Muslims[edit][]

As the foundations of Islam grew into a Muslim community (ummah), disagreements arose that eventually led to the splitting of Islam into sects. In the twelfth century, one group, which grew out of the split between what would become Sunni Muslims and Shia Muslims was the Kharijites. The Kharijites adopted the idea of takfir, or “declaration of infidelity” and “took the extreme puritanical view that the sinner who failed to repent had ipso facto excluded himself from the community, and was hence a kafir.”^[21] In turn, the Sunni majority turned on the Kharijites, labeling them as kafir.^[22] In the beginning stages of Islam, the label of “kafir” was often used in conflicts between Muslims.

When the Islamic empire expanded, however, the word «kafir» took on other forms in interactions between Muslims and non-Muslims. One goal of expansion of the Islamic empire was to create an open society based on the Prophet Muhammad’s example and not on the tribal traditions of ancient Arabia. During this period the word «kafir» could have been seen as broadly as, «anyone who disbelieves in the truth revealed by god.»^[23] Believers in religions other than Islam, therefore, were not necessarily seen as kafir although they were labeled as such and often faced violence.

One of the principal reasons for the expansion of Islam was to obtain knowledge of science and philosophy from other cultures, of which Muslim scholars were appreciative. Ya ‘qub b. Ishaq al-Kindi, also known as, “the philosopher of the Arabs,” said, “We owe great thanks to those who have imparted to us even a small measure of truth…since they have given us a share in the fruits of their reflection.”^[24] India, in particular, became a hub of cultural coexistence between Muslims and Hindus.^[25] Many of the early Arab and non-Arab scholars praise India for this coexistence and achievement. Sufis, especially, were known for abstaining from fighting and focusing on the faith. In fact, many Sufi saints wrote about the parallels between Islam and Hindu yogi orders.^[26] Thus, there existed in Islam some sense of peace among cultural convergences.

Many writers, however, discuss the tragedies of the early interactions between Muslims and Hindus. In his book The Koran and the kafir, A. Ghosh speaks of the chain of caliph leaders of the Islamic empire, who through war and conquering victimized their non-Muslim neighbors. «For the first time in their history, the Hindus were witnessing, as their counterparts the Christians did at the outset of Islamic invasion of Europe, a scene that went beyond their imagination. One historian wrote, ‘The conquering army burnt villages, devastated the land, plundered people’s wealth, took priests and children and women of all classes captive, flogged with thongs of raw hide, carried a moving prison with it, and converted the prisoners into obsequious Turks.'»^[27]

Current Hindu and Muslim relations in India reflect the paradoxical environment of the history of their relations. Asghar Ali Engineer, author of Resolving Hindu-Muslim Problem warns, «It is proper to view this cultural separatism and islamisation not simply as a facet of Muslim fanticism but rather as a sociological process which, to a great extent, resulted from the political struggles between the elites of the two communities.»^[28] «Kafir» was used as a label of religious separation, when in reality the conflict reflected larger political and cultural issues.

Relations between Jews and Muslims in the Arab world and use of the word «kafir» were equally as complex, and over the last century, issues regarding «kafir» have arisen over the conflict in Israel and Palestine.^[29] In an attempt to secure Israel, in 1998 the Palestine Liberation Organization, generated a plan to create committees for security of, «Muslims and the Kuffar (the Jews and the American CIA).» Calling the Jews of Israel, «the usurping kafir,» 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, alien kafir’ to achieve new levels of intervention in Muslim affairs.»^[30]

Kafir and Jihad[edit][]

For dealing with non-Muslims, Jasser Auda, a director of the al-Maqasid Research Centre in the Philosophy of the Islamic Law in London, England, says that the general rule is mentioned in the verse that says what means:

«Allah forbiddeth you not those who warred not against you on account of religion and drove you not out from your homes, that ye should show them kindness and deal justly with them. Lo! Allah loveth the just dealers.» (^{[Quran 60:8]})

Birr in this context is likened to birr al-walidain, the kindness that a Muslim should show to his or her parents.^[31] This quote addresses the relationship between the concepts of kafir and jihad in Islam.

While the Qur’anic statement of peace towards non-Muslims and non-believers is implied within this passage, the practical sense of jihad in Islam is derived from the example of the Prophet Muhammad. A. Ghosh, author of The Koran and the kafir cites the Prophet’s war against the Qurayza Jewish tribe in 627 A.D. and subsequent wars of the caliphate as the starting point for a pattern of «jihad» which he translates as, «holy war,» against the infidel in the Muslim religion.^[32]

However, the research of Dr. Sherman Jackson suggests a separation between the classical terms of «jihad» and the modern interpretations of «jihad.» According to Jackson, both the Qur’an and classical interpretations of jihad show that «a perennial ‘state of war'» existed, where in which the «assumed relationship» between neighboring tribes was one of hostility, while in the modern world the «assumed relationship» illustrates a state of peace unless provoked by the other party.^[33]

Thus, although «jihad» was often painted as a «holy war» against infidels, the historical and cultural backgrounds of the Muslims involved in «jihad» must be taken into consideration.^[34]

In the afterlife[edit][]

Throughout the Qur’an, it is clear that Death (maut) is a very important theme. This is linked with the knowledge of life (haya) and the undeniable faith and belief in God. Life is valued very highly, and death is ultimately the punishment for all of the Unbelievers who choose to war against God and Muhammad.^[35] For these Unbelievers, on the Day of Judgment, Hell (Jahannam), a dark dwelling place with seven gates, awaits them and other offenders.^[36]

Although the Truth has been presented to all people in Islam, there are some who have chosen to have a hatred for this Truth.^[37] For these Unbelievers, it is possible for their past to be forgiven as long as they are able to repent from a life of disbelief. However, they will be punished in this life and on the Day of Judgmentif they choose to continue on the path of disbelief.^[38] Disbelievers are described in the Qur’an as men and women who love the life of this world more than what is described in the Hereafter.^[39] They are engrossed in this life, and are not focused on the described paradise of the Hereafter. They are those who have utteredblasphemy after accepting Islam. Ultimately, repenting would be the best choice for these people, yet they choose to turn back to their evil ways; because God can see all and hear all thoughts and actions of the disbelievers, He places the consequence of Hypocrisy on their hearts.^[40]

On the Day of Judgment, Unbelievers will ultimately wish they had believed and bowed down to God’s will in Islam.^[41] God views these people as arrogant, and He does not love those who are arrogant. On this day, the Unbelievers will bear the burden of themselves and the decisions they have made in their lifetime, as well as the burden of those they have misled.^[42] It is understood that God will not give light to anyone who does not give Him light or faith. Instead, He will summon them to the depths of darkness within a vast, deep ocean covered with dark clouds ^[43] where they will be covered with Shame and Misery.^[44]

Use outside Islam[edit][]

See also: Kaffir (racial term) and Kafiristan § Etymology

By the 15th century, the word Kaffir was used by Muslims in Africa to refer to the non-Muslim African natives. Many of those kufari were enslaved and sold by their Muslims captors to European and Asian merchants, mainly from Portugal, who by that time had established trading outposts along the coast of West Africa. These European traders adopted that Arabic word and its derivatives.^[45]

Some of the earliest records of European usage of the word can be found in The Principal Navigations, Voyages, Traffiques and Discoveries of the English Nation by Hakluyt, Richard, 1552–1616.^[46] In volume 4, Hakluyt writes: «calling them Cafars and Gawars, which is, infidels or disbelievers.^[47] Volume 9 refers to the slaves (slaves called Cafari) and inhabitants of Ethiopia (and they use to go in small shippes, and trade with the Cafars) by two different but similar names. The word is also used in reference to the coast of Africa as land of Cafraria.^[48]

The word eventually changed into many forms—cafre (in Portuguese, Spanish, French and Greek), caffar, kaffer, kaffir, kafir, etc. (in English, Dutch, and Afrikaans). Those words were then used to name many things related to Africa, such as the Kaffir Wars,^[49] Kaffraria, kaffir lime, kaffir corn, and so on; see kaffir (disambiguation).

