By: S.L.A. © 2016 DawahMaterials.com

Have you ever seen people (typically Bible-thumping Christians) boasting about being an ‘infidel’ proudly expressing their point that they are not a Muslim?  They have even gone the extent to start making clothing to identify themselves.

In a video[i] for a company’s promotion of their “infidel” t-shirts, the CEO states that Muslims invented this “infidel” concept, not them. Ironically, they seem to be completely ignorant to what the term means, and that the Bible uses this term “infidel” to mean “unbeliever".

Maybe they never searched in a dictionary to understand what it means.  I did a quick search on Google and found this:

Then I searched the Merriam-Webster Dictionary, and it has an even more identifying definition, specifically stating that it is one that is “not a Christian” and “opposes Christianity”.  I suppose the joke is on them. 

They also, ironically. have a shirt in their collection, such as this one (pictured right), which has the Knights Templar icons on it along with the term infidel.  It seems quite contradictory, after knowing the definition doesn't it? 

Do they not realize this term is found in the Bible?

“And what concord hath Christ with Belial? Or what part hath he that believeth with an infidel?” 2 Corinthians 6:15

“But if any provide not for his own, and specially for those of his own house, he hath denied the faith, and is worse than an infidel.” 1 Timothy 5:8

Even when you look the word up on a Christian Bible website to search the Greek word and its definition, you find the same as the dictionaries – and unbeliever, without Christian faith, ‘specifically a heathen’, and untrustworthy! See for yourself!

Infidels in Catholicism

“Infidel” is term used by Catholics to identify anyone that is not a Christian or Catholics.  This means that according to Catholics, the Jews, Hindus, Muslims, and even Protestant Christians are infidels.

In volume 8 of the Catholic Encyclopedia (1910), it states the following:

(Latin in, privative, and fidelis.) As in ecclesiastical language those who by baptism have received faith in Jesus Christ and have pledged Him their fidelity and called the faithful, so the name infidel is given to those who have not been baptized. The term applies not only to all who are ignorant of the true God, such as pagans of various kinds, but also to those who adore Him but do not recognize Jesus Christ, as Jews, Mohammedans; strictly speaking it may be used of catechumens also, though in early ages they were called Christians; for it is only through baptism that one can enter into the ranks of the faithful.

Those however who have been baptized but do not belong to the Catholic Church, heretics and schismatics of divers confessions are not called infidels but non-Catholics.  The relation in which all these classes stand to the Catholic Church is not the same; in principle, those who have been baptized are subjects of the Church and her children even though they be rebellious children; they are under her laws or, at least, are exempt from them only so far as pleases the Church. Infidels, on the contrary, are not members of the ecclesiastical society, according to the words of St. Paul: Quid mihi de his qui fortis sunt, judicare? (1 Corinthians 5:12); they are entirely exempt from the canon law; they need to be enlightened and converted, not punished. Needless to say, infidels do not belong to the supernatural state; if they receive supernatural graces from God, it is not through the channels established by Jesus Christ for Christians, but by a direct personal inspiration, for instance, the grace of conversion. But their condition is not morally bad; negative infidelity, says St. Thomas (II-II, q. x, a. 1), does not partake of the nature of sin, but rather of punishment, in the sense that ignorance of the Faith is a consequence of original sin.

That is why the condemnation by the Church of proposition lxviii of Baius: Infidelits pure negativa, in his quibus Christus non et praedicatus, peccatum est (purely negative infidelity in those to whom Christ has not been preached is a sin), was fully justified.  But it is different with regard to positive infidelity, which is a sin against faith, the most grievous of all sins, apostasy. Being endowed with reason, and subject to natural law, infidels are not excluded from the moral order; they can perform acts of natural virtue; and so the ecclesiastical authorities had to condemn proposition xxv of Baius which declared that: Omnia infidelium opera peccata sunt, et philosophorum virtutes vitia (all works of infidels are sinful, and all the virtues of the philosophers arevices; cf. St. Thomas, loc. cit., a. 4; Hurter, Theol. dogm., III, thes. cxxvi and cxxvii). – (Catholic Encyclopedia, “Infidels” ).

What is a disbeliever in Islam?

Let’s see what the Qur’an says…

“Indeed, they who disbelieved among the People of the Scripture and the polytheists will be in the fire of Hell, abiding eternally therein, those are the worst of creatures.” Qur’an 98:6

As you can see above, the Arabic word for ‘disbelieve’ is ‘kafaru’, as seen below taken from the Qur’anic Corpus.[ii]

You can see all the various forms of the word used in the Qur’an here , which all mean to disbelieve, or describing one as a disbeliever.

Another example is seen in the following verse:

“And whoever invokes besides Allah another deity for which he has no proof - then his account is only with his Lord. Indeed, the disbelievers will not succeed.” Qur’an 23:117

The Jews and Christians are both kafirs (rejectors) and mushrikun (polytheists). They are kafirs because they deny the truth and reject it. And they are mushrikun because they worship someone other than Allah (Jesus pbuh attributed to be Lord God, and also attributed Allah to having him as a son).  (The Jews, because they broke the covenant with Allah and worshipped the calf, and attributed a son to Allah.)  We see this clarified in the Qur’an in the following verse:

“The Jews say, "Ezra is the son of Allah "; and the Christians say, "The Messiah is the son of Allah." That is their statement from their mouths; they imitate the saying of those who disbelieved [before them]. May Allah destroy them; how are they deluded?  They have taken their scholars and monks as lords besides Allah, and [also] the Messiah, the son of Mary. And they were not commanded except to worship one God; there is no deity except Him. Exalted is He above whatever they associate with Him.  They want to extinguish the light of Allah with their mouths, but Allah refuses except to perfect His light, although the disbelievers dislike it.  It is He who has sent His Messenger with guidance and the religion of truth to manifest it over all religion, although they who associate others with Allah dislike it.” Qur’an 9:30-33

They are described as ‘mushrikun’ in 9:33 above, as seen here:

There are numerous other examples throughout the Qur’an but these examples suffice to prove the point that disbelievers are kafirs, and can also be the mushrikun, such as in 5:73 , 9:31 , and 98:1 . See Majmoo’ Fataawa al-Shaykh Ibn Baaz, 4/274 for more info regarding this topic[iii].

In Conclusion

Those that are proud to say they are an infidel (disbeliever) and go the extent to advertise it by wearing shirts as these, or put a bumper sticker on your car or truck to demonstrate this pride, you are doing everyone a favor by announcing to the world that you are not a Muslim, NOR a Christian, and that you are an untrustworthy HEATHEN!  Bravo!