What is the meaning of “Ahl al-Bayt” in many hadiths? And what is the correct method for understanding the texts?

The questioner : ...I am leaving among you two things: the Book of Allah and my Ahl al-Bayt, and they will not separate until they return to me at the Hawd (Pool) together. So the issue is: does it refer to all of Ahl al-Bayt, or only some of them? Then, the reality contradicts this, meaning they separated in some places and in some circumstances... And the other text is , , and in the third, one of them is ?

The Shaykh : Alright... Before answering this question directly, I want to remind our brothers of the method for understanding the texts. This method is that if a student of knowledge wants to understand a text from the texts of the Shari'ah, he should not pour his research and thought into this text alone, but rather he must bring to mind all the texts that are related to it and that help him understand the text correctly. When the Mighty and Majestic said , this verse indicates that it is not permissible for a Muslim to understand a legal ruling from a single verse only; rather, he must bring to mind, if there is something in the Sunnah that clarifies the intended meaning of the verse he wants to understand, because we all know, as students of knowledge, that there are texts that are general and absolute, texts that are general but specified, texts that are absolute, texts that are restricted, and texts that are abrogating and abrogated, and so on. These aspects we mentioned do not become clear except by gathering the texts that have come regarding the issue. I will give just one example in this regard, and then I will enter into the answer to the core of the question. If a questioner asked a memorizer of the Noble Qur'an and a student of it, but who has no knowledge of the Sunnah, and asked him: What is the ruling on dead fish? Is it permissible to eat it or not? In what he has memorized from the Book of Allah, he finds explicitly , so he answers based on this verse that dead fish is forbidden. Similarly, if he were asked about dead locusts, he would say it is forbidden based on this verse in the Qur'an. But if he had added to this verse some of the hadiths that have come regarding its specification or restriction, such as the well-known hadith in the Sunan, which is his saying (peace and blessings be upon him): , then his fatwa would change and his answer would change, and he would say that dead fish is lawful, and dead locusts are lawful, because the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him), to whom the Qur'an was revealed and who explained it, has clarified that this is not in its generality and comprehensiveness; it is general except for fish and locusts regarding carrion. This is how we must look when we want to understand a text in the Book and the Sunnah. Now, after this example, we return to the hadith. You asked a question and yet you built an issue upon it. You said: Is the intended meaning the entirety of the 'Utrah? How can a Muslim understand, or rather, how is it permissible for him to ask, is the intended meaning here in the hadith all of the 'Utrah, the righteous among them and the wicked? And he is the one who said in the authentic hadith in Sahih Muslim: . Then, if we exclude from the 'Utrah here those who deviated from the guidance of the one who is the foundation of the 'Utrah, the Messenger (peace be upon him), we look: if there are righteous people among the 'Utrah, but they are not scholars, are they intended by such a text? In the Noble Qur'an , the answer is: they are not equal. So it is obligatory for the Muslim when he hears such a hadith , and in another narration , which explains my 'Utrah, because the intended meaning of the 'Utrah here, after this clarification, is not all of the 'Utrah, first their righteous and wicked, and not all of the righteous among them, their scholars and their ignorant, but rather the intended meaning is their scholars. Then you will find that his saying (peace be upon him) in the other hadith, which we are authenticating , explains my 'Utrah, meaning my 'Utrah who hold fast to my Sunnah. This is how the narrations are explained; narrations explain one another. This is what many of the early scholars of knowledge have explicitly stated. In the book I referred to previously, *Silsilat al-Ahadith al-Sahihah* (The Chain of Authentic Hadiths), I expanded on the tracing of the hadith first and clarified for him the paths that were hidden from this doctor.
The Shaykh: Second: I addressed the answer to this doubt which the Shi'ah exploit and use to attack the people of the Sunnah, and they have no way to do so if the people of the Sunnah are people of knowledge and virtue. So I quoted from Abu Ja'far al-Tahawi in his book *Mushkil al-Athar* (The Difficult Narrations) this meaning that I mentioned to you just now: that the intended meaning of the 'Utrah is the scholars of Ahl al-Bayt, the scholars of Ahl al-Bayt. Then there is no issue. Then the command of the Messenger (peace be upon him) to follow the 'Utrah is like the command of the Messenger (peace and blessings be upon him) to follow the Rightly Guided Caliphs in the well-known hadith, from the hadith of al-'Arba' ibn Sari'ah, who said: . Just as he commanded following the Rightly Guided Caliphs because they are people of knowledge and virtue, so he commanded following the 'Utrah, and the meaning, as you have known, is the people of knowledge and righteousness among them. In the name of Allah, perhaps the issue has been resolved, if Allah wills?