Anecdote: The eloquence of Imam Hassan ibn Ali.

 Amr ibn al-'As ('Amr-ibn-al-'As) was born into the Umayyad tribe of the Quraysh. He was one of the three Meccan poets whose satires so annoyed the Prophet that he appointed three poets from the Al-Khazraj tribe to respond, one of whom was Hasan ibn Thabit. 

Library of Alexandria.

After conquering Egypt, Amr destroyed the Alexandria Library of Egypt, the center of knowledge and science at that time, on the orders of Caliph Omar (in 642 CE). Omar gave the following historical instructions regarding the destruction of this library, which contained more than five hundred thousand valuable books - "if these books agreed in all points with the Book of God (al-Qur'an), the latter would still be perfect without them, and they would therefore be superfluous; but that if they contained anything repugnant to the doctrine of that book, they ought to be condemned as pernicious, and destroyed". (And this order of Caliph Omar was only to present the Caliph's strong testimony of the authenticity of the Quran to the world, not to destroy the book.) It should be noted that this library, named after Alexandria, the daughter of Ptolemy Philadelphia, had been burned down once before (48 BC) on the orders of Julius Caesar. At that time, the number of books in it was more than four hundred thousand. 

Suez Canal.

After being appointed governor, Amr began the work of digging the Suez Canal. This canal connected the Arabian Gulf and the Mediterranean Sea. Interestingly, the digging of this canal did not have the approval of the caliph, because it could help Christians enter Arabia. As a result, Amr was deposed by Umar's successor, Caliph Uthman, in 24 AH.

After his dethronement, Amr returned to Palestine and lived a normal civilian life. Therefore, when Ali and Muawiyah clashed over the claim to the caliphate after the assassination of Uthman, Amr sided with Muawiyah and made a pact with him that he would help him regain his former position as governor of Egypt. And when it was decided that the dispute between Ali and Muawiyah would be settled by two representatives appointed by each side, the shrewd Muawiyah used Amr. Amr was one of the two representatives appointed by Muawiyah.

In 40 AH, a plot was hatched to assassinate Caliph Ali in Medina, Muawiyah in Damascus, and Amr in Egypt on the same day, but it only succeeded in Ali's case. Amr died of illness in 43 AH. However, let us return to the main story. This story follows the assassination of Uthman.

After the assassination of Uthman, Ali's opponents gathered around Muawiyah. At this time, in a meeting, Amr ibn al-A's, Walid ibn Uqbah, Ubaydah ibn Abu Sufyan, and Mughirah ibn Shubah, after consulting among themselves, said to Muawiyah, "O leader of the believers! Send for Hasan ibn Ali so that he may appear before us."

"But why?" Muawiyah asked.

"So," they said, "we can rebuke him and make it clear to him that his father was the murderer of Uthman."

"But," said Muawiyah, "you will not be able to hold your ground with him. You will not gain anything from him. Rather, whatever you say, you will receive a blatant lie in response. And if he uses his eloquence against you, all his supporters and listeners will submit to it and agree with him."

But they insisted, "Send for him, we will surely be a formidable opponent for him."

So Muawiyah sent for Hasan and when he came he said, "O Hasan! I did not want to call you, rather they wanted you to come, so listen to what they have to say."

Then Hassan said, "Let them speak, we will certainly pay attention to what they say."

So Amr ibn al-Aas stood up and, after praising God, said, "O Hasan! Do you know that it was your father who first incited the rebellion out of greed for exclusive power? And what do you think about the judgment of the Most High (God)?"

At that time, Walid ibn Uqba ( Al-Walid ibn Uqba was appointed a general by the Caliph Abu Bakr and sent to the upper reaches of Palestine. Not only that, but before the conquest, he was also appointed governor of that province. Therefore, before the Muslim campaign in Damascus, Walid's army faced stiff resistance in Palestine. Seeing the situation as hopeless, he fled from the enemy with his army. As a result, he was deposed due to his failure to change the attitude and ideology of the Muslims. ) stood up and after praising God said, "O son of Hashim! We are close relatives of Uthman ibn Affan, and thank God that you have a bond of kinship with the Messenger of God, so that you have benefited especially, you have acquired high human qualities. ( Clearly, Al-Walid ignored the fact that Ali's blood relationship with the Prophet was closer than that of Uthman. It is worth noting that the Prophet And Uthman's ancestor was Abd Mannaf, whose 4th generation was Muhammad and Ali, and whose 5th generation was Uthman. Furthermore, Ali married Fatima, the only daughter of the Prophet. And Uthman married two of the Prophet's stepdaughters. ) But you rebelled against Uthman and killed him. And so, to tell the truth, we wished for the death of your father. But we fear God, so we did not kill him. Of course, even if we killed him, it would not be considered a sin in the sight of God.

At this time, Utbah ibn Abu Sufyan stood up and said, "O Hasan! Since your father transgressed against Uthman and killed him in the hope of gaining worldly wealth and kingdom, God will take them away from him. And indeed, we wish for your father's death and will do so until he is killed by the wrath of God." At this point, Al-Mughira ibn Shoba stood up and loudly denounced Ali as the murderer of Uthman.

When they had all finished speaking, Hasan stood up and after praising God said,  “With thee, O Mu'awiyah! will I begin, for such as these others cannot insult me. But thou dost insult me, by thy hatred, and enmity, and opposition to my maternal grandfather the Prophet of God. ”

Then he turned to the people and said,  “God is my witness before you, that he whom these men have insulted was without doubt my father. And he was the first who believed in God and prayed at the two Qiblahs. Whilst thou, O Mu'awiyah! wert an infidel and an idolater. And on the day of Badr, my father bore the standard of the Prophet, whilst the standard of the idolaters was borne by Mu'awiyah!

And the Most High is my witness before you, that Mu'awiyah was scribe to my maternal grandfather who one day sent for him, but the messenger returned and said, “He is eating.” And he sent the messenger to him three times, and each time he said, "He is eating." Then cried the Prophet, “May Allah never appease the craving of thy belly!---” ( See Sahih Muslim, 3/2010 no.2604 ) Dost thou acknowledge this of thy gluttony or not, O Mu'awiyah?”

He continued saying,  "And I call God to witness before you whether you are not aware that Mu'awiyah was leading a camel on which his father was riding, while his brother here present was driving her. And the Prophet of God said (the Prophet cursed the rider, the leader and the driver. - See, Al-Khesaal, chapter 3, Hadith 264 ) what he said. And you, you know this! So much for thee, O Mu'awiyah!

—As for thee, O 'Amru! five of the Quraish were disputing with you, and one of them got the better of you, like el-Aiham. He was the meanest of them in estimation, and of lower degree than the others. Then you didst rise in the midst of the Quraish, and said: "I have ridiculed Muhammad in a poem of thirty lines." And when the Prophet heard this, he cried, "O Allah! I am no poet. O Allah! Do thou for every line curse 'Amr-ibn-al-'As with a curse!" Then you didst depart with your poem to the en-Najjshy and didst tell him about it. And he gave thee the lie, and drove thee away in disgrace. So you have shown yourself an enemy to the sons of Hashim both as an infidel and as a Muslim.

—I do not blame thee for thy hatred at the present time, O thou son of Abu-Mait! ( Uqba ibn Abu Mu'it, the father of Al-Walid, was one of the leaders of Quraysh. When he returned from a journey, he used to invite the notables of the city and also meet the Prophet. On one such invitation, the Prophet went to his house one day. When Uqba brought food before him, the Prophet said, "I cannot accept your food until you testify that Allah is One, He has no partner in worship, and that I am His Messenger." Then Uqba testified and the Prophet ate the food.

Ubayy ibn Khalaf was a close friend of Uqba. When he came to know of Uqba's conversion to Islam, he became very angry. Uqba made an excuse, "Muhammad, an honored guest of the Quraysh, came to my house. It would have been humiliating for me if he had gone without eating. So I converted to Islam to amuse him."

