Among them...

Among them, as al-Ya'qubi has narrated, is: "Now then, indeed, if a community differs in opinion after its prophet, its falsehood will overcome its truth." He (i.e., al-Ya'qubi) said: "Then Mu'awiya paid attention to what he had said, so he said: `Except what this community has done.[^2] Also among them is what al-Mada'ni has narrated: "Kufans, do you think that I have fought against you to make you pray and fast and pay zakat and perform the pilgrimage?

Indeed I know that you pray, pay zakat, and perform the pilgrimage. However, I have fought against you to have power over you and to twist your necks and Allah has given that to me while you are reluctant (to that). Indeed every blood which has been shed in this discord is postponed and every condition I have given to al-Hasan is under these two feet of mine.

Nothing reforms the people but three (things): taking out the giving at its proper time, returning the soldiers at their suitable time, and attacking the enemy in his homeland. Indeed if you do not attack them, they will attack you." On the authority of Habib b.

Abu Thabit, Abu al-Faraj al Isfahani has narrated that Mu'awiya mentioned 'Ali in this oration and defamed him, then he defamed al-Hasan.[^3] Abu Ishaq al-Subay'i[^4] has added the following words to what he has narrated of Mu'awiya's oration: "Indeed everything which I have given to al-Hasan b. 'Ali is under these two feet of mine. I will not fulfill it." Abu Ishaq said: "By Allah, he (i.e., Mu'awiya) was traitorous." Then the people looked forward to al-Hasan.

Suddenly, they saw the grandson of the Apostle of Allah, who was the most similar of them all to him in form, manners, dignity, and correctness, coming from the direction of the mihrab (prayer niche) of his father in the great mosque to go up on his pulpit. The mobs were fond of curiosity. They were eager to conclude the obscure things from the affairs of the great figures. So they remembered the stammering Mu'awiya made in his speech.

They understood the plentiful self- possession of al-Hasan when he went up on the pulpit and began looking at the large gatherings of people who crowded in the wide mosque. They were eager to hear al-Hasan's answer to Mu'awiya who refused the conditions of the Peace Treaty, broke the covenants, shed blood, and attacked the innocent. Al-Hasan b. 'Ali, peace be on them, was a clever orator. He made a speech during that critical situation. His long eloquent speech was a wonderful document.