Kafir

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.[11] 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,[44] 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.[45][46] 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.[47] 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.[48]

On the other hand, modern scholarship has suggested alternative interpretations of verse Q.5:73. Cyril Glasse criticizes the use of kafirun (plural of kafir) to describe Christians as "loose usage".[4] According to the Encyclopedia of Islam, in traditional Islamic jurisprudence, ahl al-kitab are "usually regarded more leniently than other kuffar [plural of kafir]" and "in theory" a Muslim commits a punishable offense if they say to a Jew or a Christian: "Thou unbeliever".[12] Charles Adams and A. Kevin Reinhart also write that "later thinkers" in Islam distinguished between ahl al-kitab and the polytheists/mushrikīn.[13]

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.[12]

Mushrikun (plural of mushrik) are those who believe in shirk (polytheism), which literally means 'association' and refers to accepting other gods and divinities alongside the god of the Muslims – Allah (as God's "associates").[17] The term is often translated as 'polytheism'.[17] 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.[17] 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).[17]

Accusations of shirk have been common in religious polemics within Islam.[17] 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.[17] 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.[17]

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,[49] which may be substituted by enslavement.[50] 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.[49] 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.[51]

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":

[S]hirk took many forms: the attribution to prophets, saints, astrologers, and soothsayers of knowledge of the unseen world, which only God possesses and can grant; the attribution of power to any being except God, including the power of intercession; reverence given in any way to any created thing, even to the tomb of the Prophet; such superstitious customs as belief in omens and in auspicious and inauspicious days; and swearing by the names of the Prophet, ʿAlī, the Shīʿī imams, or the saints. Thus the Wahhābīs acted even to destroy the cemetery where many of the Prophet's most notable companions were buried, on the grounds that it was a center of idolatry.[13]

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 19th century.[13]

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".[23] The most strict view (that of Kharidji Ibadis, descended from the Kharijites) was that every Muslim who dies having not repented of their 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.[23]

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)[52] was considered so extreme by the Sunni majority that they in turn declared the Kharijites to be kuffar,[53] 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".[23]

Nevertheless, in Islamic theological polemics kafir was "a frequent term for the Muslim protagonist" holding the opposite view, according to Brill's Islamic Encyclopedia.[23]

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.[54]

Another group that are "distinguished from the mass of kafirun"[23] are the murtad, or apostate ex-Muslims, who are considered renegades and traitors.[23] Their traditional punishment is death, even, according to some scholars, if they recant their abandonment of Islam.[55]

Dhimmī are non-Muslims living under the protection of an Islamic state.[56][57] 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,[27][28][29] 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.[25] 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.[25][30][31][32][33] 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.[33]

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 they 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.[58]

Muslim belief/doctrine is often summarized in "the Six Articles of Faith",[60] (the first five are mentioned together in the Quran 2:285).

1. God[61]
2. His angels[61]
3. His Messengers[61]
4. His Revealed Books,[61]
5. The Day of Resurrection[61]
6. Al-Qadar, Divine Preordainments, i.e. whatever God has ordained must come to pass[61]

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)[61]
2. Kufr-al-iba wat-takabbur ma'at-Tasdiq: refusing to submit to God's Commandments after conviction of their truth (Quran 2:34)[61]
3. Kufr-ash-Shakk waz-Zann: doubting or lacking conviction in the six articles of Faith. (Quran 18:35–38)[61]
4. Kufr-al-I'raadh: turning away from the truth knowingly or deviating from the obvious signs which God has revealed. (Quran 46:3)[61]
5. Kufr-an-Nifaaq: hypocritical disbelief (Quran 63:2–3)[61]

Minor disbelief or Kufran-Ni'mah indicates "ungratefulness of God's Blessings or Favours".[61]

According to another source, a paraphrase of the tafsir by Ibn Kathir,[7] 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 their tongue, but refuses to accept it and refrains from making a declaration.[62]
2. Kufrul-Inkaar: Disbelief out of denial. This applies to someone who denies with both heart and tongue.[63]
3. Kufrul-Juhood: Disbelief out of rejection. This applies to someone who acknowledges the truth in their heart, but rejects it with their 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.[64]
4. Kufrul-Nifaaq: Disbelief out of hypocrisy. This applies to someone who pretends to be a believer but conceals their disbelief. Such a person is called a munafiq or hypocrite.[65]
5. Kufrul-Kurh: Disbelief out of detesting any of God's commands.[66]
6. Kufrul-Istihzaha: Disbelief due to mockery and derision.[67]
7. Kufrul-I'raadh: Disbelief due to avoidance. This applies to those who turn away and avoid the truth.[68]
8. Kufrul-Istibdaal: Disbelief because of trying to substitute God's Laws with man-made laws.[69][70]

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

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.[71][72] Historically, the attitude toward unbelievers in Islam was determined more by socio-political conditions than by religious doctrine.[23] 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.[23] 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,[23] and the Turks themselves used the term kuffar towards Persians during the Ottoman-Safavid wars.[23] In modern Muslim popular imagination, the dajjal (Antichrist-like figure) will have k-f-r written on his forehead.[23]

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).[73][74][75] 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.[71][72] [76][77] 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.[78]

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.[79] 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."[79]

In 2019, Nahdlatul Ulama, the largest independent Islamic organization in the world, 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".[34][80]

According to Islamic sources, none of forefathers of Islamic prophet Muhammad were kafirs.[81][82] According to Ibn Hajar, the Quran clearly declared that the people of the time of fathrath were among the Muslims.[83] Ibn Hajar is of opinion that none of the Islamic prophet Muhammad's parents who were non-prophets were kafirs (disbelievers) and the whole of the hadiths on this subject (although some hadiths seem to contradict it) mean that.[84] Ibn Hajar says about Islamic Prophet Muhammad saying his ab is in the Hell, that the ab in the hadith refers to the paternal uncle and that Arabs widely use ab to refer to 'amm (paternal uncle).[85]

Shia Muslim scholars likewise consider Muhammad's parents to be in Paradise.[86][87] In contrast, the Salafi[88] 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.[89]

The Kafirs of Natal and the Zulu Country by Rev. Joseph Shooter

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.[90]

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.[91] In volume 4, Hakluyt writes: "calling them Cafars and Gawars, which is, infidels or disbelievers".[92] 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".[93] 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.[94]

By the late 19th century, the word was in use in English-language newspapers and books.[95][96][97][98][99] One of the Union-Castle Line ships operating off the South African coast was named SS Kafir.[100] In the early 20th 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".[101] Currently in South Africa, however, the word kaffir is regarded as a racial slur, applied pejoratively or offensively to blacks.[102]

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.[103]

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.[104]

In modern Spanish, the word cafre, derived from the Arabic word kafir by way of the Portuguese language, also means 'uncouth' or 'savage'.[105]