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Ahl al-Bayt,Ahl ul-Bayt, Ahlul Bayt or Ahl-e-Bayth is an Arabic phrase meaning People of the House, or family. In the Islamic tradition it refers to the household of the prophet Muhammad and his progeny through his daughter Fatima Zahra's marriage with his cousin Ali; their sons Hasan and Hussein were Muhammad's grandsons.
Followers of Shi'a Islam believe that the Shi'a imamate descended through the Ahl al-Bayt.
Controversy
The Shi'a believe that the term "household" does not include wives, and thus exclude Muhammad's wives and widows from the Ahl al-Bayt. They believe that Muslims were asked by the prophet to cherish and support his Ahl al-Bayt; they do not believe that this admonition includes Muhammad's widows -- one of whom, Aisha, is disliked as the enemy of Ali. They cite many hadith, or recorded oral traditions, in support of their claim.
The Sunni normally include Muhammad's wives and widows in the Ahl al-Bayt, interpreting Al-Ahzab:33 as supporting this view (cf., for example, Tafsir Ibn Kathir.) Some vacillation on this point is observable in the hadith collections generally accepted by Sunnis: thus Sahih Muslim Book 31, No. 5920 quotes Zayd ibn Arqam as saying that his wives are Ahl al-Bayt, while #5923 quotes him as saying that they are not.