come to him and goad him on, just as they had done with his brother al-Ḥusayn ibn ʿAlī—may Allah be pleased with him. The people of Iraq deluded al-Ḥusayn, the terrible slaughter at Karbalāʾ ensued, and al-Ḥusayn was killed.

As for al-Ḥasan—may Allah be pleased with him—he ceded the caliphate to Muʿāwiyah ibn Abī Sufyān, thus realizing the Prophet’s ﷺ words: “Perhaps Allah will, through him, reconcile two factions of the Muslims.”

Al-Aqraʿ ibn Ḥābis, one of the chieftains of Banū Tamīm, was once in the Prophet’s ﷺ company. Bedouins and those of similar background are typically rather rough-mannered. The Prophet ﷺ kissed al-Ḥasan, whereupon al-Aqraʿ said, “I have ten children and I have never kissed a single one of them.” I seek refuge with Allah from a heart so hard that it shows no affection even to small children. The Prophet ﷺ looked at him and said, “Whoever does not show mercy will not be shown mercy,” meaning that anyone who withholds mercy from Allah’s servants, Allah will withhold mercy from him. The converse is also true, for the Prophet ﷺ said, “The merciful are shown mercy by the Most Merciful.”

This indicates that a person should treat youngsters and similar dependents with compassion, and that he ought to kiss his sons, his daughters’ sons, and his sons’ sons—kissing them out of mercy and in imitation of the Messenger of Allah ﷺ. Some people, however, behave toward children with callousness and severity: you will find one of them refusing to let his child attend his gatherings, denying the child any request, and when he sees him