Category: Critique of Religion

Introduction

Surah al-Qiyamah 75:4 is not about fingerprints; it is about resurrection. Yet the claim that the Quran “revealed the uniqueness of fingerprints 1,400 years ago” is one of the most widely shared examples of the so-called scientific miracles of the Quran, repeated on social media and from pulpits alike.

The argument goes like this: God singled out the fingertips because He knew every human being has a unique fingerprint, something science only discovered in the 19th century. Therefore, the Quran cannot be the work of a human author.

This article shows that the claim collapses on five fronts: the context of the verse, the meaning of its words, the official translations, the interpretations of Muslim scholars themselves, and the actual history of fingerprint knowledge.

The Verse and Its Context

The verse is part of an argument about raising the dead, not a description of human skin. The first four verses of Surah al-Qiyamah, a Meccan surah, read:

لَا أُقْسِمُ بِيَوْمِ الْقِيَامَةِ ﴿١﴾ وَلَا أُقْسِمُ بِالنَّفْسِ اللَّوَّامَةِ ﴿٢﴾ أَيَحْسَبُ الْإِنسَانُ أَلَّن نَّجْمَعَ عِظَامَهُ ﴿٣﴾ بَلَىٰ قَادِرِينَ عَلَىٰ أَن نُّسَوِّيَ بَنَانَهُ ﴿٤﴾

In plain English: “I swear by the Day of Resurrection, and I swear by the self-reproaching soul. Does man think that We will not gather his bones? Yes indeed, We are able to restore even his fingertips.”

The audience was the polytheists of Mecca, who asked how decayed bones could ever live again. The verse answers with an argument from the lesser to the greater: not only the large bones, but even the smallest and most distant bones of the body, the joints of the fingers, will be reassembled.

There is no mention of lines, patterns, individual differences or identification anywhere in the verse. The key word is “bones” (ʿiẓām), and the subject is putting the body back together.

Official Translations of 75:4

None of the English or German translations, nor the older Persian translation by Elahi Ghomshei, says a word about “lines” or “prints.” The word appears only in newer Persian translations, and always inside parentheses or brackets, which mark text the translator added himself.

Translator	Language	Translation of 75:4
Mahdi Elahi Ghomshei	Persian	بلی (استخوانهای او را جمع می‌کنیم) در حالی که ما قادریم که سرانگشتان او را هم منظم درست گردانیم“Yes (We will gather his bones), for We are able to rebuild even his fingertips in order.”
Naser Makarem Shirazi	Persian	آری قادریم که (حتّی خطوط سر) انگشتان او را موزون و مرتّب کنیم“Yes, We are able to arrange (even the lines of the tips of) his fingers in proportion and order.”
Hussain Ansarian	Persian	چرا در حالی که تواناییم که [خطوط] سر انگشتانش را درست و نیکو بازسازی کنیم“Indeed, We are able to rebuild the [lines of the] tips of his fingers correctly and well.”
Marmaduke Pickthall	English	Yea, verily. We are Able to restore his very fingers
Abdullah Yusuf Ali	English	Nay, We are able to put together in perfect order the very tips of his fingers
Saheeh International	English	Yes. [We are] Able [even] to proportion his fingertips
Bubenheim & Elyas	German	Ja doch! (Wir) haben die Macht dazu, seine Fingerspitzen zurechtzuformen
Adel Theodor Khoury	German	Ja doch, Wir sind imstande, seine Fingerspitzen zurechtzubilden

English renderings of the Persian translations are our own, for reference.

The key point: the parentheses and brackets in Makarem’s and Ansarian’s translations signal the translator’s own additions, not part of the Arabic. Remove them, and their translations say exactly what Ghomshei and the Western translators say: We will rebuild his fingertips. In other words, the “miracle” was inserted by the translators themselves.

What Did Banān Mean? Classical Exegesis, Poetry and the Quran Itself

No Muslim exegete in the first thousand years of Islam linked this verse to fingerprints. The words themselves, the classical commentaries, pre-Islamic poetry and the Quran’s only other use of the word all point the same way.

The word banān

Banān means fingers or fingertips (of hands and feet), not the ridges of the skin. In pre-Islamic poetry, banān mukhaḍḍab (henna-dyed fingertips) was a stock image of feminine beauty. It was an ordinary, familiar word.

