Muḥammad ibn Sīrīn and his sister Ḥafṣah transmitted from Anas who said:
“I was in the presence of Ibn Ziyād when the head of al-Ḥusayn was brought in. Ibn Ziyād began poking his nose with a cane and repeating, ‘I have never seen such beauty.’ I said to him, ‘He was among those who most resembled the Messenger of Allah ﷺ.’ (1)

Sufyān said: I asked ʿUbayd Allah ibn Abī Yazīd (2), ‘Did you ever see al-Ḥusayn?’ He replied, ‘Yes. His head and beard were black, save for a few hairs here at the front of his beard. I do not know whether he had dyed it and left that spot untouched out of imitation of the Messenger of Allah ﷺ, or whether that was simply the only place where grey had not appeared.’

Ibn Jurayj said: I heard ʿUmar ibn ʿAṭāʾ say, ‘I saw al-Ḥusayn ibn ʿAlī dyeing his hair with wasmah (3). He was sixty years old at the time, yet his head and beard were intensely black.’

As for the report related through two weak chains in which Fāṭimah asked the Messenger of Allah ﷺ during his final illness to allot something to her two sons and he replied,

‘As for al-Ḥasan, he shall have my dignity and leadership; as for al-Ḥusayn, he shall have my courage and generosity,’

it is unsound, and none of the authors of the reliable collections has recorded it.

Al-Ḥusayn lived for about five years of the Prophet’s ﷺ lifetime and narrated aḥādīth from him. Muslim ibn al-Ḥajjāj (4) said: ‘He actually saw the Prophet ﷺ.’

Ṣāliḥ ibn Aḥmad ibn Ḥanbal reported from his father that he said of al-Ḥasan ibn ʿAlī, ‘He is a trustworthy tābiʿī.’ This is unusual; all the more reason, then, for him to have said of al-Ḥusayn that he was a tābiʿī.

We shall later mention—in the section on al-Ḥusayn’s virtues, after we have concluded the account of his martyrdom (5)—the ways in which the Messenger of Allah ﷺ honored them, showed love for them, and treated them with tenderness.

In short, al-Ḥusayn lived alongside the Messenger of Allah ﷺ, accompanied him until the Prophet passed away pleased with him, though he was still young. Afterward, Abū Bakr honored and esteemed him, as did ʿUmar and ʿUthmān. He kept company with his father, narrated from him, and joined him in all his campaigns—in al-Jamāl and Ṣiffīn. Throughout, he was greatly respected and held in reverence, and he remained in obedience