Enjoining certain Manners so that the Mothers of the Believers may be an Example; and the Prohibition of Tabarruj

These are the good manners which Allah enjoined upon the wives of the Prophet so that they would be an example for the women of the Ummah to follow. Allah said, addressing the wives of the Prophet that they should fear Allah as He commanded them, and that no other woman is like them or can be their equal in virtue and status. Then Allah says:

فَلاَ تَخْضَعْنَ بِالْقَوْلِ

What does أَهْلَ الْبَيْتِ : Ahl al-Bayt: People of the House" signify in this verse?

In verses appearing earlier in the present sequence, the address was to the blessed wives of the Holy Prophet ﷺ ، therefore, the form used was in the feminine gender. Here, the expression: أَهْلَ الْبَيْتِ ahl al-bayt) includes, along with the blessed wives, their children and fathers as well, therefore, the form used was in the masculine gender, that is: عَنکُم (from you) and: وَيُطَهِّرَ‌كُمْ (purifies you). And some Tafsir authorities take 'ahl al-bayt' to mean the blessed wives only. ` Ikrimah and Muqatil have said exactly this. And Sayyidna Said Ibn Jubayr ؓ has reported the same narration from Sayyidna Ibn ` Abbas ؓ saying that he has declared 'ahl al-bayt' in this verse to mean the blessed wives and then cited the next verse: وَاذْكُرْ‌نَ مَا يُتْلَىٰ فِي بُيُوتِكُنَّ (and remember what is recited in your homes-34) as proof (because the address here is to the blessed wives only, as is evident from the feminine gender used in the verse and from the ' reference to their homes.) [ reported by IbnAbi Hatim and lbn Jarir). And the words of the address: نِسَاءَ النَّبِيِّ. (0 women [ wives ] of the prophet) in the immediately previous verses are also its contextual evidence. Early commentator ` Ikrimah ... used to go about proclaiming in the bazaars that 'ahl al-bayt' in the verse means the blessed wives, because this verse has been revealed to highlight their dignified status and he used to say that he was ready to enter into a mubahalah (imprecation) on it.