Ali Ataie – The Word Infidel in Islam Kafir Literally Means a Farmer Who Covers Up

So the word in Arabic is and

literally means a farmer.

What does that have to do with farm

what does infidelity have to do with farming?

You see, the farmer takes a seed and

covers it over.

Alright. He hides it.

So the Quran describes

a true kafir,

a true

infidel or a non believer.

It says,

Do not clothe the truth with falsehood nor

distort the truth while you have knowledge of

the truth.

Right? While you have knowledge of the truth.

So someone who's a cat we have to

be very careful as Muslims when we throw

terminology around.

Right? Use the word haram, this is forbidden,

this person's a kafar, so on and so

forth.

You see that the difference between someone who's

a kafar as a legal distinction

or a state distinction in a Muslim country,

either Muslim or you're not. Right? That's in

the legal sense. But the faith sense,

that's ultimately only known by Allah

That's known by God. So many of our

theologians the dominant opinion amongst our theologians is

not so much black and white.

Right? I use Imam Khazadi again as my,

kind of, my model, as my kind of

core theologian,

who says that in order for infidelity to

be established,

a a person must have, must be

4 criteria.

He says a person must be an adult.

They must have sound intellect.

They must have sound senses,

you know, sight and hearing.

And the prophetic summons reach that person in

a good form,

and then they reject it. A prophetic summons,

either from Jesus or Moses or Mohammed, peace

be upon, all of them. Right? So for

example,

what if you were born in Nottingham

in the 4th century,

and

all you know about is well, I guess

it would be after that, because

Christianity didn't come until a little bit later.

But anyway, let's say 11th century. And all

you know about Muslims is there are infidels

who have taken the holy land, and they're

slaughtering babies in the streets of Jerusalem, and

that's all you know about Muslims.

And many Muslim theologians will say, well, the

prophetic summons, the true essence of the prophetic

message, did not reach that person in a

good form. So you cannot call people.

Right? We have to be very, very careful.

The Muslim does not have a personal guarantee

of paradise.

I've been condemned to * many times by

people of different religions, by the way. Many

I'd say, you're going to *. You know

that about me? I know for certain. You

know, burn in *. Really?

Wow. That's amazing. Judge not lest ye be

judged.

Right?

It's John.

So we don't have a personal guarantee. The

Quran, the prophet, peace be upon him,

said Whoever

witnesses to that declaration of faith will enter

paradise. It doesn't say,

Adi

from San Ramon

is going to go to Jannah. I don't

have a personal guarantee. Because when you have

personal guarantees,

then what happens? We start to act irresponsibly.

I have 2 girls. I tell one of

my girls,

if you're good, we're gonna go to Disneyland

in December.

Oh, yes.

We didn't get it. So she tries. She

strives. But if I tell the other one,

I say,

we're gonna go to Disneyland and do do

whatever you want. You have that guarantee. Go

do whatever you want. Then probably she'll feel

a little lax on her. So we don't

have a personal guarantee. So the prophet, peace

be upon him, he said, be between hope

and faith. Wear the 2 sandals of hope

and faith. Don't be so hopeful in god

that you start to delude yourself and become

judgmental.

And don't be so,

no. I'm sorry. Open faith. Hope and what's

the other word? Fear. Yeah. Fear. Open fear.

And don't be so fearful of God

that you start going into despair.

The Quran says in an imperative,

you are not allowed to despair of the

mercy of God. It is as haram. It

is as forbidden as eating pork and drinking

alcohol and committing pilferi.

To be in despair, oh, how can God

forgive me? I'm a terrible person. God forgives.

God forgives. If you make teshuva, you make

tovah, there's a beautiful happy the prophet, peace

be upon him. After one of the military

expeditions, there was, you know, there was a

battle, and this woman was running around frantic.

She had lost her infant son. Little toddler

could barely crawl around. Right? And,

and this was in front of the some

of the companions.

And then the prophets and then the woman,

she saw her son. She picked him up

and started to hug him and breastfeed him.

And the prophet said, do you see that

woman?

And they said, yes. And the prophet said,

can you imagine

that she would take her child and throw

him in a fire?

Can you imagine

her doing that? And they said, Allah, by

God, no. And the prophet said, Allah

God is more merciful to his servants than

this woman is to her son. God is

more merciful. Rahma. Right? Doctor Ijaz, he said,

These are God's attributes in the Quran. He

is Rahman and Rahim, the most merciful. The

root word here is,

which is a Hebrew word also, which means

the womb of a mother

where the fetus is enclosed.

There's a beautiful analogy here. God is more

merciful to his servants than the purest type

of love on earth, which is the love

of a mother for her son. I think

I've exhausted the times,

but again, it's not black and white. It's

not.

We're not allowed to judge. Right? But be

careful we throw these terms around. God is

the ultimate judge.