By Sayyid Burair Abbas

Among the most crucial matters in Islam is the issue of purity of oneself and others. In the case of other people, their purity means a lot given that we interact with them, live, work and even partake in their food etc. The following is a brief summary of an opinion^[1] of Shaykh Ḥaider Ḥobbollah on the topic of human purity.

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It is widely regarded in the Imamiyyah school, contrary to the majority of Muslim jurists, that a non-Muslim is impure, whether he is from Ahlul-Kitāb^[2] or other religions. Rather, a group of them have said that some of those affiliated with Islam are also impure, such as the Ghulāt, the Nawāṣib and the Khāwarij.

Furthermore, some of them even associate impurity in an absolute way to any non-Twelver Imami whether he be from the Ahl al-Sunnah or another sect.

Moreover, the view about the impurity of an illegitimate child, even if his parents are Muslims, was attributed to Sheikh Al-Ṣadūq (381 AH) and Sayyid Al-Murtaḍa (436 AH). Perhaps Ibn Idrīs al-Ḥilli (598 AH) also agreed with the impurity of the illegitimate child, because he used to believe in the absolute infidelity of an illegitimate child in an edict in which – may God have mercy on him -he differed from the majority of jurists.

However, a historical shift occurred at the level of this view in the twentieth century, especially at the hands of Sayyid Muḥsin al-Ḥakīm (1390 AH) in the issue of the purity of the People of the Book and then Sayyid Muḥammad Baqir al-Ṣadr on the issue of human purity; therefore it became well-accepted extending to the present day that all those who are Ahl al-Kitab are pure while those beyond this circle are not. After this the view asserting the absolute purity of the human being arose and has since been gaining traction in the jurisprudential research circles and even practical rulings; therefore not just one but many utilize obligatory precaution to rule on the impurity of a non-Ahlul Kitābī disbeliever. Among such scholars are Sayyid Muḥammad Baqir al-Ṣadr, Sayyid Muḥammad Sa’eed al-Ḥakīm, Sheikh Ḥusayn ‘Ali al-Muntaẓari, Sayyid Kāẓim al-Ḥa’iri. Sayyid Maḥmoud Ḥāshimi al-Shahroudi and Sayyid ‘Ali al-Sīstani (in his latest opinion, the latter changed the ruling on the impurity of non-Ahlul Kitāb [ie kuffār and mushrikīn] to precaution).

Now a faction has even issued verdicts for the absolute purity of the human being. These include: Sayyid Muḥammad Ḥusayn Faḍlullah, Sheikh Ibrahīm Al-Jannati, and Sheikh Nāṣir Makārim Al-Shirazi (the latter has done so in his recent annotations to the book ‘Urwah al-Wuthqā).

The conclusion I have reached is the absolute purity of the human being, regardless of whether he should be deemed a member of a Muslim heretical sect (like the khāwarij^[3], nāwaṣib^[4], mujabbirah^[5], mujassimah^[6], Ṣūfis^[7] or adherents of waḥdah al-wujūd^[8], ghulāt^[9], etc) or orthodoxy (like the Shi’a and Sunni); regardless of whether he is of the Ahlul Kitāb or not; regardless of whether he adheres to a religion or is atheist; regardless of whether he is an apostate after conversion or from an originally Muslim household; regardless of whether he is of illicit birth or not; regardless of whether he is muqaṣṣir (blameworthy in disbelief) or qāṣir (inculpable ignorant);  in other words, all human beings are pure in themselves.

Footnotes

[1] https://hobbollah.com/araa/%d8%b7%d9%87%d8%a7%d8%b1%d8%a9-%d8%a7%d9%84%d8%a5%d9%86%d8%b3%d8%a7%d9%86/

[2] Ahlul-Kitāb: People of the Book as in those who received a revealed book from God. 

[3] Khāwarij: Literally it means those who exit the religion (from خرج =  to exit); they are those who had spilt from the Imam Ali(a) army in the battle of Siffīn and fought him in battle of Naḥarwān.

[4] Naṣibi (sing.) is a person who hates the Ahlulbayt of Rasulullah (s) and their Shi’as.

[5] Mujabbirah or Jabariyah (Predeterminists) was the earliest Islamic sect that used to deny free agency (or free will) for humans. It is allegedly associated with Al-Ja’d ibn Dirham and originated in Basra.

[6] Mujassimah (Anthropomorphists) were of two types. Those who used to believe that Allah is a body but unlike other bodies and the second were those who used to believe that Allah is a jism(body) like other created bodies.

[7] The first person who is affiliated with the term ‘Sufi’ was Abu Hashim al-Kufi. Though the pioneering of Sufism could also be linked to Hasan al-Basri who is also known as the “great patriarch of Sufism”. For more info on Sufism, refer to https://www.al-islam.org/tags/sufism

[8] Unity of Existence or Oneness of Being is a doctrine associated with Ibn ‘Arabi though he didn’t employ it in his own works. This doctrine is studied in theoretical ‘irfan.

[9] Ghulāt (exaggerators) was an early sect with different splinter groups having beliefs like divinity of Imams of Ahlulbayt, or in their prophethood, antinomianism, reincarnation, metempsychosis, etc. These were some beliefs of the early Ghulāt like Rawandiyya, Bayaniyya, ʿAlyāʾiyya, Mukhamissa etc or the later Ghulāt groups like Mufawwiḍah who used to believe that Allah created the universe and delegated His affairs to the Imams(a).