from him—as already noted—that only a Jew or a Christian may enter the Sacred Mosque and other mosques. This agrees with what al-Jassāṣ records in al-Aḥkām and al-ʿAynī in al-ʿUmda on Abū Ḥanīfah’s authority. Al-ʿAynī writes:

“He adduced as proof what Aḥmad relates in his Musnad with a sound chain from Jābir, may Allah be pleased with him: the Messenger of Allah, peace and blessings be upon him, said, ‘After this year of ours no polytheist shall enter this mosque of ours, except those under treaty and their attendants.’”

Others, however, have attributed to Abū Ḥanīfah the view that a polytheist, too, may enter. Thus Fatḥ al-Bārī states:

“Concerning a polytheist’s entry into a mosque there are several opinions: the Ḥanafīs allow it without restriction; the Mālikīs and al-Muzanī forbid it absolutely; the Shāfiʿīs distinguish between the Sacred Mosque and other mosques on the basis of the verse. It has also been said that permission is confined to People of the Book, yet the hadith under discussion refutes this, for Thumāmah was not among them.”

Fayḍ al-Bārī corroborates this report:

“The Ḥanafīs say that a polytheist is not impure and may enter the Sacred Mosque and others, as stated in al-Jāmiʿ al-Ṣaghīr; the verse therefore posed a difficulty for them. I add: In al-Siyar al-Kabīr it is affirmed that, according to us, he is likewise barred from the Sacred Mosque, as the text plainly indicates, and this was the opinion preferred in al-Durr al-Mukhtār because it was the last of Muḥammad’s, may Allah be pleased with him, works.”

Shaykh al-Kashmīrī, author of Fayḍ, then declared his own preference and explained it earlier in the book: