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6 Berkeley J. Middle E. & Islamic L. 1 (2014)

handle is hein.journals/bjme6 and id is 1 raw text is: 1 BERKELEY J. OF MIDDLE EASTERN & ISLAMIC LAW LAW As FAITH, FAITH As LAW: THE LEGALIZATION OF THEOLOGY IN ISLAM AND JUDAISM IN THE THOUGHT OF AL-GHAZALI AND MAIMONIDES Shlomo C. Pill' I. INTRODUCTION Legal systems tend to draw critical distinctions between members and nonmembers of the legal-political community. Typically, citizens, by virtue of shouldering the burden of legal obligations, enjoy more expansive legal rights and powers than noncitizens. While many modem legal regimes do offer significant human rights protections to non-citizens within their respective jurisdictions, even these liberal legal systems routinely discriminate between citizens and non- citizens with respect to rights, entitlements, obligations, and the capacity to act in legally significant ways. In light of these distinctions, it is not surprising that modern legal systems spend considerable effort delineating the differences between citizen and noncitizen, as well as the processes for obtaining or relinquishing citizenship. As nomocentric, or law-based faith traditions, Islam and Judaism also draw important distinctions between Muslims and non-Muslims, Jews and non- Jews. In Judaism, only Jews are required to abide by Jewish law, or halakha, and consequently only Jews may rightfully demand the entitlements that Jewish law duties create, while the justice owed by Jews to non-Jews is governed by a general rule of reciprocity. Also, according to Jewish law, only Jews can marry other Jews, and only Jews have the legal capacity to perform certain religious acts, such as leading a congregation in prayer, slaughtering an animal for kosher consumption, and serving as a witness to create legal realities by formally certifying certain acts. The question of who is a Jew has thus loomed large in Jewish law and thought for millennia. 1. S.J.D. candidate in Law and Religion, Emory University School of Law and Emory University Center for the Study of Law and Religion; L.L.M. in Law and Religion, Emory Law School, 2013; J.D., Fordham University School of Law, 2012. The author thanks Vincent Cornell and Devin Stewart for their helpful comments on earlier drafts of this article, and the staff of the Berkeley Journal of Middle Eastern & Islamic Law for their excellent editorial comments, which have greatly improved this piece. 2014

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