He accepted, almost leaping for joy, but added: “Except for ten individuals—on them I will make no concession.”

Al-Hasan pressed him about those men, but Muʿāwiyah wrote back: “I have sworn that if ever I seize Qays ibn Saʿd I shall cut off his tongue and his hand.”

Al-Hasan replied, “Then I will not pledge allegiance to you.”

Muʿāwiyah thereupon sent him a blank parchment, saying, “Write in it whatever terms you wish, and I will be bound by them.”

Thus the two reached an agreement.

Al-Hasan stipulated that after Muʿāwiyah’s death authority would revert to him, and Muʿāwiyah accepted every one of his conditions.

Amr said to Muʿāwiyah, “Their blade has dulled and their power is broken.”

He answered, “Do you not know that forty thousand pledged allegiance to ʿAlī unto death? By Allah, they will not be slain until an equal number of us have fallen—and, by Allah, life holds no good after that.” (1)

Abu ʿUmar said: Al-Hasan handed power over to Muʿāwiyah in mid-Jumādā al-Ūlā of the year 41 AH. (2)

He also said: It is reported that he died in 49 AH; others say he died in Rabīʿ al-Awwal of 50 AH; yet others say in 51 AH. (3)

He further transmitted through several chains that when al-Hasan lay dying he said to al-Husayn:

“My brother! When the Messenger of Allah ﷺ passed away, your father set his sights on this office, but Allah diverted it from him. When Abū Bakr was on his death-bed, he, too, looked forward to it, but it passed to ʿUmar. When ʿUmar lay dying, he made it a council, my father being one of its members; he never doubted that it would not pass him by, yet it went to ʿUthmān. When ʿUthmān was killed, our father was given the pledge, then he was opposed until he drew the sword to claim it, and still not a single part of it became his. By Allah, I do not think that Allah will unite within us—the People of the Household—both prophethood and the caliphate. So do not let the hot-headed folk of Kūfa sway you until they drag you out.

“I had already asked ʿĀʾishah to allow me to be buried in her chamber, and she said ‘Yes.’ I do not know—perhaps modesty led her to say so. When I die, seek her permission once more…” (4)