Abdullah bin Ja‘far confirmed his viewpoint saying...

Abdullah bin Ja‘far confirmed his viewpoint saying: “May Allah reward you with good on behalf of the community of Muhammad; and I am with you.” Then he sent for al-Husayn. When he was before him, he said to him: “I have an idea and I want you to follow me in respect of it.” “What is it?” asked al-Husayn. He mentioned to him his viewpoint in respect of that.

Al-Husayn opposed him angrily and said to him: “I seek refuge for you with Allah from that you deny Ali in his grave and believe Mu’awiya!” So al-Hasan was displeased with his speech and said to him: “By Allah, when I want an affair, you oppose me (and suggest) other than it!

By Allah, I have intended to throw you into a house and imprison you in it, that I may carry out my affair!” When al-Husayn came to know that his brother was angry and serious in the affair, he withdrew from his idea and abdicated his opinion. Then he said to him with a faint voice: “You are the oldest of Ali’s children. You are my caliph. Our command follows your command. Therefore, do whatever seems to you!”[^1] Without doubt all of that was fabricated.

It was completely false, because Imam al-Husayn was knowledgeable of the factors and the reasons that forced his brother to make peace with Mu’awiya. Definitely his opinion about the peacemaking agreed with that of his brother. He did not oppose it nor did he differ with his brother on it. When Imam al-Hasan concluded the peacemaking, a group of the leaders and the great figures came to al-Husayn. They asked him to violate what his brother had concluded with Mu’awiya and to fight against him.

However he refused that and refrained (from responding to them). If his opinion had been different from that of his brother, he would have responded to them in respect of that. When Imam al-Hasan passed away, a group of the leading persons in Iraq sent al-Husayn many letters and asked him to declare the revolt against the Umayyads. But he refused to respond to them and said to them: “As long as Mu’awiya is living, I will not move through all things.

When he dies, I will consider the matter.”[^2] Surely his refraining from undertaking the affair as long as Mu’awiya was alive frankly indicates that he thought that concluding a truce and timely peacemaking was necessary, because the revolt would not succeed and the [^1] Ibn ‘Asakir, Tarikh, vol. 4, p. 21. [^2] Al-Shaykh al-Mufid, al-Irshad, p. 206. Others than him have mentioned that.