By: Seyyed Ali Shahbaz
    
 “Do not call those killed in Allah’s way ‘dead’, rather they are living, but you are not aware.” (Holy Qur’an 2:154)
Heartfelt condolences on the doleful 7th of the month of Safar, which as per a narration is the martyrdom anniversary of the Elder Grandson and Second Infallible Successor of the Almighty’s Last and Greatest Messenger, Prophet Muhammad (SAWA).
He was Imam Hasan (AS) whose name means the “Most Excellent”. As the firstborn of the Immaculate Parents, Hazrat Fatema Zahra (SA) and Imam Ali ibn Abi Taleb (AS), he strove to ensure the glory of Islam by unmasking hypocrisy and the hypocrites throughout his life which ended in 50 AH.
He was 47 years old and was the victim of a fatal dose of poison given on the orders of Mu’awiya ibn Abu Sufyan – an archenemy of the Prophet.
Born in Medina, Imam Hasan (AS), along with his younger brother Imam Husain (AS) – the Martyr of Karbala – was on Divine Command hailed by the Prophet as “Leaders of the Youth of Paradise”.
The two brothers, groomed personally by the Prophet (as was the case of their parents), are the addressees of several Ayahs of the Holy Qur’an.
Almighty has called the Prophet, his daughter, son-in-law, and two grandsons, as “Ahl al-Bayt” or “People of the House” and vouchsafed their pristine purity. (Holy Qur’an (33:33).
On the express orders of the Almighty Creator (3:61), this group of Fabulous Five Persons graced the crucial field of Mubahela to manifest the truth of Islam during a unique challenge with the Christian priests of Najran, who on seeing them immediately acknowledged their spiritual radiance and God-given merits and came to terms with the Muslims.
Imam Hasan (AS), his brother, his parents, and their Abyssinian maid Fizza, are recipients of Divine rewards for having fasted three consecutive days to fulfil a vow and on each night giving in charity whatever they had to eat, when at dusk some needy persons happened to knock on their door. (76:5-to-22)
Imam Hasan (AS) is also a select member of the term “Rasekhoona fi’l-Ilm” used twice by God Almighty in the Holy Qur’an (3:7 & 4:162) to refer to those firmly grounded in knowledge (granted complete knowledge by Him).
Another unrivalled merit of the Ahl al-Bayt is Ayah 23 of Surah Shura that commands the Prophet to define to Muslims the reverence obligated for his Impeccable Progeny and their authority over them – removing any doubt about the prime position and leadership of Imam Ali (AS) and his Infallible Offspring.
In view of these Divine designations, Prophet Muhammad (SAWA) during his famous sermon at Mena on the Day of Arafa while performing his Farewell Hajj Pilgrimage explicitly conveyed the “Hadith Thaqalayn”: 
I am leaving behind among you the Two Invaluable (Thaqalayn), the Book of God and my progeny the Ahl al-Bayt. Hold fast to them and you will not go astray, for they never separate with each other even when they meet me at the Fountain (of Kowthar on the Day of Resurrection).”
He also said without mincing words: “Hasan and Husain are the Imams           (Leaders of the Ummah), whether they sit or stand (make peace or uprising)”
Yet, in spite of these clear commandments of the Creator and the instructions of the Prophet, the right of political leadership of the Ahl al-Bayt was usurped by a group of oligarchs of Mecca who after years of unsuccessful attempts and even battles to try to kill the Seal of Messengers, had reluctantly accepted Islam.
One of the chief charlatans was Mu’awiya the son of the promiscuous pagan woman, Hind bint Otba, who through her slave Wahshi martyred the Prophet’s uncle, Hazrat Hamza (AS) during the Battle of Ohad, had his organs cut, and tried to chew his liver. 
It is indeed an irony of Muslim (not Islamic) history that Mu’awiya despite his barely hidden enmity towards Islam and the Prophet, was appointed by the Second Caliph (because of pre-Islamic friendship between the two) as governor of the newly conquered vast land of Shaam – Syria, Lebanon, Jordan, and Occupied Palestine (Israel) combined.
On taking charge in Damascus, this charlatan resorted to every plot to weaken the Muslim society from within and distort the teachings of Islam. He refused to step down as governor when formally dismissed from the post by the Commander of the Faithful, Imam Ali ibn Abi Taleb (AS).
He next came out into open rebellion by starting armed warfare against the Imam, but when faced with imminent defeat during the protracted War of Siffeen, he raised what he claimed to be copies of the Holy Qur’an on spear points to dupe the Muslims and escape alive.
the martyrdom of the Commander of the Faithful in 40 AH, he resorted to a policy of propaganda, terrorism, forgery of Hadith, and bribes against Imam Hasan (AS), who wrote to him the famous letter:
“O Mu’awiya! Desist from falsehood and further revolt. Pay allegiance to me as the masses have done. You are well aware that I am entitled to the caliphate much more than you in the Sight of Almighty God, His angels, and the conscientious. Fear God and abandon revolt. Do not shed Muslim blood.” 
The Omayyad rebel, instead of obeying the Imam, bribed and bought some treacherous leaders of tribes in Iraq to plot against the life of Imam Hasan (AS). The Imam wrote to him in explicit words that he was not a true Muslim and was trying to distort the teachings of Islam. Part of the letter, reads:
“Woe to you, Mu’awiya! The true caliph is that who adheres to the Sunnah (practice and behaviour) of the Messenger of God (SAWA) and his actions prove his obedience to God. By my life, we (the Ahl al-Bayt) are surely the Signs of Guidance and the Lampposts of Piety. You Mu’awiya are one of those who distorted the Sunnah, revived heresies, mistreated God’s servants as slaves and God’s wealth as means of play... You will live for a short time and bear the burden of your evildoings.”
The Prophet’s elder grandson, aware of the flimsy faith of his own army, the treachery of Mu’awiya, and the dangers of civil war between Muslims at a time when the Byzantine Emperor Constantine IV was looking for opportunity to invade Muslim lands and seize Bayt al-Moqaddas, entered into a treaty to avert bloodshed and unmask the hypocrisy of his opponent.
Imam Hasan (AS), however, could not rest in peace in Medina as well. On the orders of Mu’awiya who wanted to make his openly infidel son Yazid caliph in violation of the treaty, he was martyred through a fatal dose of poison.
While bequeathing to Imam Husain (AS), the Divine Trust of Imamate, he said: “It is my destiny that I have been poisoned with trickery that would kill me. However, no day is like your day O Aba Abdallah! On that day thirty thousand hordes from those who claim to be Muslims and part of the Ummah of our grandfather will get together to spill your blood and kill you… (They will) take your ladies and children as prisoners and plunder your possessions. At that time that God will allow the cursing of the Omayyads, and it will rain blood and ashes from the sky and all creatures, even the wild animals and fishes in the sea will cry for you.”
It is a tragedy that before burial Imam Hasan’s (AS) coffin, at the instigation of a seditious woman riding a mule (similar to her riding a camel years earlier at Basra to launch the first civil war in Muslim history), was riddled by volleys of arrows shot, with several piercing the venerable body.
Both Imam Hasan (AS) and Imam Husain (AS) thus saved Islam and the mission of their grandfather the Prophet as well as the earnest endeavours of their father Imam Ali (AS), in their own unique ways, to which Muslims will forever remain indebted.