Hasan ibn Ali (Arabic: حسن ابن علي, romanized: Ḥasan ibn ʿAlī; c. 625 – 2 April 670) was the eldest son of Ali and Fatima, the elder brother of Husayn, and the eldest grandson of the Islamic prophet Muhammad. He briefly ruled as caliph from January to August 661 and is the second Imam in Shia Islam, succeeding his father Ali and preceding his brother Husayn. Hasan is a prominent member of the Ahl al-Bayt and the Ahl al-Kisa, and a participant in the Event of the Mubahala. Muhammad described Hasan and Husayn as the leaders of the youth of paradise. Hasan is traditionally described as having had the closest resemblance to the Prophet Muhammad.
Following Ali's assassination, Hasan was acknowledged as caliph in Kufa. His authority was not recognized by Mu'awiya, the governor of Syria and his rival for the caliphate, who led an army toward Kufa while pressuring Hasan to abdicate through a series of letters. In response, Hasan dispatched an advance force under Ubayd Allah ibn al-Abbas to delay Mu'awiya's advance until he could arrive with the main army. Meanwhile, Hasan was severely wounded in an attempted assassination by al-Jarrah ibn Sinan, a member of the Kharijites, a faction opposed to both Ali and Mu'awiya. The attack further demoralized Hasan's army and contributed to widespread desertion. Ubayd Allah and many of his troops subsequently defected after Mu'awiya bribed him.
In August 661, Hasan signed a peace treaty with Mu'awiya. Under the treaty, Hasan ceded the caliphate to Mu'awiya on the condition that the latter should rule in compliance with the Quran and the Sunnah, a council should appoint his successor (rather than appointing one himself), and Hasan's supporters would receive amnesty. Hasan retired from politics and abdicated in Medina, where he died from mercury poisoning in 670. Ja'da bint al-Ash'ath, one of Hasan's wives, is traditionally accused of poisoning him. Reports say that Mu'awiya persuaded her to do so by promising her gold and marriage to his son Yazid. Throughout his reign, Mu'awiya violated the treaty by prosecuting notable supporters of Hasan, and by appointing his son Yazid as his successor, making the caliphate hereditary.
Critics of Hasan have interpreted his treaty with Mu'awiya as evidence of political weakness. His supporters, however, argue that his abdication became necessary due to Mu'awiya's military superiority, the mutiny and fragmentation of Hasan's forces, and his desire to prevent further bloodshed and preserve Muslim unity. Some early Sunni scholars may have considered Hasan's brief rule as rightly-guided (rāshid). In Shia theology, Hasan's course of action is understood in light of his divinely granted infallibility (Iṣmah) and his status as the second Imam. As the rightful successor of Muhammad in Shia Islam, Hasan's comprehensive temporal and religious authority derived from divinely-inspired designation (nass), which was not annulled by abdication to Mu'awiya, who usurped only the temporal authority. Hasan is buried in the Baqi Cemetery in Medina. The shrine that stood over his grave was demolished, along with the cemetery itself, by Wahhabis in 1806 and again in 1925.
Hasan was born in Medina in c. 625. Sources differ on whether he was born in the Islamic months of Sha'ban or Ramadan, though most early works give his birthdate as 15 Ramadan 3 AH (2 March 625), which is annually celebrated by the Shia. Hasan was the firstborn of Muhammad's daughter Fatima and his cousin Ali. Their union holds a special spiritual significance for Muslims, write Nasr and Afsaruddin, and Muhammad said he followed divine orders to marry Fatima to Ali, narrates the Sunni al-Suyuti (d. 1505), among others. Ali reportedly had chosen another name in Sunni sources but deferred to Muhammad who named the child Hasan (lit. 'good, virtuous'). To celebrate his birth, Muhammad sacrificed a ram, while Fatima shaved Hasan's head and donated the weight of his hair in silver.
