Takfir

Takfir is a word that says that another person who calls himself a Muslim is actually not a Muslim. The word is not mentioned in the hadith or Qur'an but is based of the words kufr (unbelief) and kafir (unbeliever) and other similar terms. Since under Sharia, the punishment for leaving Islam is death, and a possible cause of argument and violence within the Muslims, as a false takfir is considered as minor shirk. Normally, only scholars of Islam can make takfir excluding groups such as the Kharijites who takfir both followers of Sunnism and Shi'ism.

References

  1. 1 2 Hunwick, Ed; Hunwick, J. O. (2000). "Takfīr". In Bosworth, C. E.; van Donzel, E. J.; Heinrichs, W. P.; Lewis, B.; Pellat, Ch.; Bearman, P. J. (eds.). Encyclopaedia of Islam. Vol. 10 (2nd ed.). Leiden: Brill Publishers. doi:10.1163/1573-3912_islam_COM_1154. ISBN 978-90-04-16121-4.
  2. 1 2 Poljarevic, Emin (2021). "Theology of Violence-oriented Takfirism as a Political Theory: The Case of the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS)". In Cusack, Carole M.; Upal, M. Afzal (eds.). Handbook of Islamic Sects and Movements. Brill Handbooks on Contemporary Religion. Vol. 21. Leiden and Boston: Brill. pp. 485–512. doi:10.1163/9789004435544_026. ISBN 978-90-04-43554-4. ISSN 1874-6691.
  3. ↑ Kadivar, Jamileh (May 18, 2020). "Exploring Takfir, Its Origins and Contemporary Use: The Case of Takfiri Approach in Daesh's Media" (PDF). Contemporary Review of the Middle East. 7 (3): 259–285. doi:10.1177/2347798920921706. S2CID 219460446. Archived from the original (PDF) on October 2, 2025. Retrieved March 29, 2024.
  4. ↑ Karawan, Ibrahim A. (1995). "Takfīr". In John L. Esposito. The Oxford Encyclopedia of the Modern Islamic World. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
  5. ↑ Shiraz Maher, Salafi-Jihadism: The History of an Idea, Penguin UK (2017), p. 75
  6. ↑ Kepel, Gilles; Jihad: the Trail of Political Islam, London: I.B. Tauris, 2002, p. 31
  7. ↑ Izutsu, Toshihiko (2006) [1965]. "The Infidel (Kāfir): The Khārijites and the origin of the problem". The Concept of Belief in Islamic Theology: A Semantic Analysis of Imān and Islām. Tokyo: Keio Institute of Cultural and Linguistic Studies at Keio University. pp. 1–20. ISBN 983-9154-70-2.