Hadith of The Cloak

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The Hadith of The Cloak (Arabic: حديث الكساء Hadith-e-Kisa) refers to the Event of the Cloak or the Companions of the Cloak (ahl al-kisa). This is a very important hadith for Shia Muslims, along with few 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).

Contents 1 The Incident of Mubahala 2 Shia View 3 Political Application 4 Sunni View 5 Notes

[edit] The Incident of Mubahala

According to the Sunni hadith collections, it is narrated that during the 9th - 10th year after hijrah an Arab Christian envoy from Najran (currently in northern Yemen and partly in Saudi Arabia) came to the Prophet 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 Hussein, 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.^[1]

The Shia claim that this authentic hadith proves whom the Quran is referring to when it mentions the Ahlul-Bayt (Arabic: أهل البيت or Household), which includes only Ali, Fatimah, and their decendants.^[2] Sunni despute that this verse was about Muhammads wives and their children and even their servants.

[edit] Shia View

The Shia celebrate this event as Eid-e Mubahala.^[3] This hadith provides the background for the "purification verse" or ayah al-tatheer from surah Al-Ahzab in the Quran wherby Allah explicitly identified who are the Ahlul Bayt:

وَقَرْنَ فِي بُيُوتِكُنَّ وَلَا تَبَرَّجْنَ تَبَرُّجَ الْجَاهِلِيَّةِ الْأُولَى وَأَقِمْنَ الصَّلَاةَ وَآتِينَ الزَّكَاةَ وَأَطِعْنَ اللَّهَ وَرَسُولَهُ إِنَّمَا يُرِيدُ اللَّهُ لِيُذْهِبَ عَنكُمُ الرِّجْسَ أَهْلَ الْبَيْتِ وَيُطَهِّرَكُمْ تَطْهِيرًا

"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 Allah and His Apostle: Allah 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)^[4]

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 Hasan and Hussein, who were followed by their father Ali ibn Abi Talib, 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 Allah to keep all impurities out of reach and away from all of us. Muhammad then prayed to Allah to declare all five of them as his Ahlul Bayt and keep away the Nijasat (impurities). Allah at that request immediately sent Gabriel to reveal to Muhammad that all the five under the cloak are dearest and closest to Allah and they are Taher (purest of the pure) without any traces of impurities.^[5]

[edit] Political Application

The hadith of the cloak and the purification verse was utilized at various times by the Ahlul 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, "Allah wishes to remove all filth and impurity from you O House of the Prophet, and to render you utterly free of pollution." (33:33) Allah has therefore removed from us all evil, outer and inner, and placed us firmly on the path of truth and righteousness.^[6]

[edit] Sunni View

Many Sunni scholars remark that the "purification verse" was revealed concerning five people: The Prophet Muhammad, Ali, Fatimah, Hasan and Hussein.^[7] 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 the Prophet 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 the Prophet would also have to be inerrant, a belief that neither Sunni nor Shia scholars hold.

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 the Prophet, 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 the Prophet’s wives, or of them alone…. The expression Ahl al-bayt can only mean “Family of the Prophet”."

[edit] Notes