were here with me!” Someone said to him, “Do you not recognize him, Abū Abd al-Rahmān? This is Muhammad ibn Usāma.”

He said: Ibn Umar—may Allah be pleased with him—lowered his head, tapped the ground with his hands (1), and said, “Had the Messenger of Allah—may Allah bless him and grant him peace—seen him, he would have loved him.” (2)

These are the two whom the Prophet united in his love and for whom he prayed that Allah would love them; his love for each [one] (3) of them individually was also well known. Neither of them favored fighting in those wars. Indeed, Usāma refrained from fighting on the day of Siffīn: he fought neither alongside these nor [with] those (4).

Likewise, al-Hasan was always (5) advising his father and his brother to abandon the fighting. When authority passed to him, he abandoned the fighting, and through him Allah reconciled the two warring groups.

Eventually, it became clear to Alī—may Allah be pleased with him—that the benefit of abandoning the fighting was greater than that of engaging in it.

Likewise, al-Husayn—may Allah be pleased with him—was killed only as one wronged and martyred, having abandoned the pursuit of rulership (6) and seeking permission to return: either to his own land, to the frontier (7), or to Yazīd, who held authority over the people.