The Scope of “Our Sons”

“Sons” (abnāʾ) includes both male and female grandchildren. Fakhr al-Rāzī also says regarding the verse of mutual imprecation: According to this verse, the children of anyone’s daughter are considered their children, thus Fāṭima’s (a.s.) sons are the sons of the Messenger of God (s.a.w.), and the verse “And We gave him Isaac and Jacob and guided each of them. And Noah We had guided before, and from his offspring, David and Solomon, Job, Joseph, Moses and Aaron—thus do We reward the virtuous— and Zechariah, John, Jesus and Ilyas,—each of them among the righteous—”(681) indicates that Jesus is among Abraham’s (a.s.) offspring, even though Jesus (a.s.) is counted as Abraham’s (a.s.) offspring through his mother.(682) “Offspring” (dhurriyya) means child,(683) whether direct or indirect. The Messenger of God (s.a.w.), who is himself the clarifier and exegete of the Qur’an, included Imam Ḥasan and Imam Ḥusayn (a.s.) in the mutual imprecation because they were instances of “our sons.” On this basis, in wills and endowments, daughters’ children are also included, unless there is evidence to exclude them.(684) Even regarding the share of the sādāt, some Imami jurists have ruled that male and female grandchildren are equal,(685) although the famous opinion among jurists is that the share of the sādāt is limited to male-line grandchildren, since in the presence of specific evidence, one cannot rely on general or absolute terms.

Al-Qurṭubī considers “son” to include daughters’ children, for the same reason that the Messenger of God (s.a.w.), to fulfill “Let us call our sons and your sons, our women and your women, our souls and your souls”, brought Ḥasan, Ḥusayn, Fāṭima, and ʿAlī (a.s.) with him for the mutual imprecation. He then says: Many scholars have said that the Messenger of God’s (s.a.w.) calling Ḥasan and Ḥusayn (a.s.) “son” in the story of mutual imprecation, or his saying about Ḥasan (a.s.): “This son of mine is a master,” is specific to Ḥasan and Ḥusayn, because he said: “Every lineage and kinship will be cut off on the Day of Resurrection except my lineage and kinship.”(686) On this basis, the Shāfiʿī scholars have said that if someone makes a bequest to give some of their wealth to their child but has no immediate child, nothing goes to the daughter’s child.(687) However, such legal reasoning contradicts the explicit text.

The author of al-Manār insists that what is meant by “Let us call our sons and your sons” is that we call all believers and you call all your co-religionists, thus specific individuals were not intended.(688)

The teacher, ʿAllāma Ṭabāṭabāʾī, in response to al-Manār, states:(689) If by “Let us call our sons and your sons” is meant all believers from Yemen, Hijaz, Iraq and other lands, and by Christians is meant all Christians from Yemen, Syria and other lands, no rational person would doubt its impossibility, and the Qur’an does not call to the impossible. And if what is meant is the believers of Hijaz and its surroundings and the Christians of Yemen and its surroundings, even if not impossible, it is customarily unfeasible.(690)

The conclusion is that in the scene of mutual imprecation, the Messenger of God (s.a.w.) participated with the People of the House of infallibility and purity (a.s.), and opposite them was a delegation representing the Christians of Najrān; similar to the story of Moses and Aaron (a.s.) with the sorcerers, while others were merely spectators of the scene.