Linda Darwish

This study examines how some of the most preeminent commentators of the Shi'a exegetical tradition have interpreted Surah 9:28 to frame the relationship between shirk (associating others with God), impurity, and the confessional boundaries around Islamic sacred space, the Masjid al-Haram in particular. The paper revolves around three main questions: how do commentators define the boundaries of shirk? What is the nature of the mushrik's (polytheist's) impurity? And, what is the extent of the prohibition against entering the Masjid and why? The paper demonstrates that commentators tend towards highly precautionary interpretations of non-Muslim impurity, including that of ahl al-kitab, with contrary views appearing only in the modern period. Nevertheless, despite some variance of opinion, the exegetical tradition on Surah 9:28 is not unique to Shi'a Islam but reflects an understanding of what counts as sacred space and how separation acts to make space sacred that is found in religion more generally.

This study surveys rulings on the subject of migration issued by Imami Shi‘ite legal scholars from the formative 10th – 14th centuries to contemporary times. Prefacing this survey with an examination of hijrah (migration) in the Qur’an and early Imami traditions, the study opens up reflection on an area of Islamic legal discourse that is largely ignored in the literature on Islam in the West. In examining the legal discourse on migration as an historical phenomenon central to the early construction of Muslim identity and not simply as an ad hoc response to modern contingencies, we are able to situate the rulings of traditional modern legal scholars within a long-standing discursive framework. The study demonstrates that while early jurists constructed a rationale for migration to Muslim-held territory that served the interests of the community or state and religion, jurists of the modern period re-employ the same theoretical models while adjusting them to respond to the historical circumstances of cultural and religious globalization.

This is a qualitative study of 17 Iranian Muslim converts to Christianity residing in Canada. The study asks how the sample narrativizes the meaning of religious conversion in their lives. Analysis reveals a six-fold thematic pattern, the underlying premise of which is the relationship between volition, cognition, and sensory experience (or religious emotion). There is a consensus among respondents that human knowledge is always limited, whatever the field of inquiry. In consequence, religious knowledge based on cognition alone proves to be an insufficient guide to matters of ultimate truth. It follows that conversion is frequently experienced and represented less as a rational choice than as a spontaneously gifted event in which cognition and volition are absorbed by what Azari and Birnbacher have so aptly expressed as a " [knowing] that feels like something. " Re´sume´: Cette e´tude qualitative porte sur 17 personnes musulmanes iraniennes converties au christianisme et re´sidant au Canada. Nous examinons la mise en narration de la signification attribue´e a` la conversion religieuse. Notre analyse met enlumière une tendance the´matique en six points distincts dont la pre´misse de base est le rapport entre la volonte´, la cognition et l'expe´rience sensorielle (ou le sentiment religieux). Les re´pondants s'entendent pour dire le savoir humain est toujours limite´, quel que soit le champ de recherche. Conse´quemment, le savoir religieux fonde´sur la cognition seule est un guide insuffisant pour trouver la ve´riteúltime. On peut en de´duire que la conversion religieuse est souvent ve´cue et repre´sente´e non pas en tant que choix rationnel, mais davantage comme une´vènement spontane´ment offert lors duquel la cognition et la volonte´sont absorbe´es par ce que Azari et Birnbacher ont si habilement caracte´rise´« un savoir que l'on ressent ».