In the previous blog, we mentioned the main verse relevant to this discussion:
إنّما المشركون نجس فلا يقربوا المسجد الحرام بعد عامهم هذا
“O you who believe! the “Mushrikun” are nothing but unclean, so they shall not approach the Sacred Mosque after this year…”1
Ayatullah Khui splits najis (unclean in the verse above) into two types:
1. Technical/ritual meaning i.e. that which means that if you touch it, you must wash it before praying
2. Non-technical meaning i.e. dirtiness (either physical dirtiness or spiritual najasah – as “what najasah is dirtier than shirk!”)
It is the latter meaning which is the apparent (dhahir) meaning, as that is what would prevent entrance into Masjid al-Haram, as Allah would not be happy with the entrance of his enemy into His house. There is nothing from this verse that implies ritual uncleanliness directly. Therefore, this verse cannot be used to imply that Mushrikun are ritually unclean.
Now we move onto the meaning of Mushrikun. Shaykh Bahmanpour discussed in his tafsir classes2 that “Mushrikun” could be referring only to the polytheists of Arabia who used to come for Hajj regularly on the one hand, or it could mean anyone that commits shirk at all, including Ahl al Kitab. He considers both of these as extreme opinions and in the end, has a similar view to that of Ayatullah Khui (shown below).
Ayatullah Khui says that some scholars have considered Ahl al Kitab as amongst the Mushrikun (polytheists), based on the verse of the Qur`an:
(وقالت اليهود عزير ابن الله وقالت النصارى المسيح ابن الله ... سبحانه عمّا يشركون ) 3
And the Jews say: Uzair is the son of Allah; and the Christians say: The Messiah is the son of Allah; these are the words of their mouths; they imitate the saying of those who disbelieved before; may Allah destroy them; how they are turned away! They have taken their doctors of law and their monks for lords besides Allah, and (also) the Messiah son of Marium and they were enjoined that they should serve one Allah only, there is no god but He; far from His glory be what they associate with him4 (with Him).
This can be responded to in the following ways:
- Shirk has several levels, some of which touch all of us (non-infallibles). So how can the najasah of a mushrik be from all these levels? What about the Muslim who shows off in his actions (an example of “Shirk”). Therefore, there are some types of shirk, which are not included in this verse, and this includes the Ahl al-Kitab.
- There are a many verses that are specific to just Ahl al-Kitab, and to Mushrikun e.g. polytheists are not allowed to live in Muslim lands (they have to leave), whereas Ahl al-Kitab can live as long as they pay the Jizya and follow the laws. Therefore, the technical meaning of Mushrikun used in the Qur`an does not seem to include Ahl al Kitab5
Therefore, there are two options
- the verse means Mushrik including Ahl al-Kitab
- the verse means Mushrik not including Ahl al-Kitab, which is the more likely given the evidence
It is clear, therefore, that you cannot infer that the Mushrikun includes Ahl al Kitab.
And considering the meaning of Najas given above, it cannot be concluded from this verse that Mushrikun are Najis with its technical meaning.
For the Najasah (at least in its spiritual meaning) of the Mushrikun, that is something that is conclusively agreed amongst the scholars, which is authoritative regardless of the verse. And similarly, for the sworn enemy of Imam Ali (AS) (Nasib), and deniers of the Creator, there is no doubt about their Najasah.
However, for the Ahl al Kitab, this verse neither points to their Najasah in a technical or non-technical sense as it is not necessarily applicable to them. Therefore, we have to look at other pieces of evidence to reach a conclusion about Ahl al-Kitab, as the verse is not conclusive for them.
The general opinion is that even they are Najis, and in fact, according to some6it is considered as one of the simple realities of religion. However, some scholars from the past and present disagree and consider them tahir. And what is used is from narrations so we will firstly look at the narrations that suggest that Ahl al-Kitab are najis, and then move to those that suggest they are tahir so we can see which is more likely.
1. Surah Tawba: 28
2. http://www.sicm.org.uk/audio.php (Shaykh Bahmanpour, Surah Tawbah, verse 28)
3: Surah Tawba: 30-31
4. Note the usage of shirk here
5. e.g. Surah Bayyinah: 1
6 e.g. in Misbah al-Faqih, Taharah, 558, line 26
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