 Based on a parallel tradition upon whose authenticity all Muslims agree that the Messenger of Allah, Prophet Muhammad peace be upon him, informed his followers on several occasions that he would leave them too precious, weighty, and if all Muslims adhere to them both they will never go astray after him. They are the book of Allah the Noble Qur'an and the members of the House of the Prophet, Ahlul Bayt peace be upon them all. Tonight's episode is an attempt to examine the role of Ahlul Bayt in Islam as was in the Qur'an. Respected viewers, brothers and sisters in Islam, Assalamu alaikum warahmatullahi wabarakatuh. Welcome to the 14th episode of Life from Karbala Ramadan series with Muir host Ahmed Ali. Before I begin the episode, I would like to send my congratulations upon you, my respected viewers, upon our Master of our time, Imam Mehdi May Allah hasten his reappearance, the Ahlul Bayt and Prophet Muhammad, and our pious Maraja and scholars for the birth anniversary of our beloved fourth infallible, of Ahlul Bayt, Alayhim As-salam, Imam Al-Hasan. So for that reason I would like to ask Allah SWT to bestow his blessings, his mercy, and forgiveness, although we are in the month of forgiveness and mercy and blessings, but more blessings upon you, my respected viewers on this special occasion, I am honored to host this program once again with my dear guest and esteemed guest, Sayyed Hussain Al-Qazweeni. Assalamu alaikum Sayyidina. How are you? Alhamdulillah. Alhamdulillah. Alhamdulillah. I would like to congratulate you on this special occasion. Likewise. Likewise. Alhamdulillah. Alhamdulillah. Sayyidina, over the past few episodes, we have brought mention of Ahlul Bayt, peace be upon them. For example, Imam Inna Quran, that was the earliest episode we had, and fallibility in the Quran, the wives of the Prophet, knowledge of the unseen, and we mentioned them throughout here and there, throughout the episodes prior to today. Considering that the majority of Muslims today are Sunni, it's safe to say that 90% of the Sunnis claim that the authority or the role of Ahlul Bayt is spiritual, more than physical and political. You know, according to only one Imam, I should lead the ummah. Imam Aayn bin Talib, no other Imam do we see leading the ummah. The rest of them are either poisoned or killed. But that's due to certain circumstances. But I would like to begin by examining what the role of Ahlul Bayt is within Islam. I seek refuge with Allah from the accursed Satan. In the name of Allah, the Gracious, the Merciful. All praise be to Allah, Lord of all the worlds. May the peace, mercy, and blessings of Allah be upon our master, Muhammad, and his good people, the pious. First of all, I congratulate you and my dear brothers and sisters, our dear viewers on the birthday of Imam Al-Hassan, Al-Mujtaba, peace be upon him. Ahlul Bayt, peace be upon him. They had an ordained duty and responsibility. And that was the Imamah. And we talked about that during the first session of this series. That the Ahlul Bayt are ordained Imams. They are infallible Imams. And we talked about the position of Imamah. Is it selected or elected? What are the requirements and criteria to be an Imam? Could just anyone be an Imam? Yes. Or are there certain requirements and criteria? And that was all based on the Quran. What I'd like to say now is that practically, what role did the Ahlul Bayt have in addition to the Imamah? Yes. What roles did they play? What was the role of the Islamic nation? We know that the Ahlul Bayt were selected Imams by Allah Azawajal. Not by the people. This is not a matter of democracy. These are chosen people. This is not a matter of let the people choose their Imam. No. An Imam, we said, is the continuation of prophecy and prophethood. The same way that we do not choose a prophet, we cannot choose an Imam. Why? Because the Imam continues the job of the prophet. It's the same line. Now what is it that he does? First of all, the role of the Ahlul Bayt were to explain and interpret the Quran. Yes. And Islam, if it wasn't for the Ahlul Bayt, Islam would have remained unexplained. That is why the prophet said, I leave with you two things, the book and my family. They go hand in hand. Why the book and the family? Because the family is needed to explain the book. The book by itself is not enough for the people. Because some of the verses need explanation. They need tafsir. They need help to be explained. How come others explain the Quran without the Ahlul Bayt? And they're apparently doing so well. No. Many of the verses in the Quran have been explained without the help of the Ahlul Bayt. Out of context? Out of context and ignorantly. One of the reasons why the Quran has been misunderstood, this is one of the main reasons, is that we took the Ahlul Bayt away from the Quran. Yes. And we tried to understand the Quran without the Ahlul Bayt and we reached detrimental results. You can't separate the family from the book. The family is what explains the book, the details of the book. The intricate laws of Islam is found with the Ahlul Bayt. You can't really understand the Quran unless you have been spoke, the Quran has spoken to you. The Quran speaks to the Ahlul Bayt. And I'm not speaking theoretically, even practically. When