The Life of Imam Al-hasan Al-mujtaba

Preface

By: Kashif al-Ghita’ The Hashemites and the Umayyads, Al-Hasan and Mu’awiya

Enmities and grudges between individuals, tribes, and folks are instincts inside man since the beginning of his creation and existence on the earth, since the time of Abel and Cain, and they continued in all generations until this one. The cause and motives of enmity most of times come out of selfishness, the love of power and authority, seizing wealth, a position, or rule

And the worst of enmities is that which leads to revenge. But, the worst enmity in effect and extent and that which cannot be changed or removed is the enmity of “the spontaneous opposition” and “the essential difference”, like the enmity of darkness to light, virtue to vice, ugliness to beauty, evil to good, and the like. This enmity and difference are impossible to disappear except by the disappearance of one of the opposites and this cannot be. These opposites neither agree with each other nor can each of them disappear. Bad entities in their essence opposite the good ones, and each of these opposites tries the best to remove the other from existence like light and darkness which cannot exist together in one place at all. Each of them, in its natures, opposes and antagonizes the other such as virtue and vice in man, and so on.

The enmity of the Umayyads towards the Hashemites was from this kind. It was impossible to disappear because it was like the enmity of darkness to light, evil to good, and malice to kindness. Each of these opposites can be known by its fruits and effects. It has been said, ‘From their fruits you can know them’. A tree is known due to its good or bad fruit, and man’s good or evil is known due to his deeds and characteristics.

Abd Manaf begot Hashim and Abd Shams. The enmity between these two brothers began since the first of their growth for nothing except the difference between their two essences. Then, this enmity grew wider between the two tribes because of heredity. Each one of these tribes had an opposite from the other tribe in lineage; Hashim and Abd shams, Abdul Mutallib and Umayya, Abu Talib and Harb, Muhammad (a.s) and Abu Sufyan. Since the first moment when the first ray of Islam shone and the Prophet (a.s) announced monotheism, the feud of polytheism and idolatry revolted to efface the lights of monotheism. The trinity of idolatry and tyranny; Abu Jahl, Abu Lahab, and Abu Sufyan held their picks and began tearing down what the savior of humanity built. The third of the trinity and the leader of the Umayyad party, Abu Sufyan, was the bitterest of the all in his enmity and fighting against Islam. They followed every means and trick to strangle the voice of Islam and put out its light. They spared no effort at all to resist that mission until a group of the believers in this mission were forced to emigrate to Abyssinia, while the Prophet (a.s) and his other companions suffered all kinds of persecution and pains for more than ten years until he was forced to leave his and his fathers’ homeland and emigrate to Yathrib.

And there, too, Abu Sufyan chased him even in his emigration. There was no banner of war raised against Islam, unless the Umayyads and their leader Abu Sufyan raised it and flamed its (war) fires. They lurked to put out the light of this mission, and provoked the feuds of the tribes against it until Allah granted His prophet the great victory and made him subject the tyrants of Quraysh and make them slaves according to the rules of war. However, the Prophet (a.s) pardoned and set them free saying to them, ‘Go! You are free.’ He was satisfied with their apparent belief and the saying of the shahada by their tongues whereas their hearts were full of disbelief and grudge against Islam. They still lurked to efface Islam and pluck out its roots. “They did not become Muslims but they submitted unwillingly, and when they found supporters against Islam, they leapt on”. Nothing of Abu Sufyan and the Umayyds’ inners changed at all after their being Muslims, but the way of fight and struggle changed. Abu Sufyan and Mu’awiya entered Islam just to do away with and plot against it, for an internal enemy is more able to plot and act than an external one.

This enmity was spontaneous and eternal; and what is spontaneous and eternal cannot be removed. It was not a competition for wealth or authority, but it was the enmity of principles and natural opposition and dissention. It was the enmity of darkness to light, deviation to guidance, falseness to the truth, and injustice to justice. Therefore, the Umayyads remained on their inner disbelief and deceit though they were considered as Muslims and they received the blessings of Islam, but Islam had never touched even one hair of theirs nor had it wetted a feather from their wings. They were like a duck that spends all its life in water but water does not wet its feathers-as it is said. Yes! They acknowledged Islam jus to spare their bloods and to wait for a suitable opportunity in order to tear down the pillars and bases of Islam. And it was so. When the men of power handed the caliphate over to the first one of them (Uthaman), they flew up with joy and declared some of what their hearts hid. Abu Sufyan gathered the Umayyads and said, ‘O bani Umayyah, snatch it (the caliphate) like snatching a ball. By that which Abu Sufyan swears by, there is neither Paradise nor Fire.’

Then, they took the rein of the Umayyad caliph (Uthman) with their hands and began leading him (like a submissive camel) to wherever they wished. They seized the wealth of Muslims for themselves, and took people as their slaves. Muslims in all lands revolted against him (Uthman) and them (the Umayyads), until they blockaded him in his house and forced him to depose himself from the caliphate and make it (the caliphate) be decided in consultation among Muslims. In the beginning, he hesitated and refused, but when the rebels firmed the blockade and prevented him from even water and food, he submitted and gave up,

and he tried to put out the fire of the sedition by deposing himself as a response to the revolters.

Then, the Umayyads, whose leadership in Medina was in the hand of Marwan and in Sham was in the hand of Mu’awiya, felt that if their friend (Uthman) deposed himself, the rope would slip from their hands…Muslims had committed a mistake and they would never come to like it again…for what virtue or nobility the Umayyads had or for what jihad they had in Islam so that one of them might assume the caliphate of Muslims?! They were the enemies and opponents of Islam in all its situations and on every day from its days. Marwan and his party understood that well, and so they colluded with their leader in Sham (Mu’awiya) to kill their friend (Uthaman) before he would depose himself and before the rope of trick would slip from their hands. Yes, they would kill him and take his murder as an excuse to accuse some group of Muslims of his blood, and then they would pretend before all Muslims that he was killed unjustly and they must revenge him on the killers, and thus this would be the best means to take back the caliphate for themselves. Without the murder of Uthman and the shirt of Uthman the caliphate would not come to Mu’awiya, Marwan, and the offspring of Marwan. It would be impossible for them to dream of it whether in sleep or wakefulness. However, it came to their first friend (Uthman) with no cost. It was given to him by the one who was before him (Umar) who wanted to turn it away from the Hashemites to their bitterest enemies; the Umayyads. Therefore, he (Umar) twisted the rope of the Shura (consultation) where he was certain that the caliphate would come to Uthman. He was not satisfied with that until he inspired ambition into the evil soul of Mu’awiya who and his father were the bitterest enemies of Islam. Every year, Umar punished his governors, confiscated their properties, and treated them severely except Mu’awiya

News often came to him that Mu’awiya spent lavishly the wealth of Muslims and put on silk and too expensive clothes, but he overlooked and rather he justified his deeds saying, ‘He is the Khosrau of the Arabs’, though Mu’awiya was too mean and poor before. He was low before people. Once, a notable man from the Arabs came to the Prophet (a.s), and when he wanted to leave, the Prophet (a.s) ordered Mu’awiya to escort him until the outskirts of Medina. It was too hot. Mu’awiya was barefooted and the ground was boiling with its sands. Mu’awiya said to the nobleman, ‘Let me ride behind you!’

The man said, ‘You do not fit to ride behind notables and kings.’ Mu’awiya said, ‘Would you give me your shoes to guard against the heat of the sun?’ The man said, ‘You are meaner than to wear my shoes.’ Mu’awiya said, ‘My feet are being burnt. What shall I do?’ The man said, ‘Walk in the shadow of my camel! You are not fit for more than this.’[^1] Woe unto you O time! This low one had become or had been made “the Khosrau of the Arabs”!

Yes! It was Mu’awiya and Marwan who had managed the trick of killing Uthman and paved the way for the revolters to kill him. The case of the army that Mu’awiya had sent from Sham to Medina and ordered them not to enter Medina except after the killing of Uthman is a clear proof on that.

