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The Ritual Status of Unbelievers in Islamic Jurisprudence

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The Ritual Status of Unbelievers in Islamic Jurisprudence Medieval 12,2_f5_173-223I 10/16/06 1:14 PM Page 173 STRANGERS AND BROTHERS: THE RITUAL STATUS OF UNBELIEVERS IN ISLAMIC JURISPRUDENCE ZE’EV MAGHEN “Tabàraka alladhì Nazzala al-Furqàna”1 Not for nothing is the Arabic verb kh.l.q., meaning “to create”—a root that appears over 250 times in the Qurhàn—, etymologically related to the Hebrew verb of the same spelling, which means “to divide.”2 For although the central Islamic tenet of taw˙ìd (unification) has gradually been extended by both mystics and moderns to encompass not just the godhead but humanity and the cosmos as well,3 creatio ex nihilo in Islam 1 “Blessed be He who has sent down the ‘Discrimination’” (Qurhàn [henceforward: Q.] 25:1). 2 Semitic etymology is occasionally an unimaginative field. There are those who would claim that Hebrew kh.l.q. is related, if at all, to Arabic ˙.l.q. This is true—˙alaqa in the first form indeed means to shave, to cut—but to reject the obvious connection between the kh.l.q. root in both languages because of a mildly modified consonant (especially a guttural of this sort) is to misperceive the entire nature of linguistic development. Will anyone knowledgeable about such matters deny the obvious identity of qirsh and karish, meaning shark in Arabic and Hebrew, respectively, even though the Arabic letter qaf supposedly corresponds only to the Hebrew letter quf and not kaf ? Or that the kaaba in Mecca is the not-so-distant cousin of the quba (the wilderness tabernacle) of Numbers 25:8, despite the same problem exacerbated by the Arabic aayn in place of the Hebrew vav? Or that the seha more or less measures up to the sàa (about five pints), despite the same aayn, this time switching off with an aleph? Or that murder is most foul whether committed with a Hebrew †et or an Arabic tà (q.t.l.)? Or that profit is just as pleasant whether indicated by Arabic rib˙ or Hebrew revakh, despite the widespread notion that the vav in the latter alphabet only switches off with the waw in the former? Or that the Biblical Yitz˙ak is the same man as the Qurhànic Is˙àq, even though the Hebrew letter tzadi is normally transliterated with an Arabic ßàd and not a sìn? Or that the Arabic qafaß (cage) is no less confining than the Hebrew qufsa, even though the Arabic ßàd is not supposed to parallel the Hebrew sin? Hundreds of such examples could be adduced. The Hebrew khet probably even metamorphoses into the Arabic qaf —and Hebrew zayin into Arabic shìn—in the parallel mizrakh and mashriq. No more than a modicum of lin- guistic open-mindedness is required to discover how close we really are. 3 Mention might be made, as one example each out of a great many, of the twelfth- century philosopher-mystic Abù Bakr Mu˙ammad Mu˙yì al-Dìn b. aArabì’s famous © Koninklijke Brill NV, Leiden, 2006 Medieval Encounters 12,2 Also available online – www.brill.nl Medieval 12,2_f5_173-223I 10/16/06 1:14 PM Page 174 174 ze’ev maghen (as in Judaism) has always been a function of separation and delimitation. “Among His signs is the creation of the Heavens and the Earth, and the diversity of your tongues and colors” (Ikhtilàf alsinatikum wa-alwànikum). He who said to the world: Be!—and it was, additionally divided night from day, land from sea, male from female, nations from tribes, fruits from vegetables, beasts from cattle, Eden from the Inferno, gardens trellised from gardens untrellised—and humankind from almost every- thing else, “distinguishing them... with a distinction” ( faßßalnàhum... tafßìlan).4 Divine revelation, not surprisingly, followed creation in legislating an outlook on life that (again, like Judaism but unlike Christianity and the Eastern religions) puts a premium on demarcation and discrimination: between ˙alàl (permitted) and ˙aràm (forbidden), dàr al-Óarb (the Abode of War) and dàr al-Islam (the Abode of Islam), al-dunyà (this world) and al-àkhira (the next world), kabàhir (felonies) and saghàhir (misdemeanors), a˙àdìth sa˙ì˙a (“healthy” traditions) and a˙àdìth saqìma (“sick” traditions), ma˙àrim (first-degree relatives forbidden in marriage) and ajànib (distant or nonrelatives permitted in marriage)—and of course much more.5 Significantly, the punishments enjoined by Allàh for the violation of His laws are known as al-˙udùd, or “the boundaries.” One of the major criteria according to which Islamic law classifies and differentiates among elements of the surrounding environment for the sake of Muslim believers is the vast system of ritual pollution and purification known as †ahàra. This legal framework, so central to the Islamic lifestyle and Weltanschauung, bifurcates all objects and organisms in existence into the antithetical categories of †àhir (pure) and najis (impure). It also divides all bodily “events” (a˙dàth, sing. ˙adath) that punctuate the physiological cycle or partake of the spectrum of human activity into ritually benign incidents or deeds, on the one hand, and either “violators of the post-ablution state” (nawàqi∂ al-wu∂ùh, sing. nàqi∂) or notion of wa˙dat al-wujùd (unity of existence), and the twentieth-century revolutionary Shìaì theologian aAli Sharìaati’s regular disquisitions on “Islamic monism.” 4 The verses cited are as follows: Q. 30:22, 2:117, 16:12, 17:70, 53:45, 49:13, 35:27, 6:143, 2:81-82, 6:142, and 17:70. Another root that denotes both “splitting” and “creating” is f.†.r. 5 I am, of course, using the term “revelation” here somewhat loosely—or at least all- embracingly—to include both the “initial” communication of God with Man via the Qurhàn, as well as the concurrent and subsequent elaboration and augmentation of the same by the Excellent Exemplar (al-uswa al-˙asana) and his disciples. The generalization about the overarching tendencies of Christianity and the Eastern religions being away from division and toward oneness is just that—a generalization—and should not be taken to imply that these diverse and internally multifarious systems lack limits or divisions..
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