Ali Ibn Abi Talib - Volume 2 of 2

'Ali ibn Abi Tilib 413
Bayt, as we have seen in the hadith of Zayd ibn Arqam in Muslim.
The Prophet (B) enjoined adherence to the Book of Allah, then he
said: "And the people of my household. I remind you of Allah with
regard to the people of my household, I remind you of Allah with
regard to the people of my household, I remind you of Allah with
regard to the people of my household." What he enjoined was
adherence to the Qur'an. With regard to Ah1 al-Bayt, the Prophet (g)
enjoined taking care of them and giving them their rights, which had
been granted to them by Allah (&).538
The refutation of the distorted Shiite understanding of the
hadith of the two weighty matters is as follows:
(a) A man's family are the members of his household, and the family
of the Prophet @) are those to whom zak% was forbidden. They
are Banu Hiishim, who are the family of the Prophet (@J. The
RZ&s have no chains of narration going back to the Messenger
(g), and they admit that they have no chains of narration for the
narrations in their books. Rather they are books that they found
and said: "They narrated it, so it must be true."539 As for their
chains of narration, as al-Hurr al-'Amili and other RZdi Shiite
scholars said: "The Shia have no chains of narration at all, and
they do not rely on chains of narration."540 So how can they
prove what they narrated in their books from the family of the
Prophet (g)? Rather it is Ah1 as-Sunnah (the Sunnis) who were
the followers of the family of the Prophet (g) and respected their
rights, and did not add or subtract anything, since the Prophet
(g) said concerning himself: "Do not praise me as the Christians
praised 'Eesa the son of Maryam; rather say: The slave of Allah
and His ~essenger."~~'
(b) The leader of the family of the Prophet (gJ was 'Ali ibn Abi
Tab (&), and after him in knowledge comes Abdullah ihn
'Ahbiis, who was the scholar of the Ummah and who believed in