By: Seyyed Ali Shahbaz

“It is my destiny that I have been poisoned with trickery that would kill me. However, no day is like your day O Aba Abdillah! 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.”
These are the words of the elder of the Two Divinely-Designated Leaders of the Youths of Paradise, to the younger one, while departing from the mortal world in the year 50 AH in the month of Safar – either on 7th or according to another version on the 28th.
Yesterday Friday was Safar 7 in Iran which commemorated the martyrdom of the Elder Grandson of Prophet Muhammad (SAWA) and today Saturday – due to a day’s difference in the sighting of the crescent – is Safar 7 in Iraq, Bahrain, India, Pakistan, and several other countries, where the faithful are paying tribute to Imam Hasan al-Mujtaba (AS) who foretold Imam Husain (AS) of the heartrending tragedy to befall in Karbala in Muharram 61 AH on the Day of Ashura.
Although a year separated the birth of the two grandsons of the Almighty’s Last and Greatest Messenger to all mankind with the universal message of Islam, an eleven-year gap separates the martyrdom of the two brothers.
The elder son of Hazrat Fatema az-Zahra (SA) and the Commander of the Faithful Imam Ali ibn Abi Taleb (AS), was victim of a fatal dose of poison by the charlatan Mu’awiyya in violation of the masterstroke of the peace pact that Imam Hasan (AS) had concluded in order to expose the Omayyad heathen in his true colours. The younger son of the most virtuous couple was martyred with swords and daggers in an unequal battle imposed upon him by the Omayyad hordes of Yazid bin Mu’awiyya.
The two brothers thus saved Islam and the mission of their Grandfather the Seal of Prophets, as well as the earnest endeavours of their father the Epitome of Valour and Wisdom, in their own novel ways, to which Muslims will forever remain indebted.
While, we continue to commemorate in Safar the heartrending aftermath of the tragedy of Karbala as Arba’een or the traditional 40th day of the epic of Ashura draws near with tens of millions of pilgrims about to converge on the shrine of the Chief of Martyrs in Iraq, a glance at the Land of Revelation, Hijaz, reveals the desolate grave of Imam Hasan (AS) in the Prophet’s city Medina. 
No pilgrims are allowed at the Baqie Cemetery by the Wahhabi regime, which in 1926 blasphemously destroyed the towering grand mausoleum over the tombs of Imam Hasan (AS), his nephew and son-in-law Imam Zain al-Abedin (the Survivor of the Tragedy of Karbala), his maternal grandson Imam Muhammad al-Baqer (AS), and the latter’s Son and Successor Imam Ja’far as-Sadeq (AS) – Four of the Twelve Infallible Heirs of the Seal of Messengers.
From the depth of their hearts, all true believers, whether those flocking to Karbala with full freedom or those unable to converge upon Baqie to present tears of affection, chant “Curse of God upon Yazid” and “Curse of God upon the enemies of the Prophet’s Ah al-Bayt”.
Insha Allah (God Willing), the day will dawn when Muslims assemble once again in millions at the Baqie Cemetery in Medina to pay homage to the Elder Grandson of the Prophet and the elite of Islam – similar to the current multimillion assemblage of pilgrims in Karbala at the shrine of the Prophet’s Younger Grandson.
Imam Hasan (AS), like Imam Husain (AS), is equally oppressed, and for ten years he endured Omayyad tyranny with patience, until martyrdom in a gruesome manner when the deadly poison split his liver into pieces, which he vomited with blood as the hour of meeting God Almighty approached.
That was not the end of the Omayyad oppression upon him. If in Karbala in 61 AH, the Omayyads were to trample the decapitated body of the Younger Leader of the Youths of Paradise, in Medina they showered arrows upon the coffin of the Elder Leader of the Youths of Paradise.
Several arrows passing through the coffin pierced the lifeless body of Imam Hasan Mujtaba (AS) – a sacrilegious act no Muslim would ever do, especially against those whom God has exalted and vouchsafed their pristine purity and merits in the holy Qur’an.
I end this brief article with reference to Imam Hasan’s (AS) immortal message to the faithful against the consequences of compromise with faithless forces which never respect any laws or abide by their own commitments as the charlatan Mu’awiyyd did in violating every clause of the truce into which the simpletons of Iraq had pushed the Prophet’s Successor on the illusion of avoiding war and achieving peace.