| Beliefs and practices |
| Succession to Muhammad Imamate of the Family Mourning of Muharram Intercession · Ismah The Occultation · Clergy |
| Views |
| The Qur'an · Sahaba |
| Holy days |
| Ashura · Arba'een · Mawlid Eid ul-Fitr · Eid al-Adha Eid al-Ghadeer Eid al-Mubahila |
| History |
| Twelver · Ismāʿīlī · Zaidi The verse of purification Mubahala · Two things Khumm · Fatimah's house First Fitna · Second Fitna The Battle of Karbala Persecution |
| Ahl al-Kisa |
| Muhammad · Ali · Fatimah Hasan · Hussein |
| Some companions |
| Salman the Persian Miqdad ibn Aswad Abu Dharr al-Ghifari Ammar ibn Yasir Bilal ibn Rabah |
Ahl al-Kisā' (Arabic: أهل الكساء People of the Cloak) refers to the Islamic prophet Muhammad, his daughter Fatimah, his cousin and son-in-law Ali, and his two grandsons Hasan and Husayn. They are also referred to as Āl al-‘Abā (Arabic: آل العبا) or Panj-tan-e Āl-e Abā (Persian: پنج تن آل عبا) or simply Panj tan (Persian: پنج تن “the Five”). The origin of this belief is found in the Hadith of the Event of the Cloak and the Hadith of Mubahala'; this hadith is widely accepted as authentic by Shi'i Muslims with only some Sunnis accepting the interpretation.
It is one of the foundations of the Shi'i conception of the Imamate, which states that patrilineal descendants of Muhammad have a special divine spiritual leadership over the Muslim community. The Ahl al-Kisa, along with the their descendants, the Imams, form the Shi'i definition of Ahl al-Bayt "People of the House", a term used to designate the family of Muhammad.
The three branches of Shi'i Islam differ on the nature of the Ahl al-Kisa and the Imams. The two largest branches, the Twelvers and the Ismailis, consider them to be in a state of ismah "infallibility", a belief originating from the verse of purification in the Quran.
In contrast, the third branch, the Zaidi, view them only as political figures with the duty to lead revolts against corrupt rulers and governments.
Another Shi'i group, the Dhammiyya Shia, believed that the five people under the cloak made up one unity.
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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 mentioned in several ahadith, including Sahih Muslim, where Muhammad is quoted as saying the phrase “Ahl al-Bayt” “People of the House” from the second part of verse 33:33 of the Qur'an; the verse called ‘’Ayat al-Tathir’’ "verse of purification".
This is a central hadith in terms of the differences between Shi'i and Sunni Muslims as it is the foundation for the Shi'i claim that Governorship of Muslims should reside only with the direct line of Muhammad through Fatimah and Ali, as well as being the basis for their further claims that certain of the descendants of Muhammad are infallible: points on which Sunnis strongly disagree. They claim that the term has a broader meaning that does not invest any such authority in Muhammad's family exclusively and that it is possible for any right-living person of faith to attain such spiritual purity or authority.
Regarding the hadith, Sunnis dispute that it was about the spiritual importance or authority of Muhammad's wives and their children or servants, for in the verse some unauthentic Sunni ahadith nonetheless relate the legacy of Muhammad to the definition of “Ahl al-Bayt”. Some authentic books says it gave Ali powers equal to Mohammad after him
Shi'i writers claim that the narrative shows that Muhammad, Fatima, Ali, Hasan and Husayn are the sole members of "Ahl al-Bayt" or "People of the House." The Shi’a view this as an illustration of God's confirmation of the purity and sinlessness of the five "Ahl al-Bayt." This, and other events, leading to the doctrine of the sinlessness of the Ahl al-Bayt and that Ahl al-Bayt are given the exclusive guardianship of Islam by God, since they alone are sinless.
This is a very important hadith for Shi’i Muslims, along many more ahadith and verses in the Qur'an, as the foundation for the Shia claim that governorship of the Muslim community should be only in the posterity of Muhammad as the base for claims that some descendants of Muhammad are infallible (ismah).
Sunni scholars hold that the wives of Muhammad were included in the second part of the verse 33:33, since they are addressed in the beginning of verse 33:33. Sunnis reject the notion that the end of this verse would be a stand-alone blessing, meant exclusively for Muhammad, Ali, Fatima, Hasan and Husain, as they have in mind the context of the verse as a whole and the one preceding it.
The Shi’i counter-argument claims that the verse itself says "only", implying that the blessing of this merit is exclusive to a single group and one other than the wives. i.e., God desires to keep away the uncleanness from "only" you, "O people of the House", and not from anyone else, and this is why the six stern commandments of the other verses are given to the wives, because they are not protected and must act accordingly; the "people of the house", on the other hand, need no such instructions. The Shi'a also point out that the rhetoric changes to a masculine tone in the final part of the verse whereas is was feminine before that.
The Shi’a also argue that the first part of the verse addresses a person or group in the feminine gender, while the second part addresses in the masculine gender, meaning that at least one person in the group is a male.
Institute for Ismaili Studies in London's researcher Wilfred Madelung[2] 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-kisā'): Muhammad, 'Ali, Fātima, 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."[3]
According to the Sunni hadith collections, it is narrated that during the 9th - 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 is 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.[4]
The Shi’i claim that 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.[5] Sunni dispute that this verse was about Muhammad's wives and their children and even their servants.
The Shia celebrate this event as Eid-e Mubahala.[6] This hadith provides the background for the "purification verse" or ayah al-tatheer from surah Al-Ahzab in the Quran whereby God explicitly identified who are the Ahlul Bayt:
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. (33:33)[7]
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). God at that request 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.[8]
The hadith of the cloak and the purification verse was utilized at various times by the Ahl al-Bayt to assert their claims 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.[9]
Some Sunni scholars remark that the "purification verse" was revealed concerning five people: Muhammad, Ali, Fatimah, Hasan and Husayn.[10] 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. Shi’i scholars, however, do believe in the infallibility of Muhammad.
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 her Encyclopedia of Islam article entitled "Fatima", writes:
[…] 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”.