[Sūrah v. 96]: “In expiation thereof shall ye feed the poor.”
The other word used is fidyah [[FIDYAH]]. The expression kaffāratu ʾẕ-ẕunūb, “atonement for sins,” is used for expiation by prayer, alms, fasting, and pilgrimage. [[EXPIATION].]
AL-KĀFĪ (الكافى). “The Sufficient One.” An attribute of God mentioned in the Qurʾān, [Sūrah xxxix. 37]: “Is not God sufficient for His servant.”
AL-KĀFĪ (الكافى). The title of a collection of traditions by Abū Jaʿfar Muḥammad ibn Yaʿqūb al-Kulīnī (A.H. 328) received by the Shīʿahs.
KĀFIR (كافر), pl. kāfirūn. Lit. “The coverer.” One who hides or covers up the truth.
The word is generally used by Muḥammadans to define one who is an unbeliever in the ministry of Muḥammad and his Qurʾān, and in this sense it seems to have been used by Muḥammad himself. [Sūrah ii. 37]: “Those who misbelieve (waʾllaẕīna kafarū), and call our signs lies, they are fellows of the Fire, they shall dwell within for ever.”
It is also used for those who believe in the Divinity of the Lord Jesus, and the Holy Trinity. [Sūrah v. 76]: “They indeed are infidels (la-qad kafara ʾllaẕīna), who say God is al-Masīḥu ibn Maryam.… Verily him who associates anything with God, hath God forbidden Paradise, and his resort is the Fire.”
[Sūrah v. 77]: “They are infidels who say Verily God is the third of three.”
[On this passage the Kamālān say it refers to the Nestorians and to the Malakāʾīyah, who believe that God is one of three, the other two being the mother and son.]
According to the Raddu ʾl-Muḥtār (vol. iii. p. 442), there are five classes of kāfirs or infidels: (1) Those who do not believe in the Great First Cause; (2) Those who do not believe in the Unity of God, as the S̤anawīyah who believe in the two eternal principles of light and darkness; (3) Those who believe in the Unity of God, but do not believe in a revelation; (4) Those who are idolaters; (5) Those who believe in God and in a revelation, but do not believe in the general mission of Muḥammad to the whole of mankind, as the Christians, a sect of the Jews (sic).