1. While he was performing the prayer, a person threw an arrow at him but the arrow had no effect on him at all.
2. Al-Jarrah bin Sinan stabbed him in the thigh. Sheikh al-Mufid, may Allah have mercy on him, has narrated that in details. He has said: “Most surely al-Hasan wanted to test his followers and to make their situation clear with regard to obedience to him, so that in that way he might be able to distinguish his friends from his enemies and be in a clear mind (about his position) to meet Mu’awiya and the Syrians. He (a.s) ordered the call to be made: ‘The prayer is to be offered congregationally.’ They gathered and he (a.s) ascended the pulpit and addressed them. He said: ‘Praise belongs to Allah whenever a man praises him. I testify that there is no god but Allah whenever a man testifies to Him. I testify that Muhammad is His servant and His Apostle whom He sent with the truth and whom He entrusted with revelation, may Allah bless him and his family. By Allah, I hope that I shall always be with Allah’s praise and kindness. I am the sincerest of Allah’s creatures in giving advice to them. I have not become one who bears malice to any Muslim, nor one who wishes evil or misfortune for others. Indeed what you dislike in unity is better for you than what you like in division. I see what is better for you than you see for yourselves. Therefore do not oppose my commands and do not reject my judgement. May Allah forgive both me and you and may He guide me and you to that in which there is love and satisfaction.’
“The people began to look at one another and asked each other: ‘What do you think he intends by what he has just said?’
‘We think that he intends to make peace with Mu’awiya and hand over the authority to him,’ they answered.’
When they heard that, they said: “The man (Imam al-Hasan) has become unbeliever!”
Then they rushed towards his tent. They plundered him to the extent that they even took his payer mat from under him. Then (the sinful one) Abdurrahman bin Abdullah bin Ja‘al al-Azdi set on him and stripped his cloak from his shoulder. The Imam remained sitting, still girding on his sword but without his cloak. He (a.s) called for his horse and he mounted it. Groups of his close associates and his Shia surrounded him and kept those who wanted to attack him away from him. He said: ‘Summon (the tribes of) Rabee‘a and Hamadan to me.’
“They were summoned and they surrounded him and defended him from the people. A mixed group of others went with him as well. When the imam was
passing through the narrow pass of Saabaat, a man of Banu Asad called al-Jarrah bin Sinan caught hold of the reins of his mule. He had an axe in his hand. He exclaimed: ‘Allah is great! You have become a polytheist, Hasan, just like your father had become a polytheist before.’
“Then he stabbed him in the thigh. He seized the Imam by the neck and they both fell to the ground. A man from al-Hasan’s Shia called Abdullah bin Hanzal al-Taa’i pulled the axe away from his hand and struck him with it in the stomach. Another man called Zabyan bin ‘Ammarah attacked him, struck him upon the nose and killed him. Then the Imam (a.s) was carried on stretcher to al-Mada’in and was placed in the white tent to be treated.”[1]
3. Someone stabbed him with a dagger during the prayer.[2]
After these dangerous events, the intentions of those rude people became clear to the Imam, peace be on him. He understood that they would go too far in practicing crimes and wickedness such as handing him over to Mu’awiya as a prisoner of war. So his dignity would be humiliated, or he would be assassinated, and his sacred blood would be lost without that the community would make use of his sacrifice.
The terrible Attitude
The attitude of Imam al-Hasan (a.s) towards those shocks and troubles, which left the clement perplexed, was that of someone resolute and vigilant. An example of his experience, his good management, and his skillful determination during that mutiny with which his Army was afflicted was that he gathered together the leaders and the prominent persons. He explained to them the bitter results and the heavy damages that would result from his making peace with Mu’awiya. He said to them: “Woe unto you! By Allah, Mu’awiya will not be loyal to any of you who have guaranteed killing me. And most surely I think that if I put my hand in his and made peace with him, he would not let me follow the religion of my grandfather or I would not be able to worship Allah, the Great and Almighty. But it is as if I see that your children standing at the doors of their children asking them for water and food of that Allah has apportioned to them. However they will neither water nor feed them. So away with that which their hands earn! And they who act unjustly shall know to what final place of turning they shall turn back.”
All the endeavors the Imam made to set them right were useless. The attitude became more critical, his tribulation became greater, the troubles and
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[1] Al-Irshad, p. 170.
[2] Yanabee‘ al-Mawadda, p. 292.