By: Seyyed Ali Shahbaz

“O Virtuous Hasan! O Portrait of your father!
“You stood up amongst us and delivered a fine speech.
“Ibn Zubyar stammered in his imperfect speech.
“He loosened the reins of his horse to get away, for he was doubtful and ashamed.
“Allah did not like him to rise to the height of the Son of the Prophet’s Wasi (Imam Ali the Prophet’s Testamentary Legatee) and the most honourable person.
“Certainly (you are) the person whom the Prophet declared to be “An Excellent (Hasan),
“While the Wasi (Imam Ali) declared (you) to be virtue in its purest form,”
The above verses are an impromptu tribute before the start of a crucial armed encounter by a contemporary poet to the “excellence” of the person who graced the world this day on the 15th of the blessed month of Ramadhan and whose name ‘Hasan’ means the Most Excellent.
No doubt the name was chosen – on the command of God Almighty – by that Most Excellent of Exemplars to mankind, Prophet Muhammad (SAWA), when he set his eyes on his first-ever grandson.
On this day in the year 3 AH in Medina the beaming grandfather took the newborn in his arms, recited the Azaan in the infant’s right ear, the Eqaama in the left ear, and gave tidings to the joyous parents – Hazrat Fatema Zahra (SA) and Imam Ali (AS) – of their excellent child, who would one day save Islam through a ‘stroke of peace’ by giving up the caliphate and unmasking hypocrisy.
This was Imam Hasan al-Mujtaba (AS), whose birth anniversary we celebrate every year in the month of fasting by ushering in the Week of Munificence in honour of that Most Munificent (Kareem) of the Blessed Household, whose name is a byword in terms of generosity and in terms of feeding and clothing the poor and the destitute.
No doubt the Prophet had hailed him along with his younger brother Imam Husain (AS), as “Leaders of the Youth of Paradise”. It is an epithet bestowed on directions from the Divine Court, as could be indicated by the 47-year fruitful life of Imam Hasan (AS) in this mortal world, and the salvaging role he will play on the Day of Judgement as an intercessor with God for those deserving of Divine Mercy and Forgiveness.
It is outside the scope of this brief newspaper column to list the virtues of Imam Hasan (AS) as mentioned in several Ayahs of the Holy Qur’an, especially the Verse of Purity (33:33), the Verse of Muwadda or Affection (42:23), the verses of Surah Dahr (76:5-22), and the Verse of Mubahela (3:61), on whose revelation he accompanied his grandfather, his parents, and his younger brother (and no one else besides) for the triumphant parley with the Christians of Najran.
It is also not possible to pen his other personal virtues that included, on at least two occasions, the distribution of his entire possessions among the needy. On three other occasions he donated half of all he had to the poor and the destitute.
Neither do time and space allow us to detail his argumentations with the treacherous Iraqis before relinquishing the caliphate that was greedily usurped by the charlatan Mu’awiyyah and his unprincipled Syrian hordes.
However, as part of our sincere homage to the Basil of the Prophet (Rayhanat ar-Rasoul) on the occasion of his blessed birthday, it is not out of context to dwell briefly on the verses mentioned at the beginning of this column and which were uttered near Basra in Iraq on the threshold of the historic Battle of Jamal between the forces of faith and hypocrisy in 36 AH.
The Commander of the Faithful, Imam Ali (AS), had deputed his heir and eldest son, Imam Hasan (AS), to lead the diplomatic dialogue in order to seal the argument with the ignorant conspirators, led by the seditious Abdullah ibn Zubayr.
Imam Hasan (AS) introduced himself in a most excellent manner that left no doubt even among the enemy forces on whose side righteousness was. In response the stammering Ibn Zubayr proved a poor match and retreated in disgrace, but only to incite the flames of war that were snubbed out by the forces of faith.
The speech of the Prophet’s elder grandson thus solidified Muslim ranks, strengthened the bonds of unity, and made the people rally to the banner of Imam Ali (AS), thereby exposing the role of the seditionists Talha and Zubayr in the murder of Othman bin Affan.
In 40 AH, on the martyrdom of his father, Imam Hasan (AS) took charge of the caliphate or temporal rule of the Muslim realm, at a crucial period in Islamic history. Those were the days, when Mu’awiyya ibn Abu Sufyan, the rebellious governor of the large province of Sham – made up of present day Syria, Jordan, Lebanon, and Occupied Palestine – was trying to undermine the rule of the Ahl al-Bayt, by threatening and killing Muslims and bribing those who were weak of faith.
, who was a hardcore heathen at heart, outwardly professed Islam in order to deceive Muslims, who were now hopelessly divided and failed to discern truth from falsehood, because of the adverse propaganda.
Imam Hasan (AS), as the Prophet’s 2nd Infallible Heirt, sensed the danger to the Muslim community. At first he made utmost efforts to mobilize the faithful to confront the rebel and defeat his conspiracies on the battlefield.
However, when he saw the weakness of faith of the Iraqis, the gross ignorance of the Syrians, the intransigence of the Hejazis, and the hesitancy of the Yemenis, along with the seizure of Egypt by Amr ibn Aas, and the occupation of Fars in Iran by the diabolical Ziyad; as well as the treason of his own military commander Obaidollah ibn Abbas in defecting to the Omayyud side, he decided that in such a precarious situation, armed confrontation to the sedition of Mu’awiyya was not the solution, especially when Emperor Constantine IV of Byzantine or the Eastern Roman Empire was waiting for civil war amongst Muslims in order to launch an attack on Palestine and Bayt al-Moqaddas.
Like Prophet Muhammad (SAWA), who decades earlier at Hudaibiyya had agreed to a truce with Mecca’s pagan Arabs, amongst whom Mu’awiyya was also present as an open enemy of Islam, Imam Hasan (AS) agreed to enter into truce and relinquish the caliphate, but on certain terms and conditions.
An elated Mu’awiyya eagerly seized the caliphate and then to the horror of the Iraqis and others who had wrongly thought that peace would now prevail, he proceeded to violate every clause of the treaty with the Prophet’s Heir, thereby exposing himself in his true heathen colours. It was now too late for those ignorant elements, which had unwittingly pressured Imam Hasan (AS) to surrender the political rule, and now found themselves the target of the tyranny of the Omayyads.
Imam Hasan (AS), whose God-given right of Imamate was beyond the grasp of any usurper, retired to Medina to continue his guiding role, without the trapping of officialdom. He continued his guiding role through sermons and admonishments, making the Muslim realize the gravity of their blunder in being deceived by the false promises of Mu’awiyya. The Imam had no regrets, because whether the people acknowledged or not, his position was designated by God Almighty.