The verb nusawwiya

Sawwā means to level, to shape, or to form in due proportion. The same verb describes the creation of the whole body in “khalaqaka fa-sawwāka” (He created you and proportioned you, 82:7). The verb is about forming, not differentiating.

The two classical interpretations

1. We could fuse the fingers into one piece. Al-Tabari, citing Ibn Abbas, Mujahid, Ikrima and Qatada, explains the verse as: We could have made his fingers a single solid piece, like the hoof of a donkey or the foot of a camel, so that he could not use them. Ibn Kathir also reports these narrations.
2. We will rebuild the fingers. Ibn Kathir himself prefers this reading: We are able to gather the bones and even to restore his fingertips, smooth and complete.

Both interpretations are about God’s power to make or reshape the body. Neither mentions patterns, ridges or uniqueness. If a fingerprint meaning were evident in the text, the people closest to its language and time would have seen it.

Banān in pre-Islamic Arabic poetry

Poets before the Quran used banān in its plain, everyday sense of “fingertips.” Two examples:

1. Al-Nābigha al-Dhubyānī (pre-Islamic poet, from his ode describing al-Mutajarrida, wife of the Lakhmid king al-Nuʿmān ibn al-Mundhir):

بِمُخَضَّبٍ رَخْصٍ كَأَنَّ بَنانَهُ … عَنَمٌ يَكادُ مِنَ اللَّطافَةِ يُعْقَدُ

“With a soft, henna-dyed hand, as if its fingertips were tender ʿanam sprigs, so delicate they could almost be tied in a knot.”

Here banān simply means a woman’s henna-painted fingertips. Nothing hidden, nothing scientific.

2. Al-ʿAbbās ibn Mirdās al-Sulamī (a mukhaḍram poet, who lived through both the pre-Islamic era and early Islam, lamenting the killing of his brother Huraym):

أَلا لَيْتَنِي قَطَّعْتُ مِنِّي بَنانَةً … وَلاقَيْتُهُ فِي الْبَيْتِ يَقْظانَ حاذِرا

“Would that I had cut off one of my fingertips, and instead met him [the killer] at home, awake and on his guard.”

Tellingly, al-Tabari, the greatest of the classical exegetes, quotes this very line in his commentary on 8:12 to show that banān is the plural of banāna, meaning “the ends of the fingers of the hands and feet.” Muslim exegetes took the meaning of the word from Arabic poetry, not from hidden science.

Banān elsewhere in the Quran: striking the fingers (al-Anfal 8:12)

The word banān occurs only twice in the Quran. The second time, in Surah al-Anfal 8:12, it appears in a battlefield command at Badr: “wa-ḍribū minhum kulla banān.” If banān were a scientific code for fingerprints, this verse would mean something like “strike the fingerprints of the enemy,” which is absurd.

إِذْ يُوحِي رَبُّكَ إِلَى الْمَلَائِكَةِ أَنِّي مَعَكُمْ فَثَبِّتُوا الَّذِينَ آمَنُوا ۚ سَأُلْقِي فِي قُلُوبِ الَّذِينَ كَفَرُوا الرُّعْبَ فَاضْرِبُوا فَوْقَ الْأَعْنَاقِ وَاضْرِبُوا مِنْهُمْ كُلَّ بَنَانٍ

