I can hear you?”
He replied, “I feel too shy to deliver a sermon while you are present.”
So ʿAlī rose and sat where al-Ḥasan could no longer see him. Al-Ḥasan then stood before the people and preached, while ʿAlī listened. He delivered an eloquent, fluent address, and when he finished and departed ʿAlī kept repeating:
“Descendants, one from another, and Allah is All-Hearing, All-Knowing.” (Q 3:34)

Ibn ʿAbbās used to hold the stirrups for al-Ḥasan and al-Ḥusayn whenever they mounted, counting this as one of Allah’s favors upon him.

Whenever the two of them circumambulated the Kaʿbah, the crowd would almost crush them because of the people pressing in upon them. (May Allah be pleased with them both.)

Ibn al-Zubayr would say, “By Allah, no women have ever borne the like of al-Ḥasan ibn ʿAlī.”

Another observer said: When al-Ḥasan had performed the dawn prayer in the mosque of the Messenger of Allah ﷺ, he would remain in his place remembering Allah until the sun had risen. Leading figures would sit with him and converse. Then he would rise, enter upon the Mothers of the Believers, greet them—and they might present him with gifts—after which he would return to his house.

When, out of piety and to safeguard Muslim lives, he relinquished the caliphate to Muʿāwiyah, the latter allotted him an annual grant and al-Ḥasan would visit him. At times Muʿāwiyah gave him 400,000 dirhams, while his fixed yearly stipend was 100,000. One year al-Ḥasan did not travel to Muʿāwiyah. When the season for his grant arrived he needed it—he was among the most generous of people—and intended to write to Muʿāwiyah asking that it be sent. That night he saw the Messenger of Allah ﷺ in a dream. The Prophet said, “My son, will you write to a created being concerning your need?!” and he taught him a supplication. Al-Ḥasan abandoned his intention to write. Muʿāwiyah, meanwhile, noticed his absence and said, “Send him his grant and add a further 100,000—perhaps some necessity prevented him from coming to us.” Thus the money was delivered to him without any request.

[Ṣāliḥ ibn Aḥmad said: “I heard my father say, ‘Al-Ḥasan ibn ʿAlī, a resident of Madinah, is trustworthy.’ Ibn ʿAsākir cited this in his History.] (1)

They also said: Al-Ḥasan divided his wealth for the sake of Allah—mighty and majestic—three times, and on two occasions he gave away everything he owned. He performed the pilgrimage twenty-five times on foot, while fine riding camels were led before him. Al-Bayhaqī narrated this through ʿAbd Allāh ibn ʿUbayd ibn ʿUmayr from Ibn ʿAbbās, and it was likewise reported by ʿAlī ibn Zayd ibn Judʿān (2).

Al-Bukhārī records in his Ṣaḥīḥ, in a suspended manner, that he performed the pilgrimage on foot while the mounts were led ahead of him.

Dāwūd ibn Rushayd related, from Ḥafṣ, from Jaʿfar ibn Muḥammad, from his father, that al-Ḥasan ibn ʿAlī performed the pilgrimage on foot while his noble mounts were led alongside him.

Al-ʿAbbās ibn al-Faḍl reported, from al-Qāsim, from Muḥammad ibn ʿAlī, that al-Ḥasan ibn ʿAlī said, “I feel shy before my Lord—mighty and majestic—to meet Him without having walked to His House.” Accordingly, he walked twenty times from Madinah to Makkah on his own feet.