from Ibn Abī Mulaykah, from ʿUqbah ibn al-Ḥārith: Abū Bakr led the people in the ʿAṣr prayer a few nights after the death of the Messenger of Allah. He then went out walking with ʿAlī, and they saw al-Ḥasan playing with the other boys. Abū Bakr lifted him onto his shoulders and kept repeating:

bi-abī shibhu an-nabiyy — laysa shabīhan bi-ʿAlī
“May my father be his ransom! He is the very image of the Prophet; he bears no likeness to ʿAlī.”

ʿAlī laughed at this.

Sufyān al-Thawrī and several others narrated: “Ismāʿīl ibn Abī Khālid told us, ‘I heard Abū Juḥayfa say: I saw the Messenger of Allah, peace and blessings be upon him, and al-Ḥasan ibn ʿAlī resembled him.’” Al-Bukhārī and Muslim (1) both recorded this report through Ismāʿīl ibn Abī Khālid.

Wakīʿ remarked: “Ismāʿīl heard nothing from Abū Juḥayfa except this ḥadīth.”

Imām Aḥmad (2) said: Abū Dāwūd al-Ṭayālisī related to us; Zamʿah reported from Ibn Abī Mulaykah, who said: “Fāṭimah used to bounce al-Ḥasan ibn ʿAlī on her knee while chanting:

bi-abī shibhu an-nabiyy — laysa shabīhan bi-ʿAlī
“May my father be his ransom! He is the very image of the Prophet; he bears no likeness to ʿAlī.”

ʿAbd al-Razzāq (3) and others transmitted—through Maʿmar, from al-Zuhrī, from Anas—that “among them, the one whose face most resembled the Messenger of Allah, peace and blessings be upon him, was al-Ḥasan ibn ʿAlī.” Imām Aḥmad (4) narrated something similar on the authority of ʿAbd al-Razzāq.

Imām Aḥmad (5) also said: Ḥajjāj related to us; Isrāʾīl reported from Abū Isḥāq, from Hāniʾ, who quoted ʿAlī as saying: “Al-Ḥasan most resembled the Messenger of Allah, peace and blessings be upon him, from the chest up, while al-Ḥusayn most resembled him in what was below that.” Al-Tirmidhī (6) recorded it with this chain and commented, “Ḥasan, gharīb.”

Abū Dāwūd al-Ṭayālisī (7) said: Qays related to us; Abū Isḥāq reported from Hāniʾ ibn Hāniʾ, from ʿAlī, who said: “Among all people, al-Ḥasan most resembled the Messenger of Allah from his face to his navel, whereas al-Ḥusayn most resembled him in what lay below that.”