Al-Bayhaqī also transmitted—through Abū ʿAlī al-Rūdhbārī, ʿAbd Allāh ibn Jaʿfar ibn Shawdhab al-Wāsiṭī, Shuʿayb ibn Ayyūb al-Ṣarīfīnī, ʿUbayd Allāh ibn Mūsā, Isrāʾīl, Abū Isḥāq, and Hāniʾ—from ʿAlī (may Allah be pleased with him) who said:

“Al-Ḥasan most resembled the Messenger of Allah ﷺ in everything from the chest upward, whereas al-Ḥusayn resembled the Messenger of Allah ﷺ in what was below that.”

Chapter: A survey of his noble character and pristine qualities ﷺ

We have earlier detailed the purity of his origin and lineage, and the integrity of his ancestry and birth. Concerning this, Allah the Exalted says, “Allah knows best where to place His Message” (al-Anʿām 124).

Al-Bukhārī recorded: Qutaybah narrated to us; Yaʿqūb ibn ʿAbd al-Raḥmān narrated to us, from ʿAmr, from Saʿīd al-Maqburī, from Abū Hurayrah, that the Messenger of Allah ﷺ said:

“I was sent among the finest generations of the children of Adam, generation after generation, until I found myself in the generation in which I was sent.”

Muslim likewise relates, on the authority of Wāthilah ibn al-Asqaʿ, that the Messenger of Allah ﷺ said:

“Indeed Allah chose Quraysh from the descendants of Ismāʿīl, He chose the Banū Hāshim from Quraysh, and He chose me from the Banū Hāshim.”

Allah, Exalted is He, also says: “Nun. By the pen and what they inscribe, you are not—by the grace of your Lord—mad; and for you is a reward uninterrupted; and indeed, you are upon an exalted standard of character” (al-Qalam 1-4).

Al-ʿAwfī reported from Ibn ʿAbbās with regard to the verse “and indeed, you are upon an exalted standard of character,” that it means: “You are upon a tremendous religion—Islam.” This was likewise the explanation offered by Mujāhid, Abū Mālik, al-Suddi, al-Ḍaḥḥāk, and ʿAbd al-Raḥmān ibn Zayd ibn Aslam. ʿAṭiyyah said: “Upon splendid manners.”

It is also authentically reported in Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim—from Qatādah, through Zurārah ibn Awfā, from Saʿd ibn Hishām—who said: