If Only Imam Hasan Had Been Buried Secretly Like His Mother

Hasan ibn Ali ibn Abi Talib, peace be upon them both, was the most worshipful, the most ascetic, and the best of the people of his time. Whenever he went to Hajj, he would travel the route on foot, and at times he would go toward Mecca barefoot. When he remembered death, he would weep. When he remembered the grave, tears would flow from his eyes. When he remembered being raised from the grave and the time of resurrection, he would become overwhelmed, and when he remembered standing before God, he would groan and faint.

Whenever he stood for prayer, the limbs of his body would tremble before God Almighty. He never recited the Qur'an except that when he reached 'O you who believe,' he would say, 'At Your service, O God, at Your service.' In every state, he was remembering God Almighty. He was the most truthful of people and the most eloquent of them.

The elders of Banu Umayya, in order to humiliate that great one, told Mu'awiya to ask Hasan ibn Ali, peace be upon them both, to ascend the pulpit and admonish them, so that his deficiency would become clear to the people.

At a time when Mu'awiya's effort and goal was to erase the name of the Commander of the Faithful, and insulting the Commander of the Faithful had become the Umayyad practice, he summoned Imam Hasan, peace be upon him, and in order to embarrass him said: 'Ascend the pulpit, say some words, and admonish us.' Imam Hasan al-Mujtaba, peace be upon him, ascended the pulpit, praised and glorified God, and then said:

'O people! Whoever knows me knows me, and whoever does not know me, I am Hasan ibn Ali ibn Abi Talib, peace be upon them, and the son of the Lady of the Women of the Worlds, Fatima, daughter of the Messenger of God, blessings and peace be upon him and his family. I am the son of the best of God's creation. I am the son of the possessor of virtues, and I am the son of the possessor of miracles and proofs. I am the son of the Commander of the Faithful. I am the one whose right was repelled. My brother Husayn and I are the masters of the people of Paradise. I am the son of the Corner and the Station. I am the son of Mecca and Mina. I am the son of Mash'ar and Arafat.'

The words of Imam Hasan, peace be upon him, were heavy for Mu'awiya. But there was no remedy for what he himself had done, because he himself had asked Imam Hasan, peace be upon him, to ascend the pulpit and admonish the people. Therefore, in order to disrupt his words while concealing his own defeat, he said to Imam Hasan, peace be upon him: 'O Abu Muhammad! Leave this speech and describe fresh dates for us!'

Imam Hasan, peace be upon him, like his father, is the commander of speech and a knower of divine sciences, and nothing in this world of existence is hidden from him. In answer to that tyrant, he said: 'The wind inflates and grows the date palm, an allusion to pollination, in which the seed is transferred from the male tree to the female; heat ripens it, and night cools it, freshens it, and perfumes it.'

Then he continued his speech and said: 'I am the son of the one whose supplication was answered. I am the son of the one who was an intercessor and obeyed. I am the son of the first one who will shake the dust from his head, perhaps meaning that he will be resurrected before everyone else. I am the son of the one who will knock on the gate of Paradise until it is opened for him. I am the son of the one alongside whom the angels fought in the path of God, and for whom spoils were made lawful, and ... fear of him was placed in the enemy's heart. I am the Imam of God's creation. I am the son of the Messenger of God.'

That great one continued speaking in this manner until the world became dark and bitter in Mu'awiya's eyes, and the people of Syria and others who had not known Imam Hasan came to know him. Then when the Imam, peace be upon him, descended from the pulpit, Mu'awiya said to him: 'You hope to be caliph, but you will not be.'

Imam Hasan said to him: 'The caliph is the one who acts according to the conduct and behavior of the Messenger of God and the obedience of the Lord. The caliph is not the one who acts unjustly, suspends God's rulings, and takes the world as his father and mother. What you are speaking of is kingship: it falls to a person, he enjoys it for a short while, then he is separated from it, its pleasure becomes bitter, and toil and hardship remain for him. It is like what God says in the Qur'an, Surat al-Anbiya, verse 111: "I do not know; perhaps it is a trial for you and enjoyment for a time."' He said this, pointed with his hand toward Mu'awiya, rose, and left.