By the late 19th century the word was in common use throughout Europe and its colonies, often appeared in the newspapers and other written works of the time.^{[50][51][52][53][54]} One of the Union-Castle Line ships operating off the South African coast was named SS Kafir.^[55]

In the early twentieth century, in his book The Essential Kafir, Dudley Kidd writes that the word «kafir» has come to be used for all dark-skinned South African tribes. Thus, in many parts of South Africa, «kafir» has become synonymous with the word, «native.» ^[56] Currently in South Africa, however, the word kaffir is often used as a racial slur, applied pejoratively or offensively to African blacks.^[57]

The term also made it into the polemical discourse of the world communist movement. Leon Trotsky uses it extensively in his 1938 essay «Their Morals and Ours» for non-white natives who are corrupted by white missionaries.

The song «Kafir» by American technical death metal band Nile from their sixth album Those Whom the Gods Detest uses as subject matter the violent attitudes that Muslim extremists have toward Kafirs.^[58]

The Nuristani people were formally known as Kaffirs of Kafiristan before the Afghan Islamization of the region. Moreover their native name was Kapir, due to the lack of a «P» in Arabic, they coincidentally were called Kafirs, which was incorrect but again correct since they were polytheists, moreover Henotheists.^[59]

The Kalash people located in the Hindu Kush mountain range south west of Chitral are known as Kafirs by the Muslim population of Chitral.^[60]

Kafir (Arabic: كافر‎ kāfir, plural كفّار kuffār) is an Arabic provocative slur used in an Islamic doctrinal sense, usually translated as «unbeliever,» «disbeliever,» or «infidel.» The term refers to a person who rejects God in Islam or who hides, denies, or covers the «Islamic version of truth.» The practise of declaring another Muslim as a kafir is takfir. The term is considered offensive by non-Muslims.^[1]

Contents[]

 [hide] 

• 1 Etymology
• 2 In the Qur’an
• 3 Types of disbelief
• 4 Muslim and non-Muslim relations regarding Kafir
  • 4.1 Historical relations between Muslims and non-Muslims
  • 4.2 Kafir and Jihad
• 5 In the afterlife
• 6 Use outside Islam
• 7 See also
• 8 References
• 9 External links

Etymology[edit][]

The word kāfir is the active participle of the root K-F-R «to cover». As a pre-Islamic term it described farmers burying seeds in the ground, covering them with soil while planting.^[2] Thus, the word kāfir implies the meaning a person who hides or covers.

The Hebrew words «kipper» and «kofer» share the same root as «kafir» כִּפֵּר, or K-F-R. «Kipper» has many meanings including, to «atone for,» «cover,» «purge,» or «represent» or «transfer.» The last two meanings involve, «kofer» which mean «ransom.» «Kipper» and «kofer» are mostly likely used together in the Jewish faith to indicate God’s transfer of guilt from innocent parties using guilty parties as «ransom».^[3]

In a number of tribes located South of Natal in South Africa, the word «kafir» is used synonymously with, «native.» ^[4]

In the Qur’an[edit][]

The Qur’an uses the word kafir to signify various negative qualities of a person, all of which assist in the precise defining of kufr. Kafir, kuf and words with the K-F-R root designate disbelievers and infidels, and an important Qur’anic concept for distinguishing believers and non-believers of Islam.^[5] Kafir, and its plural kafirun, is directly used 134 times in Qur’an, its verbal noun «kufr» is used 37 times, and the verbal cognates of kafir are used about 250 times.^[6]

In the structure of Islamic thought, kufr represents all things unacceptable and offensive to God (Allāh).^[7] In its most fundamental sense in the Qur’an, kufr means «ingratitude,» however the Qur’an contains numerous verses in which more detailed definitions are provided; the kafir is referred to as:^[8]

• Odious: «(Such) as dispute about the signs of God, without any authority that hath reached them. Grievous and odious (is such conduct) in the sight of God and of the Believers.» [40: 35]
• Mocked: «But on this Day the Believers will laugh at the Unbelievers.» [83: 34]
• Punished: «But ye have indeed rejected (Him), and soon will come the inevitable (punishment)!» [25: 77]
• Terrorized: «[Remember] when your Lord inspired to the angels, «I am with you, so strengthen those who have believed. I will cast terror into the hearts of those who disbelieved, so strike [them] upon the necks and strike from them every fingertip.»» [8: 12]
• Destroyed: «Of the wrong-doers the last was remnant was cut off. Praise be to God, the Cherisher of the Worlds.» [6: 45]
• Slain: «You will find others who wish to obtain security from you and [to] obtain security from their people. Every time they are returned to [the influence of] disbelief, they fall back into it. So if they do not withdraw from you or offer you peace or restrain their hands, then seize them and kill them wherever you overtake them. And those — We have made for you against them a clear authorization.» [4: 91]
• Crucified: «Indeed, the penalty for those who wage war against Allah and His Messenger and strive upon earth [to cause] corruption is none but that they be killed or crucified or that their hands and feet be cut off from opposite sides or that they be exiled from the land. That is for them a disgrace in this world; and for them in the Hereafter is a great punishment.» [5: 33]
• Evil: «Say thou: ‘Yea, and ye shall then be humiliated (on account of your evil).» [37: 18]
• Cursed: «Accursed wherever they are found, [being] seized and massacred completely.» [33: 61]^[9]

As the Qur’an progresses, the meaning behind the term kafir also progresses. Kafir does not change its meaning over the course of the Qur’an, but rather it accumulates meaning over time. At first, kafir undergoes a development connected with Muhammad’s changing views of his opponents. More so, because the term depicts such a diverse range of behavior, kafir moves from being one of many ideas used to describe Muhammad’s opponents to being the primary description. Later in the Qur’an, as kafir becomes more and more connected with shirk, the term accumulates even more meaning with the inflexibility of Muhammad’s opponents. At this point in time, kafir develops into a concept in itself. Lastly, towards the end of the Qur’an, kafir begins to also signify the group of people to be fought by themu’minīn.^[10]

Types of disbelief[edit][]

Adapted from ‘Tafseer ibn Katheer.^[11] The Qur’an uses the word kufr to denote a person who covers up or hides realities, one who refuses to accept the dominion and authority of God (Allāh). There are several types of Al-Kufr al-Akbar:

