The Word, Kafir, Has Benighted Interfaith Relations Worldwide; Imperative, Therefore, To Know Who Is Kafir In Islam
By
Najmul Hoda
July 11
2020
‘Kafir’
has been a contentious word. It has benighted Hindu-Muslim relations in India,
and interfaith relations worldwide. It has injured the Hindu psyche and made
them resent it as a slur. The sad part is that Muslims continue to consider it
a descriptor for non-Muslims. They express surprise that the Hindus take offence
at it. Their inability to acknowledge the hurt is an aspect of the consciousness
and othering not only non-Muslims but also Muslims who differ in creedal
details with one’s own doctrines.
New
Delhi: People belonging to Hindu and Muslim faiths celebrate the Ayodhya case,
outside the Supreme Court in New Delhi, Saturday, Nov. 9, 2019.
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Such a
political usage makes it imperative to examine the word and its meanings in the
basic text of Islam, the Quran. The root verb of the participial noun kafir
(and of the infinitive noun kufr) is the trilateral K F R (Kafara),
“s/he covered (a thing)”. Thus, the Quran calls a farmer a kafir
(chapter 57: verse 20) as he covers the sown seed with earth. This meaning of
covering extended, by a semantic quirk, to concealing a manifest truth by going
against one’s convictions. Another meaning of kafir is an ingrate. Thus,
the Quran shows the Pharaoh calling Moses, whom he had brought up, an ingrate
for challenging his authority (26:18-19).
The
word Kafir is inducing many Muslims to, not integrate themselves with other
non-Muslims.
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Beside
these two meanings, the Quran identifies as kufr some traits and behaviours
such as niggardliness (4:37, et al), exorbitant usury (3:130), vulgar display
of charity (2:264), using religion for material gains (5:44) and haughtiness
(2:34), etc. These characteristics of kufr are universal regardless of faith
and community. However, being an ingrate or parsimonious or usurious doesn’t
make one a kafir.
Related Articles:
Who Is A Kafir In The Quran? (Part 1): 'Kafir,'
'Mushrik' And 'Idolater' Are Not Synonyms
Who Is A Kafir In The Quran? (Part 2): Muslim–
Non-Muslim Relationship
Who is a Kafir in the Quran? (Part 4) Defining Kufr
So, what does? Persecution! Not the unbelief because of the lack of conviction, but peremptory rejection and ridicule of the principles of faith; open and active hostility against a people for their belief; attempt to stop them from practicing their religion; driving them out of their homes, and waging war against them (2:190, 217; 47:1, et al).
It has
nothing to do with the absence of belief in the Islamic doctrine of divinity
and prophecy. No verse of the Quran identifies people of other religions as Kafirs.
Kafir is not an antonym of Muslim. Islam could co-exist with other
religions without othering all. A non-Muslim could be spared an opprobrious
appellation, and could be recognised by her self-determined identity. A
non-Hindu, a non-Christian, a non-Sikh, a non-Buddhist or a non-Jain is not the
antagonistic ‘other’ to the respective religions. Likewise, a non-Muslim is not
the hostile ‘other’ to Islam. He is not a kafir.
The Quran
mentions Momins (believers), Fasiqs (wrongdoers) and Kafirs
(rejectionist persecutors) among all the ‘People of the Scripture’, i.e., all
the organised religions (3:110-15). These categories are present in the Muslim
community, too. Every Muslim is not a believer (49:14). To say that there are
wrongdoers galore among them, one only has to look around. As for the Kafirs
among Muslims, a cursory glance at the mutually recriminating fatwas would make
the point beyond refutation.
The Quran
does not classify any community or individual as kafir on the ground
that they don’t believe in the religion of Muslims. Only such individuals, or
groups, have been thus designated who to any major organised and recognised
religion known to the Arabs of that time. He subscribed to the local tradition
which, on a poor analogy, is called paganism. Its practitioner is called a
Mushrik by the Quran since they ascribed divinity to other beings beside Allah,
which impinged on the unicity of God. Mushrik is wrongly translated as
‘polytheist’ or ‘idolater’. The most approximate rendering would be
‘associationist’, since he associated partners with God. Despite its being a
cardinal sin, the Quran does not describe every Mushrik a kafir, as is
evident from verses 1 and 6 of chapter 98, wherein there is a severe
castigation of the Kafirs among the People of the Book and the Mushriks.
Contrary to the conventional understanding which considers Mushrik a synonym of
kafir, Mushriks were just non-Muslims.
If a person
does not become a kafir for just not being a Muslim, designating the
Hindu as kafir was based on bad deduction and flawed interpretation,
which insinuated imperial hubris in making sense of the society which the early
Muslims in India were interacting with. Hindus had an organised and recognised
religion based on scriptures. It made them a People of the Book. Based on this
rationale, Jizya was imposed on them, and men from the Muslim royalty married
into them.
Insofar as
a kafir is someone who actively falsifies and denounces Islam,
persecutes its followers and stops them from practicing their religion, it has
been absolutely absurd to call the Hindus kafir as they never denounced
Islam or stopped Muslims from practicing their religion. Hindus and Muslims
have sporadically fought each other, both at the upper political and the lower
social levels. But, in these fights, the religious issue was brought in from
only one side, as the Hindus have been least interested in what the Muslims
believed in or not, whereas the Muslims have always been stressed about the
faith of the Hindus.
Therefore,
given the unsavoury history of the word kafir and its offensive usage as
a slur, it would be a right step in the direction of interfaith harmony to
eliminate its usage from contemporary discourse.
South
Africa has proscribed the use of the word ‘Kafir’ — a pejorative
bequeathed from the times when Arab Muslims used to capture Africans to trade
in slavery because they were both black and kafir.
NajmulHoda
is an IPS officer
Related Articles:
Who Is A Kafir In The Quran? (Part 1): 'Kafir,'
'Mushrik' And 'Idolater' Are Not Synonyms
Who Is A Kafir In The Quran? (Part 2): Muslim–
Non-Muslim Relationship
Who is a Kafir in the Quran? (Part 4) Defining Kufr
Original
Headline: Who is a Kafir?
Source: Deccan Herald
URL: https://newageislam.com/islamic-ideology/the-word,-kafir,-benighted-interfaith/d/122345
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