Although the greatest historical event in the time of Imam Hasan, peace be upon him, was his peace with Mu'awiya, a peace that was the result of the community's return to ignorance after Saqifa, one must not overlook that Imam Hasan, peace be upon him, possessed many virtues and merits recorded by biographers and hadith scholars. Perhaps the most prominent feature of the Imam is expressed in the title 'the Noble One of the Ahl al-Bayt.' The generosity of Imam Hasan, peace be upon him, is famous among people and historians, and both opponents and supporters acknowledge it.

Muhammad ibn Yusuf Zarandi, one of the Sunni scholars, narrated in Nazm Durar al-Simtayn that a man handed Imam Hasan, peace be upon him, a letter in which he had written his need. The Imam, peace be upon him, without reading the letter, said to him: 'Your need is fulfilled.' Someone said: O son of the Messenger of God, it would have been good if you had read his letter, seen what his need was, and then answered him according to his need. The Imam, peace be upon him, gave an astonishing and beautiful answer: 'I fear that God will question me about the humiliation of his position even for the amount of time it takes me to read his note.' The absence of arrogance in Imam Hasan, peace be upon him, and his generosity toward the needy reveal the immense character of that Imam.

It is narrated from Ibn Shahr Ashub that one day Imam Hasan, peace be upon him, passed by a group of beggars who had placed pieces of dry bread on the ground and were eating. When they saw the Imam, they invited him. The Imam dismounted from his horse and said: God does not love the arrogant. He sat with them and ate from their food. Then he asked all of the beggars to come to his house for a meal, prepared fine foods for them, and adorned all of them with elegant clothes.

History remembers many stories of the generosity of Imam Hasan, peace be upon him. For example, one day an Arab came to him and asked for help. The Imam ordered that whatever was present be given to him, and he gave the Arab nearly ten thousand dirhams that were available. When the Imam himself was asked why he never turned a beggar away disappointed, he said: I too am a beggar at God's door and I want God not to deprive me, and I am ashamed, with such hope, to disappoint beggars. The God who grants me His favor wants me also to help people.

Imam Hasan, peace be upon him, possessed generosity, nobility, and giving to this extent, and he was always the refuge and shelter of the deprived and the oppressed of society. The Imam went to visit Mu'awiya, and Mu'awiya presented him with a document for a load of gifts. As the Imam was leaving, he saw a servant preparing his shoes; the Imam gave him the document for that load.

Mu'awiya entered Medina and sat to meet the people and the nobles. To everyone who came, he gave a gift and reward ranging from five thousand to one hundred thousand dirhams. Imam Hasan, peace be upon him, entered at the end and after everyone else. Mu'awiya said: O Hasan, you came late; perhaps you wanted the money to run out and to accuse me of miserliness before Quraysh. Then he said: O servant, give Hasan as much as all the wealth we have given today. O Hasan, know that I do this while I am the son of Hind. Imam Hasan, peace be upon him, said: I have no need of this wealth, so I return it to you, and I am the son of Fatima, daughter of the Messenger of God.

A man stood before Imam Hasan, peace be upon him, and said: O son of the Commander of the Faithful, by the right of the blessings God has given you, take my right from this oppressive enemy who neither respects the elderly nor shows mercy to children. The Imam said: Who is this enemy of yours so that I may take your right from him? He said: Poverty and need. The Imam lowered his head for a moment and then raised it and said to his servant: Bring whatever money we have. The servant brought five thousand dirhams. The Imam gave all of it to him and said: I ask you by God, whenever this oppressive enemy comes to you, hasten to me for justice.

One of the Imam's bondwomen gave him a bouquet of flowers. The Imam said: I have freed you in the path of God. They said to him: Why did you do this? The Imam said: God says in the Qur'an to respond to a greeting and kindness in a better way, and better than the gift of a bouquet of flowers was freeing her.

Yes, he was renowned in every perfection, to the point that Imam al-Sadiq, peace be upon him, said about him that love for him was in the hearts of believers, unbelievers, and enemies. He, who according to Imam al-Sadiq, peace be upon him, was beloved even in the hearts of unbelievers, heard many hurtful words from everyone around him, even from his friends. In the end, Mu'awiya, in order to smooth the path for Yazid's caliphate, poisoned that Imam unjustly. Among the Five People of the Cloak, only that Imam of mercy was carried in a public daytime funeral and was not buried secretly. If only Imam Hasan, peace be upon him, had also been buried at night like his mother Fatima al-Zahra, peace be upon her, because the Umayyads, at the command of the leader of the trials of Jamal and Basra, showered his blessed coffin with arrows and neglected no oppression or aggression against that noble one of the household of nobility.