A Critical Examination of Traditional Arguments for Purity and Impurity of the People of the Book

The consideration of the problem of the purity or impurity of people of the book seems to be of the utmost importance,since nowadays the relationship between Muslims and people of the book has been inevitable and some questions have been raised with regard to it. Although the people of the book are commonly regarded as impure by the Shiite Jurisprudents, a great many contemporary and early Shiite jurisprudents regard the people of the Book as pure; and they, except for few Sunni Scholars, have regarded them as pure. The problem of the purity or impurity of the people of the book has to be explained since the present circumstances involve communication among people who are a different race and have different religion.
Those jurisprudents who have regarded the people of the book as pure have appealed to the principle of purity and innocence and the inadequacy of the arguments advanced by their opponents. On the other hand,The jurisprudents who have regarded the people of the book as impure have appealed to some Quranic verses and traditions; even some have claimed that there is consensus in this regard.
Having briefly considered the concept of polytheism, this writing is concerned to explain the arguments put forward by these two groups of jurisprudents, and provide a comprehensive analysis of the problem of the purity or impurity of the people of book. This writing is not going to examine the different aspects of this important issue in great detail.