The Holy Prophet Mohammad (s) continuously emphasized even to the last moments of his life that the people called 'Ahlul Bayt' in the verse 33:33 were no one else besides the people he had once, for the very purpose of stopping misinterpretations, covered under the special Yemenite Gown. He showed that these are the people who are pure of all sins because of the will of Allah. Despite this, there are continuous attempts to interpret the above verse in a different way even if it would lead to ignoring the interpretation of the holy Prophet of the above verse.
There is plenty of Ahadith reporting that the word 'Ahlul Bayt' in 33:33 applies only to the people of the 'Gown'. The scholars and narrators of Hadith report these AHadith, statements of the holy Prophet from all groups and schools of thoughts of the Muslim community. Even according to the Sunny Muslims these AHadith are Mutawatir, unanimously narrated. They are unanimously narrated by the Shi'a Muslim narrators also.
The people of the 'Gown' are the holy Prophet himself, Imam Ali, Fatimah Al-Zahra, Imam Hassan and Imam Hussayn. To confirm this Al-muhaqqiq Al-karaki has said, "This report is unanimous and it is up to the level of certainty, even if one would ignore all that the Shi'a Muslims have reported in this matter which is beyond the limits of counting and enumeration. Which report and a statement in the Sunnah, traditions of the holy Prophet (s) is more firmly authentic than this report and Hadith upon which all Sunny Muslim scholars as well as the Shi'a Muslim scholars agree that it applies to the Ahlul Bayt? If such Hadith could be considered as unacceptable then no Hadith will be left free from such condition. (Nafahat Al-Lahut 85)
In the words of Al-haskani, " the number of Hadith on this matter is a great deal". (Shawahid Al-Tanzil 2/ 10). In an other expression it says, " the number of such Hadith is beyond account" (Tawilul Al- Ayat Al-zahirah 2/ 456.
Other scholars have said, " the commentators of the holy Quran have full consensus upon this matter the multitudes of the scholars have narrated these Ahadith". (Nahjul haqq p.173.
There is consensus among the Muslim scholars upon the fact that in the above verse the word Alhlul Bayt applies to the people of the Gown without any shred of doubt. Whether or not it applies to the wives of the holy Prophet is controversial.
'Allama Tabataba'i has said that these AHadith are of a large number, in fact about seventy and even more is narrated by the Sunny Muslim scholars than those of the Shi'a Muslim scholars. The Muslim scholars have narrated them through various chain of narrators, from Umm Salama, 'a'ishah, Abi sa'id Al-khadari, Sa'd, Wa'ilah Ibn Usqa', Abi Al-hamra` Ibn 'abbass, Thawban Mawla of the holy Prophet, 'abdullah Ibn Ja'far, Ali, Hassan Ibn Ali from nearly forty chains of narrators. The Shi'a Muslims scholars have narrated from Ali, Al-sajjad, Al-baqir, Al-sadiq, Al-riza, Umm Salama, Abi Zar, Abi Layla, Abi Al-aswad Al-du'ali, Ibn Maymun Al-awadi, and Sa'd Ibn Abi Waqqas through nearly thirty chains of narrators. (Taba taba'I, al-mizan 16/ 311).
The number of narrators is even greater than what is mentioned above. Some scholars have compiled a whole book about the above verse, popularly called the verse of Allah's purifying the 'Ahlul Bayt' and the first volume which is about 400 pages consist of only the variations of the text of the Hadith. More than fifty narrators from the companions of the holy Prophet are mentioned. All these are besides what is narrated through various chains from the twelve Imams, from the family of the holy Prophet (s). Also after the above narrators are the next generation of the Muslim narrators. (This book is Ayat Al-tathir in the Ahadith of both Sunny and Shi'a Muslims by Sayyid Ali Muwahhid Al-abtahi).
It is remarkable in the case of the well-known gentleman who attempts to deny the fact about this Hadith he does not accomplish any thing but to say, " this Hadith is authentic". (Minhaj Al-sunnah by Ibn Taymiyah 3/ 4 and 4/20).
Hadith of Al-Kisa and Its Narrators:
The text of this Hadith is narrated by the companions of the holy Prophet (s). It is also narrated by the second generation of Muslims in slightly various forms. They all say that the holy Prophet took the Gown and covered Imam Ali, Fatimah Al-Zahra, Hassan and Hussayn with it. He then and said, "Allah has decided to, cleanse you, people of the house from all 'rijs' uncleanness by means of a thorough cleansing, or that he said it in a prayer form".
The following are the books of Hadith that contains the Hadith of Al-Kisa':
Jami' Al-Bayan 22/705, Al-dur al-manthur 5/198, 199, from him, from Ibn al-munzar, Ibn abi Hatim, Al-tabarani, Ibn murdawayh, Al-khatib, Al-tarmizy, al-hakim and his Sahih, Al-bayhaqy in his Sunan, Ibn abi Shaybah, Ahmad, Muslim, and fathul Qadir 4/279, 280, Jawami' Al-jami' 372, Al-tashil li'ulum Al-tanzil, 3/ 137, Ta'wil al-ayat Al-zahirah 2/457, 459, Al-tara'if 122, 130, Al-manaqib li ibn Al-maghazili 301, 307, Shawahid Al-tanzil 2/11, 92, Musnad al-tayalisi 274, al-'umdah li ibnbitriq 31, 46, Majma' Al-zawa'id 7/91, and 9/121, 119, 146, 167, 168, 172, Usdul ghabah 4/49 and 2/9, 12, 20, and 3/ 413 and 5/66, 174, 521, 589.
Most of these reports say that The Holy Prophet Mohammad (s) stopped one of his wives from entering under the Gown, Al-kisa', who was either 'a`sha, Umm Salamah or Zaynab.