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What is a “Kafir” in Islam? The Answer is More Than “Unbeliever”
The word “Kafir” (كافِر) in Arabic and Islam is often misunderstood. Its root, k-f-r, fundamentally means “to cover.” This article reveals the word’s diverse Quranic meanings, including “sower” and “ungrateful,” illustrating its nuances far beyond just “disbeliever,” and discusses its theological and modern implications.
The word “Kafir” (كافِر) in Arabic, particularly within Islamic contexts, is a powerful term often subject to misunderstanding.
This article aims to clarify its true meaning by examining its root k-f-r (كَفَرَ), which fundamentally means “to veil” or “to cover,” thereby revealing its broader implications beyond simply ‘disbeliever’ in Islam.
Sura 109 is named The Disbelievers – in Arabic: al-Kafirun (سُورة الْكافِرُون). The so-called “disbelievers” (unbelievers) are the enemies of the Muslims, and they will be punished heavily by Allah. (You may find additional information in this article.)
Sadly enough, some Muslims think that they are obliged to carry out Allah’s work in this life. Most victims are Christians living in Islamic countries, minorities like the Yazīdi people in Iraq and Syria, but also Shia Muslims living in Sunni-dominated countries.
They are all denounced as unbelievers.
The Arabic root k-f-r (كَفَرَ) is tricky
It helps us to get closer to the Islamic concept of disbelieve. Of this root, 17 forms occur 510 (!) times in the Qur’an. The root has several meanings, and most of them have to do with: to veil or to cover. It is an old Semitic root that is found in Hebrew as well, some say also in Nabataean.
Let us take a look at some examples of how the root is used:
| He covered the sown seed with earth. | كَفَرَ الْبَذْرَ الْمَبْذُورَ |
| The clouds covered the sky. | كَفَرَ السُّحابُ السَّماءَ |
| A dark night. (“lail kafir” is a classical Arabic term.) | كافِر |
| Mukaffar is the passive participle of كَفَّرَ and used to describe a bird covered with feathers. | مُكَفَّر |
Since its original meaning is to cover, the term Kāfir (كافِر), in pre-Islamic times, was also used to denote a sower or a tiller of the ground – because he covers the seed with earth.
This is important when Muslims want to fully understand the Qur’an. Sadly enough, many Muslims, also native Arabic speakers, think that the word Kāfir only means unbeliever, and therefore could misinterpret several verses in the Qur’an.
Let’s take a look at a verse of sura 57 The Iron – in Arabic: al-Hadīd (سُورة الْحَدِيد) – in which Kāfir does not mean unbeliever, but tiller/, sower – verse 57:20.
| Bear in mind that the present life is just a game, a diversion, an attraction, a cause of boasting among you, of rivalry in wealth and children. It is like plants that spring up after the rain: their growth at first delights the sowers, but then you see them wither away, turn yellow, and become stubble. There is terrible punishment in the next life as well as forgiveness and approval from God; the life of this world is only an illusory pleasure. | اعْلَمُوا أَنَّمَا الْحَيَاةُ الدُّنْيَا لَعِبٌ وَلَهْوٌ وَزِينَةٌ وَتَفَاخُرٌ بَيْنَكُمْ وَتَكَاثُرٌ فِي الْأَمْوَالِ وَالْأَوْلَادِ كَمَثَلِ غَيْثٍ أَعْجَبَ الْكُفَّارَ نَبَاتُهُ ثُمَّ يَهِيجُ فَتَرَاهُ مُصْفَرًّا ثُمَّ يَكُونُ حُطَامًا وَفِي الْآخِرَةِ عَذَابٌ شَدِيدٌ وَمَغْفِرَةٌ مِّنَ اللَّهِ وَرِضْوَانٌ وَمَا الْحَيَاةُ الدُّنْيَا إِلَّا مَتَاعُ الْغُرُورِ. |
The root can also express to be ungrateful, that someone is ungrateful for the benefits which he received. This too is found in the Qur’an. Let’s look at Sura 16 The Bee – in Arabic: al-Nahl (سُورة النَّحْل) – verse 16:72.
| And it is God who has given you spouses from among yourselves and through them He has given you and grandchildren and provided you with good things. How can they believe in falsehood and deny God’s blessings? | وَاللَّهُ جَعَلَ لَكُم مِّنْ أَنفُسِكُمْ أَزْوَاجًا وَجَعَلَ لَكُم مِّنْ أَزْوَاجِكُم بَنِينَ وَحَفَدَةً وَرَزَقَكُم مِّنَ الطَّيِّبَاتِ أَفَبِالْبَاطِلِ يُؤْمِنُونَ وَبِنِعْمَتِ اللَّهِ هُمْ يَكْفُرُونَ |
Forever “Kafir”
It seems the Arabic language has found its way onto an unlikely canvas: the arm of former Fox News host and current US Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth.