1. Kufrul-‘Inaad: Disbelief out of stubbornness. This applies to someone who knows the Truth and admits to knowing the Truth, and knowing it with his tongue, but refuses to accept it and refrains from making a declaration. Allah says: Throw into Hell every stubborn disbeliever ^[12]
2. Kufrul-Inkaar: Disbelief out of denial. This applies to someone who denies with both heart and tongue. Allah says: They recognize the favors of Allah, yet they deny them. Most of them are disbelievers.^[13]
3. Kufrul-Kibr: Disbelief out of arrogance and pride. An example of this type of Kufr is the disbelief by the devils (Iblees).
4. Kufrul-Juhood: Disbelief out of rejection.This applies to someone who acknowledges the truth in his heart, but rejects it with his tongue. This type of kufr is applicable to those who calls themselves Muslims but who reject any necessary and accepted norms of Islam such as Salaat and Zakat. Allah says: They denied them (OUR SIGNS) even though their hearts believed in them, out of spite and arrogance.^[14]
5. Kufrul-Nifaaq: Disbelief out of hypocrisy.This applies to someone who pretends to be a believer but conceals his disbelief. Such a person is called a munafiqor hypocrite. Allah says: Verily the hypocrites will be in the lowest depths of Hell. You will find no one to help them.^[15]
6. Kufrul-Istihaal: Disbelief out of trying to make haraam into halal. This applies to someone who accepts as lawful Halal that which Allah has made unlawfulHaram like alcohol or adultery. Only Allah has the prerogative to make things Halal and Haram and those who seek to interfere with His right are like rivals to Him and therefore fall outside the boundaries of faith.
7. Kufrul-Kurh: Disbelief out of detesting any of Allah’s commands. Allah says: Perdition (destruction) has been consigned to those who disbelieve and He will render their actions void. This is because they are averse to that which Allah has revealed so He has made their actions fruitless.^[16]
8. Kufrul-Istihzaha: Disbelief due to mockery and derision. Allah says: Say: Was it at Allah, His signs and His apostles that you were mocking? Make no excuses. You have disbelieved after you have believed.^[17]
9. Kufrul-I’raadh: Disbelief due to avoidance. This applies to those who turn away and avoid the truth. Allah says: And who is more unjust than he who is reminded of his Lord’s signs but then turns away from them. Then he forgets what he has sent forward (for the Day of Judgement) ^[18]
10. Kufrul-Istibdaal: Disbelief because of trying to substitute Allah’s Laws. This could take the form of:
    1. Rejection of Allah’s law, Shari’ah without denying it
    2. Denial of Allah’s law and therefore rejecting it, or
    3. Substituting Allah’s laws with man-made laws. Allah says: Or have they partners with Allah who have instituted for them a religion which Allah has not allowed.^[19] Allah says: Say not concerning that which your tongues put forth falsely (that) is lawful and this is forbidden so as to invent a lie against Allah. Verily, those who invent a lie against Allah will never prosper.^[20]

Muslim and non-Muslim relations regarding Kafir[edit][]

Relations between Muslims and non-Muslims and non-believers regarding the term «kafir» varies, and conflicts have arisen since the origin of Islam. Current discourse occurs through many different forms, including scholarly research and the blogosphere. Such discourse must be understood through a historical perspective and with knowledge of the writer of that source and the writer’s intended audience.

Historical relations between Muslims and non-Muslims[edit][]

As the foundations of Islam grew into a Muslim community (ummah), disagreements arose that eventually led to the splitting of Islam into sects. In the twelfth century, one group, which grew out of the split between what would become Sunni Muslims and Shia Muslims was the Kharijites. The Kharijites adopted the idea of takfir, or “declaration of infidelity” and “took the extreme puritanical view that the sinner who failed to repent had ipso facto excluded himself from the community, and was hence a kafir.”^[21] In turn, the Sunni majority turned on the Kharijites, labeling them as kafir.^[22] In the beginning stages of Islam, the label of “kafir” was often used in conflicts between Muslims.

When the Islamic empire expanded, however, the word «kafir» took on other forms in interactions between Muslims and non-Muslims. One goal of expansion of the Islamic empire was to create an open society based on the Prophet Muhammad’s example and not on the tribal traditions of ancient Arabia. During this period the word «kafir» could have been seen as broadly as, «anyone who disbelieves in the truth revealed by god.»^[23] Believers in religions other than Islam, therefore, were not necessarily seen as kafir although they were labeled as such and often faced violence.

One of the principal reasons for the expansion of Islam was to obtain knowledge of science and philosophy from other cultures, of which Muslim scholars were appreciative. Ya ‘qub b. Ishaq al-Kindi, also known as, “the philosopher of the Arabs,” said, “We owe great thanks to those who have imparted to us even a small measure of truth…since they have given us a share in the fruits of their reflection.”^[24] India, in particular, became a hub of cultural coexistence between Muslims and Hindus.^[25] Many of the early Arab and non-Arab scholars praise India for this coexistence and achievement. Sufis, especially, were known for abstaining from fighting and focusing on the faith. In fact, many Sufi saints wrote about the parallels between Islam and Hindu yogi orders.^[26] Thus, there existed in Islam some sense of peace among cultural convergences.

Many writers, however, discuss the tragedies of the early interactions between Muslims and Hindus. In his book The Koran and the kafir, A. Ghosh speaks of the chain of caliph leaders of the Islamic empire, who through war and conquering victimized their non-Muslim neighbors. «For the first time in their history, the Hindus were witnessing, as their counterparts the Christians did at the outset of Islamic invasion of Europe, a scene that went beyond their imagination. One historian wrote, ‘The conquering army burnt villages, devastated the land, plundered people’s wealth, took priests and children and women of all classes captive, flogged with thongs of raw hide, carried a moving prison with it, and converted the prisoners into obsequious Turks.'»^[27]

Current Hindu and Muslim relations in India reflect the paradoxical environment of the history of their relations. Asghar Ali Engineer, author of Resolving Hindu-Muslim Problem warns, «It is proper to view this cultural separatism and islamisation not simply as a facet of Muslim fanticism but rather as a sociological process which, to a great extent, resulted from the political struggles between the elites of the two communities.»^[28] «Kafir» was used as a label of religious separation, when in reality the conflict reflected larger political and cultural issues.

Relations between Jews and Muslims in the Arab world and use of the word «kafir» were equally as complex, and over the last century, issues regarding «kafir» have arisen over the conflict in Israel and Palestine.^[29] In an attempt to secure Israel, in 1998 the Palestine Liberation Organization, generated a plan to create committees for security of, «Muslims and the Kuffar (the Jews and the American CIA).» Calling the Jews of Israel, «the usurping kafir,» 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, alien kafir’ to achieve new levels of intervention in Muslim affairs.»^[30]

Kafir and Jihad[edit][]

For dealing with non-Muslims, Jasser Auda, a director of the al-Maqasid Research Centre in the Philosophy of the Islamic Law in London, England, says that the general rule is mentioned in the verse that says what means:

«Allah forbiddeth you not those who warred not against you on account of religion and drove you not out from your homes, that ye should show them kindness and deal justly with them. Lo! Allah loveth the just dealers.» (^{[Quran 60:8]})

Birr in this context is likened to birr al-walidain, the kindness that a Muslim should show to his or her parents.^[31] This quote addresses the relationship between the concepts of kafir and jihad in Islam.

