"They Shall not Draw Nigh": The Access of Unbelievers to Sacred Space in Islamic and Jewish Law
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.5617/jais.4584Abstract
This essay compares the Sunnī Muslim position(s) concerning the ingress of non-Muslims to the Meccan Sanctuary with the Rabbinic outlook on the entry of non-Jews into the Temple precinct. In both cases, the issue is one of purity and pollution, and the algorithms of each religion’s ritual code are therefore probed in search of the underlying bases for their respective policies on the subject. The discussion will follow the legists through their intricate evaluation of what is perceived by many today to be ‘minutiae’ – it was certainly not seen thus by the jurists themselves. The attitudes of Sharīʿa and Halakha to immersion for the sake of conversion also harbor significant implications for this question, and space is devoted to elucidating the two systems’ variant rationales for requiring this ceremony. Our conclusions reveal a significant difference – indeed, a diametric antithesis – between Judaism’s and Islam’s conceptions of the cultic status of the other.
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