My brother! In regard to your question about the People of the Cloak, only one of the many instances of wisdom concerning it will be explained, as follows:

The Most Noble Prophet (Upon whom be blessings and peace) covering Ali (May God be peleased with him) and Fatima (May God be pleased with her) and Hasan and Husain (May God be pleased with them) with the blessed cloak he wore, and his praying for them with the verse,

[And God only wishes] to remove all abomination from you, members of the Family, and to make you pure and spotless,^5,6

contains many mysteries and instances of wisdom. I shall not discuss the mysteries; one instance of wisdom connected with the function of Prophethood is this:

The Noble Prophet (Upon whom be blessings and peace) saw with the eye of Prophethood, which penetrated the Unseen and beheld the future, that thirty or forty years later serious strife would erupt among the Companions and the generation that succeeded them, and that blood would be spilt. He witnessed that the most distinguished among them would be the three under his cloak. So he covered them in the cloak, thus giving the four, plus himself, the title of the Five People of the Cloak, in order to acquit and exonerate Ali (May God be pleased with him) in the view of the Islamic Community, and console and offer condolences to Husain (May God be pleased with him), and congratulate Hasan and proclaim the honour he would acquire by removing through reconciliation serious discord and his supreme value for the Islamic Community, and that Fatima’s descendants would be pure and honoured.

For sure Ali was the rightful Caliph, but since the blood that would be spilt was of great importance and since in the view of the Community his acquittal and exoneration were important on account of the function of Prophethood, the Noble Prophet (Upon whom be blessings and peace) absolved him in that way. He invited the Kharijites, who criticized him and accused him of error and misguidance, and the aggressive supporters of the Umayyads, to be silent. Yes, the excesses concerning Ali (May God be pleased with him) of the extreme supporters of the Kharijites and Umayyads and their accusations of misguidance, and the truly tragic, distressing events of Husain’s (May God be pleased with him) time together with the excesses and innovations of the Shi’a and the absolving of the two Shaykhs, have been most damaging for the people of Islam.

Thus, with his cloak and prayer, the Noble Prophet (Upon whom be blessings and peace) absolved Husain of responsibility, saved him from the accusations and bad opinion of the Islamic Community. So too he congratulated Hasan for the good he was to do for the Community by bringing about the reconciliation. And he announced that being known as ‘the Prophet’s Family’, the blessed progeny of Fatima would be highly honoured, like those of Mary’s mother, who said:

I commend her and her offspring to your protection from the Evil One, the Rejected.⁷

O God! Grant blessings to our master Muhammad, and to his righteous, pure, and pious Family, and to his Companions, noble and select strivers in God’s way. Amen.

FOOTNOTES

1. Bayhaqi, Shu’abu’l-Iman 433; Zahabi, Mizanu’l-I’tidal iv, 352; Suyuti, ad-Durru’l-Mansur i, 329.

2. The globe of the earth is a dominical ship ploughing the oceans of space, and according to a Hadith, is the tillage of the Hereafter, that is, an arable field and nursery. So it is clear how fitting are the name of Fish for the angel who commands that huge lifeless and unconscious ship and makes it swim through those seas at the Divine command in well-ordered and purposeful fashion, and the name of Bull for the angel who with Divine permission supervises that arable field.

3. Qur’an, 2:282.

4. Qur’an, 2:32.

5. Qur’an, 33:33.

6. Muslim, Fada’ilu’s-Sahaba 61; Tirmidhi, Manaqib 60; Musnad i, 330; iv, 107; vi, 292, 296, 298, 304; Hakim, Mustadrak ii, 416; iii, 147; al-Haythami, Majma’u’z-Zawa’id ix, 166, 169; Suyuti, ad-Durru’l-Mansur v, 197; Kandahlawi, Hayatu’s-Sahaba iv, 105.

7. Qur’an, 3:36.