we read the history of Ahlul Bayt, we see they were kept away from power. The Ahlul Bayt were kept away from power. But this doesn't mean that they sat at home and retired and their role was over. No, the Ahlul Bayt, they educated, they schooled, they had students, even their opponents, even those that kept them away from power, they were still in need of the knowledge of the Ahlul Bayt. We don't have a single Imam that wasn't needed, not just by the people. Let's put the people alone, by the authority, by the authorities they were needed, from Imam Ali, who was needed several times by the first Khalifa of Iraq, by the second Khalifa, Omar ibn Al-Khattab. To the point that Omar ibn Al-Khattab several times he stated, If it wasn't for Ali, Omar would have perished. Why? Because he needed his counsel, he needed his knowledge, he needed his expertise. And Imam Ali was not greedy with his knowledge. He could have easily said that you took the Imam away from me, you go and run it by yourselves. If you don't see me qualified for the Imam, why are you coming to ask me questions? You said I'm too young. You said I'm too young. If I'm too young, why are you asking me questions? Go and run the Khalifa by yourself and let's see what happens. But Imam Ali was not like that. That would have destroyed the Omar. Imam Ali al-Salam had foresight. He didn't care whether he's in power or not. What he cared about was the nation, was the Islamic nation. Is it in a good state or a bad state? Even if he was being oppressed by not coming to power, he was still not greedy with his knowledge. He gave all that he could to this nation to keep it on the right track. And the same thing goes for Imam al-Hasan, Imam al-Hussain, and all the other imams. The Khalifa, they were in need of the Ahl-Bait. So number one, to explain and interpret Islam. Two, to defend Islam. We see that the Ahl-Bait, they defended Islam at times of emergencies. At times when Islam was in danger, the Islamic nation was in danger, the Ahl-Bait, they stepped forward. Defend Islam in what way? Defend Islam's reputation. Defend Islam's honor and dignity. But were Muslims running the government back then? They were running the government. However, the government and the authority, they faced a lot of obstacles. For example, during the days of Imam al-Baqir, the Khalifa at the time, I believe, I believe, I am not sure now, I believe Abdul Malik Ibn Marwan, I believe. I might be mistaken. The Khalifa at the time of Imam al-Baqir, whether it was Abdul Malik Ibn Marwan or someone else, they faced a problem over the currency. The currency used in the Islamic empire was the Roman currency. And that currency was now being changed. There was a problem with the Roman empire, and the Muslims needed their own currency. Abdul Malik Ibn Marwan needed the help of Imam al-Baqir. Imam al-Baqir told him, it's not a big deal. Make your own currency. Bring gold denards, stamp on them, and write on them, for example, La ilaha illa Huwa al-Haqqu al-Mubin, something like that. Or La ilaha illa Allah al-Muhammadun Rasool Allah, stamp on them, make your own currency. Of course, I'm summarizing a very long story. A huge incident that took place, that challenged. It was a challenge for Istanbul. Imam al-Baqir gave his advice, and the Khalifa took that advice. During the time of Imam al-Hasan al-Azkari, there was a drought. And the Muslims would pray, they would go out in the desert and pray for rain. And it wouldn't rain. While a Christian man would come, raise his hand, and it would immediately start raining. So people became suspicious, skeptical. Why is Allah answering the prayer of a Christian? But he's not answering the prayer of Muslims. Answering the prayer of a Christian, that's fine. Because he's one of Allah's creations. But why not Muslims? This says something about Islam. So the Khalifa sent a message to Imam al-Hasan al-Azkari, that come and find us a solution. People were starting to join the other... Yeah, they started raising questions about Islam. Imam al-Hasan al-Azkari said, go and see what this man is holding in his hand. He has something in his hand. They discovered that he's carrying a bone of a prophet. And when the bone of the prophet is shown to the sky, the sky automatically rains. So they discovered his secret. And so on and so forth. During the time of Imam al-Hasan al-Azkari, there was a man by the name of Al-Kindi, who wrote a book regarding the contradictions in the Qur'an. The contradicting verses in the Qur'an. Imam al-Hasan al-Azkari sent him a message. He told him, before you publish the book, sit and think about these verses. Are they really contradictory? Think about them. Where's the contradictions? Where? And these verses, there's no contradiction. And those verses, Imam al-Hasan al-Azkari solved for him this intellectual problem. Thus we see that Ahl al-Bait, one of their main roles was to defend Islam, physically, militarily, intellectually. Even though they were not empowered, they were kept away from power, they were marginalized, yet their main role was to defend Islam. Among their roles was to raise a generation of intellectual and educated and spiritual Muslims. They weren't empowered, so what? They still did their job. They didn't say that, okay, now