The Referent of “Ourselves”

In this verse, “sons” means male children and “women” refers to daughters, therefore the referent of “ourselves” must be someone who is closer to the one making the call than sons and daughters. “ourselves” means “our own selves” and is a higher expression than “Ḥusayn is from me and I am from Ḥusayn”(701) and “ʿAlī is from me and I am from ʿAlī.”(702) Reflection on the verse under discussion shows that after the Messenger of God (s.a.w.), no one is higher than the Commander of the Faithful (a.s.).

The meaning of “ourselves” (anfusanā) is not the Prophet himself, because the one who calls is different from the one being called, and no one calls themselves. Therefore, “ourselves” refers to someone who is like the Prophet’s own soul, and that is the one to whom the Prophet (s.a.w.) said: “O ʿAlī! Whoever kills you has killed me, whoever hates you has hated me, and whoever insults you has insulted me, because you are from me like my own self”;(703) “Your soul is from my soul and your essence is from my essence”;(704) “O ʿAlī! You are to me as Aaron was to Moses, except that there will be no prophet after me.”(705) And about him he said: “This is ʿAlī ibn Abī Ṭālib; his flesh is from my flesh and his blood is from my blood, and he is to me as Aaron was to Moses, except that there will be no prophet after me.” And the Prophet (s.a.w.) said: “O Umm Salama! Witness and hear that this is ʿAlī, the Commander of the Faithful and the master of Muslims, the repository of my knowledge, my gate, and the successor over my community from my household; my brother in this world, my companion in the hereafter, and with me in the highest heights.”(706)

Some have said that “ourselves” appears in contrast to “our women”, so it means “our men”; consequently, one cannot use the word “ourselves” to establish any virtue for the Commander of the Faithful (a.s.).(707) The answer to this objection is clearly given by the apparent meaning of the verse and the mentioned narrations, and its completion will be presented in the discussion of narrations, God willing!