or so that you might pray, or make the pilgrimage, or give alms. I already know that you do all of that. We fought you only so that I might exercise authority over you, and God has granted me that power even though you dislike it (1).
Al-Sariyy ibn Ismāʿīl, on the authority of al-Shaʿbī, reported: Sufyān ibn al-Layl told me, “When al-Ḥasan returned to Medina from Kūfah I said to him, ‘O you who have humiliated the believers!’ He replied, ‘Do not say that, for I heard my father say, “The days and nights will not pass before Muʿāwiyah becomes ruler.” Realizing that God’s decree was inevitable, I therefore disliked fighting (2).’”
Al-Sariyy is unreliable (3).
Shuʿayb, from al-Zuhrī, from al-Qāsim ibn Muḥammad: When Muʿāwiyah came to Medina on pilgrimage, he visited ʿĀʾishah. No one witnessed their conversation except her freedman Dhakwān. She said to him, “Are you so sure that I would not hide a man to kill you in retaliation for my brother Muḥammad?” He replied, “You are right.” She then admonished him and urged him to follow the truth. After he left, he leaned on Dhakwān and said, “By Allah, I have never heard an orator—apart from the Messenger of Allah ﷺ—more eloquent than ʿĀʾishah.” (4)
(1) Ibn Kathir cites the report in al-Bidaya 8/131 through Ibn Abi Shayba and Sa id b. Mansur, both saying: “Abu Mu awiya narrated to us with this chain.” Sa id b. Suwayd is an unknown narrator, and al-Bukhari states in his Tarikh 3/477 that “no one corroborates his hadith.” The chain is therefore weak. The account also appears in Ibn Asakir 6/360b.
(2) Ibn Asakir 16/360a.
(3) Yahya al-Qattan said: “His lying became evident to me in a single sitting.” Al-Nasai judged him “abandoned,” others called him “worthless,” and Ahmad declared: “People have left his hadith.”
(4) Ibn Asakir 16/361. Ahmad likewise records it in the Musnad 4/92 through Hammad b. Salama—Ali b. Zayd—Sa id b. al-Musayyib: Mu awiya entered upon A isha, and she said to him, “Were you not afraid that I might arrange for a man to kill you?” He replied, “You would not do that while I am in a house of safety, for I heard the Prophet say, ‘al-iman (faith) is a restraint against al-fatk (treacherous killing).’”
A marfu (Prophetic) corroboration exists from al-Zubayr in Ahmad 1/166–167 and Abd al-Razzaq 9676, and another from Abu Hurayra in Abu Dawud 2769; the hadith is therefore sound.
Abu Ubayd explains that al-fatk is when a man attacks another who is unsuspecting and heedless until he kills him. The phrase “al-iman qayd al-fatk” means that faith prevents killing just as shackles restrict movement, as though al-fatk itself were placed in chains.