A Study of the Transmission of Prophetic Hadith on the Infallibility of the Ahl al-Bayt (a) in Sunni Sources

In the traditions that have reached us from the Prophet (s), there are some narrations that speak about the infallibility of the Prophet (s) and Ahl al-Bayt (a). One of these narrations is the hadith: “I and my household have been purified from sin,” which Sunnī hadith scholars have narrated from the Prophet (s) and have recorded in their hadith texts, exegeses and historical works. This hadith, which implies the infallibility of the Prophet (s) and Ahl al-Bayt (a) from all sins, has an acceptable chain of transmission. The narrators in the chain of this tradition are: Yaʿqūb ibn Sufyān Fasawī Fārisī, Yaḥyā ibn ʿAbd al-Ḥamīd Ḥimmānī, Qays ibn Rabīʿ Asadī Kūfī, Sulaymān ibn Mihrān Aʿmash, ʿAbāyah ibn Ribʿī Asadī Kūfī and ʿAbdullāh ibn ʿAbbās, who narrated the hadith from the Prophet (s) . From the narrators in the chain of the hadith, one individual has been accused of exaggeration, but the accusation of exaggeration regarding him has not been confirmed, and, on the assumption of confirmation, exaggeration is not [necessarily] an obstacle to reliability. Therefore, all the narrators in the chain of this hadith are reliable, and the hadith in question is without fault.