his throat, saying, “Advance! Were it not a sunnah, you would never have been put in front”—meaning in the prayer.

Abu Hurayrah said, “I heard the Messenger of Allah—may Allah bless him and grant him peace—declare: ‘Whoever loves these two has loved me, and whoever hates them has hated me.’” (1)

Ibn Ishaq relates: Musāwir al-Saʿdī told me, “I saw Abu Hurayrah standing in the Mosque of the Messenger of Allah—may Allah bless him and grant him peace—on the day al-Hasan died, weeping and calling out at the top of his voice, ‘O people! Today the beloved of the Messenger of Allah—may Allah bless him and grant him peace—has passed away, so weep!’”

Jaʿfar al-Sādiq said: “Al-Hasan lived for forty-seven years.”

I say: Whoever reported on Jaʿfar’s authority that his age was fifty-eight years was clearly mistaken.

Al-Waqidī, Saʿīd ibn ʿUfair, and Khalīfah said: “He died in the year 49 AH.”
Al-Madaʾinī, al-Ghalābī, al-Zubayr, Ibn al-Kalbī, and others said: “He died in the year 50 AH,” and some added, “in Rabīʿ al-Awwal.”
Al-Bukhārī said: “In the year 51 AH.”
Abu Nuʿaym al-Mulāʾī erred and said: “In the year 58 AH.”

Ibn ʿAbd al-Barr reports that when they asked ʿĀʾishah to allow al-Hasan to be buried in the Prophet’s apartment, she replied, “Yes, and with honour.”

Marwān, however, turned them back; both sides took up arms, and he was buried in al-Baqīʿ beside his mother.

And in al-Istīʿāb by Abū ʿUmar it is stated:

“Al-Hasan advanced toward Muʿāwiyah, and Muʿāwiyah moved toward him. Realizing that neither force would defeat the other without most of them being lost, al-Hasan sent word to Muʿāwiyah that he would hand authority over to him on condition that you do not pursue anyone for anything that occurred during my father’s days….”