Kafir

Kafir (Arabic: كَافِر, romanized: kāfir; plural: كَافِرُون kāfirūn, كُفَّار kuffār, or كَفَرَة kafara; feminine: كَافِرَة kāfira; feminine plural: كَافِرَات kāfirāt or كَوَافِر kawāfir) is an Arabic term in Islam which refers to a person who disbelieves in God, denies his authority, rejects the tenets of Islam, or simply are not Muslim and do not believe in the guidance of the Islamic prophet Muhammad.

Kafir is often translated as 'infidel,' 'pagan,' 'rejector,' 'denier,' 'disbeliever,' 'unbeliever,' 'nonbeliever,' and 'non-Muslim.' The term is used in different ways in the Quran, with the most fundamental sense being ungrateful toward God. Kufr means 'disbelief', 'unbelief', 'non-belief,' 'to be thankless,' 'to be faithless,' or 'ingratitude.' The opposite term of kufr ('disbelief') is iman ('faith'), and the opposite of kafir ('disbeliever') is mu'min ('believer'). A person who denies the existence of a creator might be called a dahri.

Kafir is sometimes used interchangeably with mushrik (مشرك), another type of religious wrongdoer mentioned frequently in the Quran and other Islamic works. Other, sometimes overlapping Quranic terms for wrong-doers are zallam ('villain'; 'oppressor') and fasiq ('sinner'; 'fornicator').

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 towards 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.^: 470 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 (such as Hindus, Christians, Jews, Samaritans, Gnostics, Mandeans, and Zoroastrians) 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".