beliefs and practices of the umma. Even though
condemned in the hadith, kafir became a polemi-
cal term used more by Muslim elites against other
Muslims than against non-Muslims during the
Middle Ages. Among those accused of unbelief
were leading Muslim philosophers such as ibn
sina (d. 1037), “intoxicated” Sufis such as Man-
sur al-hallaJ (d. 922), and members of various
branches of the Shia.
Drawing on this tradition and promoting a
rigid doctrine of absolute monotheism, the central
Arabian revivalist Muhammad ibn abd al-Wahhab
(d. 1798) called any Muslim who failed to enact
the requirements of believing in one God a kafir.
This included Muslims who practiced fortune-
telling, magic, astrology, wearing amulets, exces-
sive mourning of the dead, Sufi shrine pilgrimage,
and who followed Shii teachings about the Imams.
The conquest of much of the Arabian Peninsula
by the Saudis in alliance with the followers of
Ibn Abd al-Wahhab’s teachings, Saudi control of
Islam’s most sacred centers in Mecca and Medina,
and oil revenues have given significant weight
to the influence of the Wahhabi understanding
of Islam and disbelief well beyond the borders of
saUdi arabia.
In the modern period Islamist ideologists such
as Abu al-Ala maWdUdi (d. 1979) of Indo-Pakistan
and Sayyid qUtb (d. 1966) of egypt have extended
the polemics of unbelief to include condemna-
tions of Western-style secUlarism and the mate-
rialist understandings of society. They considered
the 20th century to be Jahiliyya time, recalling
the era that preceded Islam’s appearance when
unbelief prevailed. The main difference between
the jahiliyya of ancient Arabia and today was that
the modern jahilyiya was one when Muslim soci-
eties were being corrupted by Western laws and
governments based on Western models that vio-
lated the sharia. Mawdudi and Qutb called upon
a faithful corps of true Muslims, what Qutb called
a “unique quranic generation,” not only to reject
the modern jahiliya, but to conduct jihad against
it to bring about its destruction. They quoted the
Quran in support of their radical ideology, espe-
cially the verse, “Those who judge not (or rule
not) by what God has revealed are the kafirs” (Q
5:44). Even though rejected by most Muslims, this
ideology was used by the Jihad Group of Egypt to
justify the assassination of Egyptian president
Anwar al-sadat in 1981 and it inspired radical
movements in many Muslim countries during the
1980s and 1990s. Usama bin ladin used it in his
fatwas and speeches against the United States and
Israel, both of whom he accused of invading and
occupying sacred Muslim lands.
Lastly, the term Kaffir is derived from kafir. It was
originally used by Arabs for the indigenous peoples
of Africa, then adopted by European slave traders.
Eventually it became a racial slur, used particularly
by whites in South Africa against the blacks.
See also apostasy; bidaa; blasphemy; christian-
ity and islam; crime and pUnishment; dhimmi; her-
esy; Jihad movements; JUdaism and islam; prophets
and prophecy; shiism; takFir Wa-hiJ ra; Wah-
habism; ziyara.Further reading: Peter Antes, “Relations with Unbe-
lievers in Islamic Theology.” In We Believe in One God:
The Experience of God in Christianity and Islam, edited
by Annemarie Schimmel and Abdoldjavad Falaturi,
101–111 (New York: Seabury Press, 1979); Toshihiko
Izutsu, Ethico-Religious Concepts in the Quran (Mon-
treal: McGill University Press, 1966); Marilyn Wald-
man, “The Development of the Concept of kufr,” Journal
of the American Oriental Society 88 (1968): 442–455.kalam See theology.
Karbala
A shrine city in iraq, about 62 miles southwest
of baghdad, Karbala has an approximate popula-
tion of 575,000. It is considered the holiest city
to Shiis, after mecca, medina, JerUsalem, and
Najaf (site of the Imam Ali ibn Abi Talib’s tomb).
Karbala is a sacred space to the Shia because itK 422 kalam