While the Qur’anic statement of peace towards non-Muslims and non-believers is implied within this passage, the practical sense of jihad in Islam is derived from the example of the Prophet Muhammad. A. Ghosh, author of The Koran and the kafir cites the Prophet’s war against the Qurayza Jewish tribe in 627 A.D. and subsequent wars of the caliphate as the starting point for a pattern of «jihad» which he translates as, «holy war,» against the infidel in the Muslim religion.^[32]

However, the research of Dr. Sherman Jackson suggests a separation between the classical terms of «jihad» and the modern interpretations of «jihad.» According to Jackson, both the Qur’an and classical interpretations of jihad show that «a perennial ‘state of war'» existed, where in which the «assumed relationship» between neighboring tribes was one of hostility, while in the modern world the «assumed relationship» illustrates a state of peace unless provoked by the other party.^[33]

Thus, although «jihad» was often painted as a «holy war» against infidels, the historical and cultural backgrounds of the Muslims involved in «jihad» must be taken into consideration.^[34]

In the afterlife[edit][]

Throughout the Qur’an, it is clear that Death (maut) is a very important theme. This is linked with the knowledge of life (haya) and the undeniable faith and belief in God. Life is valued very highly, and death is ultimately the punishment for all of the Unbelievers who choose to war against God and Muhammad.^[35] For these Unbelievers, on the Day of Judgment, Hell (Jahannam), a dark dwelling place with seven gates, awaits them and other offenders.^[36]

Although the Truth has been presented to all people in Islam, there are some who have chosen to have a hatred for this Truth.^[37] For these Unbelievers, it is possible for their past to be forgiven as long as they are able to repent from a life of disbelief. However, they will be punished in this life and on the Day of Judgmentif they choose to continue on the path of disbelief.^[38] Disbelievers are described in the Qur’an as men and women who love the life of this world more than what is described in the Hereafter.^[39] They are engrossed in this life, and are not focused on the described paradise of the Hereafter. They are those who have utteredblasphemy after accepting Islam. Ultimately, repenting would be the best choice for these people, yet they choose to turn back to their evil ways; because God can see all and hear all thoughts and actions of the disbelievers, He places the consequence of Hypocrisy on their hearts.^[40]

On the Day of Judgment, Unbelievers will ultimately wish they had believed and bowed down to God’s will in Islam.^[41] God views these people as arrogant, and He does not love those who are arrogant. On this day, the Unbelievers will bear the burden of themselves and the decisions they have made in their lifetime, as well as the burden of those they have misled.^[42] It is understood that God will not give light to anyone who does not give Him light or faith. Instead, He will summon them to the depths of darkness within a vast, deep ocean covered with dark clouds ^[43] where they will be covered with Shame and Misery.^[44]

Use outside Islam[edit][]

See also: Kaffir (racial term) and Kafiristan § Etymology

By the 15th century, the word Kaffir was used by Muslims in Africa to refer to the non-Muslim African natives. Many of those kufari were enslaved and sold by their Muslims captors to European and Asian merchants, mainly from Portugal, who by that time had established trading outposts along the coast of West Africa. These European traders adopted that Arabic word and its derivatives.^[45]

Some of the earliest records of European usage of the word can be found in The Principal Navigations, Voyages, Traffiques and Discoveries of the English Nation by Hakluyt, Richard, 1552–1616.^[46] In volume 4, Hakluyt writes: «calling them Cafars and Gawars, which is, infidels or disbelievers.^[47] Volume 9 refers to the slaves (slaves called Cafari) and inhabitants of Ethiopia (and they use to go in small shippes, and trade with the Cafars) by two different but similar names. The word is also used in reference to the coast of Africa as land of Cafraria.^[48]

The word eventually changed into many forms—cafre (in Portuguese, Spanish, French and Greek), caffar, kaffer, kaffir, kafir, etc. (in English, Dutch, and Afrikaans). Those words were then used to name many things related to Africa, such as the Kaffir Wars,^[49] Kaffraria, kaffir lime, kaffir corn, and so on; see kaffir (disambiguation).

By the late 19th century the word was in common use throughout Europe and its colonies, often appeared in the newspapers and other written works of the time.^{[50][51][52][53][54]} One of the Union-Castle Line ships operating off the South African coast was named SS Kafir.^[55]

In the early twentieth century, in his book The Essential Kafir, Dudley Kidd writes that the word «kafir» has come to be used for all dark-skinned South African tribes. Thus, in many parts of South Africa, «kafir» has become synonymous with the word, «native.» ^[56] Currently in South Africa, however, the word kaffir is often used as a racial slur, applied pejoratively or offensively to African blacks.^[57]

The term also made it into the polemical discourse of the world communist movement. Leon Trotsky uses it extensively in his 1938 essay «Their Morals and Ours» for non-white natives who are corrupted by white missionaries.

The song «Kafir» by American technical death metal band Nile from their sixth album Those Whom the Gods Detest uses as subject matter the violent attitudes that Muslim extremists have toward Kafirs.^[58]

The Nuristani people were formally known as Kaffirs of Kafiristan before the Afghan Islamization of the region. Moreover their native name was Kapir, due to the lack of a «P» in Arabic, they coincidentally were called Kafirs, which was incorrect but again correct since they were polytheists, moreover Henotheists.^[59]

The Kalash people located in the Hindu Kush mountain range south west of Chitral are known as Kafirs by the Muslim population of Chitral.^[60]

арабский термин для «неверующего» в исламе

Кафир (арабский : كافر kāfir; множественное число كَافِرُونَ kāfirūna, كفّار kuffār или كَفَرَة kafarah; женское كافرة kāfirah; женское множественное число افرات kāfirāt или كوافر kawāfir) — арабский термин, означающий «неверный», отвергающий «неверный». Этот термин относится к человеку, который отвергает или не верит в Бога согласно исламу (арабский : الله Аллах ) или принципам ислама, отрицая владычество и власть Бога, и поэтому часто переводится как «неверный ». Этот термин используется в Коране по-разному, из которых наиболее фундаментальный смысл — «неблагодарный» (по отношению к Богу). Исторически сложилось так, что в то время как исламские ученые соглашались, что политеист — это кафир, они иногда расходились во мнениях относительно уместности применения этого термина к мусульманам, совершившим тяжкий грех, и к Людям Книги. Коран проводит различие между мушрикуном и людьми Книги, оставляя прежний термин для идолопоклонников, хотя некоторые классические комментаторы считали христианскую доктрину формой ширк. В наше время кафир иногда используется как уничижительный термин, особенно членами исламистских движений. Неверие называется куфром. Кафир иногда используется взаимозаменяемо с мушрик (مشرك, те, кто совершает политеизм), другим типом религиозных преступников, часто упоминаемым в Коране и других исламских трудах. Акт объявления другого самопровозглашенного мусульманина кафиром известен как такфир, практика, которая осуждалась, но также использовалась в теологической и политической полемике на протяжении веков. человек, который отрицает существование создателя, называется дахрия.

Содержание

• 1 Этимология
• 2 Использование
• 3 В Коране
• 4 типа неверующих
  • 4.1 Люди Книги
  • 4.2 Мушрикун
  • 4.3 Грешники
  • 4.4 Такфир
  • 4.5 Муртад
  • 4.6 Муахид / дхимми
• 5 Типы неверия
  • 5.1 Невежество
• 6 История использования
  • 6.1 В собственном смысле
    • 6.1.1 Родители Мухаммеда
  • 6.2 Другое использование
• 7 См. Также
• 8 Примечания
• 9 Ссылки
• 10 Внешние ссылки

Этимология

Слово кафир является активным причастием корня KFR. Доисламский термин описывал фермеров, закапывающих семена в землю. Одно из его приложений в Коране имеет то же значение, что и фермер. Поскольку во время посадки фермеры покрывают семена почвой, слово кафир означает человека, который прячется или укрывается. Идеологически это подразумевает человека, который скрывает или прикрывает правду. Поэты олицетворяют темноту ночи как кафир, возможно, как пережиток доисламского религиозного или мифологического обихода. Существительное, обозначающее неверие, «богохульство», «нечестие», а не человек, который не верит, — это куфр.

