for about twenty years, after which he was commissioned as the Prophet.

Abu ʿĀṣim narrated—through ʿAmr ibn Saʿīd ibn Abī Ḥasan, from Ibn Abī Mulaykah, from ʿUqbah ibn al-Ḥārith—who said: “Abu Bakr (may Allah be pleased with him) led us in the ʿAṣr prayer. When it was over, he and ʿAlī walked out together. They saw al-Ḥasan playing with the boys, so Abu Bakr picked him up, set him on his shoulder, and said:

‘May my father be his ransom! He is the very image of the Prophet—
he does not look like ʿAlī.’

ʿAlī smiled at this.” Al-Bukhārī recorded the report from Abu ʿĀṣim.

Isrāʾīl also transmitted—through Abu Isḥāq, from Hāniʾ, from ʿAlī (may Allah be pleased with him)—that he said: “Al-Ḥasan resembled the Messenger of Allah, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, in everything from the chest up, whereas al-Ḥusayn resembled the Messenger of Allah in the parts below that.”