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Newsletter for January 2017
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The Second Imam: Hasan ibne Ali (AS)
by Late Dr. Syed Haider Husain Shamsi
Name Hasan
Title al-Mujtaba
Epithet Abu
Muhammad
Father Ali
ibne Abi Talib (as)
Mother Fatima binte Muhammad,
the Prophet of Islam (pbuh)
Date of
Birth: Ramadhan 15, 3 AH
(March 1, 625 AD)
Place of
Birth: Madinah
Progeny: From Umm Bashir binte Abu Masud al-Khazraji:
One son: Zaid
Two daughters: Umm al-Hasan, Umm al-Husain
From; Khawla binte Fazari:
One son: Hasan al-Muthanna
From: Umm Is-haq binte Talha bin UbaidAllah al-Taimi
Two sons: al-Husain, Talha
One daughter: Fatima
He had many other children from other wives
Date of Death: Safar 28, 50 AH (March 6, 670 AD)
He lived to an age of 45 years
Place of Death: Madinah
Place of Burial: Jannatul Baqi
LIFE OF HASAN
(AS) DURING
THE TIMES OF PROPHET MUHAMMAD
The Holy Prophet was
very happy when he heard the
news of the birth of his
grandson. He came to the house
of Ali and his beloved daughter
Fatima and named the child
Hasan. He had the good fortune
to be loved and nurtured
personally by the Messenger of
Islam for seven years before his
death. He often carried his
grand child on his shoulders.
As a youth, he witnessed
the conflict between kufr
(paganism, polytheism) and
Islam. He saw his father, Imam
Ali being victorious and playing
the key role in many important
battles with the
non-believers. This was also
the glorious time of Islam with
the inception of the Muslim
community in Madinah under the
Holy Prophet himself, and the
rapid expansion of the message
of Islam throughout the Arabian
peninsula.
Hasan was one of the
five members of the Ahle
Bait. It was in 9 AH when the
Prophet of Islam took him along
as one of the five who went out
to face the challenge of the
grand cardinals of Najran on the
occasion of Mubahala, and
witnessed the triumph of the
Truth over Falsehood.
LIFE OF HASAN DURING THE TIMES OF
IMAM ALI
As a growing youth, Hasan saw
the active role of his father,
Imam Ali, in the battlefield defending Islam, as a preacher to a vast
congregation of believers on the
occasion of Haj, and as a
missionary of Islam to
Yemen. After the death of his
grandfather, the Prophet, he saw
his father having retreated to a
passive role in the matters of
the state during the period of
the first three
caliphs. However, whenever he
saw it necessary, Imam Ali never
refrained from giving his
opinion to the caliph of the
time on matters of the practice
of faith. He had also seen that
the caliphs, in turn, respected
Imam Ali for his overall
knowledge, and consulted him on
many occasions as the need
arose.
When the third caliph
was murdered by a mob of
agitated demonstrators in his
palace in Mad'mah, and Imam Ali
was elected to lead the Muslim
nation, Imam Hasan took active
part in assisting his father in
many ways. He went to Kufa and
successfully raised the first
army of believers against the
dissenting Muslims. He
participated actively in the
battlefields of Basra, Siffeen
and Nahrawan alongside his
father, and demonstrated his
skills as a soldier and as a
leader.
Before he died, Imam Ali
appointed Hasan to lead the
nation of believers and to be
their Imam after him. The
people also chose him to be
their Caliph.
THE LIFE OF IMAM HASAN AS A
CALIPH
Imam Hasan assumed the
responsibility of the Caliphate
after the martyrdom of his
father, and the people of Kufa
gave him the pledge of
fealty. He addressed a large
congregation of believers in the mosque and reminded them of the stand his father had taken
in upholding the Truth, and that
he would not change his course
of conduct in any other way. He
also reminded them of the
deceitful way in which they were
deprived of their victory over
Muawiyah, the defiant governor
of Syria. He strongly urged
them to search their hearts if
they wished to achieve a stable
and pious way of life under his
rule.
