He will come across a helpful brother (a faithful and close friend).

He will come across a helpful brother (a faithful and close friend). He will be blessed by God.[^2] Imam Hasan’s Peace Agreement Following the martyrdom of the Commander of the Faithful, the shi’ah people of Iraq and the four thousand troops of ‘Ali (‘a) who had gathered at Nukhaylah, pledged allegiance to Imam Hasan (‘a). Having concluded the allegiance ceremony, Imam Hasan delivered a critical and moving speech before a large crowd at the mosque of Kufah.

During this speech, he warned people against depravity, and obedience to Satan and his followers. Then he expressed his readiness to fight Mu’awiyah and called on the commanders of his army to get their soldiers ready for the attack on Sham and he was involved in making preparations in Kufah himself. Mu’awiyah learned about these events and realized that Imam Hasan has decided to carry on with his father’s plans.

Therefore, he started sabotage and since he was adept at deception, hypocrisy, and intrigue, he managed to draw a number of Imam Hasan’s companions to himself through different means and thus he drove a wedge in Imam’s army. As a result of duplicity, bribery, and riches, he went so far as some of the opponents of Imam Hasan and the hypocrites and mercenaries, who were abounding in his army, wrote a letter to Mu’awiyah and promised to deliver Imam a captive, if Mu’awiyah came to Iraq.

Despite this, Imam Hasan never retracted his statements and in one of his speeches said, “Mu’awiyah along with a group of people from Sham are coming toward Kufah, you must get ready to confront them.” After that he executed a spy that was sent by Mu’awiyah to Kufah and wrote to ibn ‘Abbas, the governor of Basrah, to execute Mu’awiyah’s spy in that city too.

Initially, people did not respond positively and at last through the encouragement and perseverance of one of his companions, they promised to assist but when Imam Hasan went to Nukhaylah, he learned that the majority of those who had pledged to help, had shrunk form their commitment and had deserted him. Furthermore, some of his commanders joined the army of Mu’awiyah after receiving large sums of bribes at the border with Sham and abandoned Imam Hasan.

In short, Imam’s army was dispersed and his companions were anxious and agitated. In the meantime, a number of his enemies exploited the opportunity to attack Imam himself and plundered his tent and severely wounded his leg. This was a summary of Imam Hasan’s conditions then.