he tugged at my cloak and said, “Sit here, man!” So I sat down, and he continued, “I have reached a decision, and I would like you to stand with me on it.” I asked, “What is it?” He replied, “I have decided to go to Medina and settle there, leaving Muʿāwiyah to this affair. The turmoil has gone on too long—blood has been spilt, bonds of kinship and the highways have been cut, and even marriages have been left idle.”

Ibn Jaʿfar said, “May Allah reward you with good on behalf of the nation of Muhammad; I am with you.”

He then said, “Call al-Ḥusayn for me.” Al-Ḥusayn came, and he said, “Brother, this and that is what I have decided.” Al-Ḥusayn replied, “I seek Allah’s protection for you from denying ʿAlī and affirming Muʿāwiyah.” Al-Ḥasan retorted, “By Allah, you have contradicted me in every matter I have ever intended. By Allah, I have almost flung you into a house and plastered it shut over you until I finish my business.”

When al-Ḥusayn saw that he was angered, he said, “You are the eldest son of ʿAlī, his successor, and our affair follows yours.”

Al-Ḥasan then rose and proclaimed, “O people! I was the one who most loathed the beginning of this business, and I have now set its end aright… until he said:

‘Allah has handed this affair over to you, Muʿāwiyah, either for some good that He knows is in your keeping or for some evil that He knows is in you: “I do not know; perhaps it is a trial for you and an enjoyment for a while” (Q 21:111).’ He then came down (1).

Shurayk—reporting from ʿĀṣim, from Abū Razīn—said:
“We were addressed by al-Ḥasan ibn ʿAlī on a Friday, and he recited Sūrat Ibrāhīm from the pulpit until he finished it (2).”

Abū Jaʿfar al-Bāqir said: “Al-Ḥasan and al-Ḥusayn would not visit the Mothers of the Believers.” Ibn ʿAbbās said, “It is lawful for the two of them to see them.” I say: that lawfulness is certain.

Ibn ʿAwn—transmitting from Muḥammad—reported that al-Ḥasan said, “Food is too trifling for us to divide by swearing oaths over it.”

And Qurrah said: “I ate in Ibn Sīrīn’s house, and when I withdrew my hands he said: he said—”