Ahl al-Kisa

The Hadith of the Cloak (Arabic: حديث الكساء‎ Hadith-e-Kisa) refers to the Ahl al-Kisa. The hadith is an account of an incident where Muhammad gathered Hassan, Husayn, Ali, and Fatimah under his cloak. This is referred to in several hadiths, including within Sahih Muslim, in which Muhammad is quoted as saying Ahl al-Bayt, or the People of the House, from the second part of the Verse of Purification (ayat ul-tahir).[1]

This hadith is central to the Shia beliefs. For the Shia, it is the basis of the doctrine that the leader of the Muslims should be purified (per Quran 33:33) and from that particular direct line of descendants of Muhammad through Fatimah and Ali that have thus been purified by God. It also serves as the majority Shia doctrine that this line of descendants are infallible, pure, and sinless (ma'suum). This hadith shows that Muhammad, Fatima, Ali, Hasan, and Husayn are the only members of the Ahl al-Bayt.

Sunni Muslims also accept the spiritual significance of the event of purification as exalted in the Quran and elaborated upon by Saheeh Hadith, but do not subscribe to the political authority that the Shia Muslims infer from this belief.

A hadith attributed to 'A'isha reports:

Sunnis tend to view this as Sahih and have included it in Sahih Muslim.[2]

According to the Sunni hadith collections, it is narrated that during the 9th through the 10th year after hijra, an Arab Christian envoy from Najran (currently in northern Yemen and partly in Saudi Arabia) came to the Muhammad to argue which of the two parties erred in its doctrine concerning Jesus (Quran 3:61). Muhammad offered to do the Arabic tradition known as Mubahala, where each conflicting party should cover themselves, and together all parties ask God sincerely to destroy and inflict with curses on the lying party and their families. Muhammad, to prove to them that he was a prophet, brought his daughter Fatimah and his surviving grandchildren, Hasan and Hussain, and Ali ibn Abi Talib and came back to the Christians and said this is my family (ahl) and covered himself and his family with a cloak. [5][6]

The Shia believe this authentic hadith proves whom the Qur'an is referring to when it mentions the Ahl al-Bayt which includes only Ali, Fatimah, and their descendants.[7] Meanwhile, most Sunni sources are in agreement with Shia belief saying that only the Ahl al-Kisa, Muhammad, his daughter Fatimah and his two grandsons, Hasan and Husayn, and Ali ibn Abi Talib, participated the occasion - none of his wives, other grandchildren or sons-in-law were selected.[8]

The Shia celebrate this event as Eid-e Mubahala. This hadith provides the background for the "purification verse" or ayah al-tatheer from surah Al-Ahzab in the Quran whereby God explicitly identified the Ahlul Bayt (33:33):[9]

And abide quietly in your homes, and do not flaunt your charms as they used to flaunt them in the old days of pagan ignorance; and be constant in prayer, and render the purifying dues, and pay heed unto God and His Apostle: God wishes to remove all filth and impurity from you, O People of the House of the Prophet, and to render you utterly free of all pollution.

The tradition about this hadith goes from different sources to Fatimah, the daughter of Muhammad. She narrated that once her father visited her home, he had fever and was not feeling well, he asked for a Yemeni cloak which Fatimah brought to him and folded it around him. Later he was joined in that Yemeni cloak by his grandsons Hassan and Husayn, who were followed by their father Ali, who was cousin and son-in-law of Muhammad. Finally, Fatimah asked the permission to enter that cloak. When all five of them joined together under the cloak, Muhammad narrated the Quranic verse 33:33 to those under the cloak that all five of them are chosen ones, and he further stated that he wants from God to keep all impurities out of reach and away from all of us. Muhammad then prayed to God to declare all five of them as his Ahl al-Bayt and keep away the Najasat (impurities). At that request, God immediately sent Gabriel to reveal to Muhammad that all the five under the cloak are dearest and closest to God and they are Tahir (purest of the pure) without any traces of impurities.[10]

The hadith of the cloak and the purification verse was utilized at various times by the Ahl al-Bayt to assert their beliefs to political and spiritual leadership of the Muslim community. For example, at the gathering that was convened after the death of Umar in 644 to select a caliph, Ali made the following argument: "Is there any among us apart from myself concerning whom the "purification verse" was revealed?" When they answered "no" he proceeded: "The People of the House are overflowing with abundant virtue, for the Quran says, 'God wishes to remove all filth and impurity from you O House of the Prophet, and to render you utterly free of pollution.' (33:33) God has therefore removed from us all evil, outer and inner, and placed us firmly on the path of truth and righteousness."[11]

Some Sunni scholars remark that the "purification verse" was revealed concerning five people: Muhammad, Ali, Fatimah, Hassan and Husayn.[12] Others maintain that the "purification verse" cannot refer to the inerrancy of the Imams because the context in which it occurs relates to the wives of Muhammad and necessitates that it, too, should refer to them, or that at the very least they cannot be excluded from the category it addresses. If it were to imply inerrancy, then the wives of Muhammad would also have to be inerrant, a belief that Sunni scholars do not hold. Shia scholars, however, do believe in the infallibility of Muhammad. Ibn Kathir in his tafsir of the relevant verse says "the [Sunni] scholars are unanimously agreed that [Muhammad's wives] were the reason for revelation in this case...but others may be included by way of generalization."[13]

Nevertheless, according to the Sunni historian al-Tabari, the term ahl al-bayt refers to 'Ali, Fatima, Hasan, and Husayn. In reference to verse 33:33, L. Veccia Vaglieri in Encyclopedia of Islam wrote:[14]

[...] the preceding verses contain instructions to the wives of Muhammed, and there the verbs and pronouns are in the feminine plural; but in this verse, addressed to the People of the House, the pronouns are in the masculine plural. Thus, it has been said, it is no longer a question of Muhammed's wives, or of them alone.... The expression Ahl al-bayt can only mean "Family of the Prophet".

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