Imam Hasan (A.S.) succeeded in defeating an intricate plot against Islam by inking a conditional treaty

Compiled By: Syed Ali Shahbaz
Born in the year 3 AH in Medina, Imam Hasan (AS), whose name means the Most Excellent in Arabic, needs no introduction. He, along with his younger brother, Imam Husain (AS) has been hailed as the Twin Leaders of the Youth of Paradise by the Prophet. There are numerous hadith on the unrivalled merits of the Prophet’s two Immaculate grandsons, as well as their Infallible parents, Hazrat Fatema Zahra and Imam Ali Ibn Abi Taleb (peace upon them). A statement of particular interest from the Prophet regarding his elder grandson is that he will make peace between two antagonistic groups of Muslims.
Let us study how Imam Hasan (AS) succeeded in defeating an intricate plot against Islam by inking a conditional treaty.
First of all we need to point that 29 years after the passing away of the Prophet, following the martyrdom of Imam Ali (AS) on 21st Ramadhan 40 AH, Imam Hasan (AS) was acknowledged by the Muslim masses as the caliph of a realm that stretched from North Africa to the borders of China in Central Asia, and which is now made up of at least 20 countries. It was a vast realm whose western parts were being gradually seized by the bloody thirst for political power of Mu\'awiyya and his comrade-in-crimes against Islam, Amr bin Aas, from their base in Syria. Imam Hasan (AS) showed his political astuteness by mobilizing a force of 40,000 and marching to meet the enemy.
However, when he found that the satanic stratagem of Mu\'awiyya, whose wanton killing and pillaging of Muslims, coupled with pretensions for peace, had weakened the faith of the Iraqis and made them lose the stomach to fight deviation, he decided to relinquish the caliphate, but on certain conditions, in order to expose falsehood in its true colours.
In addition to the hypocrites within his own ranks who at least twice attempted to assassinate him, and the treason of his military commander Obaidollah ibn Abbas who deserted and demoralized the 12,000 army sent by him against the Syrians and crossed over to the side of Mu\'awiyya on being bribed, Imam Hasan (AS) was also aware of the fact that Emperor Constantine IV of Byzantine or the Eastern Roman Empire was closely watching events in the Islamic world. The Christian power was looking for an opportunity to seize Bayt al-Moqaddas (or Jerusalem) by taking advantage of the intended civil war of Mu\'awiyya in Iraq. This is further proof of the political foresight of Imam Hasan (AS).
His God-given spiritual powers that no political usurper could seize nor any traitor could harm, deemed it prudent to give up political power in order to save Islam and Muslims from both Omayyad hypocrisy and European hegemony. It is true that Mu\'awiyya, who was a pagan at heart and a reluctant convert to Islam as late as 8 AH at the peaceful surrender of Mecca to Muslims less than three years before the Prophet passed away. But to confront him at risk of the probable fall of Palestine and Jerusalem to the Byzantines would have forced the people of Syria, and even of Egypt – both of whom were new converts to Islam – to return to Christianity and place their countries again under Roman rule.
Imam Hasan’s decision to relinquish political rule was similar to that of Imam Ali (AS), who on the passing away of the Prophet had refused to resort to the sword for his usurped political authority, since in such a case the neo-Muslim Arabs of Mecca, Medina, and the rest of the Arabian Peninsula, would have reverted to idol-worship.
Moreover, like his father he had neither attachment to worldly rule as power-hungry and unprincipled politicians have, nor could he be heedless of the people’s needs and sufferings as a result of unnecessary spilling of blood in an atmosphere where beliefs were still confounded because of the sedition wrought at Saqifa Bani Sa’da no sooner had the Prophet left the world. Thus on 26th of Rabi al-Awwal 41 AH, after six months as caliph or political ruler, he took the politically prudent step of concluding the treaty with Mu\'awiyya that was as decisive as the Prophet’s signing of the Treaty of Hudaybiyya with the Meccan infidels, which God has hailed as “Fath al-Mobeenâ€‌ (or the Manifest Victory) in the Holy Qur’an.
It is also worth recalling here that at Hudaybiyya in 7 AH, while the 4-year old Imam Hasan (AS) was endeared by Muslims as “Rayhanat ar-Rasoulâ€‌ (or Basil of the Prophet), the 27-year old Mu\'awiyya was still a pagan and an open enemy of Islam, along with his equally accursed parents, Abu Sufyan and Hind –who had tried to chew the ripped-off liver of the Prophet’s uncle, Hamza, after having martyred him at the Battle of Ohad.
Among the stipulations of the treaty was that Mu\'awiyya should rule according to the Book of God and the Sunnah of the Prophet; he should stop his pagan practice of insulting the name of Imam Ali (AS); he should not shed Muslim blood in pursuit of his political ambitions; he has no right to nominate any successor; the caliphate (or political rule) should return to Imam Hasan (AS) after him; and the revenues of the district of Darabgard near Shiraz, are assigned for the upkeep of the families of those who attained martyrdom in the battles imposed upon Imam Ali (AS). It was indeed a masterstroke of peace that ripped off the veil of hypocrisy from the face of the Godless Omayyads, who had been given the governorship of the important province of Syria (including present day Lebanon, Jordan and Palestine) by the Second Caliph in opposition to Imam Ali’s (AS) advice.
In his greed for the caliphate the avaricious Mu\'awiyya agreed to the terms of the treaty, but soon, to the horror of the deceived Iraqis, he breached each and every of its clauses. He told them that from now on it is the swords of the Syrians and their necks if they were to oppose Umayyad policies. The ingrates had learned it the hard way not to trust the occupiers and the enemies of the Ahl al-Bayt. For his part, Imam Hasan (AS) relinquished the caliphate and retired to Medina to carry on the mission of his grandfather, while the usurper Mu\'awiyya broke all commitments to the clauses of the treaty.
He transgressed the rights of God through sins in public; violated the rights of the dead Muslims whose image he tried to tarnish by reviling their blessed memory including that of the One and Only Commander of the Faithful, Imam Ali (AS); suppressed the rights of the living by killing and tyrannically exploiting them; had Imam Hasan (AS) fatally poisoned; and towards the end of his long rule imposed his libertine son, Yazid, as heir – a most abominable crime in the history that was defeated at Karbala by Imam Husain (AS) who sacrificed his life to salvage Islam in 60 AH.
For nine years till 28 Safar 50 AH, Imam Hassan (AS) continued his divinely-appointed role as leader of mankind, guiding the seekers of truth, enlightening Muslims, and strengthening their conscience to discern righteousness from falsehood, until he was martyred through poisoning at the age of 47 years by Mu\'awiya in violation of the treaty. Today, there is no trace of Mu\'awiyah and the Umayyads. It is Imam Hasan (AS) who continues to wield his God-given authority over the true believers. The faithful flock to the Baqie Cemetery, despite its dilapidated state (vandalized by the Wahhabi criminals in 1925), to pay homage to him and to other members of the Prophet’s Household, much to the chagrin of the ignorantly arrogant enemies of humanity and all other greedy politicians.