Muawiyah continued his
unrelenting efforts to weaken
the position of Imam Hasan from
the seat of Caliphate. The hnam
wrote him a letter inviting him
for peace, and to join him in
furthering the cause of a
unified Islamic State. This
called for Muawiyah to accept
Imam Hasan as the legitimate
successor of the
Caliphate. Muawiyah had
previously declined this in a
similar communication from Imam
Ali, and had carried arms
against him.
Imam Hasan called up his forces
from his pledged
supporters. However, the army
he could gather consisted of
people with disparate
motives. Although there were
some true believers in the army,
many others had joined in for
the sake of war spoils and with
divided loyalties. Thus, even
some Kharjites had joined the
army, not for the love of the
Imam but, in the event of
victory, for their own design of
eliminating Muawiyah from the
Caliphate. There were others
who had come, not because they
believed in fighting for the
cause of the Truth but because
their tribal leaders had urged
them to do so.
However, just before the
impending war, Muawiyah was able
to break the strength of the
Imams army by paying off some
and diverting others away from
h4n, and spread the manors that
the Imam had agreed to stop the
war to save bloodshed of Muslims
on either side. These rumors
had their desired effect. The Kharjis saw
a failure of their own goal
through the forces of the Imam,
so they turned against him. He
received a bad slash on his
thigh, and was quickly taken
away by his supporters for care
and tending. His army dispersed
to escape a general massacre by
Muawiyah's forces.
The leaders of several tribes
wrote to Muawiyah for his
clemency towards them in
exchange for surrendering Imam
Hasan to him. Muawiyah sent all
these letter to the Imam and
offered him safe passage to
Madinah under all the conditions
he chose for himself. To this
end, he sent Imam Hasan a blank
page with his stamps in the
bottom of the page. Then
Muawiyah wrote, "In this page,
whose bottom I have stamped,
stipulate whatever you want, for
that will be for you."
The Imam, in his desire to avoid
bloodshed and to uphold the
unity of the Muslim Ummah, saw
the advantage in accepting
Muawiyah's offer. He was well
aware of the ploy of Muawiyah
during the days of his father,
and he had seen his tactics
during the Battle of
Siffeen. He had seen Muawiyah's
devious means during his
confrontation with him, and had
seen the rift and loss of life
of the Muslims on both
sides. The apparent truce was a
safe way out from the bitter
confrontation. The Imam
accepted peace in order to
preserve the integrity of
Islam. He wrote on the page
provided by Muawiyah all the
conditions that suited him, his
family and towards his role as
the Imam of believers. It is
unfortunate that this page is
not valuable to us. However, the
conditions laid down by the Imam
have been mentioned in several
authoritative works of history
and biography.
THE
PEACE TREATY
5. "The people should be safe wherever they are in the earth of
Allah; in Sham (Syria), Iraq,
Hijaz, Yemen, etc. He should
give security to the black and
the red alike. He (Muawiyah)
should bear their slips, should
not follow some of them for the
bygone, nor should he punish the
Iraqis foe hostility."
"The companions of Ali should be given security wherever they are;
that he (Muawiyah) should not
expose them to any evil; that
they should be given security
over their lives, their
properties and women and
children; and that he should
give them their rights.
"He (Muawiyah) should not seek a calamity secretly or openly for
alHasan or his brother
al-Husain, nor for anyone from
the progeny of Ahle Bait of
the'Apostle of Allah, nor should
he frighten them in any country
or territories."
Many historians have related
that the text of this Peace
Treaty was conveyed to Muawiyah
who read this in his court, and
made a covenant with Allah to
fulfil the conditions stipulated
by Imam Hasan. It was not long
after this event that Muawiyah
went back from his part of the
covenant with Allah and put the
Peace Treaty aside. He took
pleasure in demeaning the Imam
just as he had been doing to his
father. The Imam decided to
leave Kufa and return to
Madinah.
