Ask a Shia

[Karbala]

Well, at least to me, it is completely obvious that Allah (swt) is including the wives of the Prophet (pbuh) as folks of his household. According to my understanding, the Shi'ites disagree with this interpretation because of their negative views towards some of the wives of the Prophet (pbuh).

Shias do not exclude the wives from AhlulBayt due to negative views. Allow me to argue how the wives are excluded based on Quran and Sunni literature.


I am not an expert in Arabic infact Rock and Muslimah are in the process of teaching me at this moment. However Inshallah I know enough to comment on a subtle but important grammatical usage of the Quran.


1. The grammatical gender changes from 33:30 to 33:33.


33:30 O ye wives of the Prophet! Whosoever of you committeth manifest lewdness, the punishment for her will be doubled, and that is easy for Allah.


33:30 reads in arabic


يَا نِسَاء النَّبِيِّ مَن يَأْتِ مِنكُنَّ بِفَاحِشَةٍ مُّبَيِّنَةٍ يُضَاعَفْ لَهَا الْعَذَابُ ضِعْفَيْنِ وَكَانَ ذَلِكَ عَلَى اللَّهِ يَسِيرًا


Picking up one of the pronouns مِنكُنَّ we can see that it is in the female plural. Hence the wives are exclusively being addressed here.


33:33 Allah's wish is but to remove uncleanness far from you, O Folk of the Household, and cleanse you with a thorough cleansing.


This reads in Arabic


إِنَّمَا يُرِيدُ اللَّهُ لِيُذْهِبَ عَنكُمُ الرِّجْسَ أَهْلَ الْبَيْتِ وَيُطَهِّرَكُمْ تَطْهِيرًا


Again picking up one of the pronouns عَنكُمُ the tense as suddenly switched from female plural to masculine plural.


If one was reading the verse in context in arabic they would suddenly notice the change in gender.


According to the rules of arabic grammar however it is still possible for the wives to be included in 33:33 since only one male is required in a group to become masculine plural. It is also possible however that the wives are excluded. Hence we need further investigation.


However in the verses preceding 33:33 we see the wives being warned of committing "fashiha" which can mean great sins according to According to Zamakhshari in a footnote in the commentary of Mohammad Asad http://www.islamicity.com/quransearch/show...sp?chap=33¬e=33 . Does it make sense that Allah threatens punishment for the wives of the Prophet due to "Fashiha" and then declares them Pure in 33:33?


Conclusive evidence that the wives are not included in AhlulBayt comes from Sahih Muslim


Book 031, Number 5920:


He (Husain) said to Zaid: Who are the members of his household? Aren't his wives the members of his family? Thereupon he said: His wives are the members of his family (but here) the members of his family are those for whom acceptance of Zakat is forbidden. And he said: Who are they? Thereupon he said: 'Ali and the offspring of 'Ali, 'Aqil and the offspring of 'Aqil and the offspring of Ja'far and the offspring of 'Abbas. Husain said: These are those for whom the acceptance of Zakat is forbidden. Zaid said: Yes.


http://www.usc.edu/dept/MSA/fundamentals/h...im/031.smt.html


Book 031, Number 5923:


We said: Who are amongst the members of the household? Aren't the wives (of the Holy Prophet) included amongst the members of his house hold? Thereupon he said: No, by Allah, a woman lives with a man (as his wife) for a certain period; he then divorces her and she goes back to her parents and to her people; the members of his household include his ownself and his kith and kin (who are related to him by blood) and for him the acceptance of Zakat is prohibited.