Iman and kufr word count in the Qur'an: Difference between revisions
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This article lists all occurrences of the words ''iman'' (إِيمَٰن) and ''kufr'' (كُفْر) in the Qur'an. ''Iman'' means faith, | This article lists all occurrences of the Arabic words ''iman'' (إِيمَٰن) and ''kufr'' (كُفْر) in the Qur'an. ''Iman'' means faith or belief, kufr means disbelief, infidelity (or ungratefulness). The purpose is to analyze the claim (miracle) that they both appear 25 times when counting without the genitive form. | ||
==Arabic grammar== | ==Arabic grammar== | ||
In order to count genitive forms we have to know how to determine whether a word is in the genitive. | In order to count genitive forms we have to know how to determine whether a word is in the genitive. | ||
Revision as of 14:21, 15 November 2016
This article lists all occurrences of the Arabic words iman (إِيمَٰن) and kufr (كُفْر) in the Qur'an. Iman means faith or belief, kufr means disbelief, infidelity (or ungratefulness). The purpose is to analyze the claim (miracle) that they both appear 25 times when counting without the genitive form.
Arabic grammar
In order to count genitive forms we have to know how to determine whether a word is in the genitive.
Trilateral root
Most Arabic words have a trilateral root.
- iman has the root امن (i-m-n)
- kufr has the root كفر (k-f-r)
From these roots we can derive many words by adding (or sometimes dropping) letters like:
- kuffar - "disbelievers"
- mumineen - "believers"
- amanna - "we believe"
- nakfuru - "we disbelieve"
Genitive
Whether the word is in the nominative, accusative or genitive form depends on diacritics on the third letter of the root. So r (ر) in kufr and n (ن) in iman.
To put it very simply:
- و above the letter (looks like this: نُ, رُ or رٌ) mean it is nominative and the vowel after the letter is "u"
- ٱلْإِيمَٰنُ - al-imanu - the faith
- إِيمَٰنُهُمْ - imanuhum - their faith
- line(s) above the letter (نَ, رَ, رً) mean it is accusative and the vowel after the letter is "a".
- ٱلْكُفْرَ - al-kufra - the disbelief
- line(s) under the letter (رِ, نٍ, نِ) mean it is genitive and the vowel after the letter is "i" ("ee")
- ٱلْكُفْرِ - al-kufri - the disbelief
- بِكُفْرِهِمْ -- bi-kufrihim - for their disbelief
Suffixes of possession
Words like "her", "my", "their" in Arabic are suffixed to the word. For example the suffix -him (هم) means "their". So kufrihim (كُفْرِهِمْ) is "their disbelief". The word بِإِيمَٰنِهِنَّ (bi-imaanihinna, "of their faith") is genitive, because the root letter is in the middle and the -hinna is just a suffix meaning (feminine) "their". This word ended on -na, but it had -ni- in the middle (the root letter) and it is genitive, so don't just look at the last letter of the word to determine whether it is genitive.
Iman
The genitive form is actually not needed here to be recognized. In fact, we will see that apologists didn't exclude the genitive form for this word count. They excluded the words with the suffixes like "their", "her" and "his" and they just call them "genitive".
