From: ahmed@dsg.cs.tcd.ie (Ahmed El-Habbash)
Subject: Re: Muslims, Munafiqin, Kafirin
Organization: DSG, Dept. of Computer Science, Trinity College Dublin
Date: Thu, 19 Nov 1992 13:56:12 GMT

In <1992Nov18.141721.18867@ioe.ac.uk> tehhhal@ioe.ac.uk (MR HANIF LADHA) writes:

>In <jhardono.1.721968387@ucs.indiana.edu> jhardono@ucs.indiana.edu (JUMAHADI HARDONO) writes:

>>My brothers and sisters,
>>	Muslims are muslims who are 'mukmin'. 'Mukmin' means that people who
>>are believing that "There is no god but Allah and Muhammad is Allah's 
>>Messenger" without hesitating anything. Everything mentioned in Al Quran
>>and explained by Rasulullah SAW is accepted and followed by Muslims
>>who are mukmin. These people accept all of the messages in the Quran and
>>try to follow as much as they can.	
>>	Munafiqin - the dangerous group in Muslim society - are muslims
>>but not mukmin. This means that they say they are muslims but they ignore
>>and try to degrade intentionally teachings and words of Allah in AL Quran.

>>	to be continued...


>I cann't wait for next posting...  I guess the Kafirun are those who don't
>believe in God, the Prophet and the Quran.

>My one question is who decides who decides between a mukmin and a muslim?

>Regards,

>Hanif.

In fact there are some subtle differences between these different
terminology. And these words used to have differnt meaning before the
last message of Islam (As revealed to Mohammed (saw) ).

Any way after the last message, the terms can be explained as:

A muslim is the one who declares Islam through Shahadah ( To testify
that there is no deity but Allah, and that Muhammed is His servant and
messenger ).
Then accepts to be a member of the muslim Ummah, having the same
rights and giving the same duties. Of course accepting all the
committments of a Muslim, performing the other five pillars of Islam,
etc.

Being a Muslim does not mean a lot. Any one can declare Shahadah, and
join the crowed of Muslims, but he could be a spy.

A Mou'min is the one who accepts Islam as a matter of belief, and this
is between you and Allah. It is not just declaring Shahadah from his
tongue, but having it deep into his heart. the One who believes in the
Quran, and the other dvivine books and the other messengers, the Angels,
the last day, and that every thing mentioned in the Quran is true, and
he is ready to sacrifice himself for a single word in the Quran, because
he is waiting for Heaven. ( note I am not writing a formal definition ).

So being a Mou'min, also implies that you are a Muslim, but the opposite
is not true. Only Allah can tell who is a real Mou'min.

A hypocrite is a Muslim ( unfortunately ). He says that he is a muslim,
but he does not believe in his heart, and he may work against Islam and
Muslims. 
However, there are signs which distinguish the hypocrite. In fact there
are many signs, which are mentioned in the Quran, as a few examples:
They are lazy when they perform their prayers, they fear the other 
people more than Allah, they feel happy when other Muslims are
suffering, and so on.
But most of these signs mentioned in the Quran are not tangible to us,
only Allah can tell about them.

The Prophet (saw) gave few Hadeeth to charecterize a hypocrite:
" The signs of a hpocrite are three: if he talked he tells lies, if he
promised he does not fulfil, and if you trust him he is treacherous. "

A Kafir is an unbeliever, who does not believe in his heart, and does
not declare himself as Muslim.

So a Kafir looks more honest than a hypocrite, that is why Allah
said in the Quran: " Surely hypocrites are in the lowest level of Hell
fire "

Unfortunately Many of the Muslims, we have, possess a good deal of the
attributes of hypocrites. And that explains our deplorable state among
the other nations. And really Muslims need a lot of work to purify their
hearts and concentrate on how to make themselves true Muslims, instead
of getting involved in empty talk, criticizing this or condemning that.

Every one should assess himself, how close or how far is he from being a
hypocrite. The Companions of the prophet (saw) used to worry about
themselves and used to ask are we among the hypocrites.

So don't think that saying that I am a muslim is a big deal, a Muslim 
could be a hypocrite as well.

May Allah save us.

-- 
Ahmed I. El-Habbash, 
Department of Computer Science, Trinity College,
Dublin 2, Ireland.
Tel: office: +353-1-7021524,  home: +353-1-937142.
Newsgroups: soc.culture.arabic