Al-Wāqidī (1) also said: ʿUbaydah bint Nābil (2) related to us, from ʿĀʾishah (3), who stated: “The women of Banū Hāshim bewailed al-Ḥasan ibn ʿAlī for a full year.” (4)

Al-Wāqidī (5) further reported: ʿAbd Allāh ibn Jaʿfar narrated to us, from ʿAbd Allāh ibn Ḥasan, who said: “Al-Ḥasan ibn ʿAlī married many women, yet they seldom enjoyed his company. Indeed, there was hardly a wife he wed but that she loved him and guarded him jealously.” (6)

People say that he was once poisoned and survived, then poisoned again and survived, until the final time, when he died. When death drew near, the physician attending him said, “The poison has severed this man’s intestines.”

Ḥusayn then said, “Abū Muḥammad, tell me who gave you the poison.”

Ḥasan replied, “And why, my brother?”

Ḥusayn said, “By Allah, I will kill him before I bury you—if I can reach him, even should he be in a distant land I will make the journey to him.”

Ḥasan answered, “My brother, this world is but fleeting nights. Leave him until I and he meet before Allah,” and he refused to name the culprit.

I have heard some claim that Muʿāwiyah covertly induced one of Ḥasan’s servants to poison him.

Muḥammad ibn Saʿd (7) said: Yahyā ibn Ḥammād (8) informed us, Abū ʿAwānah informed us, from al-Mughīrah, from Umm Mūsā, that Jaʿdah bint al-Ashʿath ibn Qays gave Ḥasan the poison, and he suffered from it. “A basin would be set beneath him and another removed,” she said, “for about forty days.”

Some have also related that Yazīd ibn Muʿāwiyah sent word to Jaʿdah bint al-Ashʿath: “Poison Ḥasan and I shall marry you afterwards.” She complied, but when Ḥasan died and she reminded him of his promise, he answered, “By Allah, we were not pleased with you for Ḥasan—shall we then be pleased with you for ourselves?!”

In my view this report is unsound, and its unreliability concerning his father Muʿāwiyah is even more evident—Allah knows best, and the Day of Decision is the appointed time for all creation (9).

On this matter Kutayyir ʿAzzah (10) said: