Al-Tathir Verse: Difference between revisions

It is reported in some narrations that the above verse was revealed in the house of [[Umm Salama]], wife of the [[Holy Prophet (s)]]; and [['Ali (a)]], [[Fatima (a)]], [[al-Hasan (a)]], and [[al-Husayn (a)]] were there at the time of [[revelation]] of the verse. Then, the Holy Prophet (s) covered 'Ali (a), Fatima (a), al-Hasan (a), and al-Husayn (a) with his Kisa' (cloak) on which he was sitting and then stretched his hands towards the sky and said, "O God! These four are my [[Ahl al-Bayt]]; clean them of any impurities!" Umm Salama asked the Holy Prophet (s) if she was included in the Ahl al-Bayt (a) and the Holy Prophet (s) answered her, "you are among the Holy Prophet's (s) wives and you are on a good path."<ref>Tirmidhī, ''Sunan al-Tirmidhī'', vol. 5, p. 699; Ṣadūq, ''Maʿānī l-akhbār'', vol. 2, p. 403.</ref>

With regard to how Aya al-Tathir implies the purity of [[Ahl al-Bayt (a)]], it is said that the word, "innamā" (Arabic: {{ia|إِنَّما}}), denotes exclusiveness, as lexicographers have stipulated. Thus, the verse shows that God exclusively wills to purify Ahl al-Bayt (a). Given Arabic grammar, the verse involves some other emphases as well. Moreover, "al-rijs" (Arabic: {{ia|الرِجسَ}}) or impurity is used with a definite article (al-) and thus it connotes any type of impurity, be it mental or practical, such as [[polytheism]], [[kufr]] (infidelity), [[nifaq]] (hypocrisy), ignorance, and sins. Thus, the verse rejects the existence of all these kinds of impurity in Ahl al-Bayt (a).<ref>Rāḍī, ''Sabīl al-nijāt'', p. 7.</ref>

Commentators have different opinions regarding the meaning of Rijs. They have suggested various meanings for this term including "sin", "mischief", "polytheism", "doubt", "low desires", etc.<ref>Ṣadūq, ''Maʿānī l-akhbār'', vol. 2, p. 138.</ref> Shi'a commentators have regarded "cleansing of [[Ahl al-Bayt (a)]] from impurities" to mean "[[infallibility]] from sins and having the opportunity of obedience."<ref>Mufīd, ''al-Masāʾil al-ʿukbarīyya'', p. 27; Shūshtarī, ''al-Ṣawārim al-muhriqa'', p. 147-148; Ṭabāṭabāyī, ''al-Mīzān'', vol. 16, p. 313.</ref>

Commentators have different opinions on to whom the term [[Ahl al-Bayt (a)]] refer. Many companions of the [[Holy Prophet (s)]] such as [[Anas b. Malik]], [[Abu Sa'id al-Khudri]], [[Umm Salama]], [[Aisha]], [[Sa'd b. Abi Waqqas]], [['Abd Allah b. Ja'far]], and [['Abd Allah b. al-'Abbas]] have considered [['Ali (a)]], [[Fatima (a)]], [[al-Hasan (a)]], and [[al-Husayn (a)]] the only members of the Ahl al-Bayt (a). There are narrations from other [[Shi'a Imams (a)]] confirming this opinion.<ref>Ibn ʿAṭīyya, ''al-Muḥarrar al-wajīz'', vol. 13, p. 72; Ibn Kathīr, ''Tafsīr al-Qurʾān'', vol. 3, p. 799.</ref>

Another opinion is that the Ahl al-Bayt (a) referred to the [[Wives of the Holy Prophet (s)]] since the context of the verse is about them. Hadiths with such implications have been narrated from 'Ikrima mawla Ibn al-'Abbas and Muqatil b. Sulayman.<ref>Ibn Kathīr, ''Tafsīr al-Qurʾān'', vol. 3, p. 798; Shawkānī, ''Fatḥ al-Qadīr'', vol. 4, p. 278.</ref>

