Muawiyah’s most insane crime

Muawiyah’s most insane crime

After signing the peace treaty, Imam Hassan (PBUH) returned to Medina, the city of his grandfather Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) and in the heavenly presence of the Prophet (PBUH) and the Prophet’s mosque, in about ten years took very fundamental steps.

Muawiyah decided to poison Imam Hassan (PBUH) several times and resorted to many hidden intermediaries. Hakim Nishaburi quotes with valid evidence from Um Bakr Bint Masour who said:

“Imam Hassan (PBUH) was poisoned several times, yet they were ineffective, but on the final occasion the poison tore his liver apart, after which he did not live more than three days.”

Ibn Abi’l-Hadid writes: “Because Muawiyah wanted to get an oath of allegiance for his son Yazid, he attempted to poison Imam Hassan (PBUH), as he did not see a greater and stronger obstacle than Imam Hasan (PBUH) towards gathering allegiance for his son and making his government inheritable; so he conspired and poisoned the Imam, causing his death”.(Nahjul Balaghah. Ebn Abi Alhadid, V16, P49)

In this conspiracy, Marwān ibn Ḥakam who was the governor of Medina played a major role. When Muawiyah decided to commit this horrific crime on the final occasion, he asked his governor Marwan in a letter to speed up the poisoning of Imam Hassan ibn Ali (PBUH) and to make it his priority.

To carry out this conspiracy, Marwān was assigned the task of contacting Ja’da, the daughter of Ash’ath, who was the wife of Imam Hassan (PBUH). Muawiyah had in the letter noted that Ja’da was an unhappy and unsatisfied element and her mentality could facilitate her cooperation and he had also ordered to promise Ja’da that upon completing her mission, he would take her as his son Yazid’s bride. He had also suggested that they should pay her a hundred thousand dirhams.

According to Shaabi: when Ja’da poisoned Imam Hassan (PBUH), Muawiyah gave her a hundred thousand dirhams, however he refused the marriage with Yazid and wrote in a message: “because I am interested in my son Yazid’s life and livelihood, I will not let him marry you.” (Encyclopedia of Islam, V 7, P 400)

Imam Sadiq (PBUH) said: Ja’da took the poison and brought it home. Those days were very hot and Imam Hassan (PBUH) was fasting. When breaking fast he wanted to drink some milk, and that cursed woman had poured the poison in the milk. Upon drinking the milk, after a few minutes Imam Hassan (PBUH) shouted:

“O Enemy of God! You killed me, God will destroy you. I swear to God! After me you will not make a profit or benefit (happiness). They tricked you and employed you to achieve their goals freely. I swear to God (Muawiyah) made you poor and miserable and humiliated you and himself.”

Imam Sadiq (PBUH) continues in his speech: “After Imam Hassan (PBUH) was poisoned by Ja’da, he did not survive more than two days and left this world, and so did Muawiyah not keep his promise.” (Bihar ul-Anwar, V 44, P 154)

Purification of the criminal

Some historians such as Ibn Khaldun and Lammens have wanted to clean Muawiyah’s hands from this horrific crime and call it fabricated news. Ibn Khaldun writes:

“To relate the poisoning of Hassan ibn Ali (PBUH) to Muawiyah which was performed by his wife, Ja’da the daughter of Ash’ath, is a figment of the Shia’s imagination, and Muawiyah’s hands are clean from such allegations.” (the history by Ibn Khalun, V 2, P187)

Lammens also writes: “The purpose of relating the poisoning of Hassan bin Ali (PBUH) to Muawiyah was badmouthing the Umayyad regime and this accusation has not been proposed by anyone except for Shia authors!!” (Encyclopedia of Islam, V 7, P 400)

Confession of historians

Muawiyah’s conspiracy in poisoning Imam Hassan (PBUH) is so conspicuous and obvious that any opportunity to deny it is taken away from historians and scientists. It is due to this fact that without conflict – except for a few cases – they have written it down; some of whom are the following: Ibn Hajar Askalany, Abol Hassan Ali bin Hussein bin Ali Masoudi, Abul Faraj Isfahani, Sheikh Mufid, Ahmad bin Yahya bin Jaber Bladhiri, Ibn’Abd al-Barr, Mohammed bin Ali bin Chehrahob, Ibn Sayagh Maliki, Sibt Ibn Jawzi, Sayouti, Hakim Nishapuri, Ahmed bin Aosm Kofi, and Gamal Eddin Abu Hajjaj Yusuf Mazzi

To summarize we will discuss Muhammad ibn Jarir al-Tabari’s articles and he writes:

The reason for the death and departure of Imam Hassan (PBUH) was that Muawiyah poisoned him seventy times; however, it did not leave an immediate and lasting effect until he sent a venom to poison him to Ja’da, daughter of Muhammad bin Ash’ath bin Qais Kendy, and along with that venom, he sent twenty thousand dinars and made ten gardens from the gardens of Kufa in her name, as well as that he promised that after accomplishing the mission, he would marry her to his son Yazid bin Muawiyah. So, she in a special opportunity fed that venom to Hassan bin Ali (PBUH) and poisoned him. (Muhammad ibn Jarir al-Tabari, Dala’el ul-Emamah)

The mighty historian, the great Allameh Baqer Sharif Qarshi writes:

Ja’da daughter of Muhammad bin Ash’ath bin Qais was from a very base, inferior and opportunist family. She had developed a complex towards Imam Hassan (PBUH), perhaps due to not being able to have a child from him; hence when the venom from Marwān arrived and she heard the promises and saw the money, she accepted committing that great crime, and in a hot and sizzling day when Imam Hassan (PBUH) was fasting, during the breaking of his fast she poured the poison in the milk bowl and fed it to the Imam. The poison immediately tore his bowels and the Imam was writhing in pain and was saying: We are from God and we shall return to him. (Hayat al-Imam Hassan Ibn Ali, V2, P 476)

The last days of the Imam (PBUH), Jnadeh bin Umayya came to visit him. He says: The Imam (PBUH) was in an upset state and he was crying from the pain, a large bowl was put in front of the Imam (PBUH). Every once in a while, blood clots would come out of his mouth, it was here that I started to panic and became heavily saddened.

Source: a look at the last days of the life of Imam Hassan (PBUH), by Ahmad Zamani