A Consideration of the Word "Ahl al-Bayt" in Sunni and Shia Thoughts with Focus on Sunni Sources

Understanding the meaning of words and the process of their evolution in the context of time and place has a great role in comprehending religious texts, and differences in understanding words greatly affect the emergence of intellectual differences and even sectarian divisions. Historical pieces of evidence suggest that with the advent of Islam, new words found their way into the public discourse, just as many words diverging from their original senses took on new meanings in public conversations. One of these words was "Ahl al-Bayt", which despite being a combination of two common words, took on a distinctly religious color and was widely adopted by Muslims. The question is: what are the differences in the approach of Muslims to explain the meaning of the word and which approach is accurate? The purpose of this article is to present the approaches and offer the espoused viewpoint with focus on Sunni sources through a descriptive and analytical method, and its findings indicate a distinction between the lexical meaning and the religious meaning.