Hasan was raised in Muhammad's household until his death, when Hasan was aged seven. Early sources widely report Muhammad's love for Hasan and his brother Husayn, saying that Muhammad allowed the boys to climb on his back while he was prostrate in prayer, and interrupted a sermon to pick up Hasan after he fell. Hasan later recalled an incident where his grandfather took a date from him, and explained to him that receiving alms (sadaqa) was forbidden for his family. Both Hasan and Husayn were named by Muhammad. The family formed from the marriage of Ali and Fatima was praised many times by Muhammad. In events such as Mubahala and the hadith of the Ahl al-Kisa, Muhammad referred to this family as the Ahl al-bayt. In the Quran, in many cases, such as the verse of purification, the ahl al-bayt has been praised.
Numerous hadith shows Muhammad's love for Hasan and Husayn, such as carrying them on his shoulders or putting them on his chest and kissing them on their bellies. Some of these reports imply a slight preference of Muhammad for Hasan over Husayn, or pointing out that Hasan was more similar to his grandfather. A widely reported hadith in the canonical Sunni collection Sunan al-Tirmidhi, attributed to Muhammad, states Hasan and Husayn as the sayyids (“chiefs”) of the youth of Paradise.
Muhammad: "Hasan and Husayn are the masters of the youth of Paradise. Whoever loves them loves me and whoever hates them hates me. Husayn is from me, and I am from Husayn. God loves whoever loves Husayn. Indeed, Husayn is the Lamp of Guidance and the Ark of Salvation."
A saying of the prophet (hadith) that was recorded in the canonical Sunni hadith collections Sunan al-Tirmidhi and Sunan ibn Majah names Hasan and Husayn as "the two sayyids (lit. 'chiefs' or 'lords') of the youth in paradise" (Arabic: Sayyidā Shabāb Ahl al-Janna). Madelung adds that this hadith is widely reported, while Veccia Vaglieri (d. 1989) notes that its authenticity was disputed by the Umayyad Caliph Marwan (r. 684–685). The Sunan ibn Majah and the canonical Shia source Kitab al-Irshad narrate the prophetic hadith "He who has loved Hasan and Husayn has loved me and he who has hated them has hated me." Similarly, the Sunan al-Tirmidhi ascribes to Muhammad the saying "Whoever loves me and loves these two [Hasan and Husayn] and loves their mother and father [Fatima and Ali], will be with me in my station on the Day of Resurrection."
After an inconclusive debate in 10/631-2, Muhammad and the Najranite Christians decided to engage in mubahala, where both parties would pray to invoke God's curse upon the liar. Madelung argues that Muhammad participated in this event alongside Hasan, Husayn, and their parents. This is also the Shia view. In contrast, most Sunni accounts by al-Tabari (d. 923) do not name the participants of the event, while some other Sunni historians agree with the Shia view.
During the event, Muhammad gathered Hasan, Husayn, Ali, and Fatima under his cloak and addressed them as his ahl al-bayt, according to some Shia and Sunni sources, including the canonical Sahih Muslim and Sahih al-Tirmidhi. Madelung suggests that their inclusion by Muhammad in this significant ritual must have raised the religious rank of his family. A similar view is voiced by Lalani.
Death of Muhammad and Fatima (632)
Muhammad died in 11/632 when Hasan was about seven. As his family prepared for the burial, a group of Muslims gathered at the Saqifa and appointed Abu Bakr as Muhammad's successor, in the absence of his family and the majority of the Muhajirun (Meccan Muslims). Ali, Fatima, and some supporters did not recognize the caliphate of Abu Bakr, saying that Muhammad had appointed Ali as his successor at Ghadir Khumm. Fatima died also in 632, within six months of Muhammad's death, at the age of about eighteen or twenty-seven years old. Shias hold that she miscarried her child and died from the injuries she suffered in an attack on her house, intended to subdue Ali, at the order of Abu Bakr. These allegations are rejected by Sunnis, who believe that Fatima died from grief after Muhammad's death and that her child died in infancy of natural causes.