Skip to content
قQuranicpediaEncyclopedia of the Glorious Qur’an

Disbelievers (Kuffar) الْكُفَّار

In review — pending scholar verification

Those who disbelieve in or reject the message of Islam after it has reached them — one of the categories the Quran contrasts with the believers (mu'minun) and the God-conscious (muttaqin).

Overview

Kuffār (Arabic: الْكُفَّار; singular kāfir) — from the root k-f-r, "to cover, to conceal" — denotes those who, after the message of Islam has reached them with clarity, reject any of its essential articles: belief in Allah as the sole deity worthy of worship, in His prophets, in His books, in the angels, in the Day of Judgement, or in qadar. The Quran addresses them in many forms — kāfir, kuffār, kāfirūn, alladhīna kafarū ("those who disbelieved").

Etymology

The verb kafara originally meant "to cover, conceal" (a farmer who covers a seed in soil is called kāfir in Arabic poetry). In religious usage, the kāfir is one who covers — i.e., conceals or rejects — the truth that has reached him. The term is the antonym of shukr (gratitude); the disbeliever is one who denies and conceals the favours of Allah.

Quranic references

  • Surah Al-Baqarah 2:6–7 — "Indeed, those who disbelieve — it is the same for them whether you warn them or do not warn them; they will not believe. Allah has set a seal upon their hearts and upon their hearing…"
  • Surah Al-Kafirun 109 — entire surah, the disavowal: "Say: O disbelievers! I do not worship what you worship… For you is your religion, and for me is my religion."
  • Surah An-Naba 78:40 — "On the Day a man will observe what his hands have put forth, and the disbeliever will say: O, would that I were dust!"
  • Surah Al-Bayyinah 98:6 — "Indeed, those who disbelieved among the People of the Scripture and the polytheists will be in the fire of Hell, abiding eternally therein."
  • Surah Aal Imran 3:106 — the Day of darkening of faces.
  • Surah Az-Zumar 39:71 — the disbelievers driven to Hell in groups.
  • Surah Al-Mā'idah 5:73 — those who said Allah is one of three.

Categories of kufr in classical theology

Classical Sunni scholars (Ibn Taymiyyah, Ibn al-Qayyim) distinguish:

  • Kufr al-Inkār — outright rejection of Allah and His messenger.
  • Kufr al-Juḥūd — knowing the truth but denying it openly (e.g., Pharaoh).
  • Kufr al-ʿInād — affirming with the heart but refusing to accept publicly out of arrogance (e.g., Iblīs).
  • Kufr an-Nifāq — outward affirmation with inward rejection (hypocrisy).
  • Kufr Aṣghar — "lesser kufr": grave sins that the Prophet ﷺ called kufr (e.g., ingratitude to spouses, abandoning prayer per some scholars) — sins below disbelief that nonetheless gravely diminish faith.

Hadith

Abu Hurayra reported the Prophet ﷺ said: "By the One in whose hand is my soul, no Jew or Christian among this nation hears of me, then dies without believing in what I have been sent with, except that he will be among the inhabitants of the Fire." — Sahih Muslim 153

Significance

The Quran addresses the Kuffār directly in many surahs, calling them to faith and warning of the Hereafter. Sunni scholarship is unanimous that one cannot label a specific individual as a kāfir without clear evidence and the conditions of takfīr being met (the act being unambiguously disbelief, the conditions clear, no excuses present).

See also

References

  1. The Quran (Sahih International translation): Surahs Al-Baqarah 2:6–7; Aal Imran 3:106; Al-Mā'idah 5:73; Az-Zumar 39:71; An-Naba 78:40; Al-Bayyinah 98:6; Al-Kafirun 109.
  2. Sahih Muslim 153.
  3. Ibn Taymiyyah, Majmūʿ al-Fatāwā, vol. 12 (sections on takfīr and types of kufr).
  4. Ibn al-Qayyim al-Jawziyyah, Madārij as-Sālikīn, sections on the categories of kufr.