Kafir

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Jump to: navigation, search


Part of a series on
Islam & Iman
Individuals
Groups
Terms
This box: view • talk • edit
This article is on the Islamic religious term. For the pejorative racial slur, see kaffir (ethnic slur).
For the 2007 album by The Rebel, see Kufr (album).

Kafir (Arabic: كافر kāfir; plural كفّار kuffār) is an Arabic word meaning "rejecter" or "ingrate". In the Islamic doctrinal sense, the term refers to a person who does not recognize God (Allah) or the prophethood of Muhammad (i.e., any non-Muslim) or who hides, denies, or covers the "truth". In cultural terms, it is seen as a derogatory term[1] used to describe an unbeliever, non-Muslims, apostate from Islam and even between Muslims of different sects. It is usually translated into English as "infidel" or "unbeliever".

Contents

[edit] Etymology

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. Thus, the word kāfir implies the meaning "a person who hides or covers". In Islamic parlance, a kāfir is a word used to describe a person who rejects Islamic faith, i.e. "hides or covers [viz., the truth]".[2]

"kafara" ~ the root verb ~ means "he hid (something)" and "he covered (something)" or "He hid (something) by covering it up." Both "hiding" and "covering up" are indelible significations of all of the words arising on the verbal root.

[edit] Types of Kufr disbelief

Types of Kufr (Disbelief)-Adapted from 'Tafseer ibn Katheer [3] 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 Allāh. There are several types of Al-Kufr ul Akbar:

1. Kufrul-'Inaad: Disbelief out of stubborness. This applies to someone who knows the truth and admits to knowing the truth and admits to knowing it with his tongue, but refuses to accept it and refrains from making a declaration. Allaah subhanahu wa ta'ala says: Throw into Hell every stubborn disbeliever [Soorah Qaaf (50), Ayah 24]

2. Kufrul-Inkaar: Disbelief out of denial. This applies to someone who denies with both heart and tongue. Allaah subhanahu wa ta'ala says: They recognize the favors of Allaah, yet they deny them. Most of them are disbelievers. [Soorah Nahl (16), Ayah 83]

3. Kufrul-Kibr: Disbelief out of arrogance and pride. The disbelief by the devils (Iblees) is an example of this type of Kufr.

4. Kufrul-Juhood: Disbelief out of rejection.This applies to someone who aknowledges the truth in his heart, but rejects it with his tongue. This types 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. Allaah subhanahu wa ta'ala says: They denied them (OUR SIGNS) even though their hearts believed in them , out of spite and arrogance. [Soorah Naml (27), Ayah 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 MUNAFIQ or hypocrite. Allaah subhanahu wa ta'ala says: Verily the hypocrites will be in the lowest depths of Hell. You will find no one to help them. [Soorah An Nisaa (4), Ayah 145] [4]

6. Kufrul-Istihaal: Disbelief out of trying to make HARAM into HALAL. This applies to someone who accepts as lawful (Halal) that which Allaah has made unlawful (Haram) like alcohol or adultery.Only Allaah subhanahu wa ta'ala 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 boundries of faith.

7. Kufrul-Kurh: Disbelief out of detesting any of Allaah's subhanahu wa ta'ala commands. Allaah subhanahu wa ta'ala 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 Allaah has revealed so He has made their actions fruitless. [Soorah Muhammed (47), Ayah 8-9] <> http://www.usc.edu/schools/college/crcc/engagement/resources/texts/muslim/quran/047.qmt.html </ref>

8. Kufrul-Istihzaha: Disbelief due to mockery and derision. Allaah subhanahu wa ta'ala says: Say: Was it at Allaah, His signs and His apostles that you were mocking? Make no excuses. You have disbelieved after you have believed. [Soorah Taubah (9), ayah 65-66]

9. Kufrul-I'raadh: Disbelief due to avoidance. This applies to those who turn away and avoid the truth. Allaah subhanahu wa ta'ala 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) [Soorah Kahf (18), Ayah 57] [5]

10. Kufrul-Istibdaal: Disbelief because of trying to substitute Allaah's Laws. This could take the form of:

(a) Rejection of Allaah's law (Sharee'ah) without denying it

(b) Denial of Allaah's law and therefore rejecting it, or

(c) Substituting Allaah's laws with man-made laws. Allaah subhanahu wa ta'ala says: Or have they partners with Allaah who have instituted for them a religion which Allaah has not allowed. [Soorah Shuraa(42), Ayah 8] Allaah subhanahu wa ta'ala 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 Allaah. Verily, those who invent a lie against Allaah will never prosper. [Soorah Nahl (16), Ayah 116] [6]

[edit] Muslim relations with the Kafir

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:

God welcomes you to be kind those who have not made war against you on account of [your] religion, and have not driven you forth from your homes, that you show them kindness (birr) and deal with them justly; surely God loves the doers of justice. God only forbids you respecting those who made war upon you on account of [your] religion, and drove you forth from your homes and backed up [others] in your expulsion, that you make friends with them, and whoever makes friends with them, these are the unjust. ([Qur'an 60:8])

