Blurb:

The chapter surveys the ways in which the Qur’an engages with notions of disbelief. The Qur'an and its exegetes did not really consider the possibility of atheism per se, although they did reflect on various facets of kufr, “disbelief,” and shirk, “associating other beings with God.” Moreover, the chapter presents a prominent medieval Muslim freethinker, Ibn al-Rawandi, who vehemently criticized aspects of formalized religion, though he cannot necessarily be called an atheist.