An Account of the Days and Rule of Muʿāwiyah ibn Abī Sufyān – may Allah be pleased with him – (1)
It has already been mentioned in the hadith that the caliphate after him – peace be upon him – would last thirty years and would then turn into kingship. Those thirty years came to an end with the caliphate of al-Ḥasan ibn ʿAlī, so the era of Muʿāwiyah marks the beginning of monarchy. He was therefore the first king in Islam and its most virtuous one.
Al-Ṭabarānī (2) reported: ʿAlī (3) ibn ʿAbd al-ʿAzīz narrated to us, Aḥmad ibn Yūnus narrated to us, al-Fuḍayl ibn ʿIyāḍ narrated to us, from Layth, from ʿAbd al-Raḥmān ibn Sābiṭ, from Abū Thaʿlabah al-Khashanī, from Muʿādh ibn Jabal and Abū ʿUbaydah, who both said that the Messenger of Allah ﷺ declared:
“This affair began as mercy and prophethood, then it will be mercy and caliphate, then it will become biting kingship (5); after that it will be defiance, coercion, and corruption on earth. They will regard silk, illicit relations, and wine as lawful, yet they will still be provided for and granted victory until they meet Allah – Exalted is He –.”
Its chain of transmission is sound (6).
We have already cited in Dalāʾil al-Nubuwwah the report transmitted through Ismāʿīl ibn Ibrāhīm ibn Muhājir—who is weak—from ʿAbd al-Malik ibn ʿUmayr (7), who said: Muʿāwiyah stated: “By Allah, nothing impelled me to seek the caliphate except the statement of the Messenger of Allah ﷺ to me: ‘O Muʿāwiyah, if you attain sovereignty, then excel in doing good.’” Al-Bayhaqī (9) related it from al-Ḥākim, from al-Aṣamm, from al-ʿAbbās ibn Muḥammad, from Muḥammad ibn Sābiq, from Yaḥyā ibn Zakarīyā ibn Abī Zāʾidah, from Ismāʿīl.
Al-Bayhaqī then added: It has supporting narrations from other routes, among them the hadith of ʿAmr ibn Yaḥyā ibn Saʿīd ibn al-ʿĀṣ, from his grandfather Saʿīd, that Muʿāwiyah once picked up the idāwah (10) – the Prophet’s water-skin – and followed the Messenger of Allah ﷺ. The Prophet looked at him and said, “O Muʿāwiyah, if you are ever entrusted with authority, fear Allah and act justly.”
Muʿāwiyah said: