Four kinds of Disbelief and Seven kinds of Disbelievers

In Shari’ah, there are four kinds of disbelief (kufr) and seven kinds of disbelievers (kaafir).

The types of kufr are as follows:

1. kufr jahl – The kufr which originates from ignorance. In this case, the denier denies the validity of Islam because he either does not posess enough knowledge to make a decision on it, or that he believes the claim of Islam is false.
2. kufr shak -This means kufr occasioned by doubt. The denier knows about Islam, but either denies the validity of the message or its source.
3. kufr ta’weel – This means kufr by way of interpretation. Here, kufr is not committed by rejecting the message of Muhammad (s.a.w.) outright, but rather by taking it out of context.
4. kufr juhood – This is deliberate kufr, or the obstinate and rebellious denial of Islaam in spite of realizing its truth. This is the denial of many secularists, atheists, and liberals in the West, and also the same kufr of Satan.

Of the four types of kufr, the last, kufr ta’weel is the most common nowadays among those who were born Muslim. Liberal or “figurative” interpretations are employed by those wishing to do bidah and distort the true beliefs and teachings of Islam. By such baatil ta’weel (baseless and corrupt interpretation), Qur’aanic verses and Ahaadith are given meanings which conflict with their true and original meanings explained by the Prophet (s.a.w.) The worst threat to Islam alone is kufr juhood.

The seven kinds of disbeliever (kaafir) are:

1. munaafiq (the hypocrite): A person who claims that he is a Muslim, but knows that he is not – essentially those who may be “Muslim in Name Only”. Alternative, it is one who outwardly pretends to be a Muslim, while inwardly concealing his disbelief. The Qur’an states, “The hypocrites will be in the lowest depths of the Fire: no helper wilt thou find for them.” – (An-Nisa 145).
2. murtad (the apostate): A person who renounces Islaam in its entirety. The Qur’an says: “And if any of you Turn back from their faith and die in unbelief, their works will bear no fruit in this life and in the Hereafter; they will be companions of the Fire and will abide therein” (Al-Baqara 217).  This includes the current President of the United States, Barack Obama.  By many accounts, he does not even qualify as a Christian.
3. mushrik (the polytheist): A person who associates partners with Allah and commits shirk, or one who believes in more than one Divine Being.
4. dahriyyah: A person who denies the Last Judgement and who denies that Allah created the universe
5. muattil: (the atheist): A person who denies the existence of a creator.
6. zindeeq: a person who recognizes the Qur’an as being legitimate, but adheres to beliefs which are unanimously branded as kufr in the Shari’ah. These are, for example, the members of the heretical pseudo-Islamic sects such as the Qaidanis and the Nation of Islam. It also includes all those individuals who are attempting to “change” Islam for the sake of changing it. Bukhari narrates that the Prophet said, ” Whoever innovates or accommodates an innovator then upon him is the curse of Allaah, His Angels and the whole of mankind.”
7. kitaabi – A person who follows a previously revealed, divine religion.