Imam Hasan – Ahl al-Bayt, Caliphate and Martyrdom

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Who were Imam Hasan and Imam Husayn?

Born	624, Medina
Martyred	670, Medina (Baqi)
Age	46
Father	Imam Ali
Mother	Fatima al-Zahra (Fatıma-tüz Zehra)
Wife	Ja’da (Cude)

Imam Hasan and Imam Husayn are the grandsons of our beloved Prophet. They are the dearest ones – “the sons” – of Imam Ali, the Shah of the Saints, and of Fatima al-Zahra. Imam Hasan was born in the fourth year of the Hijra and Imam Husayn in the sixth year of the Hijra. When Imam Husayn, that sun of truth, was born and the glad tidings reached the Prophet Muhammad Mustafa, the lord of both worlds, he said: “The unshakeable pillar and the never-setting sun of this religion is coming,” and did not hide his joy at that moment.

When Asma, who acted as midwife at the birth of Husayn, brought the baby and placed him in his grandfather’s lap, that divine light, the sun of love, the source of intercession for the worlds, was united with the spring from which the divine light flowed. While the child was still in his lap, Gabriel, peace be upon him, came at that moment. Conveying God’s greeting, he said: “O Muhammad! God Almighty has given the child the name of Zübeyir, the son of the Prophet Aaron. In Arabic it is Husayn. He says that he shall be Husayn.” This journey full of wisdom clearly reveals the manifestation of the divine light that comes from the Prophet Seth. By God’s command he is given the name Husayn.

Before the birth of Husayn, Umm al-Fadl (Ümmül Fazıl), the wife of Hamza, the Prophet’s uncle, saw in a dream one night “that the Prophet Muhammad cut a piece from his body and placed it beside her”. Having seen this dream, Umm al-Fadl went to the Messenger of God early the next morning and told him her dream. The Messenger of God said: “O Umm al-Fadl, Fatima is now pregnant; the boy who will be born of her is a part of me. Through him this religion will shine for ever. And you will be his nurse.”

The festival clothes: green and red

On a festival day the children of Medina’s wealthy families had poured into the streets in colourful clothes, enjoying the festival. Hasan and Husayn were wearing the clothes they wore every day. Envying the other children, Imam Hasan and Imam Husayn went to their grandfather and asked him to buy them such new clothes too. The Messenger of God opened his hands and made a supplication to God Almighty. At that moment Gabriel came with two white garments in his hand, but these innocent children were not pleased. They wanted them to be colourful like those of the other children. The Prophet Muhammad looked sorrowfully into Gabriel’s face. Gabriel, peace be upon him, said: “Bring some water; we will pour it over them and wring them out, and the clothes will turn the colours they wish.” They poured water over the clothes and wrung them out. Hasan’s took on the colour of emerald green. Husayn’s took on the colour of the red tulip.

The Prophet Muhammad noticed that Gabriel, peace be upon him, was saddened and asked: “O Gabriel, what is the reason for your sorrow?” Gabriel replied: “O Lord of the Worlds! On the night of the Ascension (Miraç) I saw in Paradise Hasan’s palace built of green emerald and Husayn’s palace built of red ruby. These colours they have chosen mean that Hasan will be poisoned and his face will be emerald green as he dies. And when Husayn is martyred, his face and body will be stained with red blood.” Listening to Gabriel, peace be upon him, the Prophet Muhammad could not bear it and tears began to flow from his eyes. Seeing this, Gabriel wept too.

Thereupon the Prophet Muhammad asked: “O Gabriel! Who will inflict this injustice on my children?” Gabriel replied: “O Muhammad, after you your community (ümmet) will split in two; one part will return to the beliefs and customs of the idolatry of the old Age of Ignorance (Cahiliye), present them to the people as if they were your commands, and sink into unbelief. Claiming that these are the obligations (farz) and practices (sünnet) of the religion of Islam, they will gather some people around them and seize the leadership of Islam by force. While reciting blessings (salavat) in your name, these hypocrites will inflict this injustice on your Ehl-i Beyt, who do not stray from the right path. They will martyr them all.”

At that moment Gabriel handed the Prophet Muhammad a handful of the soil of Karbala and said: “When Husayn’s blood falls on this soil, this soil here will also turn red. Those who do this will be remembered with a curse for ever. Those who do not stray from the true religion you have brought will mourn them and always remember them as long as the world exists.” Unfortunately, Abu Sufyan, who had accepted Islam under compulsion, his son Muawiya and his grandson Yazid, their relative Marwan and their supporters, deserving of the curse like him, seized the leadership of Islam through unimaginable tricks. They inflicted unprecedented oppression on the Ehl-i Beyt and martyred them all. Later this Umayyad clan cloaked all the customs and the unjust order of the Age of Ignorance by saying, “This is the Sunna of the Prophet Muhammad, this is God’s command,” and turned Islam upside down.

