If these people were not in iran do you think they would be considered as people of the book? I serioulsy doubt it, going by this flimsy definition of who are the people of the book, every religion should be included.
This is a good question. Since I know very little about the Zoroastrianism, I don't know for sure why they are considered as People of the Book.
However, I do know for sure that we don't define and classify people based on geographical location.
There are verses in the Quran that refer to groups of religious people as Ahlul Kitab (29:46, 3:113-115, 3:199, 2:62, 3:64)
A common theme in all the verses is that these religions have a divine origin; divine revelations or prophets from God. Perhaps Jews and Christians are the two most well known religion. Other faiths that are more obscure are the Sabians and Mandaeism
I find this topic very interesting. I am not knowledgeable enough at the moment to give a concise answer on why the Zorastrians are included as the people of the book. The answer given by the Shaykh seems to indicate that Zorastrianism has a divine origin; a reveled scripture and a prophet of god. Also remember that Zoroastrianism is not an extinct religion. You will find people, until this day, that profess this religion.
as salaamu alaykum
ReplyDeleteI've searched around a little, and there is a sunni hadith that makes them (as) ahl ul-kitab
Yahya related to me from Malik from Jafar ibn Muhammad ibn Ali from his father that Umar ibn al-Khattab mentioned the Magians and said, "I do not know what to do about them." Abd ar-Rahman ibn Awf said, "I bear witness that I heard the Messenger of Allah, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, say, 'Follow the same sunna with them that you follow with the people of the Book . '" [Malik's Muwatta, 17.43].
Perhaps we have a similar hadith in our books, however, I would be suprised if we can actually call them 'people of the book' as in the Qur'an it says:
'And unto thee have We revealed the Scripture with the truth, confirming whatever Scripture was before it' (5:48)
I don't have the hadith, but we know what scrpitures were revealed and to whom.
-tawrat, zaboor, injeel, and the scrolls of Ibrahim. (scrolls of Musa?)
So maybe, as they have roots in monotheism, they are not considered najis, and have the same status as the ahl ul-kitab, but they are not actually ahl ul-kitab. (although many maraja clearly state that they are (as) ahl ul-kitab.
I checked tashayyu, there are also conflicting narrations
1- He said: I asked him about the man who does mut`a with a Jewish woman or a Christian woman. He said: I do regard there to be harm with that. He said: So the Zoroastrian woman? He said: As to the Zoroastrian woman, then no.
4- I asked him about marrying the Jewish woman and the Christian woman. So he said: There is no harm. So I said: So the Zoroastrian woman? So he said: There is no harm with it, meaning in mut`a.
http://www.tashayyu.org/hadiths/marriage/muta/chapter-13
But then, we also have this
He said: Do not pray in a house wherein there is a Zoroastrian. And there is no harm with you praying while there is a Jew or a Christian in it.
http://www.tashayyu.org/hadiths/salat/place-of-salat/chapter-16
wassalaam, ali_hussain
walaykumusalam wbt
ReplyDeleteThank you. I've highlighted your post here http://researchintoothersects.blogspot.com/2011/11/this-is-very-good-comment.html