was the one of all people who most closely resembled the Messenger of Allah ﷺ from the chest up, while Ḥusayn resembled him more in what was below that. (1)
ʿĀṣim ibn Kulayb narrated—from his father, from Ibn ʿAbbās—that he likened Ḥasan to the Prophet ﷺ.
Usāmah said: “The Prophet ﷺ would take me and Ḥasan and say, ‘O Allah, I love them, so love them both.’ (2)”
In al-Jaʿdiyyāt, recorded by Fuḍayl ibn Marzūq—from ʿAdī ibn Thābit, from al-Barāʾ—it is reported that the Prophet ﷺ said to Ḥasan: “O Allah, I love him, so love him and love whoever loves him.” al-Tirmidhī declared it sound. (3)
Aḥmad narrated: Ibn ʿUyaynah told us—from ʿUbaydullāh ibn Abī Yazīd, from Nāfiʿ ibn Jubayr, from Abū Hurayrah—that the Prophet ﷺ said to Ḥasan: “O Allah, I love him, so love him and love whoever loves him.” (4)
Nuʿaym al-Mujmir also narrated it from Abū Hurayrah, adding: “Whenever I saw Ḥasan, my eyes would well up with tears.” (5)
(1) Reported by al-Tirmidhi, no. 3781, in the section on Merits; he graded it hasan. Also declared sahih by Ibn Hibban, no. 2235.
(2) Reported by al-Bukhari, 7/70, “Virtues of the Companions” – chapter on Usama b. Zayd; likewise by Ahmad, 5/210, and Ibn Saʿd, 4/62.
(3) Al-Tirmidhi, no. 3782, gives the wording: “He saw Hasan and Husayn and said: Allahumma inni uhibbuhuma fa-ahibbuhuma (O Allah, I love them, so love them).” His version does not include the phrase “wa ahibba man yuhibbuhuma” (“and love those who love them”). The same shorter wording is found in al-Bukhari, 7/75, and Muslim, no. 2422, through the chain Shuʿba – ʿAdi b. Thabit – al-Baraʾ. The report appears with the additional phrase in al-Tabarani’s Muʿjam, no. 2583; al-Haythami, 9/176, cites it and further attributes it to al-Tabarani in al-Awsat, to al-Bazzar, and to Abu Yaʿla, adding that the transmitters of al-Kabir are those of the sound collections.
(4) Its chain is sound; it is cited in the Musnad, 2/249 and 331.
(5) Reported by Abu Nuʿaym, 2/35.