| Count | Verse | Word in Arabic | Translation | Form |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 2:93 | إِيمَٰنُكُمْ | your faith 1 | nominative 1 |
| 2 | 2:108 | بِٱلْإِيمَٰنِ | with faith | genitive 1 |
| 3 | 2:109 | إِيمَٰنِكُمْ | your faith 2 | genitive 2 |
| 4 | 2:143 | إِيمَٰنَكُمْ | your faith 3 | accusative 1 |
| 5 | 3:86 | إِيمَٰنِهِمْ | their faith 4 | genitive 3 |
| 6 | 3:90 | إِيمَٰنِهِمْ | their faith 5 | genitive 4 |
| 7 | 3:100 | إِيمَٰنِكُمْ | your faith 6 | genitive 5 |
| 8 | 3:106 | إِيمَٰنِكُمْ | your faith 7 | genitive 6 |
| 9 | 3:167 | لِلْإِيمَٰنِ | to the faith | genitive 7 |
| 10 | 3:173 | إِيمَٰنًا | faith | accusative 2 |
| 11 | 3:177 | بِٱلْإِيمَٰنِ | with the faith | genitive 8 |
| 12 | 3:193 | لِلْإِيمَٰنِ | to the faith | genitive 9 |
| 13 | 4:25 | بِإِيمَٰنِكُم | of your faith 8 | genitive 10 |
| 14 | 5:5 | بِٱلْإِيمَٰنِ | in faith | genitive 11 |
| 15 | 6:82 | إِيمَٰنَهُم | their faith 9 | accusative 3 |
| 16 | 6:158 | إِيمَٰنُهَا | her faith 10 | nominative 2 |
| 17 | 6:158 | إِيمَٰنِهَا | her faith 11 | genitive 12 |
| 18 | 8:2 | إِيمَٰنًا | faith | accusative 4 |
| 19 | 9:23 | ٱلْإِيمَٰنِ | faith | genitive 13 |
| 20 | 9:66 | إِيمَٰنِكُمْ | your faith 12 | genitive 14 |
| 21 | 9:124 | إِيمَٰنًا | faith | accusative 5 |
| 22 | 9:124 | إِيمَٰنًا | faith | accusative 6 |
| 23 | 10:9 | بِإِيمَٰنِهِمْ | by their faith 13 | genitive 15 |
| 24 | 10:98 | إِيمَٰنُهَآ | her faith 14 | nominative 3 |
| 25 | 16:106 | إِيمَٰنِهِ | his faith 15 | genitive 16 |
| 26 | 16:106 | بِٱلْإِيمَٰنِ | with the faith | genitive 17 |
| 27 | 30:56 | وَٱلْإِيمَٰنَ | and the faith | accusative 7 |
| 28 | 32:29 | إِيمَٰنُهُمْ | their faith 16 | nominative 4 |
| 29 | 33:22 | إِيمَٰنًا | faith | accusative 8 |
| 30 | 40:10 | ٱلْإِيمَٰنِ | the faith | genitive 18 |
| 31 | 40:28 | إِيمَٰنَهُۥٓ | his faith 17 | accusative 9 |
| 32 | 40:85 | إِيمَٰنُهُمْ | their faith 18 | nominative 5 |
| 33 | 42:52 | ٱلْإِيمَٰنُ | the faith | nominative 6 |
| 34 | 48:4 | إِيمَٰنًا | faith | accusative 10 |
| 35 | 48:4 | إِيمَٰنِهِمْ | their faith 19 | genitive 19 |
| 36 | 49:7 | ٱلْإِيمَٰنَ | the faith | accusative 11 |
| 37 | 49:11 | ٱلْإِيمَٰنِ | the faith | genitive 20 |
| 38 | 49:14 | ٱلْإِيمَٰنُ | the faith | nominative 7 |
| 39 | 49:17 | لِلْإِيمَٰنِ | to the faith | genitive 21 |
| 40 | 52:21 | بِإِيمَٰنٍ | in faith | genitive 22 |
| 41 | 58:22 | ٱلْإِيمَٰنَ | the faith | accusative 12 |
| 42 | 59:9 | وَٱلْإِيمَٰنَ | and the faith | accusative 13 |
| 43 | 59:10 | بِٱلْإِيمَٰنِ | in the faith | genitive 23 |
| 44 | 60:10 | بِإِيمَٰنِهِنَّ | of their faith 20 | genitive 24 |
| 45 | 74:31 | إِيمَٰنًا | faith | accusative 14 |
We have 45 forms, when we exclude the 24 genitive ones, we get 21 occurrences.
However when we exclude the 20 forms with possessive suffixes, we get 25 occurrences. 33:72?
