Imam Hassan (as) made peace to avoid bloodshed
This issue is fundamentally tied up with the forced abdication of Al-Hassan (as) as khalifa in the face of Muawiya’s rebellion against Imam Hassan (as)’s lawful and noble khilafat. Al-Hassan (as)’s is deemed by Jalal-ud-din Suyuti in his established Sunni account of the khilafat the fifth rightly guided khalifa, and while most Sunnis have not heard this he ruled for six months and was by their scholars rightly guided.
For this section we shall focus on the following texts of Ahl’ul Sunnah:
Irshad al Sari Sharh Bukhari, Volume 1 page 198 Bab ul Fitan
Umdah thul Qari fi Sharh Bukhari, Volume 11 page 361 Kitab al Fitan
Mirqaat Sharh Mishqat, Volume 11 page 379
Al Istiab, Volume 1 page 370
For the sake of brevity we shall cite al Irshad:
“Imam Hasan did not abdicate on account of any bribe / worldly gain or weakness; rather he made peace so as to avoid fitnah and bloodshed.”
Mu’awiya had agreed that the Khilafat would return to Imam Hasan (as) when he died
This is undeniable and is testified to, amongst numerous other Sunni works, in:
Fathul Bari fi Sharh Bukhari, Volume 3 page 65 Kitab al Fitan
Mirqat Sharh Mishqat, Volume 11 page 38 Bab Manaqib Ahl’ul Bayt
Al Bidayah Wal Nihayah (Urdu), Vol 8 Page 871 ‘The events of 56 Hijri’
Hayaat al Haywaan Volume, 1 page 53 Dhikr Khilafa
Tareekh Khamees, Volume 2 page 29 Dhikr Hasan
Al Imama wa al Siyasa, page 18 Sulh Hasan
Al Istiab, Volume 1 page 370 Dhikr Hasan
Ibn Kathir records:
وقد كان معاوية لما صالح الحسن عهد للحسن بالأمر من بعده
“When Mu’awiya made peace with Hasan, he made a promise that leadership would go to Hasan after him”
Imam Ibn Hajar Asqalaini records in Fathul Bari:
اني اشترطت على معاوية لنفسي الخلافة بعده
“Hasan said:’I placed a condition on Mu’awiya that I will become leader after Mu’awiya”
The fact that Mu’awiya wanted to make Yazeed his successor was hugely embarrassing for him, since this contravened the peace treaty and hence the better option would be to remove Imam Hasan (as) (this has been discussed in our article on Mu’awiya). In the meantime Mu’awiya’s flagrant breach of the treaty continued. This is an embarrassment for the Nasibis as this treaty and its terms are not controversial and accepted by all. Thus the Nasibis might claim that this happened after Imam Hasan (as) was martyred but the fact is…
Mu’awiya sought to secure the bayya for Yazeed whilst Imam Hasan was alive
We read Al Imama wa al Siyasa page 155 Dhikr bayya Yazeed
“An Iraqi tribal chief said to Mu’awiya ‘As long as Hasan is alive the people of Iraq and Hijaz shall not give bayya to Yazeed.”
Mu’awiya had potential successor and rival Abdur Rahman bin Khalid poisoned
We read in al-Bidaya wa al-Nihaya, Volume 8 page 31 under the topic of 31st H:
عبد الرحمن بن خالد بن الوليد
القرشى المخزومى وكان من الشجعان المعروفين والأبطال المشهورين كابيه وكان قد عظم ببلاد الشام لذلك حتى خاف منه معاوية ومات وهو مسموم
“Khalid bin Walid’s son Abdur Rahman was from amongst the brave men and was popular in Syria hence Mu’awiya was against him and was poisoned”
We read in al Istiab:
“Abdurehman was againt Ali and Bani Hashim … he had fought in Sifeen alongside Muawiyah…When Muaiywah decided to take bayah from people for his Yazeed, he gave a sermon to the people of Syria in which he said: ‘the time of my death is approaching, I am elderly and I want to make a ruler for you people, what do you people want?’. They said: ‘We like Abdurehman’. Muawiya didn’t like it but kept it within him and once Abdurehman got ill, Muawiya told the doctor to treat him and gave him a syrup that could kill him, the doctor administered it and killed him by giving him poison.”
This Abdul Rahman was the son of Khalid bin Waleed, and he was Mu’awiya’s general in Siffeen. Mu’awiya was willing to shed his blood to secure the transition of power to his son. While we the Shia have nothing but contempt for Khalid bin Waleed for reasons discussed elsewhere (he murdered a Muslim general during the khilafat of Abu Bakr so as to marry the general’s beautiful wife, and prior to this had murdered thousands of innocent Shias in the Yemen), Khalid is hailed as a great champion of the khilafat and a hero by the Sunnis.
The opposition of the family of Abu Bakr towards Mu’awiya’s plans
We read in Al Bidayah Wal Nihayah (Urdu), Vol 8 Page 890-891 ‘Dikr Abdur Rehman bn Abi Bakar’:
“When Marwan entered into discussions with the tribe of Salim, Abdul Rahman ibn Abu Bakr stated ‘In the same way that one king nominates another king to succeed him; one Umayyad is seeking to appoint another Umayyad to succeed him’. Marwan then told Abdul Rahman to be silent.”
“…when Abdul Rahman refused to give bayya to Yazeed, Mu’awiya sent Abdul Rahman one thousand dirhams. Abdul Rahman replied ‘Do you expect me to sell my religion for dinars?”
Imam of Ahl’ul Sunnah Mahmud Abu Riyyah in his excellent Shaykh al Mudira page 168 states that Mu’awiya used force to secure bayya for Yazeed and discretely splayed with poison those that he could not bribe…
“Even if that meant using methods such as poison, he used this method that led to the deaths of Hasan, Abdul Rahman bin Abu Bakr and Abdul Rahman bin Khalid”.
Whilst Nawasib such as Ansar have no love for Ahl’ul Bayt (as) we would at least urge them to look at the case of the son of Abu Bakr, the natural brother of Ayesha and brother in law of Rasulullah (s). Anyone who has the slightest love for Abu Bakr should have nothing to do with Mu’awiya.
Mu’awiya even killed Ayesha so as to secure the bayya for his son
We read in Ahl’ul Sunnah’s authoritative work Habeeb as Sayyar Volume page 58:
“In 56 Hijri Mu’awiya arrived in Madina to get people to give bayya to Yazeed, in this regard (the bayya) Ayesha became upset with Mu’awiya and openly expressed her discontent. Mu’awiya then instructed an acquaintance to dig a hole, cover it up and place a chair on the top of it and invite Ayesha to the house for a dinner. No sooner had Ayesha settled down on the chair that she fell through the hole that had been dug. Mu’awiya order the hole to be covered, he then made his way from Madina to Makka”.
Ayesha is the mother of the believers and no momin would ever contemplate killing his mother. This legitimate bayyah that these Nasibi like singing about cannot be deemed to be the correct by anyone that has love for Ayesha in his heart. To secure this bayya, Mu’awiya murdered the son and daughter of Abu Bakr, he killed Imam Hassan (as), Sa’d bin Abi Waqqas and Abdur Rahman bin Khalid. Is there really any ground to deem an ijma that involved the murder of these prominent personalities? If this is still deemed ijma then we would like to counter this by stating that Uthman was also killed by the ijma of the people, do you accept this ijma? Contradictions abound in Sunni Islam, really harsh ones that only those of the attitude ‘I was born into a Sunni family and will die a Sunni’ can accept.
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