Quoting the narration of the cloak (Ḥadīth al-Kisāʾ)[1] , the Shaykh elucidated how Fatima, Ali, Hassan, and Hussain gathered under the blanket with the Prophet and how Umm Salama requested to join them, however the Prophet precluded her from doing so but consoled her mentioning that ‘you are on the right’[2]. He then went on to make a prayer for them, resulting in the verse being revealed “Indeed Allah desires to repel all impurity from you, O People of the Household (Ahlul Bayt), and purify you with a thorough purification”[3]. This verse in its entirety starts off with talking about the wives of the Prophet and the pronouns are in the feminine plural form, however the pronouns change to masculine plural form when talking about the Ahlul Bayt. According to Shaykh Abu Jafar, this disparity in the pronouns highlights the possibility of the second part of the verse i.e., the part in reference to the Ahlul Bayt, being revealed separately to the first part which would make it consistent with the narration of the cloak for the reason of revelation. Based on the exclusion of Umm Salama in the above narration, and the changing of pronouns in the verse from feminine to masculine, the Shia conclude that the wives of the Prophet are excluded from the Ahlul Bayt and the term is specifically referring to afore mentioned five individuals. (A Sunni argument in response to this is that the changing of pronouns is a common phenomenon in the Quran – a more detailed discussion on the Sunni perspective can be found here). Furthermore, according to the Shaykh, narrations in Sunni books that include the wives of the Prophet as part of the Ahlul Bayt all stem from ‘Ikrimah Abū ‘Abdillāh who is considered a liar by some Sunni scholars[4] and hence cannot be relied on. In addition to who the Ahlul Bayt were, the Shaykh went on to expound on the verse which also details the infallibility of the Ahlul Bayt in the Shia view as “Allah desires to repel all impurity from you, O People of the Household (Ahlul Bayt).”[3]