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"Anas bin Malik related the Prophet as saying: "Surely the likeness of my Ahl al-Bayt is similar to Noah's Ark, whoever boards it will attain salvation and whoever remains behind is drowned." The word safina means ark, and thus this tradition became known as the Hadith al-Safina. This tradition is narrated by eight Companions of the Prophet, and eight persons from the disciples of the Companions, and by sixty scholars and more than ninety authors.

This tradition has been narrated by Hakim Nishaburi in al-Mustadrak (2:343), Khatib in Tarikh Baghdad (21: 91) and other great recorders of traditions (al-Ghadir 2:300-1). Imam Shafi has said that, "When I saw different schools of thought directing people toward the seas of ignorance and deviation, I boarded the ark of salvation in the Name of God. This ark is verily crystallized in the Ahl al-Bayt of the Seal of the Prophets,"

The Prophet said: "We serve as the ark of salvation. Whoever holds fast to this ark will reach salvation and whoever deviates from it will be cast into perdition. Whoever wants God to grant him something should resort to the Ahl al-Bayt'." This tradition has been narrated by Shaykh al-Islam Hamu'i in the first chapter of Fara'id al-Samtayn and Khatib Khwarazmi in Manaqib (p. 252). Suyuti in his Dhur-e-Manthur quotes Ibn Shaiba that Ali bin Abu Talib said, "Our likeness to this Muslim ummah is that of Noah's Ark and the gate of remissions."