Kufr
| Count | Verse | Word in Arabic | Translation | Form |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 2:88 | بِكُفْرِهِمْ | for their disbelief 1 | genitive 1 |
| 2 | 2:93 | بِكُفْرِهِمْ | for their disbelief 2 | genitive 2 |
| 3 | 2:108 | ٱلْكُفْرَ | the disbelief | accusative 1 |
| 4 | 2:217 | وَكُفْرٌ | and disbelief | nominative 1 |
| 5 | 3:52 | ٱلْكُفْرَ | the disbelief | accusative 2 |
| 6 | 3:80 | بِٱلْكُفْرِ | to disbelief | genitive 3 |
| 7 | 3:90 | كُفْرًا | disbelief | accusative 3 |
| 8 | 3:167 | لِلْكُفْرِ | to disbelief | genitive 4 |
| 9 | 3:176 | ٱلْكُفْرِ | the disbelief | genitive 5 |
| 10 | 3:177 | ٱلْكُفْرَ | the disbelief | accusative 4 |
| 11 | 4:46 | بِكُفْرِهِمْ | for their disbelief 3 | genitive 6 |
| 12 | 4:137 | كُفْرًا | disbelief | accusative 5 |
| 13 | 4:155 | وَكُفْرِهِم | and their disbelief 4 | genitive 7 |
| 14 | 4:155 | بِكُفْرِهِمْ | for their disbelief 5 | genitive 8 |
| 15 | 4:156 | وَبِكُفْرِهِمْ | and for their disbelief 6 | genitive 9 |
| 16 | 5:41 | ٱلْكُفْرِ | the disbelief | genitive 10 |
| 17 | 5:61 | بِٱلْكُفْرِ | with disbelief | genitive 11 |
| 18 | 5:64 | وَكُفْرًا | and disbelief | accusative 6 |
| 19 | 5:68 | وَكُفْرًا | and disbelief | accusative 7 |
| 20 | 9:12 | ٱلْكُفْرِ | the disbelief | genitive 12 |
| 21 | 9:17 | بِٱلْكُفْرِ | with disbelief | genitive 13 |
| 22 | 9:23 | ٱلْكُفْرَ | the disbelief | accusative 8 |
| 23 | 9:37 | ٱلْكُفْرِ | the disbelief | genitive 14 |
| 24 | 9:74 | ٱلْكُفْرِ | the disbelief | genitive 15 |
| 25 | 9:97 | كُفْرًا | disbelief | accusative 9 |
| 26 | 9:107 | وَكُفْرًا | and disbelief | accusative 10 |
| 27 | 14:28 | كُفْرًا | disbelief | accusative 11 |
| 28 | 16:106 | بِٱلْكُفْرِ | to disbelief | genitive 16 |
| 29 | 18:80 | وَكُفْرًا | and disbelief | accusative 12 |
| 30 | 30:44 | كُفْرُهُۥ | his disbelief 7 | nominative 2 |
| 31 | 31:23 | كُفْرُهُۥٓ | his disbelief 8 | nominative 3 |
| 32 | 35:39 | كُفْرُهُۥ | his disbelief 9 | nominative 4 |
| 33 | 35:39 | كُفْرُهُمْ | their disbelief 10 | nominative 5 |
| 34 | 39:7 | ٱلْكُفْرَ | the disbelief * | accusative 13 |
| 35 | 39:8 | بِكُفْرِكَ | in your disbelief 11 | genitive 17 |
| 36 | 49:7 | ٱلْكُفْرَ | the disbelief | accusative 14 |
(*) This occurrence (39:7) is sometimes translated as "ungratefulness":
- Yusuf Ali: "If ye reject (Allah), Truly Allah hath no need of you; but He liketh not ingratitude (ٱلْكُفْرَ, al-kufra) from His servants: if ye are grateful, He is pleased with you.."
- Shakir: "If you are ungrateful, then surely Allah is Self-sufficient above all need of you; and He does not like ungratefulness (ٱلْكُفْرَ, al-kufra) in His servants.."
- Dr. Ghali: "In case you disbelieve, then surely Allah is Ever-Affluent (Literally: Ever-Rich) to do without you, and He is not satisfied with disbelief (ٱلْكُفْرَ, al-kufra) from His bondmen. And in case you thank (Him), He is satisfied with it for you.."
- Pickthall: "If ye are thankless, yet Allah is Independent of you, though He is not pleased with thanklessness (ٱلْكُفْرَ, al-kufra) for His bondmen; and if ye are thankful He is pleased therewith for you.."
We have 36 forms. When we exclude the 17 genitive forms, we get 19 occurrences.
However when we exclude the 11 forms with possessive suffixes we get 25 occurrences. 17:89, 17:99
Conclusions
- The word iman appears 45 times in all its forms and the word kufr appears 36 times in all its forms
- When the genitive form is not counted, iman appears 21 times and kufr 19 times.
- When the forms with suffixes like "their", "her", "his" are excluded, then both iman and kufr have 25 occurrences.
- In this word count, the words with various prefixes are counted, and also the words with the letter ا (alif) at the end of the word, are counted. So these occurrences cannot be called "basic forms" in any way and this method of counting and excluding words is very specific and questionable.
- The prefixes, that were counted in this miracle, were not counted in the 365 days miracle. So the counting methods for these miracles are inconsistent.
- This word count includes the occurrence in the verse 39:7 which is sometimes translated as "ungratefulness" and not "disbelief"