كَفْرٌ

The darkness and blackness of night; [because it conceals things;] as also, sometimes, ↓ كِفْرٌ. (S, K.) [See also كَافِرٌ.] See a verse cited voce ذُكَاءُ.

-A2- Earth, or dust; because it conceals what is beneath it. (Lh.)

-A3- [Hence also] A grave, or sepulchre: (S, K:) plural كُفُورٌ. (S.) Whence the saying, أَللّهُمَّ اغْفِرْ لِأَهْلِ الكُفُورِ [O God, pardon the people of the graves]. (S.)

-A4- [And hence, perhaps,] A town, or village; [generally the latter;] synonym قَرْيَةٌ: (S, Mgh, Msb, K:) a Syriac word, and mostly used by the people of Syria [and of Egypt]: or, according to El-Harbee, land that is far from men, by which no one passes: (TA:) plural كُفُورٌ: (S, Msb:) in the present day, it is applied in Egypt to any small قَرْيَة [or village] by the side of a great قَرْيَة [or town]: they say القَرْيَةُ الفُلَانِيَّةُ وَكَفْرُهَا [Such a town and its village]: and sometimes one قَرْيَة has a number of كُفُور. (TA.) Hence the saying of Mo'áwiyeh, أَهْلُ الكُفُورِ هُمْ أَهْلُ القُبُورِ [The people of the villages are the people of the graves]; meaning, that they are as the dead; they do not see the great towns and the performance of the congregational prayers of Friday: (S, Mgh:) by الكفور he meant the villages (القُرَى) remote from the great towns and from the places where the people of science assemble, so that ignorance prevails among their inhabitants, and they are most quickly affected by innovations in religion and by natural desires which cause to err. (Az, TA.) Hence also the tradition (of Aboo-Hureyreh, TA), لَيُخْرِجَنَّكُمُ الرُّومُ مِنْهَا كَفْرًا كَفْرًا [The Greeks will assuredly expel you from them, town by town, or village by village]; (S, * TA;) i. e. from the فُرًى of Syria. (S, TA.)

كَفْرٌ عَلَى كَفْرٍ also signifies One upon another; or one part upon another. (TA.)