Verse of purification
'people of the house'), the last passage of which reads, God only desires (innama yuridu llahu) to remove defilement (rijs) from you, O Ahl al-Bayt, and to purify you completely.
[6] The Islamic philosopher Hossein Nasr and his coauthors define spiritual defilement (rijs) as all evil deeds and false beliefs that arise from the 'sickness of the heart', another Quranic expression that appears for instance in verse 9:125.
In their view, the verse of purification can thus be interpreted as God’s wanting to remove any incorrect action or belief from the Ahl al-Bayt (lit.
He then argues that rijs here cannot be limited to disobedience because God expects obedience from every responsible person (Arabic: مكلف, romanized: mukallaf) and not just the Ahl al-Bayt.
[16] In possibly the earliest version of the hadith of the kisa,[17] Muhammad's wife Umm Salama relates that he gathered Ali, Fatima, Hasan, and Husayn under his cloak and prayed, "O God, these are my ahl al-bayt and my closest family members; remove defilement from them and purify them completely.
'mutual cursing') with a delegation of Najrani Christians, Muhammad is also believed to have gathered the above four under his cloak and referred to them as his ahl al-bayt, according to Shia and some Sunni sources,[23][11] including Sahih Muslim and Sunan al-Tirmidhi.
[6] Indeed, certain Sunni hadiths support the inclusion of Muhammad's wives in the Ahl al-Bayt, including some reports on the authority of Ibn Abbas and Ikrima, two early Muslim figures.
He argues that, in verse 11:73,[18] Sara is included in Abraham's ahl al-bayt only after receiving the news of her imminent motherhood to two prophets, Isaac and Jacob.
[4] Similarly, in their bid for inclusion in the Ahl al-Bayt, the Abbasids argued that women, noble and holy as they may be, could not be considered a source of pedigree (nasab).
[18][2] Similarly, a Sunni version of the hadith of the thaqalayn defines the Ahl al-Bayt as the descendants of Ali and his brothers (Aqil and Jafar), and Muhammad's uncle Abbas.
[33] Among others, the Sunni historian al-Baladhuri (d. 892) quotes Hasan in his Ansab as referring to this verse in his inaugural speech as the new caliph, I am of the family of the prophet (ahl al-bayt) from whom God has removed filth and whom He has purified, whose love He has made obligatory in His Book (Quran) when He said: "Whosoever performs a good act, We shall increase the good in it."
[34]In Twelver Shia, infallibility (isma) is considered a necessary trait for their imams as the divine guides after the prophet, lest their followers would be led astray.
[35] In addition to logical arguments, the textual basis for the infallibility of their imams includes the Quranic verse, "My covenant embraceth not the evildoers.