ивритские слова «киппер» и «кофер» имеют тот же корень, что и «кафир» כִּפֵּר, или К-Ф-Р. «Киппер» имеет много значений, в том числе «отрицать», «искупить», «прикрывать», «очищать», «представлять» или «передавать». Последние два значения включают «кофер », что означает «выкуп». «Киппер» и «кофер» чаще всего используются вместе в иудейской вере, чтобы указать на передачу Богом вины с невиновных сторон, использующих виновные в качестве «выкупа». Отсюда также Йом Киппур, буквально означающее «День искупления».

Использование

Практика объявления другого мусульманина кафиром называется такфир. Куфр (неверие) и ширк (идолопоклонство) используются во всем Коране и иногда используются мусульманами как синонимы. Согласно салафитским ученым, куфр — это «отрицание истины» (истина в форме догматов веры в исламе), а ширк означает «поклонение чему-либо помимо Бога» или «поклонение идолам и другим сотворенным существам. «. Таким образом, мушрик может поклоняться другим вещам, одновременно «признавая Бога».

В Коране

Различие между теми, кто верит в ислам, и теми, кто этого не делает, является существенным в Коран. Кафир и его множественное число «кафир» употребляются в Коране 134 раза, его словесное существительное «куфр» используется 37 раз, а родственные ему словесные слова «кафир» употребляются примерно 250 раз.

По расширению основного значения. корня, «покрывать», термин используется в Коране в смысле игнорировать / не признавать и отвергать / быть неблагодарным. Значение «неверие», которое стало рассматриваться как первичное, сохраняет все эти коннотации в кораническом употреблении. В кораническом дискурсе этот термин обозначает все, что неприемлемо и оскорбительно для Бога. Самым фундаментальным смыслом куфра в Коране является «неблагодарность», преднамеренный отказ признать или оценить блага, которые Бог дарует человечеству, включая ясные знамения и богооткровенные писания.

Согласно Первой энциклопедии Э. Дж. Брилла Ислам, 1913–1936, том 4, термин, впервые примененный в Коране к неверующим мекканцам, пытавшимся «опровергнуть и поносить Пророка». Мусульманам сначала рекомендовали выжидательное отношение к кафирам; позже мусульманам было приказано держаться подальше от неверующих, защищаться от их нападений и даже переходить в наступление. В большинстве отрывков Корана, относящихся к неверующим в целом, говорится об их судьбе в Судный день и их предназначении в аду.

По словам ученого Мэрилин Уолдман, по мере того, как Коран «прогрессирует» (как читатель переходит от первых открытых стихов к последующим), значение термина кафир не меняется, а «прогрессирует», то есть «накапливает значение с течением времени». По мере того, как исламский пророк Мухаммад меняет взгляды своих противников, его использование кафира «претерпевает развитие». Кафир переходит от одного описания противников Мухаммеда к первому. Позже в Коране кафир становится все более и более связанным с ширком. Наконец, ближе к концу Корана, кафир начинает также обозначать группу людей, с которой борются муминин (верующие).

Типы неверующих

Люди Книги

Статус Ахль аль-Китаб (Люди Книги), особенно евреев и христиан, в отношении исламских представлений о неверии неясен. Чарльз Адамс пишет, что Коран упрекает людей Книги в куфре за то, что они отвергли послание Мухаммеда, хотя они должны были быть первыми, кто принял его как носители более ранних откровений, и выделяет христиан за пренебрежение доказательствами единства Бога. Стих Корана 5:73 («Конечно, они не верят [кафара], которые говорят: Бог — третий из трех»), среди других стихов, традиционно понимается в исламе как отказ от доктрины христианской Троицы, хотя современная наука предлагает альтернативные интерпретации. Другие стихи Корана решительно отрицают божественность Иисуса Христа, сына Марии, и упрекают людей, которые относятся к Иисусу как к равному с Богом, как к неверующим, сбившимся с пути Бога, что приведет к вступлению адский огонь. Хотя Коран не признает атрибут Иисуса как Сына Божьего или самого Бога, он уважает Иисуса как пророка и посланника Бога, посланного детям Израиля. Некоторые мусульманские мыслители, такие как Мохамед Талби, рассматривали самые крайние коранические представления догм о Троице и божественности Иисуса (5:19, 5: 75-76, 5: 119) как нехристианские формулы. которые были отвергнуты Церковью.

Сирил Гласс критикует использование кафируна [мн. кафира], чтобы описать христиан как «распутное употребление». Согласно Энциклопедии ислама, в традиционной исламской юриспруденции к ахл аль-китаб «обычно относятся более снисходительно, чем к другим кафирам [мн. Кафир]…» и «в теория «мусульманин совершает наказуемое преступление, если он говорит еврею или христианину:« Ты неверующий ».

Исторически, Люди Книги, постоянно проживающие под исламским правлением, имели право на особый статус, известный как дхимми, в то время как те, кто посещает мусульманские земли, получили другой статус, известный как муста’мин.

Мушрикун

Мушрикун (мн. мушрик) — это те, кто практикует ширк, что буквально означает «ассоциация» и относится к принятию других богов и божеств наряду с богом мусульман — Аллахом (в качестве «сподвижников» Бога). Этот термин часто переводят как политеизм. Коран проводит различие между мушрикуном и людьми Книги, оставляя прежний термин для идолопоклонников, хотя некоторые классические комментаторы считали христианскую доктрину формой ширка. Ширк считается худшей формой неверия, и в Коране он определяется как единственный грех, который Бог не простит (4:48, 4: 116).

Обвинения в ширке были обычным явлением в религиозная полемика в исламе. Так, в ранних исламских дебатах о свободе воли и теодице суннитские богословы обвиняли своих мутазилов противников в ширке, обвиняя их в том, что они приписывают человеку творческие способности, сравнимые с силами Бога в мире. как исходящие, так и выполняющие свои собственные действия. Теологи-мутазилы, в свою очередь, обвинили суннитов в ширке на том основании, что согласно их доктрине добровольный человеческий акт будет результатом «ассоциации» между Богом, который создает действие, и человеком, который присваивает его, выполняя его.

В классической юриспруденции исламская религиозная терпимость применялась только к Людям Книги, в то время как мушрикун, основанный на Стихе о мече, стоял перед выбором между обращением в ислам и борьбой до смерти, которое может быть заменено порабощением. На практике обозначение людей Книги и статус зимми было распространено даже на немонотеистические религии покоренных народов, такие как индуизм. После разрушения основных индуистских храмов во время мусульманских завоеваний в Южной Азии, индуисты и мусульмане на субконтиненте стали разделять ряд популярных религиозных обрядов и верований, таких как почитание суфийских святых и поклонение в суфийских даргах, хотя индуисты могут поклоняться и в индуистских святынях.