Translator	Language	Translation of 8:12
Mahdi Elahi Ghomshei	Persian	(و یاد آر ای رسول) آن‌گاه که پروردگار تو به فرشتگان وحی کرد که من با شمایم، پس مؤمنان را ثابت قدم بدارید، که همانا من ترس در دل کافران می‌افکنم، پس گردنها را بزنید و همه انگشتان را قطع کنید“…so strike the necks and cut off all the fingers.”
Naser Makarem Shirazi	Persian	و (به یاد آر) موقعی را که پروردگارت به فرشتگان وحی کرد: «من با شما هستم؛ کسانی را که ایمان آورده‌اند، ثابت قدم دارید! بزودی در دلهای کافران ترس و وحشت می‌افکنم؛ ضربه‌ها را بر بالاتر از گردن (بر سرهای دشمنان) فرود آرید! و همه انگشتانشان را قطع کنید“…and cut off all their fingers.”
Hussain Ansarian	Persian	[یاد کن] هنگامی را که پروردگارت به فرشتگان وحی کرد که من با شمایم، پس مؤمنان را [برای نبرد با دشمن] ثابت قدم دارید، [و] به زودی در دل کافران ترس می اندازم، پس سرهایشان را در هم کوبید و همه انگشتانشان را قطع کنید“…smash their heads and cut off all their fingers.”
Marmaduke Pickthall	English	When thy Lord inspired the angels, (saying): I am with you. So make those who believe stand firm. I will throw fear into the hearts of those who disbelieve. Then smite the necks and smite of them each finger
Abdullah Yusuf Ali	English	Remember thy Lord inspired the angels (with the message): “I am with you: give firmness to the Believers: I will instil terror into the hearts of the Unbelievers: smite ye above their necks and smite all their finger-tips off them
Saheeh International	English	[Remember] when your Lord inspired to the angels, “I am with you, so strengthen those who have believed. I will cast terror into the hearts of those who disbelieved, so strike [them] upon the necks and strike from them every fingertip
Bubenheim & Elyas	German	Als dein Herr den Engeln eingab: “Gewiß, Ich bin mit euch. So festigt diejenigen, die glauben! Ich werde in die Herzen derer, die ungläubig sind, Schrecken einjagen. So schlagt oberhalb der Nacken und schlagt von ihnen jeden Finger
Adel Theodor Khoury	German	Als dein Herr den Engeln eingab: «Ich bin mit euch. Festigt diejenigen, die glauben. Ich werde den Herzen derer, die ungläubig sind, Schrecken einjagen. So schlagt auf die Nacken und schlagt auf jeden Finger von ihnen.»

Every translator, including the very same Makarem and Ansarian who added “lines” in Surah al-Qiyamah, renders banān here simply as “fingers.” This inconsistency shows that “lines” in 75:4 did not come from the text; it came from the miracle claim.

Note: for the punishment of theft (5:38), the Quran uses a different word: “fa-qṭaʿū aydiyahumā,” cut off their hands (aydī). So the verse that pairs banān with striking or cutting is not the theft verse but this battlefield verse, al-Anfal 8:12.

A Short History of Fingerprint Knowledge

Fingerprints were used for signatures and as evidence in China centuries before Islam, and a Muslim Persian scholar described their uniqueness as a matter of experience, not revelation. The table below lists the key dates, based on standard histories of fingerprinting.

Date	Event	Significance
1902 CE	Harry Jackson convicted at the Old Bailey, London	First criminal conviction based on fingerprints in Britain
1892 CE	Francis Galton, Finger Prints	First book on the subject; established the permanence and uniqueness of patterns
1880 CE	Henry Faulds, “On the Skin-Furrows of the Hand,” Nature	First journal article on using fingerprints for identification
1858 CE	William Herschel in Bengal	Had Rajyadhar Konai stamp his handprint on the back of a contract
1823 CE	Jan Evangelista Purkinje	Classified nine ridge patterns
1788 CE	J. C. A. Mayer	First to state explicitly that the arrangement of skin ridges is never duplicated in two persons
c. 1303 CE	Rashid al-Din Fazlullah Hamadani	“Experience shows that no two individuals have fingers exactly alike”
617–907 CE (Tang dynasty)	China	Ridge impressions on land contracts, wills and army rosters
221–206 BCE (Qin dynasty)	Document titled “The Volume of Crime Scene Investigation: Burglary”	Handprints used as evidence in burglary cases

The key figure is Rashid al-Din. A Muslim vizier of the Ilkhanate, writing roughly seven centuries after the Quran, he notes that experience shows no two people have identical fingers. He treats it as an observation, not a Quranic discovery. If this knowledge were hidden in Surah al-Qiyamah, why would a Muslim scholar of his time appeal to experience instead of the verse?

The Logical Critique: Interpretation by Hindsight

This claim is a textbook case of interpretation by hindsight: science makes a discovery first, then someone finds a vague verse and reads the new meaning into it.

