at Jerusalem in Ramadan of the year 40 AH, when the people of Syria received news of ʿAlī’s assassination. He did not, however, enter Kūfah until after al-Ḥasan had come to terms with him, in Rabīʿ al-Awwal of 41 AH—the Year of Unity—at a place called Adhruḥ (1); it is also said that this took place at Maskin in the cultivated lands of ʿIrāq near al-Anbār. From that point Muʿāwiyah held sole authority until he died in 60 AH.

Some have said that the engraving on Muʿāwiyah’s signet ring read, “For every deed there is a recompense.” Others said it read, “There is no power except with Allah.”

Yaʿqūb ibn Sufyān stated: Abū Bakr ibn Abī Shaybah and Saʿīd ibn Manṣūr narrated to us; they said: Abū Muʿāwiyah narrated to us; al-Aʿmash narrated to us, from ʿAmr ibn Murrah, from Saʿīd ibn Suwayd, who said:
“Muʿāwiyah led us in the Friday prayer at al-Nukhaylah—meaning outside Kūfah—during the forenoon. Afterward he addressed us, saying, ‘I did not fight you so that you would fast, pray, perform the pilgrimage, or give zakāt—I already knew you would do those things. Rather, I fought you only to rule over you, and Allah has granted me that while you are averse to it.’” (2)

Muḥammad ibn Saʿd also narrated it from Yaʿlā ibn ʿUbayd, from al-Aʿmash, with the same chain.

Muḥammad ibn Saʿd further said: ʿĀrim narrated to us; Ḥammād ibn Zayd (3) narrated to us, from Maʿmar, from al-Zuhrī, who said: “For two years Muʿāwiyah governed in the manner of ʿUmar, without falling short; thereafter he drifted away from that.”

Nuʿaym ibn Ḥammād reported: Ibn Faḍīl narrated to us, from al-Sarī ibn Ismāʿīl, from al-Shaʿbī, who said: Sufyān ibn Layl related to me: I said to al-Ḥasan ibn ʿAlī when he returned from Kūfah to Madinah, “O abaser of the believers!” He replied, “Do not say that, for I heard [my father] (4) say, ‘The days and nights will not pass before Muʿāwiyah comes to power.’ Realizing that Allah’s decree would inevitably come to pass, I disliked that Muslim blood be shed between me and him.”

Mujālid narrated, from al-Shaʿbī, from al-Ḥārith al-Aʿwar, who said: ʿAlī, after returning from Ṣiffīn, declared, “O people! Do not dislike the rule of Muʿāwiyah, for were you to lose him you would see heads rolling from shoulders like gourds.” (5)

Ibn ʿAsākir, with his chain, reported from Abū Dāwūd al-Ṭayālisī: Ayūb ibn Jābir narrated to us, from Abū Isḥāq, from al-Aswad ibn Yazīd, who said: I said to ʿĀ’ishah, “Are you not astonished that a man from among those who were set free (on the day of the Conquest) should contend with the Companions of Muhammad ﷺ for the caliphate?” She replied, “And why are you amazed? It is Allah’s dominion; He grants it to the righteous and to the wicked alike. Pharaoh ruled over the people of Egypt for four hundred years.” (6)