Iman and kufr word count in the Qur'an

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This article lists all occurrences of the words iman (إِيمَٰن) and kufr (كُفْر) in the Qur'an. The purpose is to analyze the claim (miracle) that they both appear 25 times 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". The reason for it being "ungratefulness" is probably the second sentence, which seems to be the opposite of the first one and talks about "gratefulness":

  • "If you disbelieve, then verily, Allah is not in need of you, He likes not disbelief for His slaves. And if you are grateful (by being believers), He is pleased therewith for you.." - Muhsin Khan
  • "If ye reject (Allah), Truly Allah hath no need of you; but He liketh not ingratitude from His servants: if ye are grateful, He is pleased with you. " - Yusuf Ali
  • "If you are ungrateful, then surely Allah is Self-sufficient above all need of you; and He does not like ungratefulness in His servants.." - Shakir
  • "In case you disbelieve, then surely Allah is Ever-Affluent (Literally: Ever-Rich) to do without you, and He is not satisfied with disbelief from His bondmen. And in case you thank (Him), He is satisfied with it for you." - Dr. Ghali
  • "If ye are thankless, yet Allah is Independent of you, though He is not pleased with thanklessness for His bondmen; and if ye are thankful He is pleased therewith for you. " - Pickthall


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"

References

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