AbstractsLaw & Legal Studies

Unveiling Disbelief: an Analysis of the Qur'??nic Understanding of the Disbeliever

by Megan Stewart




Institution: Brandeis University
Department:
Year: 2015
Keywords: Islam; KFR; Disbelief; Disbeliever; Kafir; Kufr; People of the Book; Qur'an
Record ID: 2059676
Full text PDF: http://hdl.handle.net/10192/30592


Abstract

This thesis is an analysis of how the derived forms from the Arabic root ??? ??-??-?? ???, translated as to disbelieve and disbelievers, is used in the Qur?????n. The purpose of this thesis is to determine what it means to disbelieve and to be a disbeliever, through analyzing verses of the Qur?????n and examining the verses through the use of tafs??r, hadith, the Asb??b al-Nuz??l, and other forms of prophetic Sunnah. This thesis defines what it means to believe, how the various verbal forms of ??? ??-??-?? ??? are used to understand what it means to disbelieve, explore what characteristics are associated with disbelievers, and how the People of the Book, the Jews and Christians, fit into the concept of belief and disbelief.