their connection with the divine realities sees the dominion of holiness as everything other than God from this standpoint. Whoever considers things in respect of their entities sees the dominion of holiness as including only those whose purity is incidental. What is intrinsically pure should not belong to the dominion of holiness, unless the dominion of holiness is holiness itself, in which case it can correctly be called the dominion of holiness.
The purity of everything purified corresponds to the purity its entity requires: sensory purity or spiritual purity. Some of the dominion of holiness belongs to the world of meanings, and some to the world of sense. Sensory causes of purification may produce spiritual purity, and spiritual causes of purification may produce sensory purity. As for the first, it is His saying, exalted is He, “He sends down water upon you from heaven to purify you through it, remove Satan’s defilement from you, bind your hearts firmly, and make your feet firm through it” [al-Anfal 8:11]. The cause of all this spiritual purity is simply this water’s descent from heaven. As for the second, it is the Prophet’s saying, God bless him and grant him peace, to Abu Hurayra when he was in a state of major ritual impurity. Abu Hurayra pulled his hand out of the Prophet’s hand, God bless him and grant him peace, out of reverence for him, because he was not pure owing to the major ritual impurity that had come upon him. The Messenger of God, God bless him and grant him peace, said to him, “The believer does not become impure.” The believer’s sweat and what remains after he drinks are therefore pure.
Notes
Translator’s note TN3739-1: The example distinguishes janāba, major ritual impurity, from becoming impure in the sense of najāsa. The believer’s spiritual purity is invoked as the ground of the sensory purity of sweat and what remains after drinking. The source does not treat the two senses of impurity as interchangeable.