What does the Ehl-i Beyt mean to a Muslim? (Âl-i Abâ)

What does the Ehl-i Beyt mean to a Muslim? Our beloved Prophet, Muhammad Mustafa, goes out on a cool winter morning wearing a black cloak (aba). A little later Fatima comes and he takes her under his cloak. Then Ali comes and he takes him under his cloak too. Finally his grandsons Hasan and Husayn come, and he takes them under his cloak as well. Then, turning his heart to God (Hakk), he makes this prayer: “O my Lord! These are my Ehl-i Beyt (the people of my house); protect them from all the impurities of the world.” At that moment verse 33 of the Sura al-Ahzab is revealed: “O People of the House! God only wishes to cleanse you of the impurities of the world and make you utterly pure.”

About the Ehl-i Beyt, verse 23 of the Sura al-Shura says: “O My Beloved! Say to those who believe in you: for this true religion that I have brought you I expect no reward or recompense from you. I expect from you only reverence, respect and devotion towards my Ehl-i Beyt.”

It can be seen that Hasan and Husayn are not ordinary people. They complete the Ehl-i Beyt and are the last stations of the divine light that comes from the Prophet Seth. One day, when the Prophet Muhammad came to the house of his daughter Fatima, he saw that Husayn was crying in the cradle while his daughter was busy with other work. Seeing this, the Prophet Muhammad turned to his daughter and said: “O Fatima, you know that Husayn’s crying wounds me to the heart.” Our Prophet says in an authentic (sahih) hadith: “Loving Hasan and Husayn is tevhid (affirmation of God’s unity).” He said: “Husaynun minni wa ana min Husayn.” In English: “Husayn is from me and I am in Husayn. May God Most High love whoever loves Hasan and Husayn.”

Our masters Imam Hasan and Imam Husayn, who attained those great attributes of God, possessed, through their goodness and maturity, values above all people that are not granted to everyone. In worship, too, which is a sea of knowledge and gnosis (irfan), they resembled their grandfather Muhammad Mustafa and their father Ali al-Murtaza.

And again a hadith of the Prophet Muhammad; the Prophet Muhammad said: “Whoever loves Hasan and Husayn has loved me. Whoever bears a grudge against them has borne a grudge against me. And whoever bears a grudge against me has borne a grudge against God, and his place is the fire of hell.”

The mubahala (mutual imprecation) with the Christians of Najran

One day the Christians of Najran (in the text: Mercan), who were disputing with the Prophet, claimed that the Prophet Jesus was God and the Son of God. The Prophet Muhammad said that he believed Jesus to be a prophet of God. But the notables of the tribe of Najran did not accept this. So the Prophet Muhammad made this proposal: “Come, let us all gather our Ehl-i Beyt (the people of our households) and pray to God. Whichever side is defending what is false, may God strike those liars with His greatest wrath.” They accepted and dispersed to fetch the people of their households. The scholars of the Christians of Najran said: “Take care! If the Prophet Muhammad gathers and brings his companions (sahabe) and the wives of other companions whose maintenance he has taken on in his household, do not be afraid – swear the oath with him; nothing will happen.

But if he comes with his daughter Fatima, with Ali and with his grandsons Hasan and Husayn, beware of swearing the oath with them. For they are the last stations of the light that comes from the prophets.” The Prophet Muhammad took Ali, Fatima, Hasan and Husayn and came. When he took them under his cloak and said, “These are my Ehl-i Beyt,” the notables of the tribe of Najran abandoned their claim. Some of them accepted Islam, while others remained in their own religion and became liable to tax. That is precisely why these “Five Names” (Beş Esma, the Ehl-i Beyt), united with Muhammad, are for the Alevis the most sacred value after God.

Imam Hasan and the Period of His Caliphate

After Imam Ali surrendered his soul to God in the 40th year of the Hijra, on 21 Ramadan 661 CE, the people of Kufa pledged allegiance (biat) to Imam Hasan as caliph. As soon as Hasan became caliph, he wanted to march against Muawiya. But very few of those in his army remained devoted to him and to the Ehl-i Beyt. Some were striving for gain and self-interest. Others were doubting hypocrites who did not know which side to support – a faction had formed that turned whichever way the wind blew. Yet another part had fallen under the belief of the Kharijites (Hariciler), accepting neither side and claiming that the caliph they themselves would choose would be the most rightful.