1. The Texas sharpshooter fallacy

A marksman fires at a barn wall, then paints a target around the bullet hole. The “fingerprint miracle” works the same way. Before Galton and Faulds, no Muslim reading this verse ever discovered fingerprinting or used it in a court. A prophecy that can only be understood after the discovery is not a prophecy.

2. Why the fingertips?

There is a simple reason: they are the smallest and most distant bones in the body. Saying “We will rebuild even his fingertips” means “down to the last detail.” It is an ordinary rhetorical device, much like the English “from head to toe.”

3. Uniqueness is not exclusive to fingers

• The iris, the vein patterns of the palm, the shape of the ear and even the ridges of the tongue all differ from person to person. If the verse were pointing to unique identity, fingers would not be the only option.
• Fingerprints are not uniquely human either. Chimpanzees, gorillas and koalas have them too, and koala prints can be hard to tell apart from human ones.

4. “Absolute uniqueness” is not a settled scientific claim

Science today says no two identical fingerprints have ever been found, and that such a match is extremely unlikely, but there is no mathematical proof of absolute uniqueness. Fingerprint matching in court also makes mistakes. A well-known case is the American lawyer Brandon Mayfield, wrongly linked to the 2004 Madrid train bombings on the basis of a fingerprint. Those who read the verse as “proof of uniqueness” attribute to the Quran a certainty that science itself does not claim.

5. A contradiction with Muslim tradition itself

Defenders of this claim must accept one of two options. Either the Companions and the great exegetes, from Ibn Abbas to al-Tabari, failed to understand the true meaning of the verse; or the true meaning is what they said, and fingerprints were imposed on the verse later. In the first case, a “clear book” was unintelligible to its audience for thirteen centuries. In the second, the miracle claim disappears.

Conclusion

Surah al-Qiyamah 75:4 is a rhetorical reply to those who denied the resurrection: “We will rebuild even your smallest bones.” Neither the words, nor the context, nor the Companions’ interpretation, nor the official translations, nor the history of science supports the “fingerprint miracle” reading.

The argument in brief:

• Context: the verse is about reassembling bones, not identity.
• Language: banān means fingers, and sawwā means to shape or form; pre-Islamic poets used banān in exactly this plain sense.
• Translations: “lines” appears only in a few modern Persian translations, inside brackets; the same translators render banān as plain “fingers” in 8:12.
• Classical exegesis: al-Tabari and Ibn Kathir read it as “fusing the fingers together” or “rebuilding them.”
• History: the Chinese used fingerprints before Islam, and Rashid al-Din attributed their uniqueness to experience, not to the Quran.
• Logic: a meaning that is only “found” after a scientific discovery is not a prophecy.

The same pattern repeats across most “scientific miracle” claims. The right question is not “Can this verse be matched to modern science?” but “Could anyone have reached that knowledge from this verse before the discovery?” For fingerprints, the answer is clearly no.

Sources and further reading

• Al-Tabari, Jāmiʿ al-Bayān, and Ibn Kathir, Tafsīr al-Qurʾān al-ʿAẓīm, on 75:4
• Al-Tabari’s commentary on 8:12, citing the verse of al-ʿAbbās ibn Mirdās and defining banān (al-Maktaba al-Shamela)
• Dīwān of al-Nābigha al-Dhubyānī (al-Maktaba al-Shamela)
• Tanzil Quran translations repository, source of all translation texts quoted above
• Rashid al-Din Fazlullah Hamadani, Jāmiʿ al-Tawārīkh
• Francis Galton, Finger Prints (1892)
• Henry Faulds, “On the Skin-Furrows of the Hand,” Nature (1880)
• U.S. Department of Justice, Office of the Inspector General, report on the Brandon Mayfield case (2006)

Fact-checked against: The Fingerprint Sourcebook, ch. 1, National Institute of Justice (history dates); Simon A. Cole, Suspect Identities (Harvard, 2001), pp. 60–61, as cited by the AMS (Rashid al-Din quote); al-Tabari and Ibn Kathir on 75:4; Harry Jackson conviction; FBI statement on the Mayfield misidentification; koala fingerprint study.

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“Well, it depends on how you define kāfir — in my opinion, a kāfir is someone who… and therefore Christians, Jews, and others are not kāfirs.”