Грешники

Могут ли мусульмане совершить грех, достаточно большой, чтобы стать кафиром, оспаривались юристы в первые века ислама. Самая терпимая точка зрения (точка зрения мурджиаха ) заключалась в том, что даже те, кто совершил большой грех (кабира), все еще были верующими и «их судьба была предоставлена ​​Богу». Наиболее строгое мнение (мнение Хариджи Ибадиса, происходящего от хариджитов ) заключалось в том, что каждый мусульманин, который умирает, не покаявшись в своих грехах, считался кафиром. Между этими двумя позициями мутазилы считали, что существует статус между верующим и неверующим, называемый «отвергнутым» или фасик.

Такфир

хариджиты считают, что самопровозглашенный мусульманин, который согрешил и «не покаялся, ipso facto исключил себя из общины и, следовательно, был кафиром» (практика, известная как такфир), считалось суннитским большинством настолько крайним, что они в свою очередь, хариджиты объявили кафирами, следуя хадису, который гласил: «Если мусульманин обвиняет другого мусульманина в куфре, он сам является кафиром, если обвинение окажется ложным».

Тем не менее, согласно Исламской энциклопедии Брилла, в исламской теологической полемике кафир был «частым термином для мусульманского протагониста», придерживающегося противоположной точки зрения.

Сегодняшние мусульмане, которые делают интерпретации, отличные от того, что другие считают, объявляются кафирами, фетвами. (указы исламских религиозных лидеров) издают приказ мусульманам убивать они и некоторые такие люди также были убиты.

Муртад

Еще одна группа, которая «отличается от массы кафирунов» — это муртад, бывшие мусульмане-отступники., которых считают ренегатами и предателями. Их традиционное наказание — смерть, даже, по мнению некоторых ученых, если они откажутся от своего отказа от ислама.

Муахид / дхимми

Немусульмане, живущие под защитой Исламское государство.

Типы неверия

Мусульманские верования / доктрины часто резюмируются в «Шести Символах веры » (первые пять упомянуты вместе в Коране) ан 2: 285).

1. Бог
2. Его ангелы
3. Его Посланники
4. Его Открытые книги,
5. День воскресения
6. Аль-Кадар, Божественный Предопределения, то есть все, что повелел Бог, должно исполниться

Согласно салафитскому ученому Мухаммаду Таки-уд-Дину аль-Хилали, «куфр — это в основном неверие в любую из Символы веры. Он также перечисляет несколько различных типов серьезного неверия (неверие настолько серьезное, что исключает тех, кто полностью его исповедует, из лона ислама):

1. Куфр-ат-Такдиб: неверие в божественную истину или отрицание любого Символов веры (Коран 39:32)
2. Куфр-аль-иба ват-такаббур маат-Тасдик: отказ подчиняться Божьим заповедям после убеждения в их истинности (Коран 2:34)
3. Куфр-аш-Шакк ваз-Занн: сомневающийся или неуверенный в шести статьях веры (Коран 18: 35–38)
4. Куфр-аль-Ираад: отвернувшись от истина, сознательно или отклоняясь от явных знамений, которые открыл Бог. (Коран 46: 3)
5. Куфр-ан-Н ифаак : лицемерное неверие (Коран 63: 2–3)

Незначительное неверие или Куфран-Нима указывает на «неблагодарность Божьих благословений или милостей».

Согласно другому источнику, перефразирование Тафсир Ибн Касир, существует восемь видов Аль-Куфр аль-Акбар (большое неверие), некоторые из них такие же, как описанные Аль-Хилали (Куфр-аль- Ирад, Куфр-ан-Нифак) и некоторые другие.

1. Куфрул-‘Инаад: Неверие из-за упрямства. Это относится к тому, кто знает Истину и признает, что знает Истину и знает ее языком, но отказывается принять это и воздерживается от заявления. Бог говорит: бросьте в ад каждого упрямого неверующего.
2. Куфрул-Инкаар: Неверие из отрицания. Это относится к тому, кто отрицает и сердцем, и языком. Бог говорит: они признают милости Бога, но отвергают их. Большинство из них — неверующие.
3. Куфрул-Джухуд: Неверие из-за отказа. Это относится к тому, кто признает истину в своем сердце, но отвергает ее языком. Этот тип куфра применим к тем, кто называет себя мусульманами, но отвергает любые необходимые и принятые нормы ислама, такие как намаз и закят. Бог говорит: Они отвергли их (наши знамения), хотя их сердца верили в них, из злости и высокомерия.
4. Куфрул-Нифак : Неверие из-за лицемерия. Это относится к тому, кто притворяется верующим, но скрывает свое неверие. Такого человека называют мунафиком или лицемером. Бог говорит: Воистину, лицемеры будут в самых нижних глубинах ада. Вы не найдете никого, кто мог бы им помочь.
5. Куфрул-Курх: Неверие из-за ненависти к любой из заповедей Бога. Бог говорит: Падение (разрушение) предназначено тем, кто не верует, и Он сделает их действия недействительными. Это потому, что они противятся тому, что открыл Бог, поэтому Он сделал их действия бесплодными.
6. Куфрул-Истихзаха: Неверие из-за насмешек и насмешек. Бог говорит: Скажи: Ты насмехался над Богом, Его знамениями и Его апостолами ? Не оправдывайся. Вы не поверили после того, как поверили.
7. Куфрул-Ираадх: Неверие из-за избегания. Это относится к тем, кто отворачивается и избегает правды. Бог говорит: «И кто несправедливее того, кому напомнили о знамениях своего Господа, но затем отвернулся от них». Затем он забывает то, что послал вперед (на Судный день).
8. Куфрул-Истибдаал: Неверие из-за попытки заменить Законы Бога законами, созданными людьми. Бог говорит: Или они являются партнерами с Богом, который учредил для них религию, которую Бог не позволил. Бог говорит: Не говори о том, что изрекают твои языки ложно (что) дозволено, а это запрещено, чтобы придумывать ложь против Бога. Поистине, те, кто изобретает ложь против Бога, никогда не преуспеют.

Невежество

В исламе джахилийа («невежество») относится ко времени Аравии до ислама.

История использования

В собственном смысле

Когда исламская империя расширилась, слово «кафир» широко использовалось для всех язычников и всех, кто не верил в ислам. Исторически отношение к неверующим в ислам определялось в большей степени социально-политическими условиями, чем религиозной доктриной. Терпимость по отношению к неверующим, «невозможно вообразить в современном христианском мире», преобладала даже во время крестовых походов, особенно в отношении Людей Книги. Однако враждебность подпитывалась многократными войнами с неверующими, и война между Сефевидом Персией и Османской Турцией вызвала применение термина кафир даже к персам в турецких фетвах. В эпоху европейского колониализма политический упадок ислама препятствовал организованным действиям государства против давления со стороны западных стран, и возникшее в результате чувство бессилия способствовало росту ненависти к неверующим и ее периодическим проявлениям, таким как массовые убийства.

Однако религиозное насилие в Индии между мусульманами и немусульманами было обширным во время Делийского султаната и Империи Великих Моголов (до политического упадка ислама). В своих мемуарах о мусульманских вторжениях, порабощении и грабежах этого периода многие мусульманские историки в Южной Азии использовали термин кафир для индуистов, буддистов, сикхов и Джайны. Разиуддин Аквиль заявляет, что «немусульман часто осуждали как кафиров в средневековой индийской исламской литературе, включая судебные хроники, суфийские тексты и литературные сочинения» и издавались фетвы, оправдывающие преследования немусульман.

