gwydion@rice.edud (Basalat Ali Raja) (02/27/90)
In article <34518@ucbvax.BERKELEY.EDU> walid@gandalf.Berkeley.EDU (Walid S. Al-Sabah) writes: ali-raja>teachings, and accept them as being the teachings of a great man, and ali-raja>yet deny his Prophethood. Then, one can not be a Muslim. Yet, this ali-raja>does not make one a Kafir. >This is not true. A condition of Iman, belief, is the belief in >Allah and His messengers one of whom is Muhammad Peace be upon him. >Thus if one denies the prophethood of Muhammad that person is a >KAFIR. It depends on one's definition of KAFIR, as you choose to put it. Literally, the word "kafir" means a "denier". When I used the word Kafir, I meant it to further mean one who denies the existence of Allah - you are using it to mean one who denies the Prophethood of Mohammad [pbuh]. I used it in the context that I did, because it serves as a convenient label, useful in distinguishing from the Ahl-Kitab, who are not deniers of Allah, but are deniers of the Quran. This is the most frequent usage of Kaffir that I have seen.