that we're not empowered, our duty, our responsibility is no longer, we no longer have a responsibility, no. But isn't a leader should lead? A leader should lead, no? Yes, but how do you define leadership? A leader does not necessarily need to sit in the White House. He does not need to sit in the office of the Prime Minister or the Khalifa to lead. A leader can lead from his house. And that's how our Imams led. Imam Zain al-Abdina al-Islam would buy slaves, he would buy slaves, he would educate them, he would raise them, he would fill them with spirituality, he would educate them, and then he would set them free. Of course, he bought these slaves, not for himself, but to educate them. He couldn't open a university and a school that would be too suspicious and it would bring him, it would get him into trouble. So he would buy slaves, educate them, work on them spiritually, intellectually, academically, and then send them out. And the job of Imam Zain al-Abdina was so crucial. He raised a group of a generation of spiritual Muslims, intellectual Muslims. That's the role of Ahl al-Bayt. If we look at their role historically, they had a lot of service, a lot of service for Islam, even though they were not in power. Imagine if they were in power, if they had the means, if they had the money, if they had the means and the money and the military, imagine how much the Ahl al-Bayt could have accomplished. They were marginalized, persecuted, oppressed, hurt, their followers were persecuted, they were jailed, they were killed, all of them were killed. Many of them were jailed. Many of them were sent into exile. They were all poisoned and look at how much they've achieved. Yes, a lot. So their role, I could say, mainly it was intellectual to teach, to spread knowledge, to give the true face of Islam, to spread the true face of Islam. And it was spiritual as well, to show people the spiritual side of Islam. The beautiful side of Islam. What they accomplished, no one at their time had accomplished. No one from the Sahaba, from the Tabe'een, not Abu Hanifa, not Ahmad ibn Hanbal, not Malik ibn Anas, not Ashafi. No one accomplished what the Ahl al-Bayt had accomplished. They were all students under the school of Muhammad Sadiq, alaihi s-salam, but now that since we have concluded that Ahl al-Bayt go hand in hand with the Quran according to the decision of a state by Prophet Muhammad, some state that Ahl al-Bayt are the Quran. But I'll give you the chance to comment on that. But Prophet Muhammad says, as the stars in the sky are the source of guidance for the travelers, the holy ones of my household, the twelve Imams are the source of guidance for the people, and the stars will remain in the sky until the day of judgment. The earth will never be without a Divinely guided Imam from my Ahl al-Bayt peace be upon them. This scholars have come forth and stated that this narration goes hand in hand with the verse found in chapter 32, verse 24. However, in the early episodes, when we talk about Imamah and infallibility, I believe in infallibility, that when you said that, I'll just read out the verse, it says, and we assign from among them some leaders, Imams, who will guide our authority since they were patient and believed firmly in our science. You stated that this verse was talking about the Prophet. Now, can we discuss how does the Quran make reference to the Ahl al-Bayt, if you can comment on this as well? Sure. First of all, we talked, and when we talked about this verse, we said that it's talking about the position of the Imams. And Prophets are some of the Imams. There were other Imams as well. The Prophets mentioned in Surat al-Anbiya are some of the Imams. They are not all of the Imams. And there were other Imams, our Imams. However, there are several specific references to the Ahl al-Bayt in the Quran. If this verse is not clear, some might say that this is talking about the Prophets, but that's fine. There are verses that are speaking specifically about the Ahl al-Bayt, in the Quran as agreed upon by both schools of thought, Sunni and Shi'a scholars. So can we conclude that this verse is talking about the Imams or the Prophets? Both. It's talking about the position of the Imam. Of leadership. Whoever has the quality of the Imam, of the Imam. Some Prophets were Imams, and our Imams were Imams. So this verse, this verse is speaking about our Imams as well. But we have other verses as well. Okay. We have other verses. Sure. One verse that has no ambiguity whatsoever. Bismillah ar-Rahman ar-Rahim. Say that I ask you no reward for my services except love for my kin, for my family. This is not Prophets. This is not Sahaba. This is not even wives. But aren't the wives relatives of the Prophet? They're not called Qorba. Qorba? Blood relations. Blood relations. Your wife is not your relative. Your wife is your wife, your spouse. She's not your relative. Your relative is your mother, your father, your brothers, your siblings, your grandparents, your cousins. These are your relatives. Your wife is not your relative. Your companion is not your relative. This is very clear. And all scholars from both the Sunni and Shi'a school of thought have agreed that Qorba here means Ahl al-Bait. Okay. This doesn't require any proof. We