Asghar Ali Engineer is a rights activist and heads the two organisations, Institute of Islamic Studies and Centre for Study of Society and Secularism. He has authored or edited 44 books on such  issues  as  Islam and communal and ethnic problems in India and South Asia in general.  For links to his other articles, please go to the top page of this site.

The word kafir is much debated and is taken to be humiliating one by Hindus and other non-Muslims. The Qur’an uses this word repeatedly and in different contexts. The Islamic terminology has often been referred to out of context, which creates friction among Muslims and no-Muslims. No text can yield proper meaning without proper context. It is, therefore, important that we view things in proper context.

Kaifr in Arabic means, according to Imam Raghib, one who hides and in the Qur’anic context it means one who hides the truth. Therefore, the Qur’an divides people into three categories those who believe in the Qur’anic revelations (Muslims), those who believe in the truth of other revealed scriptures (ahl al-kitab, people of the book) and those who have no revealed scriptures or revealed truth are described as kafirs, particularly, if they refuse to accept the revealed truth.

There is one more term used by the Qur’an – mushrik which means one who associates partners with Allah and refuse to accept unity of God (tawhid). The Qur’an applies these terms depending on the context.

According to the Qur’an even kafirs, if they do not obstruct Muslims to follow their religion, and if they refrain from persecuting them, are free to follow their own religion. The Qur’an tersely puts it as lakum dinukum wa liya din (for you is your religion and for me is mine, 109:6) Elsewhere the
Qur’an also says “There is no compulsion in matters of religion (2:256).

Thus the real problem with kafirs of Mecca was not that they refused to accept the truth of Islam but they severely persecuted Muslims for believing in Islam and forced them to leave Mecca. Had they given right to Muslims to believe in the truth of Islam there would have been no conflict with them. It should also be remembered that real threat to the kafirs of Mecca was not religious but political. The leaders of Mecca felt threatened by the rising movement of Islam, which was being rapidly embraced by the weaker sections of Mecca – the poor and needy, the slaves and women. Islam championed the cause of social justice and strongly condemned accumulation of wealth (see 9:34 and chapters 104 and 107) which greatly bothered these leaders and they began to persecute the Prophet of Islam and his followers. This was the real arena of conflict.

Some Muslims loosely apply the term kafir to all Hindus and which rightly irritates them. This is incorrect. The word kafir cannot be applied to Hindus thoughtlessly and without understanding the real meaning of the word in the Qur’anic terminology. As kafir means one who hides the truth Hindus cannot be described as kafirs, according to many eminent Islamic thinkers and sufi saints like Mazhar Jan-i-Janan, a 18th century sufi saint from Delhi. In reply to a query from his disciple he clearly said that Hindus are not kafirs. They also possess revealed scripture called Bedas (Vedas). They also believe in unity of God (tawhid). 

Mazhar Jan-i-Janan goes even a step further and explains away idol worshipping among the Hindus qualitatively different from idol worship of Arabs in pre-Islamic period. While Arabs worshipped these idols as God, the Hindus only see glory of God in them and he likens them with the concept of
Shaikh for a sufi disciple.

Dara Shikoh, in his introduction to the Persian translation of Upanishads even maintains that he has not seen so much emphasis on tawhid (unity of God) as in the Upaishads after the Holy Qur’an. In his book Majma`ul Bahrayn (Commingling of Two Oceans) he compares the Hindu and Islamic terminology and comes to conclusion that there is only difference of language, not of substance.

Thus one should not apply the term kafir loosely and thoughtlessly. It should be applied very carefully and after thorough study. Many sufi saints in India had studied the Hindu scripture in depth and had great respect for their beliefs. We tend to transform political conflict into religious one and create intractable problems. The Qur’an does not promote religious conflict at any level but exhorts believers to excel each other in good deeds (istibaq al-khayrat) rather than quarrel on ways of worship (2:148). Such conflicts promote only bloodshed and can never be resolved and hence emphasis should always be on excelling in good deeds.

It is vested interests – religious or political – who promote such conflict. The people who are truly religious shun such conflicts. In modern pluralist societies such conflicts can assume dangerous proportions. Respect for truth of every religion and its uniqueness is the only way out. Believers in truth –
though its manifestation may be different in different religious or spiritual traditions – are all believers and must be respected. 
 

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