“He has left behind him no gold and silver except seven...

“He has left behind him no gold and silver except seven hundred dirhams of his stipend, with which he was intending to buy a servant for his family.” Then tears overcame him and he wept and the people wept with him. Then he continued: “I am the (grand)son of the one who brought the good news. I am the (grand)son of the warner. I am the (grand)son of the man who, with God’s permission, summoned the people to God. I am the (grand)son of the light which shone out to the world.

I am of the House, from whom God has kept away abomination and whom God has purified thoroughly. I am of the House for whom God had required love in his Book...” Then he sat down. ‘Abdullāh ibn al-’Abbās arose in front of him and said, “People, this is the son of your Prophet, the testamentary trustee (wasi) of your Imam.

So pledge allegiance to him.” The people answered him saying: “No one is more loved by us nor has anyone more right to succession.” Then they rushed forward to pledge allegiance to Imam Hasan as the successor of Amiru ’l-mu’minin. He also occupied the outward function of caliphate for about six months, during which time he administered the affairs of the Muslims.

During that time Mu‘āwiyah, a bitter enemy of ‘Alī and his family, and had fought for years with the ambition of capturing the caliphate, first on the pretext of avenging the death of the third caliph and finally with an open claim to the caliphate, he sent spies into Iraq, the seat of Imam Hasan’s caliphate, to incite rebellion and opposition.

After the spies of Mu‘āwiyah were captured and punished, Imam Hasan wrote him “...It is surprising that after the Prophet’s death, the Quraysh fought for the caliphate and considered themselves as superior to other Arabs because they were from the tribe of the Prophet. The Arabs accepted their argument. “But then the Quraysh [based on same line of thought] refused to accept our superiority and shunned us aside although we were more closely related to the Prophet than they.

We adopted forbearance so that the enemies and hypocrites do not destroy Islam. “And today we are amazed by your claim to the caliphate even though you do not deserve it in the least; neither you have any religious superiority nor any good record in the past.