body with a poisoned handkerchief, forwarded to her
for this purpose, and thus send him into eternity. The
treacherous woman, closing with the offer, received
the stipulated 50,000 dirhems, after Hasan's death;
but Yezid, on being asked to marry her, replied, 'Jaada
has not done her duty to the Prophet's grandson, how
can she act well towards me? and how, could any one
now desire her for a wife?' There are also a class of
people who say, the cause of that Excellency's death
was poisoned drink; and others, that he had an illness,
for forty days, of which he died. It is also reported
that Hasan said during his illness, 'Twice before, they
have given me poison to drink, and this is the third
time.' It is likewise said, that poison had been given
him six times, but that five times it did not kill him,
and only the sixth time did its work.
When his brother Hosein visited Hasan in his last illness,
and asked him to tell him by whom he had been poisoned,
so that he might avenge him after his death, Hasan answered,
'O brother, neither our father Ali, nor our mother Fatima,
nor our grandfather Mohammed the chosen, nor our grandmother
Khadija the great, made denunciation; therefore, neither
shall denunciation come from us, nor from any member
of our family. When God pardons me, on the day of the
resurrection, and does not also, for my sake, forgive
the sin of the person who gave me poison, I shall not
enter Paradise.' It is also recorded that Hasan, when
visited on his deathbed by Hosein, said to him, 'O brother,
when I am dead, bury me near the Apostle of God, if
doing so does not cause bloodshed; but if it should,
then bury me in the graveyard.' Hosein wished to bury
him near the Prophet, but, finding the people opposed
to this, had him interred in the graveyard. According
to some account, a grave had already been dug near the
Prophet's, when Aisha heard of it. She at once mounted
a mule and rode to the spot, to prevent the interment.
Ali's partisans said to her, 'O Aisha, before this,
thou didst mount a camel and make war against his father
Ali; to-day thou mountest a mule and preventest the
grandson of the Apostle of God from being buried by
his side.' But they could not prevail, because the people
were divided into two parties; and even arrows were
shot, some of which hit Hasan's dead body. Some also
affirm that Aisha herself was willing, but that the
governor of the town and Othman's partisans prevented
the burial near the Prophet.
It is recorded that his Excellency Imam Hasan had the
habit of marrying ladies and divorcing
them again. Therefore the Commander of the faithful,
Ali the favoured, said to the people, |
