What is kufr, and what are its types?

What the word means

Linguistically, kufr means covering and concealing. In the religious sense, as Shaykh Salih al-Fawzan defines it, it is the opposite of faith — the absence of belief in Allah and His messengers. That absence may come with denial, or it may come without it: mere doubt, turning away, envy, arrogance, or following desires that block a person from following the message. Al-Fawzan notes that the one who denies is the worst in kufr, and so is the one who rejects out of envy while inwardly certain of the messengers' truthfulness.

Ibn Taymiyyah, quoted by IslamWeb (fatwa 12800), puts the definition plainly:

"Kufr is the absence of iman — by the agreement of the Muslims — whether one believes its opposite and speaks it, or believes nothing and speaks nothing."— Ibn Taymiyyah, Majmu' al-Fatawa

So kufr is not only a matter of the tongue. IslamWeb explains that it can be a matter of the heart (denial, or hatred of Allah, His verses or His Messenger), of the tongue (reviling Allah or His Messenger, mocking the religion), or of outward action (prostrating to an idol, desecrating the Qur'an).

The two kinds

The scholars consistently divide kufr into two: major kufr, which removes a person from the religion, and minor kufr, which does not. Al-Fawzan, Muhammad Hasan Abd al-Ghaffar, and Ibn Baz all state this division.

The major kind is the subject of the five categories below. The minor kind is what the Qur'an and Sunnah call kufr in a restricted sense — sins that carry the name without reaching the level of the major. Al-Fawzan gives the example of ingratitude for blessings, fighting a Muslim, and swearing by other than Allah.

The five categories of major kufr

Al-Fawzan, Ibn Abd al-Wahhab, and al-Tuwayjri all list the same five, each with a Qur'anic proof.

The first is the clearest: a person rejects the message as untrue. The second is different — Iblis did not deny Allah's command, he refused it out of pride. Abd al-Rahman al-Rajhi explains that Iblis's kufr was not a mere sin but the refusal and arrogance itself, which is a category of kufr in its own right. The same category covers the Jews who knew Muhammad ﷺ was a prophet and rejected him anyway, and Abu Talib, who knew the religion was true but was held back by tribal loyalty.

The third is doubt — the person neither affirms nor denies, but wavers. Ibn al-Qayyim, quoted by IslamWeb (fatwa 254647), notes that this doubt does not persist unless the person deliberately turns away from examining the proofs; if he looked at them honestly, the doubt would not remain. The fourth is turning away — not rejecting, not doubting, simply paying no attention. The fifth is hypocrisy: professing faith outwardly while concealing rejection.

The minor kufr

Minor kufr is the practical kind — sins that the texts call kufr but which do not remove a person from the religion. Al-Fawzan gives several examples:

• Ingratitude for blessings, as in Qur'an 16:112, where a town was secure and provided for, then "denied the favours of Allah."
• Fighting a Muslim, based on the hadith: "Reviling a Muslim is wickedness, and fighting him is kufr." — Sahih al-Bukhari and Sahih Muslim
• Swearing by other than Allah, based on: "Whoever swears by other than Allah has committed kufr or shirk." — narrated by al-Tirmidhi, graded sahih by al-Hakim

Ibn Baz (fatwa 20142) adds wailing over the dead and slandering people's lineages to the category of minor kufr.

The proof that these do not remove a person from Islam is that Allah still calls the one who commits major sins a believer. Al-Fawzan points to Qur'an 2:178, where Allah addresses the believers regarding retaliation for murder — the killer is not expelled from the believers — and Qur'an 49:9–10, where two groups of believers fight and Allah still calls them brothers in faith.

How the two differ

Al-Fawzan summarises the differences in four points:

• Major kufr removes a person from the religion and nullifies his deeds. Minor kufr does not remove him from the religion or nullify his deeds, but diminishes them and exposes him to warning.
• Major kufr makes its doer dwell forever in the Fire. Minor kufr, if its doer enters the Fire, does not remain there forever — and Allah may forgive him so that he never enters it at all.
• Major kufr makes a person's life and property lawful to take. Minor kufr does not.
• Major kufr obliges complete enmity between its doer and the believers — they may not love or ally with him even if he is their closest relative. Minor kufr does not prevent loyalty entirely; its doer is loved and allied with to the extent of his faith, and opposed to the extent of his disobedience.

Who may be called a kafir

A crucial distinction runs through all these texts: the ruling on kufr as a description is not the same as declaring a specific person a kafir. IslamWeb (fatwa 12800) quotes Ibn Taymiyyah:

"Declaring kufr has conditions and impediments that may not be present in the case of a specific individual. Declaring the general ruling of kufr does not entail declaring a specific person a kafir unless the conditions are met and the impediments are absent."— Ibn Taymiyyah, Majmu' al-Fatawa

Muhammad Hasan Abd al-Ghaffar is emphatic on this point: no one may declare a Muslim a kafir without evidence clearer than the midday sun, out of fear of the Prophet's ﷺ warning: "Whoever says to his brother, 'O kafir,' it returns to one of them." — Sahih al-Bukhari and Sahih Muslim. He adds that falling into an act of kufr does not automatically make the doer a kafir until the proof is established and doubts are removed — except in matters known from the religion by necessity, such as openly reviling Allah or His Messenger.

He also notes that what is "known by necessity" varies by place: a person raised in a remote desert who has learned nothing of the religion is not judged by that standard.

Key takeaways

• Kufr is the absence of faith in Allah and His messengers, whether accompanied by denial or by doubt, turning away, envy or arrogance.
• Major kufr has five categories: denial, refusal and arrogance, doubt, turning away, and hypocrisy — each with a Qur'anic proof.
• Minor kufr is the practical kind — sins like ingratitude, fighting a Muslim, or swearing by other than Allah — which do not remove a person from Islam.
• The two differ in four ways: removal from the religion, eternity in the Fire, the lawfulness of life and property, and the nature of loyalty and enmity.
• Declaring a specific person a kafir requires conditions met and impediments removed — it is not the same as stating the general ruling.

Further reading

• Shaykh Salih al-Fawzan, al-Tawhid
• Ibn Taymiyyah, Majmu' al-Fatawa
• Ibn Abd al-Wahhab, al-Risalah al-Mufidah

And Allah knows best.