Yes! One of the Prophet’s wives as well helped on killing Uthman. She often cried out in the meetings: “Kill Na’thal! May Allah kill Na’thal!”[^2] When they obeyed her and killed Uthman, she rose or was made to rise to revenge him. And as a result of that, the battle of al-Jamal took place where twenty thousand Muslims were killed, and it was the key to other wars between the Muslims themselves. Some poet of that age recited addressing her:

“You are the disaster and you are the misfortune, and you are the clouds and you are the rain. You have ordered to kill the imam (Uthman), and said to us that he had disbelieved.”

Another poet said:

“She came with the two scoundrels, driving to Basra her armies. As if she, in her deed, was a cat Eating, because of hunger, its children.” [^1] Usd al-Ghabah, vol. 5 p.81. [^2] She referred to Uthman with this surname.

These points, which the pen has oozed with here and which are from the minute secrets of history, have come spontaneously and not intentionally. It is to say that when Abu Sufyan and Mu’awiya were astonished by Islam and forced to enter into it, they did apparently just to spare their lives; they hid inside themselves intrigues and they remained lurking, and whenever an opportunity came, their inners were disclosed through their sayings and deeds.

Mu’awiya was wilier than his father who became old and dotard at his last days. Mo'awiya, during the twenty years of his emirate in Sham, showed Islam apparently without clashing with any of its rituals or bases. He did not openly drink, listen to singing, kill an innocent one, play with cats, or play with the pipe and the lute. He put on silk garments and gold pallium as so-and-so said that there was no blame on him for he was “Khosrow of the Arabs”. Mu’awiya did not keep the rituals of Islam except for something inside him, and that was the calmness before the storm, and the slowly walking to get the game.

He remained on the apparent faith that was covered with hidden disbelief throughout the period of his opposition and fight against Imam Ali (a.s) during the battle of Siffeen, but when Imam Ali (a.s) was martyred, he became delighted and joyful, and the opportunity made him able to play on the rope and arrange tricks. However, when Imam al-Hasan (a.s) was paid homage as the caliph, and the heroes from his father’s companions, his Shia and followers adhered to him, and wealth and weapons came to him from everywhere, he (Mo'awiya) found himself in an abyss narrower and deeper than the first one.

Imam al-Hasan (a.s) was the Prophet’s grandson and the most beloved one to him. He was beloved by all people for his good heart, benevolence, and kindness. He had never harmed anyone at all throughout his holy life. He was full of goodness and blessing. He was not accused of participating in the killing of Uthman. In fact, it might be said that he was among the defenders of Uthman. Then, how was Mo'awiya to be compared with him, and how would people turn away from the son of Fatima the daughter of the messenger of Allah (a.s) and resort to the son of Hind the liver eater?! The thinking of these irrefutable points worried Mo'awiya and deprived him of sleep. But how quickly he arrived through his wile and cunning at dissolving their knots! He resorted to two strong factors; the first was the wealth that twisted men’s necks and made the heroes’ saliva flow down. He sent to the greatest leader in the army of Imam al-Hasan (a.s), who had promised to die for him (Imam al-Hasan) and was the nearest in kinship to him, more than fifty thousand (dinars). He was Ubaydillah bin Abbas, Imam al-Hasan’s cousin whom the Imam had appointed as the emir even over Qays bin Sa’d bin Ubada the great chief and the brave hero who had devoted himself to Imam Hasan and to his father. Yes, Mo'awiya sent him such an amount and promised him of the same when he would join him. Ubaydillah sneaked away to Mo'awiya under the wing of darkness, and when morning came, people found no emir over them, and so Qays led them in offering the prayer, and made easy to them that calamity which destroyed the determination of the army and prepared them for defeat before the fighting. May Allah assist your heart O Abu Muhammad (al-Hasan)! How did you tolerate those calamities that came to you one after another like darkness of night!

Mo'awiya followed this plan with every prominent personality and hero from the Shia, and he succeeded in attracting them to him. No one defied against his wiles and plots except a few men who were not more than ten, such as Qays bin Sa’d, Hijr bin Adiy, and the like who resisted oppression and deviation with their firm faith and who had no doubt inasmuch as a twinkle of an eye that Mo'awiya, his father, and his children were unbelievers. Qays had sworn by Allah that he would not meet with Mo'awiya except that the spear and the sword would be between them.

This was the first step that Mo'awiya followed to defeat Imam al-Hasan (a.s) and extort the caliphate from him.

The second was the trick whose effect was greater than the first and that most of people liked and the public opinion was drifted to. It was Mo'awiya’s invitation for peace with Imam al-Hasan (a.s).[^1] The invitation for making peace was the worst thing that completely harmed Imam al-Hasan (a.s), and the worst trick by which Mo'awiya won the situation and the caliphate then. By money Mo'awiya attracted the best of the men and the upper class, but as for the public, they got nothing but they hated the wars that took the lives of the best of them and ruined their lands. In less than five years there were three fierce wars; al-Jamal, Siffeen, and an-Nahrawan.

Therefore, the invitation to war was heavy and odious, whereas the invitation to peace and rest was admired and delicious. Hence, the situation of Imam al-Hasan (a.s) became too critical. He considered it very deeply pondering on the consequences that would come after. He put refusal and acceptance in the scales to see which of them would outweigh. He found that if he refused the peace and he insisted [^1] It was like the trick of raising the copies of the Qur’an in the battle of Siffeen (between Imam Ali (a.s.) and Mo'awiya) which the Iraqi army admired and then lost the victory that was at hand.

on the war, there would be just two probabilities; either he would be the victorious and Mo'awiya be defeated, though this was somehow impossible due to the conditions and circumstances surrounding Imam al-Hasan (a.s) then, and this would make people incline to the Umayyads who would appear as wronged and oppressed saying that: yesterday, they killed Uthman the choice of the Umayyads and Ameerul Mo'minin (as they said), and today they killed Mo'awiya the choice of the Umayyads and the uncle of the believers, and so a second shirt would be prepared for the Umayyads to raise beside the shirt of Uthman, and people were rabble cawing with every cawer without thinking and reasoning. In this case, what would be the situation of Imam al-Hasan?

But as for if he was the defeated one, then the first word that would be said was that al-Hasan had thrown himself into perishment, for Mo'awiya had invited him to peace that would spare the bloods but he refused and wronged. Then, what Mo'awiya and Abu Sufyan wanted in plotting against Islam and taking people back to their first age of ignorance and idolatry would be realized for them. Besides, that Mo'awiya would not let alive anyone from the Ahlul Bayt (a.s).

In fact, the thought of Imam al-Hasan (a.s) in accepting the peace was more accurate than this and that. He wanted to do away with Mo'awiya, through the peace, and reveal what was concealed in his inners before thinking of victory or defeat, and without throwing people in a war and forcing them to do what they hated of the bloodshed.

We have mentioned that Mo'awiya the apparently Muslim and the truly enemy of Islam deceived people, because there was a competitor to him, with a very thin membrane under which he committed major sins and vices and tried the best to pluck out the roots of Islam and put out its light. He concealed all that for fear of the love of people to Imam al-Hasan (a.s) and his father (Imam Ali) before. Imam al-Hasan (a.s) wanted to clear the field to Mo'awiya, hand the matter (rule) over to him, and remove the enmity so that he (Mo'awiya) would show what he had hidden, reveal his disbelief, and remove from his face that membrane, and then people would know his reality and hidden secrets. And really it was so. On the day of the peacemaking, Mo'awiya ascended the minbar before great masses of Muslims and said, ‘I have fought you neither to fast nor to offer prayer, but I have fought you to be the emir over you. I have undertaken some stipulations for al-Hasan but all of them are under my foot.’

See how impudent, shameless, and bold-faced he was! By Allah, if the accepting of the peace (by Imam al-Hasan) had no result except these words of Mo'awiya, it was a sufficient proof to disgrace him and make people know his disbelief. However, he kept on that plot of disbelief, clear sin, resisting Islam, and trying to tear down its basics openly.

Without al-Hasan’s peace Mo'awiya would not ascribe (illegitimate) Ziyad to Abu Sufyan (Mo'awiya’s father) who was his illegal child, and so he brushed aside the Prophet’s tradition: “The child is to the bed (to be ascribed to the woman’s husband on whose bed adultery is committed) and the adulteress is to be stoned”. However, Mo'awiya stoned the Prophet’s tradition and brushed it aside with no fear or care.

Except for the peace, Mo'awiya would not kill Hijr bin Adiy, the master of the true believers, and ten men from the best of the Prophet’s companions and successors. He killed them in Marj Athra’ for no guilt. Except for the peace, Mo'awiya would not kill the great Prophet’s companion Amr bin al-Hamq and carry his head to Sham. And it was the first head that was carried in Islam.

Except for the peace, Mo'awiya would not insert poison to Imam al-Hasan (a.s) through his (Imam al-Hasan) wife Ja’dah bint al-Ash’ath. And except for the peace, Mo'awiya would not force the good remainder of the Muhajireen and the Ansar to pay homage to his son Yazeed who was very famous for disbelief, debauchery, and countless vices to a very far extent. See who the winner was and who the loser was!

See what Imam al-Hasan (a.s) caused to Mo'awiya by the peace and how he destroyed all his efforts and tore down what he built until the truth appeared and falsehood vanished, and then who follow vanity will lose! Peace, in those circumstances, was required and inevitable for Imam al-Hasan (a.s) just as fighting against Yazid was required and incumbent on his brother Al-Husayn (a.s). All that was due to the difference between the two periods and the difference between the two men. Except for the peace of Imam al-Hasan (a.s) that exposed Mo'awiya, and the martyrdom of Imam al-Husayn (a.s) that did away with Yazeed and did away with the Sufyani rule quickly after no long…except for the sacrifices of these two grandsons of the Prophet (a.s), the efforts of their grandfather (a.s) would disappear in the twinkle of an eye, and the religion would be the religion of Abu Sufyan full of deceit, wiles, debauchery, and vices…would be religion of bars and wines…religion of adultery, and playing with tigers and monkeys…religion of killing the good, benevolent believers, and retaining the vicious unbelievers.

May Allah reward you, O the two masters of the youth of the Paradise, with the best of reward on behalf of Islam and its people. By Allah, no worshipper worshipped Allah, no monotheist believed in the oneness of Allah, no obligation was performed, no sunna was followed, and no nation turned from deviation to guidance, except for that you had the favor, proof, and clear authority in that after Allah and His messenger.

The messenger of Allah (a.s) brought guidance, light, good, and blessing to all mankind with no difference between a color and another, a race and another, a nation and another, and a folk and another. He brought Islam with clear light for all, and he built and firmed its bases and made perfect with no defect or crook. Abu Sufyan and the cursed tree (in the Qur’an), Mo'awiya, Yazeed, and Marwan came and carried the picks of disbelief and polytheism and attacked those bases and pillars trying to pluck out their roots and put out their light (They desire to put out the light of Allah with their mouths, and Allah will not consent save to perfect His light, though the unbelievers are averse). So the two grandsons of the Prophet (a.s), with all their power and authority, stood against that structure of evil (of the Umayyads), and they could not restore the Sharia of their grandfather except by the great sacrifice through offering their lives, monies, men, children, and all the blessings and pleasures of this life. They offered all that for the sake of Allah and to retain the religion of Allah. Were it not for this sacrifice, the religion of Islam would be one of the legends in the books that history mentions as it mentions any incidental event or extinct nation.

Glory be to Allah, Allah is great, and praise be to Allah. Hence, you know and must know the secret behind the great care and extreme reverence that the greatest Savior met his two grandsons (al-Hasan and al-Husayn) with… care and reverence that was not ordinary and was beyond the limit of reason. This great Prophet and the most beloved one to the Great Creator, this great personality that had been filled by the Lord with greatness, gravity, and dignity that neither storms could shake nor could emotions attract…due to this gravity and solemnity that someone, who never seen him before, might come to him shaking of fear but the Prophet (a.s) said to him, ‘Do not fear! I am but a son of a woman from Quraysh who ate jerked meat (just like others)’ so that Muslims would not say about him as the Christians said about Jesus Christ (a.s).

This great Prophet (a.s) carried al-Hasan and al-Husayn, who were young children, on his shoulders, and walked before Muslims saying loudly (addressing al-Hasan and al-husayn) so that Muslims could hear him, ‘Your camel is the best camel, and the best riders your are!’ How often that al-Husayn came and ascended the Prophet’s back during his prostration and the Prophet (a.s) did not raise his head until al-Husayn got down willingly. Once, the Prophet (a.s) was making a speech in the mosque and al-Husayn was toddling in the mosque. When he stumbled, the Prophet (a.s) stopped his speech, hurried to him, embraced him and said, ‘May Allah kill Satan! Children are as seduction. When my son stumbled, I felt that my heart had sunk down from me.’ Many many examples like this happened showing the great love of the Prophet (a.s) to his tow (grand)sons that cannot be counted here. I say: this infinite love was not because they were his daughter’s children only, but definitely there were secrets and reasons deeper and profounder; spiritual secrets that were above these bodily relations.

Do you not agree with me that the Prophet (a.s) might go high over the horizon of time and through his sacred spirituality he looked at the book of creation from its A to Z, and he saw the past, the present, and the future and saw the future events in the page of existence that would happen to his two grandsons? He saw what they would suffer in the way of defending his religion and protecting his Sharia. He saw that they would sacrifice their lives, properties, and children. He saw that al-Hasan would be poisoned by Mo'awiya many times until he would die in the last time when he vomited his liver a piece after another. Then, al-Husayn gave the highest example in sacrifice to guard his grandfather’s Sharia.

He received swords, spears, and arrows and made his chest, neck, head, and lungs as guards before the picks that the Umayyads had held to tear down Islam and pluck out its roots. He put himself, children, and supporters as a target to protect Islam that its pillars not to be collapsed and its bases not to be demolished by the attacks of the Umayyads, until Islam was saved, its lights shone, its facts were revealed, the unbelievers were perished, the followers of falsehood lost, the word of Allah was the highest, and the word of His enemies was the lowest. Every Muslim, since the beginning of Islam until now and until the Day of Resurrection, is indebted to these two imams, that without their sacrifice, which history has never narrated the like of, people would be taken back by the efforts of the Umayyads to their first ignorance and even worse.

Then, would you find strange that love, care, and reverence of the Prophet (a.s) to them when they were two young children where he knew and saw with his eye of sight and insight those calamities and that bitter struggle for the sake of and in the way of him? He smelt and embraced them saying, ‘They are my sons and sweethearts.’ Definitely, he smelt in them the divine scent and saw in them the Godly light. Hence, we know and must know that al-Hasan and al-Husayn were one light that no one of them would be preferred to the other inasmuch as a hair. Each of them had achieved his duty, and fulfilled his mission as been determined by his grandfather and father, and according to the covenant he had received in the first day of his imamate.

