Shortly after that Mu’awiya’s messenger came and asked the...

Shortly after that Mu’awiya’s messenger came and asked the Imam to come back to fight against a group of the Kharijites who revolted against Mu’awiya. However the Imam (a.s) refused to return. He wrote to Mu’awiya: “If I preferred to fight against any of the men of the qibla (the Muslims), I would start with fighting you. Surely I have left you to reform the community and to spare its blood.”[^1] Then the Imam went away and paid no attention to Mu’awiya.

When his procession moved through a district or a village, its people hurried to receive him and to have the honor of meeting him. In the first place they asked him about his affair with Mu’awiya. So he (a.s) told them immediately. They expressed displeasure, grumble, and dissatisfaction, for they were afraid of Mu’awiya’s authority.

However, what would the Imam do at the time when his army and his people were afflicted with mutiny and desertion, to the extent that they forced him to make peace with Mu’awiya? The caravan of Imam al-Hasan arrived in Yathrib (Medina).

When its people knew about his arrival, all of them hurried to receive him, for they thought that good came to them, happiness and mercy halted at them, and the good that ceased from them when Imam Ali, the Commander of the faithful (a.s) left them, returned to them. Imam al-Hasan came to Yathrib and resided therein for ten years. He filled its districts with his flowing mercy, gentle affection, and clemency. We will give a brief account of the Imam’s works and affairs when he resided there.

His School Imam al-Hasan established his great school in Yathrib. He worked hard to spread the Islamic culture, direct the Muslims towards the religion, and to make them understand the Islamic rulings. The great, religious scholars, the traditionists, and the narrators joined his school. He found them good helpers in delivering his immortal, reformative message that crystallized the minds of the people and awakened them from the inattentiveness and inactivity.

The historians have mentioned some of his prominent students and the narrators of his traditions.