Ubayy said, "I will not accept your excuse until you go and put your foot on his neck and spit in his face."

The unfortunate Uqbah agreed with his friend and then did the deed while the Prophet was sitting in the Kaaba.

Kitab-al-Aghany

Then this verse was revealed about them: “On that Day the wrongdoer will bite his hands and say, ‘Would that I had followed the Messenger! Woe to me! If only I had not taken this man as a friend! He misled me after the reminder had come to me.’” (25:27-29) 

Both Uqbah and Ubayy participated in the Battle of Badr on the side of the Quraysh. Ubayy was killed in this battle and Uqbah was captured. ) and indeed how can I reproach thee for thy invective's against my father, when of a truth he lashed thee with eighty lashes for drinking wine?  ( Caliph Uthman made his cousin Al-Walid ibn Uqbah the governor of Kufa. During that duty, he led a two-rak'ah prayer while drunk and led four rak'ahs instead of two. When the matter was raised in court, Ali, on the orders of Caliph Uthman, punished him with eighty lashes. -See Sahih Bukhari, Volume 5, Book 57, Number 45; volume 5, book 58, number 212; Ta'rikh al-Tabari, volume XV, p-120) . 

And by command of my maternal grandfather he killed thy father  ( When Uqbah was captured in the Battle of Badr, the Prophet ordered his beheading. However, although Hasan mentions his father Ali as the beheader, the historian Abu'l-Faraj-Isfahani in his Kitab-al-Aghany (Book of Songs) mentions Asem ibn Thabit as the beheader. )  who had been taken and bound, and my maternal grandfather killed him by command of my Lord God? 

And when thy father stood before the executioner, he said, "Be gracious unto my young sons after me, O Muhammad!" But my maternal grandfather replied , “Hell-fire is their portion ” For with him there could be no place for them except hell-fire, and with my father there could be nothing for them except the lash and the sword. 

— And as for thee, O 'Utbah! How can you reproach anyone for murder? For why didst thou slay him whom thou didst discover with thy wife, though taking her back again after that she had sinned?

— And as for thee, O thou one-eyed Thaktfy!  ( It is generally believed that Mughira lost one of his eyes in the Battle of Yarmuk between the Muslims and the Emperor Heraclius in 636. - Kitab Futuh al-Buldha by Ahmad ibn-Jabir al-Baladhuri. In this battle, there was a huge Roman army of two hundred thousand soldiers against a Muslim army of 24 thousand. However, the Muslim army was victorious and about seven hundred of their soldiers were killed. However, some historians say that  the reason for Mughira's  loss of sight was the observation of a solar eclipse. ) for what reason dost thou revile Ali? Is it because his relationship to the Messenger of God was so very distant? or because of the injustice of his administration towards his subjects in this world?

For if thou sayest any such thing, thou dost lie, and men will be lie thee. And if thou sayest 'Ali killed  ( There is no room to think that Ali had any personal involvement in the rebellion in which Uthman was killed. However, it is true that he did not directly join the opponents of Caliph Uthman, nor did he spontaneously assist the Caliph with his strength, courage and actions, which were naturally expected of him. This lack of enthusiasm of his was exaggerated and propagated by including the Caliph's close relatives and beneficiaries and his killers in the hope of gaining political advantage and power. )  Othman, verily thou dost lie, and men be lie thee. 

And, moreover, such as thou resemble the gnat which settled on the palm-tree in the fable. The gnat cried out to the tree, "Hold fast, for I am going to fly off!" The palm-tree replied to her, “I was not even aware of thy presence, so, how could thy taking flight harm me?” And how, O thou one-eyed Thakify! could thy blame hurt us"?

Saying this, Hasan brushed the dust off his clothes and left with his companions in a calm manner. Then Muawiyah said, "Didn't I tell you that you would not be able to reach an agreement with him? By Allah! Until he left, I thought that everything around me was covered in darkness."

Finished.

Source:  Historical Tales and Anecdotes of the Time of the Early Khalifahs by Muhammad Diyab al-Atlidi.

Image:  mobygames.com; wikipedia.