and toward the end of his life it became clear to him that acting otherwise than he had would have been more correct. He also issued legal verdicts in which he reversed earlier rulings. For example, he held two views concerning slave women who had borne their masters’ children: one prohibited selling them, while the other permitted it. An infallible person cannot hold two contradictory positions unless one abrogates the other, as could occur with the statements of the Prophet (may Allah bless him and grant him peace). The Sunnah, however, has been definitively established and cannot undergo abrogation after him, since there is no prophet after him.

Al-Hasan counselled his brother al-Husayn not to obey the people of Iraq or seek leadership. Ibn ‘Umar, Ibn ‘Abbās, and others who were devoted to him and loved him gave him the same advice. They considered it in his interests and those of the Muslims that he should not go to them or accept their invitation to come and fight alongside them. Even if this was what served his interests and those of the Muslims, he (may Allah be pleased with him) nevertheless acted according to what he considered beneficial. Human judgment may be right or wrong.

No one may oppose an infallible person, nor may an infallible person oppose another infallible person, unless they follow two different religious laws, as two messengers might. Yet it is well known that their religious law was one and the same. This is an extensive subject, discussed at length elsewhere.

The point is that anyone who claims infallibility for these noble figures, whose faith, piety, and admission to Paradise are attested, is utterly astray and ignorant. No one with an honourable reputation within the Muslim community has voiced this claim—not even anyone possessed of sound judgment.