On the other side, Muawiya’s spies did not rest for a moment. With money, threats and all kinds of promises they won over a number of people of rotten faith and tried to strip Imam Hasan of his supporters. Such groups had formed in the army that one night they broke into Hasan’s tent, shot arrows into it and plundered it. Another time, while he was leading the prayer in the mosque, a wretch attacked Hasan and wounded him. They seized the man and killed him. What mattered, however, was not the killing of that man, but the growing number of enemies of the Ehl-i Beyt like him. Thereupon Imam Hasan ascended the pulpit (minber) and delivered the following sermon (hutbe):

Imam Hasan’s sermon to the Iraqis

“O people of Iraq! Fear God for what you have done to us. Are we not both your commander and your guest? Was not the verse revealed by God concerning us: ‘O People of the House, God wishes to remove from you every kind of sin and impurity and to make you utterly pure’? We are the Ehl-i Beyt of whom God speaks. We did not fight the Syrians on the basis of a doubt or unjustly. We fought to protect our rights, which they sought to usurp. All of you fought them patiently for your religion at Siffin and at Nahrawan (in the text: Nehri Van). Your religion and your faith came first. Worldly goods came second. But now I see that you are in such a state that your world has come before your religion. Your patience has turned into haste and turmoil. Your loyalty has turned into suspicion and hostility. Hear and know: as we were towards you in the past, so we are today. But you are no longer towards us as you were. You have run after interests and calculations. Hear and know: you stand between two companies of the slain. You weep for those who died at Siffin. You want to take revenge for those killed at Nahrawan. Those who wanted to wage these wars came against us with armies. Each time we sent envoys so that war would not break out. We did everything in our power so that war would not break out. In the end we were forced to fight to protect ourselves and our rights, and we fought these wars all together. Those opposite us, who have no right, want to snatch our right from our hands. Muawiya’s armies have come and stand on the bank of the Euphrates at Mesker. If you do not want to hand over the right to the wrong – for in that there is neither greatness nor justice – if you want to protect the right of the Ehl-i Beyt and keep alive the religion of Islam brought by my grandfather Muhammad Mustafa, you will fight with us, even at the cost of death. Let us also reject Muawiya’s offer. As at Badr, as at the Trench (Hendek), as at Siffin, let us fight together, even at the cost of death. But if you want to turn away from Islam and live again in the Age of Ignorance, let us accept Muawiya’s offer. Hear and know that I do not want to hand over the right to the wrong. But neither can I trust the discord and sedition among you.

Now I ask you: make your decision known.” When he said this, loud cries rose from every side: “We do not want war, we want reconciliation.” Imam Hasan said: “Alas, now my back is broken. I would not have handed this right over to Muawiya. But the Iraqis have left me alone. If, as before, loyal friends had been in the majority, by God, I would have fought Muawiya day and night. In the end God would have judged between him and me.” He came down from the pulpit and went home.

The terms of the treaty with Muawiya

At home Imam Hasan examined Muawiya’s proposal that he leave the caliphate to him! He saw that Muawiya was threatening rather than offering peace. Thereupon Imam Hasan, who had no other choice, wrote to Muawiya that he would leave the caliphate to him only if the following conditions were accepted: “The people shall be governed in accordance with the Book of God and the Sunna of the Messenger; no harm whatsoever shall be done to the supporters of Imam Ali. No evil words shall be spoken against Imam Ali and the Ehl-i Beyt, and no verbal or physical insult shall be committed. You shall remove from the doors of the mosques and from the streets all the boards on which curses against Imam Ali are written. The disabled among the war martyrs shall be given a share of the incoming spoils. He shall not appoint anyone as caliph to succeed him. The revenues of the town of Darab-Gerd near Basra shall be left to the heirs of Imam Ali for the livelihood of the Ehl-i Beyt, since no inheritance whatsoever has come down to them from Imam Ali.”

By sending Abdullah ibn Abbas and Ubaydullah ibn Samura (Übeydullah bin Samuray), Muawiya announced that he accepted all of Imam Hasan’s proposals. Thereupon Abdullah and Ubaydullah received the pledge of allegiance for Muawiya from Imam Hasan and the other members of the Ehl-i Beyt lineage, with the exception of Imam Husayn. Husayn said to his elder brother Imam Hasan: “Do you not know the enmity of Abu Sufyan’s line towards us? You are handing over the caliphate, on a few conditions, to the trickster Muawiya, who is as cunning as the devil. Does that trickster, who at Siffin had pages of the Quran fixed to lances, know anything of the Book of God and the Sunna of the Prophet? Once he has consolidated his own caliphate, he will fulfil none of your conditions.”

