Ahl al-Kitab (the People of the Book, their status, and the rules on marriage, food, covenant and dealings)

For the majority of jurists the People of the Book are the Jews and Christians in their various sects. The Hanafis extend the term to anyone who believes in a prophet and acknowledges a scripture, such as the Psalms of David and the scrolls of Abraham and Seth. ¹

• The Magians are not People of the Book by agreement, though they are treated like them in the poll tax. ¹²
• The Sabians are disputed: Abu Hanifa counts them among the People of the Book, and the Shafi'i view is that they are a kind of Christian if they agree with them on the roots of faith. ¹

• Unbelievers: three kinds: the People of the Book, those with a semblance of a scripture such as the Magians, and those with neither, such as idolaters. ²
• The protected people: those under covenant among them and others; the two categories do not coincide, since a protected person may not be a Scripturalist. ²

The jurists agree that Magianism is worse; for Judaism and Christianity the majority see no difference, some Hanafis hold Christianity worse, and another view holds Judaism the more unbelieving. ²³

A covenant of protection may be granted to the People of the Book by agreement, and it protects their life and property; if they ask for it and it serves the Muslims, the Malikis and Shafi'is say the imam must grant it. ³

• Their slaughter and game are lawful by the majority, and there is no difference between a combatant and a protected person. ³⁴
• Where one parent is of a people whose slaughter is not lawful, the Hanbalis forbid it, the Shafi'is distinguish, and Abu Hanifa allows it. ⁴
• A Muslim may marry a Scriptural woman by agreement; Ahmad had a view forbidding the Christian women of the Banu Taghlib, but the sounder view treats them as others. ⁴⁵
• Their vessels may be used by the Hanafis and Malikis unless their impurity is certain; the Shafi'is and a Hanbali report dislike it. ⁵
• Their blood money is half a Muslim's in the view of Malik and Ahmad, a third in the Shafi'i view, and equal to a Muslim's in the Hanafi view. ⁵

• God commanded fighting those who do not submit until they pay the poll tax, and named the People of the Book for their knowledge of the prophets. ⁵
• Their help in war is allowed in need by the Hanafis, Hanbalis and Shafi'is, provided they are trusted; the Malikis forbid it. ⁵⁶

• They are barred from the sacred precinct, from settling in the Arabian peninsula, and by some from entering mosques. ⁶⁷
• They may not build a place of worship in the land of Islam, nor be buried in Muslim graves. ⁷

• An unbeliever has no authority over a Muslim, whether as imam, judge, guardian in marriage, custodian or executor; a Muslim woman may not marry one of them; the duty of equal treatment among wives applies to a Scriptural wife. ⁷⁸
• Dealing with them is lawful: the Prophet bought food from a Jew on credit and pledged his armour to him, and he also made agreements with them for farming and irrigation. ⁸

The Encyclopaedia of Islam (2nd ed.), an unsigned article, deals only with the doctrinal position of the Qur'an, the hadith and the controversialists on Jews and Christians; their legal status as protected people is treated elsewhere. The term does not occur in the Qur'an before the end of the Meccan period. It denotes the Jews and Christians, possessors of the earlier books (the Torah, the Psalms and the Gospel), and was later extended to the Sabeans, to the Zoroastrians and, in India, to others. ⁹

The Qur'an first stresses the community of faith between the possessors of the earlier scriptures and the followers of the new revelation, and praises some of their virtues. Later, after Muhammad's disappointment with the Jews of Medina and the Christians, it stresses their failure to understand the message they hold, their exclusiveness and their jealousy, and tells the believers not to take them as allies. The Children of Israel are God's chosen people, but they are rebellious, worship the golden calf, persecute the prophets and break the Sabbath; they are cursed, and can be saved only by righteousness. The Christians are admitted to a covenant and to salvation in some passages, but their doctrines of the divinity of Jesus, his passion, the Trinity and monasticism are rejected, and affiliation with them is forbidden. ⁹

Hadith and polemic stress the Jewish origin of many practices, under the rule "do not act as do the people of the Book", which the article compares with the Talmudic ban on following the practices of the Gentiles. The fast of 'Ashura is derived from Yom Kippur, and Ramadan is also traced to Jewish and Christian institutions. Muslim tradition emphasises the enmity of Jews and Christians, and accuses the possessors of the Scriptures of suppressing or distorting passages. Discussion with them was disliked, but edifying stories from their antiquity (Isra'iliyyat) were tolerated. ¹⁰

The polemic swung between two views of the Scriptures: that they are authentic and need suitable exegesis, or that they are falsified or unreliable. The first view prevailed in the 3rd/9th and 4th/10th centuries, while Ibn Hazm gave the most penetrating critique of the Jewish and Christian Scriptures. Against the Jews the chief theological point was the abrogation (naskh) of earlier revelations and the charge of anthropomorphism. Against the Christians the arguments were richer: Paul is said to have altered the message of Jesus, Constantine to have falsified the history of the community, and the Trinity, taken as tritheism, to contradict divine unity. Muhammad is the Paraclete foretold in the Gospel. ¹⁰

The Sheikh tells of an interfaith conference: the time for the sunset prayer came, he asked leave and stood to pray, and the senior priest from the Vatican then spoke to him ¹¹.

He goes on to say that the priest asked to be allowed to pray in the Kaaba, just as he had been allowed to pray where they were; the Sheikh answered that the difference is small: the priest believes in Musa and Isa, and if he believed in Muhammad as well he would be allowed to pray in the Kaaba, whereas the Muslim believes in Musa, Isa and Muhammad ¹².