Whenever Muslims hear the violent and inhumane verses of the Quran regarding the slaughter of and brutal treatment of polytheists and unbelievers, they reinvent themselves as the Prophet and fabricate a new intent for God, Qāsim al-Jabbārīn (the Crusher of Tyrants). Your interpretation is respected — but we have no quarrel with the Islam of which you are the prophet. We take issue with the Islam of Muhammad and his Quran, which defines the kāfir as follows.

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Chapter One — Identifying the Kāfir, Ahl al-Kitāb, and the Polytheist

1. The lexical meaning of kufr and its applications

2. The nine Quranic meanings of kufr

   1. Denial of the principles of religion
   2. Denial of divine unity (tawḥīd)
   3. Denial of the prophethood of Muhammad
   4. Denial of ṭāghūt (transgressive authority)
   5. Ingratitude for God’s blessings (kufrān al-niʿma)
   6. Abandonment of religious obligations
   7. Commission of sin
   8. Revulsion and disavowal (barāʾa)
   9. Agriculture
3. The five meanings of kufr in hadith literature
4. The five meanings of kufr and kāfir in Shia jurisprudence

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Section One: The Meaning of Kufr

§ 1 — Lexical Meaning of Kufr

Although this study focuses specifically on the Ahl al-Kitāb (People of the Book) and polytheists, Shia jurists consistently include them under the category of kāfir — listed among ritual impurities (najāsāt) in their practical treatises. It is therefore essential to clarify the concept from the outset.

According to Arab lexicographers, kufr has one overarching primary meaning: concealment (al-sitr). All secondary meanings are derived from this root concept, including:

1. Kufr as antithesis of faith — concealing and denying truths such as God, the Resurrection, prophethood, and revealed scripture.
2. Ingratitude for blessings — ignoring or misusing God’s gifts; the antithesis of gratitude.
3. The night — which casts a dark veil over all things.
4. Agriculture / the farmer — who conceals seed beneath the soil; hence kāfir = farmer.
5. Donning armour — a soldier who covers his body with a coat of mail.

This analysis is corroborated by the major Arab lexicographers: Rāghib al-Iṣfahānī (al-Mufradāt), Ibn Fāris (Muʿjam Maqāyīs al-Lugha), Ibn Manẓūr (Lisān al-ʿArab), al-Jawharī (Ṣiḥāḥ al-Lugha), al-Zabīdī (Tāj al-ʿArūs), and al-Ṭurayḥī (Majmaʿ al-Baḥrayn).

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§ 2 — The Nine Quranic Meanings of Kufr

The word appears more than five hundred times in the Quran in various grammatical forms. Based on its lexical root, it is used in nine distinct senses:

1. Denial of the Principles of Religion

This form of kufr applies to atheists, freethinkers, and materialists who wholesale reject the metaphysical. Example verses:

• “How can you disbelieve in Allāh when you were lifeless and He brought you to life…” (Al-Baqara 2:28)
• “And what prevents their expenditures from being accepted from them but that they have disbelieved in Allāh…” (Al-Tawba 9:54)
• “Indeed, those who disbelieve in Allāh and His messengers…” (Al-Nisāʾ 4:150)
• “Those are the ones who disbelieve in the verses of their Lord and in [their] meeting Him…” (Al-Kahf 18:105)
• “…whoever disbelieves in Allāh, His angels, His books, His messengers, and the Last Day has certainly gone far astray.” (Al-Nisāʾ 4:136)

2. Denial of Divine Unity (Tawḥīd)

In this sense kufr equals shirk (polytheism) and includes dualists, trinitarians, idol-worshippers, and polytheistic factions within the People of the Book.

• “They have certainly disbelieved who say, ‘Allāh is the third of three.’…” (Al-Māʾida 5:73)
• “They have certainly disbelieved who say ‘God is the Messiah, son of Mary’…” (Al-Māʾida 5:17, 72)

3. Denial of the Prophethood of Muhammad

This encompasses all non-Muslims — including followers of other revealed religions.