Hegseth decided to permanently ink himself with a bold Arabic inscription that reads كافر (“Kafir”), which translates to unbeliever or infidel. He himself posted the images with the Arabic script on his official X account on 25th March 2025. Hegseth, as users pointed out, also appears to have the tattoo in another Instagram photo posted in July 2024.
Source: X account of Pete Hegseth
How can “to cover” mean “to disbelieve”?
The sentence he disbelieved in Allah (كَفَرَ بِاللّهِ) can be interpreted as follows: Someone disbelieves because he conceals or covers the truth of Allah. Even in the Qur’an, a metaphorical meaning of to cover in the sense of to disbelieve is found.
It is a verse in sura 5 The Feast/The Table Spread – in Arabic: al-Mā’ida (سُورة الْمائِدة) – which talks about the Christians. Christians belong to the People of the Book – in Arabic: ’Ahl al-Kitāb (أَهْل الْكِتاب). Muslims use this term for Jews and Christians. From an Islamic perspective, Christians literally cover the knowledge that a prophet (= Muhammad) will come after Jesus.
Let’s look at the verse (Sura 5:17).
| Those who say, ‘God is the Messiah, the son of Mary’, are defying the truth (= have disbelieved). | لَّقَدْ كَفَرَ الَّذِينَ قَالُوا إِنَّ اللَّهَ هُوَ الْمَسِيحُ ابْنُ مَرْيَمَ |
Other meanings of kafr and kafir
- The Arabic word Kafr (كَفْر) can also mean village. It is a Syrian word and mostly used in Syria and Egypt.
- The English word Kaffir has Arabic roots. Kaffir (Kaffer in Afrikaans) is an insulting term for a black African used in South Africa. The history of this word most probably goes back to the Islamic conquest of East Africa.
- Some native peoples there believed in several gods, and therefore the Muslims called them Kāfir. English missionaries picked it up to denounce the Bantu people in South Africa. This happened possibly in the middle of the 18th century. Later, the expression was generally used in English and Dutch (Afrikaans) for South African blacks. It is a racist term.
The Plural of Kafir: Understanding the Difference Between Kafirun, Kuffar, and More
The plural forms of "Kafir" (كافِر) in Arabic, meaning "unbeliever," carry various nuances and can even be politically charged. This article breaks down the three main plural types (Kafirun/Kuffar, Kawafir/Kafirat, Kafara) and distinguishes them from intensifying forms like Kafur (كَفُور)…
Wanna cite this article?
Drißner, G. (2017, February 11). What is a “Kafir” in Islam? The Answer is More Than “Unbeliever”. Arabic for Nerds. https://arabic-for-nerds.com/islam/what-is-a-kafir/
Published: February 11, 2017
Please check the citation before use, especially if your style guide has local requirements.
Publication ISSN: 3055-1730
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Thanks Gerald for the information on K-f-r.
What about Takfir / Takfiri? How does this relate to the root, and is its usage modern or can it also be traced back to earlier texts?
Thanks!
Hi Rob, sorry for the late reply, I have simply overlooked your question. My apologies.
Takfīr (تكفير), as I understand it, can express the idea of seducation to infidelity; charge of unbelief. Takfīriyy (تَكْفِيرِيّ), as I understand it today, means accusing fellow Muslims of apostasy.
I personally first came across the word Takfiri (تَكْفِيرِيّ) in 2008, if I remember correctly, in some texts about Algeria. In 2011, it started to spread throughout the Arab world, mainly from Syria. In 2014, I even heard it in a demonstration in Istanbul.
Unfortunately, I don’t know who used the word publicly during the Arab Spring in such a way that it spread so quickly. Does anyone know?
Takfiri an interesting construction because it’s the so-called nisba adjective (نسبة) of the infinitive (مصدر) of the II-verb kaffara (كَفَّرَ), but why do we need a nisba adjective of the masdar when we could express it directly with the active participle, i.e., the one who pronounces or seduces someone into infidelity? Perhaps we do not want to focus on the act, but rather on the person’s ideology. The word Takfiri also quickly became pluralized, i.e., the masculine plural تَكْفِيرِيُّون. We could thus call the word Takfiri (تكفيري) perhaps a “xenonym”.
I think the important thing here is the political aspect. In the beginning I read mostly مَنْهَج التكفير (lit.: method, approach), and only after some time the word تكفيري was used instead to denounce people – and here, what was usually meant was not the actual verbal act of a person (accusing others of apostasy), but the person’s affiliation to a political/religious group.