talked about this several times. Several times, yes. In the past couple of sessions that Ahl al-Bait here means the specific family members of Rasulullah, Rasulullah Imam Ali. Al-Hasan and Hussain. And Fatima al-Zahra, alaykum as-salam. This verse is not talking about the wives of Rasulullah. We talked about this verse when we spoke about the wives of Rasulullah. Yes, we did. And the verses before and after are all speaking about the wives in the female... Even in the same verse. Even in the same verse. Even in the same verse. In the female pronoun, qunna, qunna, with an n at the end. All of a sudden, this statement uses qum. You'll hear about qum at the end of the verse. Okay. So we have this verse. Another verse that speaks of the Ahl al-Bait clearly. Yes. Surah Al-Insan. Yes. Surah Al-Insan was revealed about the Ahl al-Bait and about their fasting for three days. And how they remained fasting for three days only with water. And on the first day, an orphan came. I'm sorry, a poor person came. And on the second day, an orphan came. And on the third day, a prisoner of war came and wanted food. And Fatima Tezara gave all of their bread that was on the dinner table. This is in Surah Al-Insan. And even Sunni scholars admit that this verse was revealed regarding the Ahl al-Bait. And another verse, I believe, in Surah Al-Amran. When Rasulullah was speaking to the Christians of Najran. And they had the Mubahla. Yes. Bring your family, bring your women and we'll bring our women. Bring your children and we'll bring our children. And bring yourselves and we'll bring ourselves and then we'll perform the Mubahla. Mubahla to see who's telling the truth. And whoever's lying, they will ask Allah to curse. Allah's damnation upon them, yes. Scholars say that this verse was revealed regarding Ahl al-Bait. No one else. No one else regarding it. So if there is other verses that might be vague, these verses and others. Of course, we don't have time to address all the other verses. But these verses are very clear. Very clear regarding Ahl al-Bait. They are very clear. But Sayyidina, if we can continue this question after the break, insha'Allah. Respected viewers, do stay tuned for during the break, insha'Allah, to be presented with an overview of what tonight's episode is about. So to that, we'll be back shortly. Of course, welcome back. Hope, insha'Allah, you enjoyed that overview. But before the break, we talked about who the Ahl al-Bait are. And what the role is in Islam as well as in the Quran. This was all discussed with my esteemed guest here. Welcome back. Thank you very much. I would like to congratulate you as well as you. Respected viewers for the blessed birth of our fourth infallible. Likewise. Likewise. Sayyidina, we have mentioned various references within the Holy Quran. That mentioned the Ahl al-Bait, peace be upon them. However, you just mentioned a verse from chapter 42 verse 23. I don't want any reward from you except to love those near of kin. Those of my family. Kin refers to, if you want to refer back to the dictionary. It means family members. Why does the Quran have to tell us about this? I mean, all I ask you is to love my family. Prophet Muhammad, yes, he brought Islam. He brought us tranquility, peace, love, compassion, whatever you want to say within Islam. But why is he saying to love my kin? Why love? Because love is the easiest thing that you could do. Rasulullah sallallahu alayhi wa sallam is saying to them that basically, I served you for 23 years, 24 years, however many years that you want to calculate. I guided you. I took you out from ignorance from night to day. You're in a state of ignorance. I opened your eyes. You were killing your daughters alive in fintechite. I made you stop that habit. Rasulullah sallallahu alayhi wa sallam changed these people. Yes. He really changed them. He reformed them. He's saying that all I ask for, I don't want a position. I don't want to be a king. I don't want your wealth. I don't want anything for myself. I just want one thing. Love my family members after me. Is that hard to ask for? It's something very simple. Don't give them money. Don't give them, just love them. What's the meaning of love? When you love someone, what do you do? Al-Mawadah. See, when you love someone, see, he didn't say hope. He said, Mawadah. Mawadah is more than love. It's more than love. I don't know the right word for it in English. But it's more than love. It's love. Can we say affection or is that less? Well, love is a form of affection. It's love that entails to be followed as well. So don't just love them. A lot of people love the Ahlul Bayt. But not to the point that they followed them as well. When you love someone, you follow. You imitate. You take it as an example. Loving the Ahlul Bayt is not just loving them by the heart. But, you know, using your sword against them. Like the people in Karbala and Imam Hussein, alaihi s-salam. When Imam Hussein asked al-Farazdaq, how did you find the people of Kufa? He told them, They love you. Their hearts are with you. But their swords are against you. That's not the love that Ahlul Bayt wants. The love that the Qur'an speaks about. The love that entails being followed, being imitated, being emulated, following in their footsteps.