• “And those who have disbelieved say, ‘You are not a messenger.’…” (Al-Raʿd 13:43)
• “Neither those who disbelieve from the People of the Scripture [i.e., the Jews and Christians] nor the polytheists wish that any good should be sent down to you from your Lord…” (Al-Baqara 2:105)

4. Denial of Ṭāghūt (transgressive authority)

This is a praiseworthy form of kufr — rejecting false gods and tyrannical powers is a prerequisite of true faith.

• “Whoever disbelieves in ṭāghūt and believes in God has grasped the most trustworthy handhold…” (Al-Baqara 2:256)

5. Ingratitude for Blessings (Kufrān al-Niʿma)

The antithesis of gratitude — squandering God’s gifts or using them in ways contrary to His will.

• “…’If you are grateful, I will surely increase you [in favor]; but if you deny, indeed, My punishment is severe.’” (Ibrāhīm 14:7)
• “…This is from the favor of my Lord to test me whether I will be grateful or ungrateful…” (Al-Naml 27:40)
• “So remember Me; I will remember you. And be grateful to Me and do not deny Me.” (Al-Baqara 2:152)
• “…So Allāh made it taste the envelopment of hunger…” (Al-Naḥl 16:112)

6. Abandonment of Religious Obligations

The Quran designates the wilful abandonment of obligations such as the ḥajj as a form of kufr.

• “…And [due] to Allāh from the people is a pilgrimage to the House – for whoever is able to find thereto a way. But whoever disbelieves [i.e., refuses] – then indeed, Allāh is free from need of the worlds.” (Āl ʿImrān 3:97)

7. Commission of Sin

In several instances the Quran labels prohibited acts — such as sorcery or crimes against innocent people — as kufr.

• “…they followed [instead] what the devils had recited during the reign of Solomon. It was not Solomon who disbelieved, but the devils disbelieved, teaching people magic…” (Al-Baqara 2:102)
• “…So do you believe in part of the Scripture and disbelieve in part?…” (Al-Baqara 2:85)

8. Revulsion and Disavowal (Barāʾa)

• “…Then on the Day of Resurrection you will deny one another and curse one another, and your refuge will be the Fire…” (Al-ʿAnkabūt 29:25)
• “…We have denied you, and there has appeared between us and you animosity and hatred forever until you believe in Allāh alone…” (Al-Mumtaḥana 60:4)
• “Satan said [on the Day of Judgement]: …’Indeed, I deny your association of me [with Allāh] before.’…” (Ibrāhīm 14:22)

9. Agriculture

In a single instance the Quran uses kufr in its original sense of “burying seed in the ground,” applying the term kuffār to farmers:

• “Know that the life of this world is but amusement and diversion… like rain whose resulting plant growth pleases the kuffār (farmers), then it withers and you see it turned yellow…” (Al-Ḥadīd 57:20)

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In the Light of the Infallible Imam

Imam Jaʿfar al-Ṣādiq was asked by Zubayrī to explain the meanings of kufr in the Quran. The Imam’s response — recorded in Uṣūl al-Kāfī (Vol. 2, Bāb Wujūh al-Kufr, p. 389) — distils these meanings into five categories:

1. Kufr of denial (juḥūd) — outright rejection of God’s lordship; the creed of those who say there is no God, no paradise, no hellfire.
2. Conscious denial — rejecting that which one already knows to be true, out of wrongdoing and arrogance: “And they rejected them, while their [inner] selves were convinced thereof, out of injustice and haughtiness” (Q. 27:14).
3. Ingratitude for blessings — misusing God’s gifts and failing to give thanks, as illustrated by Solomon’s words in Q. 27:40.
4. Abandoning divine commandments — failing to fulfil obligations God has prescribed, as in Q. 2:85.
5. Revulsion and disavowal (barāʾa) — renouncing others, as Abraham renounced his polytheist community (Q. 60:4).

The Imam concludes with a critical methodological caution: the legal rulings (aḥkām) specific to each category of kufr must not be applied to individuals who fall only under a different category. For example, Jews and Christians are kāfir in the third sense (denial of Muhammad’s prophethood) but not in the first sense (denial of God).

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§ 3 — The Five Meanings of Kufr in Hadith Literature

The usage of kufr in hadith hardly differs from its usage in the Quran. Across more than five thousand instances in Biḥār al-Anwār, five categories emerge:

1. Denial of God’s Unity or Attributes

Encompasses all atheists, materialists, polytheists, and agnostics.

