Disbelief · a Light

The Qur'an uses the word for disbeliever to mean farmer

The root k f r means to cover and to conceal. A kafir in ordinary Arabic is somebody who covers a thing over, and the Qur'an uses exactly that sense in Surah al-Hadid, comparing the life of this world to rain whose resulting growth pleases al-kuffar, meaning the farmers, the men who cover seed with soil. The same root gives kaffara, an expiation, which covers a fault. Applied to belief the word describes covering over something known rather than failing to know it, which is why the classical discussions of kufr turn on knowledge and rejection rather than on ignorance. Old Arabic poetry calls the night kafir because it covers what lies under it.

Root k f r, to cover over

Source · Qur'an 57:20