A third opinion attributed to [[Zayd b. Arqam]], the companion of the Holy Prophet (s), suggests that the Ahl al-Bayt (a) are those whom are prohibited by [[God]] to receive [[zakat]] and they are relatives of the Holy Prophet (s) including Al 'Ali, Al 'Aqil and Al Ja'far and by Tathir in the verse under discussion, clearing them from reception of [[sadaqa]] [charity] and zakat is meant.<ref>Ibn Kathīr, ''Tafsīr al-Qurʾān'', vol. 3, p. 799; Shukānī, ''Fatḥ al-Qadīr'', vol. 4, p. 278; Muslim, ''Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim'', vol. 2, p. 1874.</ref>

There are different traditions in the ''Musnad Ahmad b. Hanbal'', all of which refer to the fact that the Holy Prophet (s) had mentioned Fatima (a), her husband (a), and her two sons as the reference for al-Tathir verse.<ref>Ibn Ḥanbal, ''Musnad Ibn Ḥanbal'', vol. 1, p. 331; vol. 4, p. 107; vol. 6, p. 292.</ref> He also narrates in ''Fada'il al-sahaba''  

that for six months, when the Holy Prophet (s) was passing by the house of Fatima (a) while going to the mosque for [[Fajr prayer]], he (s) used to call them saying, "O the Ahl al-Bayt (a), Prayer! Prayer! O Ahl al-Bayt (a)! Surely God wants to repel any impurities from you and cleanse you."<ref>Ibn Ḥanbal, ''Faḍāʾil al-ṣaḥāba'', vol. 2, p. 761</ref>

The wording of the verse is in agreement with the first opinion above saying that 'Ali (a), Fatimah (s), al-Hasan (a), and al-Husayn (a) are the Ahl al-Bayt (a), because if the Ahl al-Bayt (a) were the wives of the Holy Prophet (s), then the pronouns in the verse had to be feminine ('ankunna, {{iarabic|عنکُنَّ}}; and yutahhirakunna, {{iarabic|یُطَهِّرَکُنَّ}}) instead of masculine ('ankum, {{iarabic|عنکم}}; and yutahhirakum, {{iarabic|یُطَهِّرَکُم}}).<ref>Qurṭubī, ''al-Jāmiʿ li-aḥkām al-Qurʾān'', vol. 14, p. 183; Husaynī Ṭihrānī, ''Mihr-i tābān'', p. 290-292.</ref>

There would be a question why there is something said among the duties of the wives of the Holy Prophet (s) which does not relate to them, and the answer is that such style of speaking has been practiced by eloquent Arabs and we find numerous cases in the [[Holy Qur'an]] where some sequential verses talk about different issues, also there are hadiths that such verses had been revealed in different times, but have been put beside each other at the time of compiling the Holy Qur'an.<ref>Ṭabrisī, ''Majmaʿ al-bayān'', vol. 8, p. 560; Ṭabāṭabāyī, ''al-Mīzān'', vol. 16, p. 311.</ref>

That the verse has been revealed about Ashab al-Kisa' has been narrated so repeatedly that it has reached the level of [[tawatur]].<ref>Ṭabāṭabāyī, ''al-Mīzān'', vol. 16, p. 311; Ṭabrisī, ''Majmaʿ al-bayān'', vol. 8, p. 155-157.</ref>

In addition, there are hadiths from Imams (a) of Shi'a that the Ahl al-Bayt (a) also include other Imams of Shi'a (a).<ref>Kulaynī, ''al-Kāfī'', vol. 1, p. 423. Tabrisī, ''al-Iḥtijāj'', vol. 2, p. 34.</ref>

In his commentary on the al-Tathir verse, [[Ibn Kathir]], a Sunni scholar, mentions a narration from Imam al-Hasan (a) who has been saying on the pulpit, "we are the Ahl al-Bayt (a) about whom God has revealed this verse [al-Tathir verse]." He also narrates that [[Imam al-Sajjad (a)]] answered a man from Syria, "We are meant by the Ahl al-Bayt (a) [in this verse]."<ref>Ibn Kathīr, ''Tafsīr al-Qurʾān'',1419 AH, vol. 6, p. 371.</ref>

*Qurʾān.