• “Whoever asserts anthropomorphism or absolute determinism is a kāfir.” — Biḥār al-Anwār, vol. 5, p. 35
• “Doubt is itself kufr.” — vol. 21, p. 211

2. Denial of Prophethood (General or Specific)

Includes all those who reject the revealed scriptures, and also those who reject the Quran, such as Jews and Christians.

• “Whoever rejects the Book of God is a kāfir.” — vol. 25, p. 121
• “Who are the unbelievers?” — “Those who disbelieve in my grandfather, the Messenger of God.” — vol. 47, p. 358

3. Denial of the Resurrection or Its Details

Some traditions count deniers of transmigration of souls (tanāsukh) among unbelievers.

• “Whoever believes in the transmigration of souls is a kāfir.” — vol. 4, p. 320

4. Denial of the Imamate

Some of the traditions concern deniers of the Imamate of ʿAlī ibn Abī Ṭālib or of all the infallible Imams. These traditions count any deviation from the path of the Imamate of the Twelve Imams as kufr, for example: disputing with ʿAlī over the caliphate, hostility toward him, rejecting his rule and authority (wilāya), failing to recognise the Imam of the Age, and doubting the Imamate of ʿAlī.

5. Commission of Sin

The majority of hadith employing the term relate to specific transgressions, including:

• “Whoever dares to commit grave sins is a kāfir.” — vol. 72, p. 222
• “The abandonment of prayer is what separates the Muslim from the kāfir.” — vol. 35, p. 155
• “One who abandons taqiyya is a kāfir.” — vol. 78, p. 347
• “One who can afford ḥajj and neglects it is a kāfir.” — vol. 77, p. 58
• “The drinker of wine is a kāfir.” — vol. 79, p. 141
• “The sorcerer is a kāfir.” — vol. 79, p. 212
• “Indeed, ingratitude for a blessing from the mother is kufr.” — vol. 77, p. 213
• “Whoever calls his [Muslim] brother an unbeliever — one of the two has thereby committed kufr.” — vol. 10, p. 102
• “Whoever befriends a kāfir becomes a kāfir.” — vol. 74, p. 197

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§ 4 — The Five Categories of Kāfir in Shia Jurisprudence

Following the Quran and hadith, Shia jurists apply the term kāfir to five groups (with some scholarly disagreement):

1. Deniers of God, or materialists
2. Polytheists
3. Followers of other revealed religions — Jews, Christians, and Zoroastrians (the People of the Book)
4. Those who knowingly deny an established necessity of religion — including Khārijites, Nāṣibīs, and certain extremist sects (ghulāt)
5. Deniers of the Imamate

Shia jurists are unanimous regarding the first three groups. On the fourth, opinion is divided: some scholars consider all sub-categories both unbelievers and ritually impure; others accept their ritual impurity while declining to declare them unbelievers outright; a minority disputes even their impurity. Regarding the fifth group, while most Shia jurists do not label deniers of the Imamate as kāfir, a small number count them as kāfir in the sense of denying the truth of the Imamate. In practice, the term kāfir in Shia jurisprudence is effectively confined to the first four categories.

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Conclusion: Accordingly, according to these Islamic scholars, a kāfir is anyone who is not a Muslim! Please do not try to give Islam a metallic paint job and put lipstick on it! The savage nature of Islam cannot be changed.

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References

1. Rāghib al-Iṣfahānī, al-Mufradāt fī Gharīb al-Qurʾān, p. 433
2. Ibn Fāris, Muʿjam Maqāyīs al-Lugha, vol. 5, p. 91
3. Ibn Manẓūr, Lisān al-ʿArab, vol. 5, p. 144
4. Al-Jawharī, Ṣiḥāḥ al-Lugha, vol. 2, p. 807
5. Al-Zabīdī, Tāj al-ʿArūs, vol. 3, p. 535
6. Al-Ṭurayḥī, Majmaʿ al-Baḥrayn, vol. 3, p. 474
7. Uṣūl al-Kāfī, vol. 2, Bāb Wujūh al-Kufr, p. 389
8. Biḥār al-Anwār (various volumes — see footnotes 29–47 in original)