Event of the Cloak

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The Event Of The Cloak (Arabic: حديث الكساء; transliterated: Hadiyth al-Kisa'), is the event where the prophet Muhammad, collected Hassan ibn Ali, Husayn ibn Ali, Ali and Fatimah in his cloak. This is mentioned in several ahadith, including Sahih Muslim where Muhammad is quoted as saying a word (Ahl Al-bayt meaning The Prophet's Household) from the second part of verse 33:33 of the Qur'an, the verse called "Ayat al-Tathir" or "the verse of purification":

Allah only desires to take away any uncleanliness from you, O people of the household, and purify you (a thorough purifying) ([link]).

This is a very important Hadith for the Shia, along with few more hadith and Verses in the Qur'an, as the foundation for their claim that Governorship of Muslims should be only in the posterity of Muhammad as the base for advanced claims that some descendants of the Prophet are infallible.

Contents

1 The Event in Sunni narrations (
2 Sunni view
3 Shia view
4 The Verse
5 The arguments

5.1 Context
5.2 Gender

6 See Also
7 External links

7.1 Shia
7.2 Sunni

The Event in Sunni narrations ( '' Sahih Muslim Book 031, Number 5955:
'A'isha reported that Allah's Apostle (may peace be upon him) went out one norning wearing a striped cloak of the black camel's hair that there came Hasan b. 'Ali. He wrapped him under it, then came Husain and he wrapped him under it along with the other one (Hasan). Then came Fatima and he took her under it, then came 'Ali and he also took him under it and then said: Allah only desires to take away any uncleanliness from you, O people of the household, and purify you (thorough purifying) (http://www.usc.edu/dept/MSA/fundamentals/hadithsunnah/muslim/031.smt.html)

Sunni view

Regarding the verse, Sunni dispute that this verse was about Muhammad's wives and their children and even their servants (Household)), for in that verse God is reprimanding the wives of the prophet for not being considerate in following more conservative customs of not bringing unknown people into the household (Bait means house) and covering themselves more appropriately and not talking with strangers with loud voices, and so on), God continues in this verse that he wants them (wives of the prophet) to be more conservative (than regular Muslim women) so that God may purify them and clean (tahir) them from uncleanliness (Rijs). The verse obviously does not make any recommendation to the Posterity of the Prophet (or even to the wives). Some Sunni's weak hadiths add the posterity of Mohammad to the definition of Ahl Al Bait. (Fatima, the Prophet's daughter, and her sons were not living in the Prophet's house (Bait) but in Ali's house in the outerlines of the city). Since most the verses of Qur'an came after an incident and in relation to that incident, Sunnis argue that the Qur'anic verse can not be split in the middle where the both parts refers to different incidents.

In hadith al-Thiqalyn, Sahih Muslim 31:5920, the prophet's companion Zayd states that "Ali and the offspring of 'Ali, 'Aqil and the offspring of 'Aqil and the offspring of Ja'far and the offspring of 'Abbas." are what makes up the Ahlul bayt. Sunnis argue, that right in this hadith near to the beggining, Zayd warns that:

I have grown old and have almost spent my age and I have forgotten some of the things which I remembered in connection with Allah's Messenger (may peace be upon him), so accept whatever I narrate to you, and which I do not narrate do not compel me to do that.

So although Sunnis don't doubt that this transaction occured between Zayd and Husain, they do doubt the idea that Zayd's memory is perfect, and Zayd himself in this hadith casts doubt on the validity of his memory.

Sunnis further narrate the following hadith (Al-Nisa'ei-Work of the day and night-271 and Sahih Bukhari 6:60:316) :

"A banquet of bread and meat was held on the occasion of the marriage of the Prophet to Zainab bint Jahsh. I was sent to invite the people (to the banquet)...The Prophet left and went towards the dwelling place of Aa'ishah and said, "Peace and Allah's Mercy be on you, O the people of the house!" She replied, "Peace and the mercy of Allah be on you too. How did you find your wife? May Allah bless you. Then he went to the dwelling places of all his other wives and said to them the same as he said to Aa'ishah and they said to him the same as Aa'ishah had said to him.

Numerous other hadith are also found in Sunni collections supporting the Sunni view of Ahlul-Bayt.

Shia view

On the other hand, the Shia claim that this authentic hadith proves with no doubt who are Ahl Al-Bayt.

Shias hold this as an example of an event illustrating God's confirmation of the purity and sinlessness of those five, referred to with the term "Ahl ul-Bayt" (people of the house). Shias further argue that when God desires, it happens, in contrast to God commanding, in which case humans would have free will to decide whether to follow that commandment or not. This, and other events, leading to the doctrine of the sinlessness of the Ahl ul-Bayt. i.e., that Ahl ul-Bayt are given the exclusive guardianship of Islam by Allah, since they alone are sinless.

Wilfred Madelung 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." Madelung, The Succession to Muhammad, p. 14-15.[1] --Striver 06:44, 12 November 2005 (UTC)

Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Talk:Event_of_the_Cloak"

Shia hadith books contain much more detailed accounts of the Event of the Cloak, and some of these narrations clearly show that the wives of the prophet are not part of the Ahlul Bayt.

The following extract from a Sunni book, Shawaahed ut Tanzeel, vol.2, pg.39, Ayat ul Tatheer, vol.1, pg.237, is used by Shias to show that the wives of the Prophet, that included Ayesha, are not part of the Ahlul Bayt.

''Ayesha was asked by a gathering about Ali . Ayesha answered. "You have asked about a person who was loved the most by the Holy Prophet. He was the husband of the most dearest of the Prophet. Once I saw Ali, Fatema, Hasan, and Husain gathered under a cloak along with the Holy Prophet. He said : "Allah ! These are my Ahlul bayt, my helpers and my supporters, Keep away all kinds of dirt (and sins) from them and purify them in the best form of purification." I said: 0 Messenger of Allah! Even I am from your Ahlubayt ". He said : 'Keep away..."

The Verse

[33.33] And stay in your houses and do not display your finery like the displaying of the ignorance of yore; and keep up prayer, and pay the poor-rate, and obey Allah and His Apostle. Allah only desires to keep away the uncleanness from you, O people of the House! and to purify you a (thorough) purifying.

The arguments

Context

Many Sunnis hold for true that the wives of the prophet were included in the second part of 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 standalone merit meant exclusively for Muhammad and Ali, Fatima, Hasan and Husain having in mind the context of the verse and the one preceding it.

Shias counter-argue that verse itself says "only", implying that the merit is exclusive to another group than the wives. I.e., Allah only desires to keep away the uncleanness from you, O people of the House, and not from everyone else, therefore the six stern commandments are given to the wives, because they are not protected; you on the other hand need no stern reminders.

Gender

Shias also argue that the first part of the verse is addressing in the feminine gender, while the second part is addressing in the masculine gender, meaning that at least one person in the group is a male.

Sunnis argue that the male gender is not used to include Ali, rather Muhammad, meaning to refute the Shia point of view.

External links

Shia

[al-islam.org]
[playandlearn.org]
http://www.jafariyanews.com/hadis.htm
http://www.balagh.net/english/ahl_bayt/fatima_the_gracious/13.htm

Sunni

[ansar.org]
http://www.sunnipath.com/
http://english.islamway.com/
http://islamonline.net/english/index.shtml/

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