*Ibn Ḥanbal, Aḥmad b. Muḥammad. ''Musnad Ibn Ḥanbal''. Beirut: Dār al-Ṣādir, [n.d].

*Ibn Kathīr al-Dimashqī, Ismāʿīl b. ʿUmar. ''Tafsīr al-Qurʾān al-ʿaẓīm''. Edited by Yūsuf ʿAbd al-Raḥmān al-Marʿashlī. Beirut: Dār al-Maʿrifa, 1375 AH.

*Ibn Kathīr al-Dimashqī, Ismāʿīl b. ʿUmar. ''Tafsīr al-Qurʾān al-ʿaẓīm''. Edited by Muḥammad Ḥusayn Shams al-Dīn. Beirut: Dār al-Kutub al-ʿIlmīyya, 1419 AH.

*Kulaynī, Muḥammad b. Yaʿqūb al-. ''Al-Kāfī''. Edited by ʿAlī Akbar al-Ghaffārī. Tehran: Dār al-Kutub al-Islāmīyya, 1407 AH.

*Mufīd, Muḥammad b. Muḥammad al-. ''Al-Masāʾil al-ʿukbarīyya''. Edited by ʿAlī Akbar Ilāhī Khurāsānī. Qom: al-Muʾtamar al-ʿĀlamī li-alfīyat al-Saykh al-Mufīd, 1413 AH.

*Muslim b. Ḥajjāj al-Nayshābūrī. ''Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim''. Beirut: Dār al-Fikr, [n.d].

*Qurṭubī, Muḥammad b. Aḥmad al-. ''Al-Jāmiʿ li-aḥkām al-Qurʾān''. Tehran: Nāṣir Khusru, 1364 Sh.

*Rāḍī, Ḥusayn al-. ''Sabīl al-nijāt fī tatimmat al-Murājiʿāt''. Beirut: [n.p], [n.d].

*Ṣadūq, Muḥammad b. ʿAlī al-. ''Maʿānī l-akhbār''. Edited by ʿAlī Akbar al-GHaffārī. Qom: Intishārāt-i Islāmī, 1403 AH.

*Shukānī, Muḥammad b. ʿAlī al-. ''Fatḥ al-Qadīr al-jāmiʾ bayn fany al-riwāya wa l-dirāya min ʿilm al-tafsīr''. Beirut: ʿĀlam al-Kutub, [n.d].

*Shūshtarī, Qāḍī Nūr Allāh al-. ''Al-Ṣawārim al-muhriqa fī naqd al-Ṣawāʿiq al-muḥriqa''. Edited by Jalāl al-Dīn Ḥusaynī Irmawī. Tehran: Nashr-i Mashʿar, 1385 Sh.

*Ṭabāṭabāyī, Sayyid Muḥammad Ḥusayn al-. ''Tarjuma-yi tafsīr-i al-Mīzān''. Translated by Muḥammad Bāqir Mūsawī Hamidānī, Qom: Daftar-i Intishārāt-i Islāmī, 1374 Sh.

*Tabrisī. Aḥmad b. ʿAlī al-. ''Al-Iḥtijāj ʿalā ahl al-lijāj''. Edited by Muḥammad Bāqir Musawī Khurāsānī. Najaf: Dār al-Nuʿmān, 1386 AH.

*Ṭabrisī, Faḍl b. al-Ḥasan al-. ''Majmaʿ al-bayān fī tafsīr al-Qurʾān''. Edited by Hāshim Rasūlī Maḥallātī. Beirut: Muʾassisat al-Aʿlamī, [n.d].

*Tirmidhī, Muḥammad b. ʿĪsā al-. ''Sunan al-Tirmidhī''. Edited by ʿAbd al-Wahhāb ʿAbd al-Laṭīf. Second edition. Beirut: Dār al-Fikr, 1403 AH.