what is the definition of Ahl ul Bayt

ramesha · September 10, 2009, 2:33am

Salaam,

There are many Hadiths of Rasool Allah (saww) in regards to who the recipients of the Ayat of Tatheer (33:33) are. But if you are confused abou the Hadiths and wish to research purely from the Quran itself then the following will be beneficial to you, Insha Allah. wasalam.

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"O Prophet! say to your wives: If you desire this world's life and its adornment, then come, I will give you a provision and allow you to depart a goodly departing. And if you desire Allah and His Messenger and the latter abode, then surely Allah has prepared for the doers of good among you a mighty reward. O wives of the prophet! whoever of you commits an open indecency, the punishment shall be increased to her doubly; and this is easy to Allah. And whoever of you is obedient to Allah and His Messenger and does good, We will give to her her reward doubly, and We have prepared for her an honorable sustenance. O wives of the Prophet! you are not like any other of the women; If you will be on your guard, then be not soft in (your) speech, lest he in whose heart is a disease yearn; and speak a good word." (33:28-32)

If you read the Arabic, you will see that these verses are in the feminine gender usage, and are clearly directed towards the wives. The Surah continues:

"And stay in your houses and do not display your finery like the displaying of the ignorance of yore; and keep up prayer, and pay the poor-rate, and obey Allah and His Messenger. Allah only desires to keep away the uncleanness from you, O People of the House (Ahlul'bayt)! and to purify you a thorough purification." (33:33)

This is verse under discussion. The second sentence is the area of debate, and is known as Ayat Tatheer. It requires an examination using the Qur'an.

The Surah continues:

"And keep to mind what is recited in your houses of the communications of Allah and the wisdom; surely Allah is Knower of subtleties, Aware." (33:34)

If you examine the verses around Ayah Tatheer (second part of 33:33) you will find that the Qur'an is speaking strictly to the wives. The commands flow linguistically and maintain the theme even if you remove the second part of 33:33 from the verses cited above. The gender is changed from feminine to masculine for only this part of 33:33 -

إِنَّمَا يُرِيدُ اللَّهُ لِيُذْهِبَ عَنْكُمُ الرِّجْسَ أَهْلَ الْبَيْتِ وَيُطَهِّرَكُمْ تَطْهِيرًا
"Allah only desires to keep away the uncleanness from you, Ahlul'bayt, and to purify you a (thorough) purifying."

Some Sunnis will argue that this verse is direct towards the wives due to its position in this Surah, but this is impossible because the gender usage is masculine, and not feminine. The verses preceding and proceeding the second part of 33:33 are in feminine gender usage, while the second part of 33:33 has changed its usage to masculine.

Other Sunnis have argued that Rasoolullah (a.s.) is with the wives in this part of the verse. Some others, in a similar fashion, have said that Rasoolullah (a.s.), Imam Ali (a.s.), Bibi Fatima (a.s.), Imam Hasan (a.s.), Imam Hussein (a.s.), AND the wives are the people within "Ahlul'bayt" (a.s.).

The quickest and easiest Qur'anic refutation of this argument is as follows:

The first part of 33:33 and the other verses around it are in reference to solely the wives. There is no argument there. However, in the second part of 33:33, there is a change in gender (from feminine "kun" to masculine "kum"). Allah is now addressing a new set of people. Sunnis argue "but the wives are still included." This is a logical fallacy in Ahlul'sunnah method of Tafseer, because according to Ahlul'sunnah, the title "Ahlul'bayt" is all-inclusive for Rasoolullah (a.s.), Imam Ali (a.s.), Bibi Fatima (a.s.), Imam Hasan (a.s.), Imam Hussein (a.s.), AND the wives. But we see here that the Sunnis are arguing that the purification mentioned is dependent upon the wives obeying the verses around the Ayat Tatheer. Well, where are the commands for the rest of Ahlul'bayt (a.s.) to obey in order to be purified? The purification mentioned in 33:33 MUST be unconditional, because if the Sunni argument were true, than the rest of Ahlul'bayt (not only the wives) would have been given conditions to follow just like the wives. But this is not the case. It thus shows that it is a completely different context and a completely different theme.

Thus, it is proven clearly and without a shadow of a doubt that this second part of 33:33 is a parenthetical verse (i.e. a verse which is embedded within a different set of verses). It is proven through this logical deduction that the purification mentioned in Ayat Tatheer is in fact unconditional and not dependent upon any order from Allah.

Some people have said that the verse says: "Allah only desires to REMOVE from you al-rijs".

These people have done tahreef of al-Qur'an and have attributed falsehood to it in order to hide the truth about this Ayah. It is in actuality "Allah only desires to KEEP AWAY from you al-rijs." The Arabic says "ankum al-rijs", not "minkum al-rijs", and 'ankum' denotes a continual and unbroken purification.

al-Rijs means ALL IMPURITIES. It is not a specific impurity, but refers to them all. For example, missing Salaah is impure, lying is impure, cheating is impure, and basically sinning in general is an impurity. Whoever is the recipient of such a divine verse is sinless (ma'soom).

People ask: "Well, why did Allah put this Ayat Tatheer in the middle of the the verses directed towards the wives? Is this not strange?"

In short, we say that it makes the Qur'an harder to tamper with, and is Allah's divine knowledge that He is able to create a very strong book which is hard to alter. Moreover, there are other places in the Qur'an where Allah has mentioned a new theme entirely in the midst of a flowing speech, even within a single verse. For example, 5:3. These parenthetical sentences are included within the flowing speech of the sentences around them:

"This day have those who disbelieve despaired of your religion, so fear them not, and fear Me. This day have I perfected for you your religion and completed My favor on you and chosen for you Islam as a religion."

As history shows, these two sentences were revealed entirely separate from the rest of the verse (i.e. in the final year of the Prophet's (a.s.) life at Ghadeer, when Ameer al-Momineen Ali ibn Abi Talib (a.s.) was appointed for the final time as the Prophet's (a.s.) designated successor.)

Syed Mansab Ali Jafri

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