Najasah of the Kafir (6)

Just a reminder that the narrations chosen and the explanations provided are those of Ayatullah Khui (not mine!) and I am showing you these, not as indicative of my point of view, but to show you how the minds of scholars work when deriving rulings.

We have so far discussed the reasons why Ahl al Kitab might be considered najis and in the previous blog 4 narrations have been discussed on why they should be considered tahir. We will now continue with two more narrations in this topic.


5. The sahih narration of Ibrahim ibn Abu Mahmud, who said: “I asked al-Ridha (AS): ‘What do you think of the Jewish or Christian tailor and cutter (قصار) who you know does not wash after urinating?’ He said: ‘It is not a problem’. [1]

If we consider the tailor only, we might not be able to infer the applicability of this narration to the issue at hand i.e. because there is no moisture necessarily present with a tailor, the response of the Imam does not imply that the Ahl al Kitab are tahir. However, the use of “cutter” makes the implication clear, as the “cutter” washes clothes with his hand.



6. A second sahih narration: “I said to Imam Ridha (AS): ‘The Christian lady-servant serves you and you know she is a Christian who does not do Wudhu or wash herself following Janaba.’ He said: ‘It is not a problem as she washes her hands.’”. This clearly supports the proposition that Ahl al Kitab are tahir.

This is because the question implies the possibility that the Imam (AS) had a Christian servant, who used to serve him and the narrator asked about the rule of using her services. Based on this, his response means there is no problem in interacting with the servant because her hands are tahir i.e. washing her hands removes any external najasat that might have been there. However, this possibility is unlikely, because the narrator is one of the great narrators and it is unlikely that he would be unsure about the Imam (AS)’s actions, as he would know if the Imam (AS) had allowed it in the past.


1. Tahdhib 6:385, paragraph 1142; and from Shaykh Tusi? In al-Wafi 6:209, paragraph 25
2. Wasa`il al-Shi’a 3:422/chapters on Najasat 14:11