four paternal uncles; two of them answered his summons—one of them being our grandfather—while the other two refused, one of whom was your father, meaning your grandfather Abū Ṭālib. Allah therefore severed the bond of loyalty between them and him, leaving them no kinship and no pact.
With regard to Abū Ṭālib’s failure to embrace Islam, Allah has revealed: “Indeed, you do not guide whom you love, but Allah guides whom He wills” (al-Qaṣaṣ 28:56).
Yet you boast about him and about his receiving the lightest punishment in the Fire. There is no excellence in evil, and it is unfitting for a believer to boast of the people of Hell. You also boasted that ʿAlī is descended from Hāshim twice and Ḥasan from ʿAbd al-Muṭṭalib twice, whereas the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) descends from ʿAbd Allāh only once. And you said that no umm walad ever bore you. But Ibrāhīm, the Prophet’s son (peace and blessings be upon him), was born of Māriyah, and he is better than you; ʿAlī ibn al-Ḥusayn was the son of an umm walad, and he is better than you; likewise his son Muḥammad ibn ʿAlī and his son Jaʿfar ibn Muḥammad—both their grandmothers were ummahāt awlād—and they are better than you.
As for your claim that you are “the sons of the Messenger,” Allah the Exalted says: “Muḥammad is not the father of any of your men” (al-Aḥzāb 33:40). The undisputed Sunnah among Muslims affirms that a maternal grandfather, a maternal uncle, and a maternal aunt do not inherit. According to a clear ḥadīth, Fāṭimah received no inheritance from the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him).
When the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) fell ill and your father was present, he did not appoint him to lead the people in prayer; instead he appointed someone else. When the Prophet passed away, the people preferred Abū Bakr and ʿUmar above all others, and in the council and in the caliphate they placed ʿUthmān before him. When ʿUthmān was killed, some accused him of complicity; Ṭalḥah and al-Zubayr fought him on that charge, Saʿd refused to pledge allegiance to him, and later Muʿāwiyah opposed him. Your father then sought the caliphate, fought men for it, agreed to arbitration, and then failed to uphold it. Authority next passed to Ḥasan, who sold it for scraps of cloth and a handful of dirhams, lived in the Ḥijāz on illicit wealth, surrendered the affair to those unfit for it, and left his followers to the mercy of the Umayyads and Muʿāwiyah. If the office was truly yours, you abandoned it and sold it for a price.
After that, your uncle Ḥusayn rose up against Ibn Marjānah. The people turned on him, killed him, and brought his head to Ibn Marjānah. Then you rose against the Umayyads; they killed you, crucified you on palm trunks, burned you with fire, and drove your women on camels like captives to Syria—until we rose against them, avenged your blood, exacted retribution, and made you heirs to their lands and dwellings.
We recalled the merit of your forefathers, and you have turned that into an argument against us, imagining that we preferred him above the likes of Ḥamzah, al-ʿAbbās, and Jaʿfar. That is not as you suppose, for those men departed this life without becoming entangled in civil strife; they were spared worldly trials, losing nothing, and will receive their reward in full. Your father, however, was tried, and the Umayyads used to curse him in the prescribed prayers just as they curse the unbelievers. We revived his memory, acknowledged his virtue, and rebuked them for what they did to him.
You know that our pre-Islamic distinction lay in providing water for the greatest multitude of pilgrims and in serving Zamzam, and the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) confirmed that privilege for us. When drought struck during the caliphate of ʿUmar, he sought rain through our father al-ʿAbbās, beseeching his Lord by means of him, while your father was present. You also know that, after the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him), none of the sons of ʿAbd al-Muṭṭalib remained except al-ʿAbbās: the watering is therefore his, the inheritance his, and the caliphate in his offspring. No distinction, whether from the Age of Ignorance or from Islam (1), remains but that al-ʿAbbās has inherited it and passed it on.
Such is a lengthy discourse, rich in debate, argument, and eloquence, which Ibn Jarīr has recorded in full. Allah, Glorified and Exalted, knows best.