معيار شمول عنوان «اهل كتاب» در قرآن مجيد

Criterion for Inclusion of "Ahl ol-Kitāb" (People of the Book) in the Holy Quran

قرآن مجيد با عنوان «اهل كتاب» به يهوديان و مسيحيان اشاره مي‌كند. همچنين گاهي عناوين «كساني كه به آنان كتاب داديم» يا «كساني كه كتاب داده شده‌اند» را به‌كار مي‌برد. از بعضي آيات، احكامي اجتماعي يا فردي براي مصاديق اين عنوان استفاده شده است. حال پرسشي مطرح مي‌شود كه آيا اين عنوان بسته‌اي است و تنها پيروان همين اديان را شامل خواهد شد يا اينكه مي‌توان معياري ارايه داد كه برخي از اديان ديگر نيز، مشمول حكم اين عنوان شوند؟ عموم مفسران و فقيهان، يهوديان و مسيحيان را مطابق قرآن مجيد، اهل كتاب شمرده‌اند و اكثريت قاطع آنان زرتشتيان را مطابق روايات، ملحق به اهل كتاب دانسته‌اند؛ اما وقتي كتاب اين سه دين را بررسي مي‌كنيم، مي‌بينيم هر معياري را كه در نظر بگيريم، مي‌توان پيروان برخي از اديان ديگر را نيز اهل كتاب خواند. مطلب مقاله اين است كه اگر گزارش متون اسلامي از وضعيت كتاب اين اديان را با داده‌هاي بيروني و نيز سخنان عام الهي در زمينه هدايت انسان‌ها كنار هم بگذاريم، مي‌توانيم به ملاك و معياري دست يابيم كه در برخي از اديان ديگر نيز وجود داشته باشد.

The Quran refers to Jews and Christians as “Ahl ol-Kit?b” or People of the Book, and sometimes uses terms like “those to whom We have given the Book” or "those who have been given the Book". Accordingly, some verses have been used to drive social and individual rulings for the extension of these terms. Now, the question arises as to whether it is used as a limited and closed application and only includes the followers of these religions or is it possible to present a criterion to generalize it also to the followers of other religions. Commentators and jurisprudents have generally reckoned Jews and Christians among "People of the Book" and absolute majority of them have considered Zoroastrians, in accordance with Islamic traditions, among People of the Book, but when we examine the sacred Books of these three religions, we see that based on every criterion being taken into consideration, the followers of some other religions may be included as "People of the Book" as well. This article tries to state that if we put the Islamic text reports about the status of these religionsʹ Books and the external information, as well as general divine words related to the divine guidance of human beings together, we can achieve a common criterion and standard that exists in other religions too and this standard will help to include the followers of some other religions as "People of the Book" as well.