If you want elaborately to know about the greatness, bravery, courage, full-heartedness, strong argumentation, inadvertence to the splendor of rule and the pomp of authority of al-Hasan (a.s), you may ponder on his words and arguments in the meeting of Mo'awiya with the heads of polytheists and the chiefs of unbelievers and atheists whom Mo'awiya involved with al-Hasan (a.s) to laugh at them like Amr bin al-Aas, al-Mugheerah bin Shu’bah, Marwan and the like of them from the clients of the Hell who had never believed in Allah in the twinkle of an eye. See these words and arguments and wonder at them as you like. There, you see greatness in its summit, and courage in its apex. If you want more, see his words at the time of dying and the moment of setting out from this prison to the better world; the words that he said to his brother Muhammad bin al-Hanafiyyah concerning his brother al-Husayn (a.s). There, the locks of the secrets of imamate will open to you, and the lights of prophethood and leadership will shine to you, and you will know the Prophetic custody, and the absolute guardianship…there the guardianship is to Allah, (the Prophet is closer to the believers than their selves), “whoever I am his guardian Ali is to be his guardian”, and (Only Allah is your Gurdian and His Messenger and those who believe, those who keep up prayers and pay the poor-due while they bow down (in prayer)).

My pen has crept beyond the limit, and leapt away from the path of intention and the intention of the path. The least thing that I wanted to say in my this word is that the enmity between the Hashemites and the Umayyads was spontaneous and deep-rooted. It was the enmity between guidance and deviation, and between light and darkness. What proves that is that if you review the lives and conducts of the Umayyads since the first of them Abd Shams until the last one Marwan the donkey, you shall not find in the pages of most of them except treachery, wiling, breaking of covenants and promises, sins, debauchery, adultery, obscenity, and all kinds of vices.

And if you review the lives and conducts of the Hashemites since the first of them until this day, you shall not find in the pages of most of them except virtue, loyalty, truthfulness, bravery, chastity, pure birth, honor, high determination, sacrifice for the sake of ideology, and all good morals. Suppose that there is someone who excuses the Umayyads and justifies their enmity to the Hashemites by saying: they took it as a means that would take them to the rule and authority. But, what is the excuse of the followers of the Umayyads in this age? What is the justification of the modern Umayyadism? They shall neither be lucky in this world, nor shall they have any share in the hereafter.

(Say: Shall We inform you of the greatest losers in (their) deeds. Those whose effort goes astray in this life, and yet they reckon that they do good work).[^1] (He loses this world and the hereafter; that is the manifest loss).[^2]

Praise be to Allah Who has gouged the eyes of disbelief and hypocrisy, and delighted the eyes of Islam and faith with al-Hasan and al-Husayn and the pure progeny (of the Prophet). We pray Him, as He has favored us with knowing and following them, to resurrect us with them, and grant us with their intercession and disavowing their enemies and enmity.

Indeed, Abu Muhammad az-Zakiy (Imam al-Hasan) (a.s), during the short period that he lived after his father, tolerated calamities and disasters that no prophet had tolerated, and they were not less than those which his brother Abu Abdillah al-Husayn (a.s) faced on the day of at-Taff (Kerbala). The painful calamity and the sinful strike of the two brothers were the same though the ways and the means were different. As al-Husayn (a.s) faced his calamities with patience that the angels of the Heavens were astonished at, al-Hasan as well fought his enemy and faced his sufferings and calamities with unequalled patience and endurance. He did never become weak a day, nor did he beg or submit to anyone. He did not take from his wealth that Mo'awiya had plundered and been as a play in the hands of the Umayyads. He did not take even one of thousands or, in fact, hundreds of thousands of dinars.

As there is no filed for comparing between these two lights (al-Hasan and al-Husayn), it cannot be said that the patience of al-Hasan was less than the patience of al-Husayn, or that his calamity was easier than his brother’s. Peace from Allah be on you O the two Imams of guidance and the offspring of Ali and Fatima (peace be on them all) as long as virtue shines and vice darkens.

These words have been written with weak fingertips and sick pens improvisingly and flowingly in some hours the last of which was on the twenty-first of Ramadan the anniversary of the martyrdom of the master of guardians and the imam of the truthful Ameerul Mo'minin (thousands of blessings, greetings, and peace be on him) in the year 1373 AH.

Muhammad al-Husayn Aal Kashiful Ghita’ in his Seminary (hawza) in Holy Najaf.

[^1] Qur’an, 18:103-104. [^2] Qur’an, 22:11.