Meaning: the disbelievers · Also translated as: disbelievers, disbeliever, a disbeliever, disbelieving
Forms in the Quran
ٱلْكَٰفِرِينَ×52
لِلْكَٰفِرِينَ×23
ٱلْكَٰفِرُونَ×17
كَٰفِرُونَ×15
ٱلْكُفَّارَ×12
كَٰفِرِينَ×8
وَلِلْكَٰفِرِينَ×5
كُفَّارٌ×4
Its root in the classical dictionaries
الكفر في اللغة: ستر الشيء، ووصف الليل بالكافر لستره الأشخاص، والزراع لستره البذر في الأرض، وليس ذلك باسم لهما كما قال بعض أهل اللغة لما سمع:387-ألقت ذكاء يمينها في كافر
قوله تعالى: ﴿إن الذين كفروا﴾ [آل عمران: 4]. الكفر أصله التغطية والستر. وسمي الكافر الشرعي كافرا لأنه ستر الحق وغطى عليه. وسمي الليل كافرا لستره الأشياء بظلامه. وأنشد لثعلبة: [من الكامل]
It was not fitting
For the people of Medina
And the Bedouin Arabs
Of the neighbourhood, to refuse
To follow God's Apostle,
Nor to prefer their own lives
To his: because nothing
Could they suffer or do,
But was reckoned to their credit
As a deed of righteousness,—
Whether they suffered thirst,
Or fatigue, or hunger, in the Cause
Of God, or trod paths
To raise the ire of the Unbelievers,
Or received any injury
Whatever from an enemy:
For God suffereth not
The reward to be lost
Of those who do good;—
Is it a matter
Of wonderment to men
That We have sent
Our inspiration to a man
From among themselves?—
That he should warn mankind
(Of their danger), and give
The good news to the Believers
That they have before their Lord
The lofty rank of Truth.
(But) say the Unbelievers:
"This is indeed
An evident sorcerer!"
So the Ark floated
With them on the waves
(Towering) like mountains,
And Noah called out
To his son, who had
Separated himself (from the rest):
"O my son! embark
With us, and be not
With the Unbelievers!"
He said: "Before any food
Comes (in due course)
To feed either of you,
I will surely reveal
To you the truth
And meaning of this
Ere it befall you
That is part of the (Duty)
Which my Lord hath taught me.
I have (I assure you)
Abandoned the ways
Of a people that believe not
In God and that (even)
Deny the Hereafter.
"O my sons! go ye
And enquire about Joseph
And his brother, and never
Give up hope of God's
Soothing Mercy: truly
No one despairs of God's
Soothing Mercy, except
Those who have no faith."
For Him (alone) is prayer
In Truth: any others that they
Call upon besides Him hear them
No more than if they were
To stretch forth their hands
For water to reach their mouths
But it reaches them not:
For the prayer of those
Without Faith is nothing
But (futile) wandering (in the mind).
The parable of the Garden
Which the righteous are promised!—
Beneath it flow rivers:
Perpetual is the enjoyment thereof
And the shade therein:
Such is the End
Of the Righteous; and the End
Of Unbelievers is the Fire.
Those before them did (also)
Devise plots; but in all things
The master-planning is God's.
He knoweth the doings
Of every soul: and soon
Will the Unbelievers know
Who gets home in the End.
Of God, to Whom do belong
All things in the heavens
And on earth!
But alas for the Unbelievers
For a terrible Penalty
(Their Unfaith will bring them)!—
Then, on the Day of Judgment,
He will cover them
With shame, and say:
"Where are My "partners"
Concerning whom ye used
To dispute (with the godly)?"
Those endued with knowledge
Will say: "This Day, indeed,
Are the Unbelievers covered
With Shame and Misery,—
It may be that your Lord
May (yet) show Mercy
Unto you; but if ye
Revert (to your sins),
We shall revert
(To Our punishments):
And We have made Hell
A prison for those who
Reject (all Faith),
Do the Unbelievers think
That they can take
My servants as protectors
Besides Me? Verily We
Have prepared Hell
For the Unbelievers
For (their) entertainment.