1598 — Abū Muhammad Yahyā ibn Muhammad ibn Sāʿid also informed us. He said: Abū Hishām al-Rifāʿī narrated to us. He said: Abū Usāma narrated to us. He said: Abū Janāb narrated to us. He said: Abū ʿAwn al-Thaqafī narrated to us. He said: I used to recite before Abū ʿAbd al-Rahmān al-Sulamī, and al-Hasan ibn ʿAlī would also recite before him.

Abū ʿAbd al-Rahmān said: The Commander of the Faithful, ʿAlī, may Allah be pleased with him, appointed a man from the Banū Tamīm named Habīb ibn Qurra over the Sawād. He ordered him to bring into Kufa the Muslims who were in the Sawād. I said to al-Hasan ibn ʿAlī, may Allah be pleased with them both, “A cousin of mine is in the Sawād and would like to remain where he is.” He replied, “Come in the morning, and your letter will have been sealed.”

I went to him the following morning and found the people saying, “The Commander of the Faithful has been killed! The Commander of the Faithful has been killed!” I said to the boy, “Can you take me close to the palace?” I entered the palace and found al-Hasan ibn ʿAlī seated in a chamber of the mosque, while wails could be heard. He said, “Come closer, Abū ʿAbd al-Rahmān.” I sat ⦗2106⦘ beside him, and he said to me:

“Last night I came out while the Commander of the Faithful was praying in this mosque. He said to me, ‘My son, I have spent this night waking my family, for it is the eve of Friday, before the morning of Badr, the nineteenth of Ramadan. Then sleep overcame me, and the Messenger of Allah—may Allah bless him and grant him peace—appeared before me. I said, “O Messenger of Allah, what perversity and contentious hostility I have endured from your nation!”’ He explained that al-awad means crookedness and al-ladad means contentious disputes. ‘The Messenger of Allah said to me, “Invoke Allah against them.” So I said, “O Allah, replace them for me with people better than they, and in my place give them someone worse.”’

“Ibn al-Tayyāh then came and informed him that it was time for prayer. He went out, and I followed behind him. The two men set upon him. One man’s blow struck the archway, while the other struck him on the head.”

Ibn Sāʿid said: Abū Hishām said: Abū Usāma said, “I am as jealous over it as a man is over a beautiful woman”—meaning this hadith—“Do not narrate it as long as you live.”