One of the most-layered and frequently used words in Arabic and Al-Furqaan (the Qura’an) is kafir (an infidel, unbeliever, disbeliever or one who indulges in kufr: sacrilege/blasphemy).
This word is again in public consciousness across the globe following the Sri Lankan suicide bombers blowing themselves up vowing the elimination of all non-Muslims or unbelievers from the face of the earth. Kafir is an extremely delicate and sensitive word having innumerable connotations, shades and hues. The word apparently means a sacrilegious person or one who has no faith in Allah (mind you, Islamic Allah is different from the general perception of god!). Islam’s Allah is Wahid (one of its kind sans any comparison): Vilhaad Al-Wahid (alone and none is comparable with it). But Iqbal writes in Baang-e-Dara: Kafir ki ye pahchan ke aafaaq mein gum hai/Momin ki ye pahchaan ke gum usmein hai aafaaq (The infidel is one who’s lost in the world/ But the sign of a Momin or a true Muslim is that the world is lost in him).
Going by Iqbal’s exalted and non-literal interpretation of the word kafir, even a Muslim could be a kafir if he’s lost in the mundane world at the expense of his innate spirituality. Yaas Yagana Changezi penned, “Kyon kisi ghair-musalmaan ko kafir kaha tu ne/Roz-e-qayamat pe Kareem ye sawaal karega tujh se” (Why did you call a non-Muslim kafir? On the Day of Judgement, Allah will surely ask you). It’s interesting to note that Arab Sunni Muslims always interpreted the word Kafir in the sense of a non-believer, one who doesn’t believe in Allah, Qura’an, Kalma or shahda, the basic or rudimentary proclamation of a Muslim (La ilaah illillah Muhammad Rasoolillah: There’s no god but one god/Allah and Muhammad is his only messenger). Even the greatest interpreter of Qura’an Imam Ghazali wrote in Arabic: ‘Nammehizat ‘unn-el kaafir bazyast’ (A kafir is a condemned non-believer).
It must be mentioned that the Arab Islam (rooted in Quranic Islam) still considers a kafir as a person who belongs to other faith. Even an Ahle-kitab (people of the Book) like a Jew or a Christian will also fall in the category of kafir. Qura’an states Kuffar la’aitbaar (Infidels are not to be trusted). At Al-Azhar in Cairo, the seat of Islamic studies, especially Sunni Islam, the interpretation of a kafir is one who doesn’t believe in Islam. But Shia Islam and Persian mysticism don’t cast aspersions on a Kafir. In fact, Persian doesn’t have an exact equivalent of kafir, though Persian poets liberally used it in their mystic verses. Here’s Jami for you: Ya az deen mee naghz-e-kaafir imbisaat/Yoon an deez bilaz saqeen iltifaat (If I consider you to be a Kafir just because you are not a follower of Islam, to you, I’m also a kafir because I don’t belong to your faith).
Or Persian poet of the sub-continent Bedil wrote nearly five hundred years ago: Shavad az musataqeesh miftaul musalmeen ne aznat kafir (Don’t use the word kafir for a non-Muslim for, all have the mercy of the same Allah).
In other words, Allah is not the prerogative of only Muslims. He’s Allah ul-Alameen (god of the universe or Rabbul-alameen) not Allah ul-Muslameen (god of only Muslims or Rabbul-Muslameen). The hidebound interpretation of Islam and Qura’an by the zealots has twisted and tarnished the meanings of many terms. Even in Turkish, the modern liberal poet Nazim Hikmat writes: Kil fila shibeez kafir nidar rizeez; peen miábul irtiqa fareez? (Who should I call a kafir? I’d better peep into my own self before uttering this word).
The great English scholar of Arabic and Islamic Studies, Sir Hamilton Gibb pointed out that the word kafir in its original sense and meaning ceased to exist by the mid thirteenth century but was resuscitated by fanatics in the 15th century whose rabid religious ideology was later followed by the Wahabi Islam, Salafists and the misguided religious goons of ISIS.
(An advanced research scholar of Semitic Languages and Civilizations, Sumit Paul teaches at world’s premier varsities.)