Отношения Между евреями и мусульманами в арабском мире использование слова «кафир» было столь же сложным, и за последнее столетие возникли вопросы относительно «кафира» в связи с конфликтом в Израиле и Палестина. Назвав евреев Израиля «кафирами-узурпаторами», Ясир Арафат обратил внимание на сопротивление мусульман и «якобы создал прецедент для предотвращения мобилизации мусульман против« неверующих-агрессоров »в других мусульманских странах и позволил трусливый, инопланетный кафир ‘, чтобы достичь нового уровня вмешательства в дела мусульман ».

В 2019 году Нахдлатул Улама, крупнейшая независимая исламская организация в мире, базирующаяся в Индонезии, выпустила прокламацию, призывающую Мусульманам следует воздерживаться от использования теологически агрессивного слова кафир для обозначения немусульман в интересах поощрения религиозной терпимости и сосуществования.

Родители Мухаммеда

Хадис, в котором Мухаммед заявляет, что его отец, Абдулла ибн Абд аль-Мутталиб, находился в аду, стал источником разногласий среди исламских ученых по поводу статуса родителей Мухаммеда. На протяжении веков суннитские ученые отклоняли этот хадис, несмотря на его появление в авторитетном сборнике Сахих Муслим. Он прошел через единую цепь передачи в течение трех поколений, так что его подлинность не считалась достаточно достоверной, чтобы заменить теологический консенсус, согласно которому люди, умершие до того, как пророческое послание дошло до них — как это сделал отец Мухаммеда — не могут быть привлечены к ответственности. за то, что не приняли его. Мусульмане-шииты ученые также считают, что родители Мухаммеда находятся в Раю. Напротив, сайт салафитов IslamQA.info, основанный саудовским салафитским ученым Мухаммадом аль-Мунаджидом, утверждает, что исламская традиция учит, что родители Мухаммада были кафирами («неверующими»), находящимися в аду.

Другое употребление

Кафиры Натала и страны зулусов преподобного Джозефа Шутера

К ​​15 веку слово Каффир использовался мусульманами в Африке для обозначения немусульманских африканцев. Многие из этих куфари были порабощены и проданы их похитителями-мусульманами европейским и азиатским купцам, главным образом из Португалии, которые к тому времени создали торговые форпосты вдоль побережья Западной Африки. Эти европейские торговцы переняли это арабское слово и его производные.

Некоторые из самых ранних записей об употреблении этого слова в Европе можно найти в книге «Основные навигации, путешествия, движение и открытия английского народа» (1589 г.) Ричард Хаклайт. В томе 4 Хаклуит пишет: «называя их кафарами и гаварами, то есть неверными или неверующими. Том 9 относится к рабам (рабам, называемым кафари) и жителям Эфиопии (и они обычно отправляются небольшими кораблями и торгуют с Кафары) под двумя разными, но похожими названиями. Это слово также используется в отношении побережья Африки как земли Кафрарии. Исследователь 16 века Лев Африканский описал Кафри как «негров «, и одна из пяти основных групп населения в Африке. Он определил, что их географический центр находится в отдаленной южной части Африки, области, которую он обозначил как Кафрария.

К концу 19 века это слово использовалось в Газеты и книги на английском языке. Один из кораблей Union-Castle Line, курсирующих у южноафриканского побережья, был назван SS Kafir. В начале двадцатого века в своей книге The Essential Kafir Дадли Кидд пишет, что Слово «кафир» стало использоваться для обозначения всех темнокожих южноафриканских племен. Таким образом, во многих частях Южной Африки слово «кафир» стало синонимом слова «коренной». В настоящее время в Южной Африке, однако, слово кафир рассматривается как расовое оскорбление, применяемое уничижительно или оскорбительно по отношению к чернокожим.

Песня «Kafir» от American Technical дэт-метал-группа Nile из своего шестого альбома Те, кого ненавидят боги, использует в качестве темы жестокое отношение мусульманских экстремистов к кафирам.

The Нуристанцы люди были формально известны как кафры Кафиристана до афганской исламизации региона.

народ калашей, расположенный в горном хребте Гиндукуш к юго-западу от Читрала, известен мусульманскому населению Читрала как кафиры.

В в современном испанском языке слово cafre, происходящее от арабского кафир через португальский язык, также означает «неотесанный» или «дикий».

См. также

• Краткое изложение ислама
• Глоссарий ислама
• Указатель статей, связанных с исламом
• Ахль аль-Фатра
• Богохульство
• Ислам и богохульство
• Разделы мира в исламе
• Гавур
• Кафирун (Сура)
• Кафир (расовый термин)
• Мумин
• Зандаака

Примечания

Ссылки

Внешние ссылки

Викицитатник содержит цитаты, связанные с: Кафир

Найдите кафир в Wiktionary, бесплатном словаре.

• Неверие: исламская перспектива
• Такфир — анафематство
• Универсальная действительность религий и проблема Такфир
• Inminds.co.uk
• Герменевтика такфира

Кяфир

неверный, неблагодарный, скрывающий, не признающий истины, не верующий в существование или единство Аллаха. Слово происходит от глагола «кафара» — покрывать, скрывать. Слово кяфир, в узком смысле, означает «скрывающий свое знание о Боге». Кяфирами называются люди, которые отказываются признавать существование, единство и атрибуты Аллаха, пророческую миссию Божьих посланников (или хотя бы одного пророка), существование ада и рая, воскресение после смерти и страшный суд. Смысл жизни они видят только в своем земном существовании. Помимо этих характеристик кяфиров, мусульманские правоведы считали кяфирами еще несколько категорий людей. Например, Абу Ханифа считал кяфирами тех людей, которые отрицали извечность Божественных атрибутов или считали их сотворенными во времени. Другие правоведы считали, что пессимизм и отсутствие надежды на помощь Аллаха, может привести человека к неверию: «О сыны мои! Ступайте и разыскивайте Йусуфа и его брата и не теряйте надежды на милосердие Аллаха, ибо отчаиваются в милости Аллаха только люди неверующие» (Коран, 12: 87). Согласно иджме, кяфирами являются и те люди, которые отрицают хотя бы один аят Корана или его повеления. Сознательный отказ от общепринятого метода чтения Корана, его сокращение или добавление в него каких-то новшеств также приводит человека к неверию. Неверием также является принятие повелений одной части Корана и отрицание другой его части: «Не станете же вы признавать одну часть Писания, а другую отвергать? Воздаянием тому, кто творит подобное, будет позор в этом мире, а в Судный день — самое жестокое наказание» (Коран, 2: 85) Согласно правовым положениям Ислама, неверием является отказ от признания греховными тех деяний, которые однозначно признаны таковыми в религии на основании достоверных доказательств из первоисточников. Речь идет о таких деяниях, как прелюбодеяние, азартные игры, употребление в пищу свинины, употребление алкоголи, дурманящих средств. Кяфирами являются и те люди, которые считают разрешенными то, что запрещено; а также считают запрещенными то, что разрешено Аллахом. В суннитском Исламе греховные деяния мусульман не являются частью их веры. То есть совершение греха не выводит мусульманина из веры, если он не считает свой греховный поступок разрешенным с точки зрения религии. Аллах прощает грехи всем раскаявшимся: «О вы, которые уверовали! Обращайтесь к Аллаху с искренним раскаянием, быть может, ваш Господь простит вам ваши прегрешения…» (Коран, 66: 8). Аллах может простить грехи и нераскаявшимся мусульманам, если пожелает. Этим самым мусульманская ортодоксия отличается от таких сект, как хариджитская, которая считает совершение больших грехов частью веры мусульман и расценивает их совершение как неверие. Учение суннитского правоверия отличается и от учения мутазилитов которые считали, что существует некое промежуточное положение между верующими и неверующими (аль-манзиляту байн аль-манзилятайн). То есть грешные мусульмане (фасики) — не праведники (мумины), но и не неверующие (кяфир). Поэтому, по их мнению, если грешные мусульмане не раскаются в своих грехах, то они будут в аду вечно. Однако сунниты отвергли и это положение, не признав существования «промежуточного» положения. Кяфиры упоминаются во многих аятах Корана, в которых повествуется об их душевном состоянии, характере и месте в этом и потустороннем мирах. Эти люди навлекли на себя гнев Аллаха и если они умирают в неверии, то будут подвержены вечным мучениям в аду. Однако состояние неверия можно преодолеть путем принятия Ислама. В этом случае Аллах прощает все прошлые грехи человека и его неверие. Кяфиры всегда пытаются причинить вред мусульманам, но, в конечном итоге, вредят только себе. Обо всем этом повествуется в коранических аятах:

«Они тщатся обмануть Аллаха и уверовавших, но обманывают только самих себя, не ведая [этого]. Ю. В их сердцах — порок. Да усугубит Аллах их порок! Им уготовано мучительное наказание за то, что они лгали. Когда же им говорят: «Не творите нечестия на земле!» — они отвечают: «Мы творим только добрые дела». Да будет тебе известно, что они-то и есть нечестивцы, но сами не ведают [того]. Когда же им говорят: «Уверуйте, подобно тому, как уверовали [другие] люди», — они отвечают: «Неужели мы уверуем, как уверовали глупцы?» Да будет тебе известно, что они-то и есть глупцы, но не ведают [об этом]. Когда они встречают уверовавших, то говорят: «Мы уверовали». Когда же остаются наедине со своими шайтанами, они говорят: «Воистину, мы — с вами, и, воистину, мы только смеемся [над верующими]». Аллах сам насмеется над ними и приумножит их самонадеянность, в которой они бредут вслепую. Они — те, которые ценой истинного пути купили заблуждение. Но сделка не принесла им прибыли, и не причислены они к тем, кто ведом путем прямым» (Коран, 2: 9-16).

Неверные могут пользоваться благами кратковременного пребывания земной жизни, однако в вечной жизни они обречены на вечные адские муки. Об этом повествуется в кораническом аяте: «Неужели [неверные] надеются на явление чего-либо [иного], кроме ангелов или веления твоего Господа, [о Мухаммад]? Так же поступали и те, кто жил до них. Аллах не проявил несправедливости к ним, это сами они были несправедливы к себе. Их постигло возмездие за их злонравие, и они подверглись наказанию, которым они пренебрегали» (16: 33). 109-я сура Корана называется «Кяфирун». Она начинается с обращения к кяфирам. Эта сура была ниспослана в Мекке после суры «Маун» и состоит из 6 аятов.

(Источник: «Исламский энциклопедический словарь» А. Али-заде, Ансар, 2007 г.)

Кафир ( арабский : كافر кафир , множественное число كافرون kāfirūna , كفار кафиры или كفرة kafarah , женственная كافرة kāfirah , женственная множественном كافرات kāfirāt или كوافر kawāfir ) является арабский термин , который, в исламской традиции, относится к человеку , который не верит в Бога, согласно исламу , либо отрицает авторитет Бога, либо отвергает принципы ислама . ^{[1] [2]} Термин часто переводится как « неверный », ^[3][4] « язычник », « отвергающий », ^[5] « отрицатель », «неверующий», «неверующий», «неверующий». Этот термин используется в Коране по-разному, из которых наиболее фундаментальный смысл — «неблагодарный» (по отношению к Богу). ^{[6] [7]} Куфр означает неверие, «неблагодарность», «неверность» или «неблагодарность». Его противоположность — īmān или вера. ^[8]

Кафир иногда используется взаимозаменяемо с мушриком ( مشرك , те, кто совершает политеизм), другим типом религиозных преступников, часто упоминаемым в Коране и других исламских трудах. ^[9] (Другие, иногда частично совпадающие коранические термины для обозначения правонарушителей — это халлам (злодей, угнетатель) и фасик (грешник, блудник).) ^[8] Исторически, хотя исламские ученые соглашались, что политеист / мушрик является кафиром , они иногда не соглашались о правильности применения этого термина к мусульманам, совершившим тяжкий грех, или к Людям Книги . ^{[7] [6]}Коран проводит различие между мушрикуном и людьми Книги, оставляя прежний термин для идолопоклонников, хотя некоторые классические комментаторы считали христианскую доктрину формой ширка . ^[10] В наше время кафир иногда применяется к самопровозглашенным мусульманам ^{[11] [12] [13],} особенно членами исламистских движений. ^[14] Акт о провозглашении другой-самоучка мусульманской кафир известно как такфир , ^[15] практика , которая была осуждена , но и использовать в богословской и политической полемике на протяжении веков. ^[16]Человека, который отрицает существование создателя, можно назвать дахри . ^{[17] [18]}

Слово кафир является активным причастием глагола كَفَرَ kafara, от корня ك-ف-ر KFR . Доисламский термин описывал фермеров, закапывающих семена в землю. Одно из его применений в Коране имеет то же значение, что и фермер. ^[19] Поскольку во время посадки фермеры покрывают семена почвой, слово кафир означает человека, который прячется или укрывается. Идеологически это подразумевает человека, который скрывает или прикрывает правду. Поэты олицетворяют темноту ночи как кафир, возможно, как пережиток доисламского религиозного или мифологического обихода. ^[20]

Существительное, обозначающее неверие, ^[21] «богохульство», ^[22] «нечестие» ^[23], а не человек, который не верует, — это куфр . ^{[примечание 1]}

Иврите слово « копченый » и « kofer » один и тот же корень , как « кафир » כִּפֵּר или KFR . «Киппер» имеет много значений, в том числе «отрицать», «искупить», «прикрывать», «очищать», «представлять» или «передавать». Последние два значения включают « кофер », что означает «выкуп». «Киппер» и «кофер» чаще всего используются вместе в иудейской вере, чтобы указать на передачу Богом вины с невиновных сторон, использующих виновных в качестве «выкупа». ^[24] Отсюда также Йом Кипур ,
буквально означает «День искупления».

Практика объявления другого мусульманина кафиром называется такфиром . ^[15] Куфр (неверие) и ширк (идолопоклонство) используются во всем Коране и иногда используются мусульманами как синонимы. ^{[9] [25]} По мнению салафитских ученых, куфр — это «отрицание Истины» (истина в форме догматов веры в исламе), а ширк означает «поклонение чему-либо помимо Бога» ^[25] или «поклонение идолам и другим сотворенным существам». ^[9] Таким образом, мушрик может поклоняться другим вещам, одновременно «признавая Бога». ^[9]

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