Al-Harmazī relates: Al-Ḥasan ibn ʿAlī once addressed the people of Kūfah, saying,
“Forbearance is an adornment, dignity is true manliness, haste is folly, and folly is weakness. Keeping company with the lowly tarnishes one’s honor, and mixing with the profligate invites suspicion. (1)”

Zuhayr narrated from Abū Isḥāq, from ʿAmr ibn al-Aṣamm:
I said to al-Ḥasan, “The Shīʿah allege that ʿAlī will be sent back before the Day of Resurrection.”
He replied, “By Allah, they have lied; those are not the Shīʿah. Had we believed he would return, we would not have married off his widows nor divided his estate. (2)”

Jarīr ibn Ḥāzim said, “When ʿAlī was killed, the people of Kūfah swore allegiance to al-Ḥasan and loved him even more than they had loved his father.”

Al-Kalbī said, “Al-Ḥasan received the pledge of allegiance, governed for seven months and eleven days, and then handed authority over to Muʿāwiyah.”

ʿAwānah ibn al-Ḥakam stated, “Al-Ḥasan marched until he reached al-Madāʾin. He appointed Qays ibn Saʿd over the vanguard, twelve thousand strong. Then a cry was raised, ‘Qays has been killed!’ The people plundered al-Ḥasan’s pavilion, and a man from the Khārijites lunged at him with a dagger, stabbing him. The crowd seized the attacker and killed him. After that al-Ḥasan wrote to Muʿāwiyah proposing a truce. (3)”

Ibn Saʿd reports: Muḥammad ibn ʿUbayd told us, from Mujālid, from al-Shaʿbī, and from Yūnus ibn Abī Isḥāq, from his father, that when the people of Iraq pledged allegiance to al-Ḥasan they said to him, “Advance against those who have disobeyed Allah and His Messenger and committed grave offenses,” so he set out toward the people of