Marwan bin al-Hakam, who was the personal
secretary to the third caliph,
and had fought against Imam Ali
during the Battle of Camel, was
now the governor of Madinah
under Muawiyah. He took
personal pleasure in discharging
Muawiyah's wishes to slur the
reputation of the Imam and his
father. Needless to say that
the Imam's life in Madinah after
the treaty of peace was not
peaceful at all. In addition to
the relentless taunts and abuse
slung at him by Muawiyah, the
Imam had to endure the anger of
his supporters for having
relinquished the Caliphate to
the life long enemy of himself
and that of his father before
him. They had failed to
appreciate that Imam Hasan had
given up his right in the larger
interests of Islam, and to avoid
further bloodshed of the
Muslims. The Imam continued to
deal with the abuse with
patience and forbearance, and
continued to uphold the Truth.
THE MARTYRDOM OF IMAM HASAN
Muawiyah was successful
in deceitfully gaining the
absolute power he had aspired
for. He was not interested in
the functions of preaching piety
or theology. He was interested
in expanding his sphere of
influence in the territories
already conquered by the
Muslims, and was actively
engaged in further conquests to
the north and north west of
Syria. In utter violation of
the terms of the Treaty with the
Imam, Muawiyah decided to name
his son Yazid to succeed him
after his death. He knew that
Yazid lacked all qualifications
to be a caliph for the Muslims
and to represent the Holy
Prophet of Islam. He also knew
that the Imam, being a true
representative of the Prophet,
would oppose the nomination of
his son. Consequently, he
decided to eliminate the
opposition.
Muawiyah solicited the
services of Marwa'n bin Hakam, a
son-in-law of the third Caliph,
who was the governor of Madinah
at that time. With a promise
for a reward, Marwan approached
one of the wives of the Imam,
Ju'da binte al-Ash'ath bin Qais
to poison the Imam. He was
successful, and the Imam died as
a result of this plot.
Before he died Imam
Hasan, in accordance with the
Will of Allah, named his
brother, Husain to be the next
Imam. He expressed his wish to
his brother to bury his body
near to the grave of his
grandfather, the Prophet of
Islam. This caused an armed
opposition by the governor of
Madinah. Under a shower of
arrows, the jenazh (funeral
procession) of Imam Hasan had to
withdraw and be diverted to
Jannatul-Baqi', the general
graveyard of Madinah, where he
was buried.
REFLECTIONS ON THE LIFE OF IMAM
HASAN
Imam Hasan lived a life of piety
mirroring the teachings of the
Quran and the Sunna of the
Prophet. The ten years he spent
in Madinah under the oppressive
rule of Muawiyah and his
appointed governors, only
revealed his tolerance and
forbearance towards the
abuse. Some followers felt that
the Imam should have retaliated
against Muawiyah when he ignored
the terms and conditions of the
Treaty, oppressed them slung
verbal abuses at them. But the
Imam only pointed to the conduct
of his father before him, who
had endured similar
circumstances without armed
retaliation. He told his
followers that he did not
retaliate against the oppressor
because the abuses that were
being thrown at him were against
his person and not against
Islam.
THE
TABLE OF IMAM HASAN
From the time of the
assassination of the third
caliph and the events
surrounding Imam Ali's rule, the
Ahle Bait had again come into
focus. Many dignitaries and new
Muslims from far off places
sought audience with the Imam in
Madinah. They came to learn
interpretations of the Quran,
the teachings of Islam, and
expounded the seera (the
conduct of personal life) of the
Prophet of Islam.
Imam Hasan adopted a unique
method of teaching and preaching
Islam. Even during the life of
Imam Ali, the Table of Hasan was
well known. Now with the
increased visibility, the number
of attendants had increased many
folds. To accommodate them, he
used to lay an extensive table
for all his guests. While at
the table, and with ample food
in front of them the people sat
down in peace and relative
comfort to eat and
listen. Thus, they were able to
benefit from his teachings, and
he was able to answer their
questions. |
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