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Shiavault - a Vault of Shia Islamic Books Faith and Reason Question 45: Limiting the Ahlul Bayt to a few individuals Question: Why do you limit the Ahlul Bayt (ع) to a few people? To prove that the Ahlul Bayt (ع) in the Verse of Purification are limited to the five “people of the cloak” ( ahl al-kisa’ : the Prophet, ‘Ali, Fatimah, Hasan, and Husayn, upon whom be peace), various textual and traditional proofs that are accepted by Sunnis and Shi’as can be forwarded.

We will look at each of these proofs separately. Brief Answer The limiting of the Ahlul Bayt (ع) to the fourteen infallibles is not a human decision; it is an exclusivity understood from the Divine words in the Verse of Purification and the traditions of the noble Prophet (ص). There are numerous discursive and traditional proofs than can be relied on to prove this claim. Discursive and textual proofs a.

The Qur`an consists of the words of Allah (awj) that He revealed to His Prophet in the Arabic language. And Allah’s (awj) words, like His actions, are free of any sort of defect; it is not possible for them to contain any type of grammatical mistake. Now, if the term Ahlul Bayt in the Verse of Purification were to refer to all relatives of the Prophet (ص), it would be in violation of the rules of Arabic grammar and detrimental to the eloquence and perfection of the Divine word.

This is because the Prophet (ص) had more than fifteen wives and for a masculine pronoun to be used in the Verse of Purification to refer to a group, the majority of which were women, would be contrary to proper ‘Arabic speech. Thus, the pronouns in the verse refer to the descendents and trustees of the Prophet (ص) in the house of Fatima (ع). b. To determine the meaning of a word, it is necessary to look at the context in which it originated in order to understand its true exact sense.

In the Verse of Purification, the word ahl (family or people) is under discussion. This word must always be in a possessive phrase, at least in meaning if not in words. That is, its meaning is incomplete unless it is attributed or related to something else. In this verse as well it has been attributed to al-bayt , or the house of prophecy; and we know that this can apply to no house aside from that of Fatima (ع).

If al-bayt referred to an inhabited house, for the other wives of the Prophet (ص) to be included in this phrase, Umm Salamah—in whose house the verse was revealed—should be the first person to be included in the phrase.