Hasan addressed the people of Iraq as follows: “O people of Iraq! I have no trust left in you. During the lifetime of my father Imam Ali you opposed him so much. Not for a single day did you leave him free of sorrow. Finally you killed him. You have caused me so much trouble too. You attacked me, you wounded me. I am still wounded, my wound has not healed, and you plundered my property. O people of Kufa! With this betrayal of the Ehl-i Beyt you have surrendered to someone more treacherous and cruel than yourselves, and you have forced us to do so as well. Between us and you, the judgement of God is sufficient. I now leave the caliphate to Muawiya within the framework of these conditions. I am weary of your allegiance. Pledge allegiance to whomever you wish.”

Imam Hasan said to his brother Husayn: “O my dearest one! I have come to loathe these two-faced, hypocritical people. One cannot be caliph over unprincipled people whose tongues are with us and whose swords are with Muawiya. You have seen what they did to my father and to me. This is a faithless people who sell themselves for money. The friends of the Ehl-i Beyt and those people of faith have become a very small minority. Had I not given up the caliphate, these friends of ours and we ourselves would have been put to the sword. So that the Ehl-i Beyt lineage and its friends may live, I have been compelled to withdraw from the caliphate. In my view, I have done the best that could be done in these circumstances.”

In such circumstances Imam Hasan left the caliphate to Muawiya. Qays ibn Sa’d (Kays bin Sad), however, did not accept Muawiya’s caliphate and took up position with his 12,000 soldiers in the town of Sehaddin between Iraq and Damascus. All those who did not accept Muawiya’s caliphate gathered with Qays. Muawiya sent an envoy to Qays with this message: “O Qays! For whom are you fighting? Hasan, too, has pledged allegiance to me.” Qays replied: “I am fighting for our faith and for the religion of Islam.” Be that as it may, Muawiya must have made Qays all kinds of promises, for Qays too accepted Muawiya’s caliphate and went to Muawiya in Kufa.

Having had the treaty drawn up through this trickery and deceit and signed before witnesses and the parties, Muawiya insisted that Hasan also make his brother Imam Husayn pledge allegiance. Imam Hasan gave Muawiya this answer: “O traitor! You are the chief architect of the murder of the Caliph Uthman (Osman). And then, claiming that Ali was protecting Uthman’s killers, you had boards cursing our father Imam Ali put up in all the mosques and streets. I gave up the caliphate in order to make my protest known to the whole Islamic world. But I will never pledge allegiance to you, and I never have. My younger brother Imam Husayn is even more resolute than I am in this matter. He would give his life at the cost of bloodshed rather than pledge allegiance to you. He too is determined to make his cause known to the Islamic world in that way.”

On receiving this answer from Imam Hasan, Muawiya’s hatred grew even greater. He immediately went from Kufa to Nukhayla (Nuhayle). In the first sermon he gave there he said: “I made a treaty with Imam Hasan, promising to abide by certain conditions. But all those conditions are under my feet. I will fulfil none of them.” And he did as he said.

Muawiya, who had sermons preached in the mosques with the slander that “Ali had the Caliph Uthman killed”, went so far as to have Imam Ali cursed. One day, when they were reviling and cursing Imam Ali in the Mosque of the Prophet (Mescid-i Nebi) in the presence of Umm Salama (Ümmi Seleme), Umm Salama recited this hadith of the Prophet Muhammad: “Whoever reviles Imam Ali and bears a grudge against him has reviled me and borne a grudge against me. Whoever reviles me and bears a grudge against me has reviled God and borne a grudge against Him.” Although she loudly reminded the people of this hadith, this injustice continued until the time of Umar ibn Aziz, one of the Umayyad caliphs.

The Martyrdom of Imam Hasan by Poisoning

Not only did Muawiya fail to fulfil a single article of the treaty he had made with Imam Hasan, he was also very disturbed by Imam Hasan’s very existence. He therefore decided to eliminate Imam Hasan. For fully four years he searched for ways to kill Imam Hasan.

Finally he said to Ja’da (Cude), Imam Hasan’s wife, the daughter of al-Ash’ath (Eş’as), son of Qays, and on her mother’s side the daughter of Abu Bakr’s sister: “If you poison and kill Imam Hasan, I will give you a thousand dirhams and marry you to my son Yazid. I will give you a very fine life.” With these promises Muawiya convinced Ja’da. He even sent her the poison with which she was to poison him, and waited.

