and Mālik regarded it as reprehensible for any unbeliever at all to enter any mosque. He cited the words of Allah: “Indeed, the polytheists are impure…” (9:28). Ibn Ḥazm responded: “Allah has singled out the Sacred Mosque, so it is impermissible to extend the ruling to any other mosque without a separate text.”

I say: Mālik’s followers supported his position by invoking the rationale stated in the verse and applied it to every mosque. Al-Qurṭubī wrote: “Al-Shāfiʿī, may Allah have mercy on him, held that the verse is general with respect to all polytheists yet specific to the Sacred Mosque; they are therefore not barred from entering other mosques. On that basis he permitted Jews and Christians to enter any of them.” Ibn al-ʿArabī remarked: “This is a rigid adherence to the surface wording, for the Almighty’s statement, ‘Indeed, the polytheists are impure’ (9:28), draws attention to the underlying cause: their polytheism and impurity.” Ṣiddīq Khān, in Nayl al-Marām, replied: “That analogy is invalidated by the Prophet’s binding of Thumāmah ibn Athāl in his mosque and by his housing of the delegation from Thaqīf there.”

I say: As for the binding of Thumāmah, Ibn al-ʿArabī himself answered that it occurred before the revelation of the verse, and he gave the same reply regarding Abū Sufyān’s entry into the mosque, as mentioned earlier. Concerning the stay of the Thaqīf delegation, were its chain of transmission sound it would constitute evidence against them, not a rebuttal, because it took place after the verse was revealed, as Abū Bakr al-Jassāṣ has already noted.

I say, furthermore, that the reports from Abū Ḥanīfah on this matter are at variance, for Ibn Ḥazm related