Birr in this context is likened to birr al-walidain, the kindness that a Muslim should show to his or her parents.[7]

Some Muslims believe that making friends with the Kafir is prohibited in Islam. Others consider the directive in Qur'an only for those Christians and Jews who were direct addressees of Qur'an or in war when there is a danger of transmission of secrets.[8] As in Qur'an:

O ye who believe! take not the Jews and the Christians for your friends and protectors (over the Muslims): They are but friends and protectors to each other. And he amongst you that turns to them (for friendship) is of them. Verily God guideth not a people unjust. [Qur'an 5:51]

Shi'a jurists have traditionally deemed the person who does not believe in Allah (God ) and His Oneness to be ritually impure (najis) so that physical contact with them or things they touched would require Shi'as to wash themselves before doing regular prayers. As regards the people of the Book (i.e. the Jews and the Christians) who do not accept the Prophethood of Prophet Muhammad bin Abdullah, they are commonly considered Pak (pure).[9][10][11]

[edit] Use outside Islam

See also: kaffir (ethnic slur)
See also: Kaffir (historical usage in southern Africa)

By the 15th century, the word kafir/kuffar 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 it's derivatives.

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.[12] In volume 4, Hakluyt writes: calling them Cafars and Gawars, which is, infidels or disbelievers.[13] 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 ( land of Cafraria on the coast of Ethiopia).[14]

The word eventually changed into many forms — cafre (in Portuguese, Spanish 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,[15] Kaffraria, kaffir lime, kaffir corn, and so on; see kaffir (disambiguation).

Some of those African slaves were taken by the Portuguese to work in their colonies in Asia. In some cities of Sri Lanka, in particular, the descendants of those slaves still constitute a distinctive ethnic group, who call themselves Kaffir.

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.[16][17][18][19][20] One of the Union-Castle Line ships operating off the South African coast even carried the name SS Kafir.[21]

In South Africa, the word kaffir eventually became a racial slur, applied pejoratively or offensively by some whites to African blacks or to dark-skinned persons in general. In Jamaica, it is applied by some Jamaicans of Indian ancestry to Jamaicans of African ancestry.

[edit] See also

[edit] References

  1. ^ Sheikh Muhammad Al-Mukhtar Al-Shinqiti (2005). "General Fatwa Session, "...kafir is now a derogatory term..."" (HTML). Living Shariah>Live Fatwa. Islamonline.net. Retrieved on 2007-02-23.
  2. ^ Who is a Kaafir? - Reading Islam.com - Ask About Islam
  3. ^ url = http://www.sunnahonline.com/ilm/aqeedah/0038.htm | accessdate = 2009-01-03
  4. ^ http://www.usc.edu/schools/college/crcc/engagement/resources/texts/muslim/quran/004.qmt.html
  5. ^ http://www.usc.edu/schools/college/crcc/engagement/resources/texts/muslim/quran/009.qmt.html
  6. ^ http://www.usc.edu/schools/college/crcc/engagement/resources/texts/muslim/quran/016.qmt.html
  7. ^ IslamOnline, Jasser Auda
  8. ^ Moiz Amjad, Relations with non-Muslims, Understanding-Islam.com, Al-Mawrid.[1]
  9. ^ Entry on the website of Grand Ayatollah Fazel Lankarani
  10. ^ Entry on the website of Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani
  11. ^ Bernard Lewis The Jews of Islam, Princeton University Press, Princeton, 1984, ISBN 0-691-00807-8, pp. 33–34
  12. ^ http://www.gutenberg.org/browse/authors/h#a1212
  13. ^ Richard Hakluyt. The Principal Navigations, Voyages, Traffiques and Discoveries of the English Nation — Volume 04. http://www.gutenberg.org/etext/7769. 
  14. ^ Richard Hakluyt. The Principal Navigations, Voyages, Traffiques and Discoveries of the English Nation — Volume 09. http://www.gutenberg.org/etext/10673. 
  15. ^ "Sir Harry Smith". The New York Times (1902-05-24). Retrieved on 2008-10-21.
  16. ^ "BARNATO A SUICIDE; The Kafir King Leaps Overboard....". New York Times (1897). Retrieved on 2008-10-23.
  17. ^ "KAFIR BAND IN JAIL AND MIGHTY GLAD, TOO". New York Times (1905-10-18). Retrieved on 2008-10-23.
  18. ^ Kafir Stories by W. C. Scully" at Project Gutenberg
  19. ^ The Right of American Slavery by T. W. Hoit at Project Gutenberg
  20. ^ "THE AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF LIEUTENANT-GENERAL SIR HARRY SMITH". Retrieved on 2008-10-23.
  21. ^ "Union Steamship Company". Retrieved on 2008-10-23.

[edit] External links

Sister project Look up kafir in
Wiktionary, the free dictionary.
Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kafir"
Personal tools