The accursed woman put the poison into the water jug from which Imam Hasan drank when he became thirsty at night. As always, Imam Hasan became thirsty that night too, raised the jug to his lips and drank the water. Under the effect of the very potent diamond poison he surrendered his soul to God. According to the History of al-Tabari, Imam Hasan died in the month of Sha’ban in the year 42 of the Hijra. According to other accounts, on the 28th of the month of Safar in the year 49 of the Hijra. In the Common Era, 670.

The horsemen whom Muawiya had prepared for Ja’da, who had poisoned Imam Hasan, took Ja’da and brought her straight to Damascus. While Ja’da, bringing Muawiya the glad tidings of Imam Hasan’s death, expected to be rewarded and married to Yazid, Muawiya, more devilish than the devil himself, said: “You were unfaithful to a husband like Imam Hasan and killed him with poison. Who knows what you would do to my son. Even your remaining in the world is the greatest danger for us. Strike off her head!” And he had her killed there.

A Short Biography of Muawiya

Let us take a brief look at Muawiya’s biography: Muawiya’s father is Abu Sufyan, his grandfather Harb, his great-grandfather Umayya. Muawiya’s mother Hind is the woman who at the Battle of Uhud wanted to eat raw the liver of Hamza, the uncle of the Prophet Muhammad. His father Abu Sufyan, as if the oppression and cruelty he had inflicted on the Prophet Muhammad during the Meccan period were not enough, finally planned to kill him. The Prophet Muhammad saved his life from this death by fleeing to Medina. In history this is called the “Hijra” (Hicret) from Mecca to Medina.

The Prophet Muhammad had been in Medina for only the first year when Abu Sufyan attacked Medina with an army of 30,000 men in order to eliminate the Prophet Muhammad and the Muslims. In this first battle, called the Battle of Badr, Sufyan’s army suffered heavy losses against the Prophet Muhammad’s civilian community of 300 people. A year later he attacked Medina again with an army of 12,000 men.

This is called the Battle of Uhud. In this battle the Prophet Muhammad’s side suffered heavy losses. The Prophet Muhammad was wounded and Hamza was martyred. Hind, Muawiya’s mother, who had lost her father and brothers at the Battle of Badr, cut open Hamza’s belly in this battle and wanted to eat his liver. But in this battle, too, they did not get what they wanted; they could not eliminate the Prophet Muhammad and the Muslims. Two years later they came against Medina again with an army of 300,000 men in order to eliminate the Prophet Muhammad and the Muslims. In this, too, they did not succeed. This is called the Battle of the Trench (Hendek).

The losses they suffered in these battles increased Abu Sufyan’s hatred even more. But as the Muslims grew stronger day by day, Abu Sufyan’s hopes of destroying the Muslims were also dashed. The hatred of an enmity that had previously been an open challenge began to hide itself insidiously. The Sufyan family, which accepted Islam under compulsion when the Prophet Muhammad took Mecca in 630, was always waiting for an opportunity for revenge.

At the time of these events Muawiya was a young man of about 20. Muawiya, who grew up with the lust for revenge instilled in him by his mother and father, enemies of the Prophet Muhammad’s lineage, had first Imam Ali and then Imam Hasan killed; this is the clear proof of his enmity. Finally his son Yazid martyred Imam Husayn at Karbala. When we look at the biography of this lineage, we see the picture of the greatest enemies of the Prophet Muhammad’s lineage and of the religion of Islam. Unfortunately, the Muslim religion brought by the Prophet Muhammad remained in the hands of these enemies for 86 years. That is why, when we consider and examine it from the mystical (tasavvufi) point of view, today’s Sunni sharia has nothing whatsoever to do with either the Quran or the religion of Islam brought by the Prophet Muhammad. For after Imam Ali was martyred, that is, after the four caliphs, all the rules and forms of the obligatory (farz), the Sunna, the necessary (vacip), analogy (kıyas), fasting and prayer that exist in the religion of Islam today were laid down in the time of Muawiya and of Müterakim, the son of Marwan. This is a system of ruling by intimidating the people through an order of oppression based on religion, and so it has come down to this day and so it continues.

Source: Seyit Derviş Tur, Erkânname – Aleviliğin İslam Yorumu ve Alevi Erkânları (Erkânname – The Alevi Interpretation of Islam and the Alevi Rites), expanded 3rd edition (ISBN 975-6791-52-7).

Translated from the Turkish original by Seyit Derviş Tur.