Now, people could also use the perhaps even stronger IV-verb ‘akfara (أَكْفَرَ) to express the some idea (accuse someone of infidelity). I do not know why the II-verb (كَفَّرَ) was used to express the idea of تكفيري, perhaps it is related to how the word sounds. For example, using the masdar of a IV-verb and turn it into a Nisba, that’s really weird. But that is just a guess.
But this is just my personal view and experience.
As for earlier texts, I really don’t know. Of course, the word تكفير (masdar) is known from early Arabic, Takfir was used over the centuries by religious scholars – but as far as I know not the Masdar-Nisba construction. If you come across any research on the origin of تكفيري, please share it with me. I am also interested in this. Also, if you do have further information about it, please let me know. I am not in expert in all this, so please consider my answer just some quick thoughts.
The history of this word most probably goes back to the Islamic conquest of East Africa
As an East African, the lack of proof for this is offensive.
Oh and also, terrorism has no place in Islam whatsoever.
Have a nice day.
It is all well and nice to discuss the linguistic/etymological implications of Arabic, but please don’t forget that when it occurs in Islam, Arabic words come with legal/jurisprudential meanings and connotations that are NOT equivalent to their linguistic uses.
Kaafir means “unbeliever”/”disbeliever”, i.e. non-Muslim, in clear-cut Islamic legal terms. Whether it’s insulting/oppressive depends on the situation/culture/etc. Though, it’s usually used to speak in general terms, not at a particular person or people. You’ll find that most Muslims don’t generally call non-Muslims “kaafir”/kuffaar” unless it’s someone they hate for good reason (like Trump lol)
Extremists bombing innocent people while calling them kuffaar is another problem altogether. It’s not a problem of the word or its usage in Islamic jurisprudence. It’s them interpreting our sacred texts wrong, to their own whims, reading only half of the texts (the Qur’an DOES repeatedly call for fighting against “unbelievers” but it also reiterates not transgressing the limits AND commands us to deal justly and with kindness with non-Muslims who don’t oppress us; funny how extremists don’t read these verses and ignore Prophetic instructions NOT TO HARM non-combatants), and cherrypicking which scholars’ words they’ll use to justify their atrocities.
السلام عليكم ورحمة الله وبركاته.
thank you for this additional information about how “kafir” is understood islamically and liguistically. Despite my great love for language and particularly Arabic, then their is no doubt – as you clarified – that Islamic law is what is important. Linguistics fades away in importance compared to the greatness of Islamic law because it is the injunctions set by Allah whereas language is just a tool.
الله أعلم
In Spanish we also have the term “cafre”. According to the Dictionary of the Royal Academy of the Spanish Language:
“cafre.- From Portuguese “cáfer” and this one from classical Arabic “kāfir” = Pagan.
1. Inhabitant of “Cafrería”, an old English colony in South Africa.
2. Relative to Cafrería or its inhabitants.
3. Barbarian and cruel.
4. Silly and primitive.”
I have heard that kufr has the meaning of covering over the truth. I was wondering how that squares with the following ayat:
(لَا إِكْرَاهَ فِي الدِّينِ ۖ قَدْ تَبَيَّنَ الرُّشْدُ مِنَ الْغَيِّ ۚ فَمَنْ يَكْفُرْ بِالطَّاغُوتِ وَيُؤْمِنْ بِاللَّهِ فَقَدِ اسْتَمْسَكَ بِالْعُرْوَةِ الْوُثْقَىٰ لَا انْفِصَامَ لَهَا ۗ وَاللَّهُ سَمِيعٌ عَلِيمٌ)
[Surat Al-Baqarah 256]
via @QuranAndroid
That’s an interesting point. I guess we could talk for hours about the various meanings of كفر as this is indeed a very interesting Arabic root.
If I am not mistaken, the sura 2:256 could be translated as:
“There is no compulsion in religion: true guidance has become distinct from error, so whoever rejects false gods and believes in Allah has grasped the firmest handhold, one that will never break. Allah is all hearing and all knowing.”
Many scholars translated the verb كفر in this particular sentence as “to reject”. I guess this is perfectly fine, and it also makes sense. If we take the basic meaning of كفر, which is “to cover”, we could probably say that the expression كفر ب may mean: to cover the thing [as to destroy it]. In other words, we could probably say, that it means here: “to quit”, hence: to negate or disbelieve – or simply: to reject someone.
What do you think?
Whoever rejected/disobeyed Thaghut they believe in Allah….it is used in a linguistic meaning of kafir.
For me the lowest meaning of kafir is “lain syakartum laazidannakum, walain kafartum inna azabi lasyadidi”
The highest meaning of kafir is “aba was tak bar waka na minal kafirin”.
Al syirk/associatisnism is one of the form’s of being Kafir.