Kafir
Kāfir is an Islamic term of Arabic origin used by Muslims to refer to non-Muslims who deny Allah, reject his authority, and do not accept the message of Islam as truth.
Kafir is often translated as 'infidel', 'truth denier', 'rejector', 'disbeliever', 'unbeliever', The term is used in different ways in the Quran, with the most fundamental sense being ungrateful towards God. Kufr means 'disbelief', 'unbelief', 'non-belief', 'to be thankless', 'to be faithless', or 'ingratitude'. The opposite term of kufr is iman, and the opposite of kafir is mu'min. A person who denies the existence of a creator might be called a dahri.
One type of kafir is a mushrik, another group of religious wrongdoer mentioned frequently in the Quran and other Islamic works. Several concepts of vice are seen to revolve around the concept of kufr in the Quran. Historically, while Islamic scholars agreed that a mushrik was a kafir, they sometimes disagreed on the propriety of applying the term to Muslims who committed a grave sin or the People of the Book. The Quran distinguishes between mushrikūn 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.
In modern times, kafir is sometimes applied to self-professed Muslims, particularly by members of Islamist movements. The act of declaring another self-professed Muslim a kafir is known as takfir, a practice that has been condemned but also employed in theological and political polemics over the centuries.
A dhimmi or mu'ahid is a historical term for non-Muslims living in an Islamic state with legal protection. Dhimmis were exempt from certain duties specifically assigned to Muslims if they paid the jizya poll tax, but otherwise equal under the laws of property, contract, and obligation according to some scholars, whereas others state religious minorities subjected to the status of dhimmis were inferior to the status of Muslims in Islamic states. Jews and Christians were required to pay the jizya and kharaj taxes, while others, depending on the different rulings of the schools of Islamic jurisprudence, might be required to convert to Islam, pay the jizya, exiled, or subject to the death penalty.
In 2019, Nahdlatul Ulama, the world's largest independent Islamic organization, 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".
Etymology
The word is the active participle of the verb, from root ك-ف-ر K-F-R. 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. Since farmers cover the seeds with soil while planting, the word implies a person who hides or covers. Ideologically, it implies a person who hides or covers the truth. Arabic poets personify the darkness of night as, perhaps as a survival of pre-Islamic Arabian religious or mythological usage.The noun for 'disbelief', 'blasphemy', 'impiety' rather than the person who disbelieves, is.
In the Quran
The distinction between those who believe in Islam and those who do not is made in the Quran., and its plural, is used directly 134 times in Quran, its verbal noun is used 37 times, and the verbal cognates of are used about 250 times.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. The meaning of 'disbelief', which has come to be regarded as primary, retains all of these connotations in the Quranic usage. In the Quranic discourse, the term typifies all things that are unacceptable and offensive to God. Within the Quranic context, the term implies an active offense and often bears the connotation of "ungratefulness". In Surah 26:19, the Pharaoh accuses Moses of being a kafir for being ungrateful to what he has done to him when Moses was a child. Likewise, Iblis does not deny the existence of God, but is called a for rejecting God. According to Al-Damiri it is neither denying God, nor the act of disobedience alone, but Iblis' attitude, which makes him a. The most fundamental sense of 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.
According to 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 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. Most passages in the Quran referring to unbelievers in general talk about their fate on the day of judgement and destination in hell.
According to scholar Marilyn Waldman, as the Quran "progresses", the meaning behind the term 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 "undergoes a development". moves from being description of Muhammad's opponents to the primary one. Later in the Quran, becomes more and more connected with. Finally, towards the end of the Quran, begins to also signify the group of people to be fought by the .
Khaled Abou El Fadl argues that Quran 2:62 supports religious pluralism, implying that some non-Muslims are not kafirs: "Those who believe, Jews, Christians, Sabians—whoever believes in God and the Last Day and do good, will have their reward with their Lord and they will not fear, nor grieve."
Types of unbelievers
People of the Book
Charles Adams writes that the Quran reproaches the People of the Book with 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. The Quranic verse , among other verses, has been traditionally understood in Islam as rejection of the Christian doctrine on the Trinity, though modern scholarship has suggested alternative interpretations. 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. 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. Some Muslim thinkers such as Mohamed Talbi have viewed the most extreme Quranic presentations of the dogmas of the Trinity and divinity of Jesus as non-Christian formulas that were rejected by the Church.On the other hand, modern scholarship has suggested alternative interpretations of verse Q.. Cyril Glasse criticizes the use of to describe Christians as "loose usage". According to the Encyclopedia of Islam, in traditional Islamic jurisprudence, are "usually regarded more leniently than other " and "in theory" a Muslim commits a punishable offense if they say to a Jew or a Christian: "Thou unbeliever". Charles Adams and A. Kevin Reinhart also write that "later thinkers" in Islam distinguished between ahl al-kitab and the polytheists/mushrikīn.
Historically, People of the Book permanently residing under Islamic rule were entitled to a special status known as, while those visiting Muslim lands received a different status known as.
The Mushrikun
The mushrikun are those who believe in shirk 'association', which refers to accepting other gods and divinities alongside God. The term is often translated as polytheist. 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. 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.The concept of mushrikūn refers to those who commit shirk, or 'association,' the theological sin of accepting other gods, divinities, or partners alongside God. This term is often translated as polytheist or idolater and is a fundamental distinction in Islamic jurisprudence from the People of the Book, who follow a divinely revealed scripture. In classical and traditional Islamic scholarship, this category typically includes those who are not considered People of the Book. For instance, Hindus, are generally viewed as mushrikūn because their worship involves polytheism and image-veneration, which are considered forms of shirk in Islam, a view historically reflected in the Mughal context. Similarly, Buddhism, particularly its iconographic forms involving the veneration of the Buddha or Bodhisattvas, has often been categorized by Muslim authors as idolatrous and grouped with the practices of the mushrikūn. Other non-Abrahamic traditions, such as Sikhism, Taoism, Confucianism, Shintoism, and various indigenous religions, have historically been relegated to the category of mushrikūn because they fall outside the recognized group of Ahl al-Kitāb in traditional Islamic legal schools.
Accusations of have been common in religious polemics within Islam. Thus, in the early Islamic debates on free will and theodicy, Sunni theologians charged their Mutazila adversaries with, accusing them of attributing to man creative powers comparable to those of God in both originating and executing actions. Mu'tazila theologians, in turn, charged the Sunnis with shirk because under their doctrine a voluntary human act results from an "association" between God, who creates the act, and the individual who appropriates it by carrying it out.
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, which may be substituted by enslavement. 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. 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.
In the 18th century, followers of Muhammad ibn Abd al-Wahhab, known as Wahhabis, believed kufr or shirk was found in the Muslim community itself, especially in "the practice of popular religion":
While ibn Abd al-Wahhab and the Wahhābīs 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.