The disagreement arises in the inclusion of the wives and...

The disagreement arises in the inclusion of the wives and other Hashimite relatives of the Prophet among the "Ahlul Bayt". For example, during our time, a book has been published in Saudi Arabia entitled as 'Allimu Awladakum Hubb Al-i Bayti 'n-Nabi (Teach Your Children the Love of the Family of the Prophet) by Dr.

Muhammad 'Abduh Yamani in 1991.[^1] The order in which Yamani talks about the Prophet's family is very interesting: he first talks about Khadija, then Fatima, 'Ali, Hasan, Husayn, Zaynu 'l-'Abidyn, and then ends with the other wives of the Prophet. Wilfred Madelung makes the following observation on the verse of purification: "Who are the 'people of the house' here? The pronoun referring to them is in the masculine plural, while the preceding part of the verse is in the feminine plural.

This change of gender has evidently contributed to the birth of various accounts of a legendary character, attaching the latter part of the verse to the five People of the Mantle (ahl al-kisa') : Muhammad, 'Ali, Fatima, Hasan and Husayn. In spite of the obvious Shí'ite significance, the great majority of the reports quoted by al-Tabari in his commentary on this verse support this interpretation."[^2] From the many reports that the Sunni sources narrated, here I am just quoting one as an example.

Abu Sa'íd al-Khudari quotes Umm Salama, the wife of the Prophet in whose house the incident of Kisa' took place. She says: Jibra'íl came with the verse of purification; the Prophet called Hasan, Husayn, Fatima and 'Ali, and he gathered them together and covered them with the mantle.

Then he said, "O Allah, these are my Ahlul Bayt, so 'keep away the abomination from the Ahlul Bayt, and purify them thoroughly.'" Umm Salama (may Allah be pleased with her) said, "Am I with them, O Apostle of Allah?" The Prophet said, "You stay in your place, and you are virtuous."[^3] Since this verse is situated right in the midst of the verses addressed to the wives of the Prophet, some Sunnis use its position to include the wives in the "Ahlul Bayt".

But the problem with their interpretation is the difference in the pronouns: the sentences before and after the verse of purification have feminine plural pronouns whereas the statement itself has the masculine plural pronouns. This is internal evidence that the statement of purification was an independent verse that was revealed on its own in a different event unrelated to the wives.