Imam Hasan The Myth of His Divorces [Electronic resources] نسخه متنی

S. Saeed Akhtar Rizvi

Al-Serat, Vol 4 (1978), No 3

Imam Hasan has been the victim of a most malicious propaganda
for the last 1,250 years. He is portrayed as fond of ease
and quiet by his admirers (Ameer Ali in Spirit
of Islam) and the great divorcer by his
detractors (Willi Frischaurer in The Aga Khans).

Before looking at individual reports, it is important to find
out when this allegation was put forward, by whom and why.

After a thorough study of these reports, I have found that the
first man known to accuse Imam Hasan of marrying and divorcing
was the 2nd Abbasid Khalifa, Mansur, who because of his dynastic
policies was bent upon belittling Amir al-Mu'minin Ali and his
descendants.

It will help the readers to know how Abbasids came to power.

As Ameer Ali writes in Spirit of Islam (p.302),
the tragical fate of Husain and his children sent a
thrill of horror through Islam; and the revulsion of feeling which
it caused proved eventually the salvation of Faith ... It made
the bulk of Moslems think of what the Master had done, and of
the injuries which the children of his enemies were inflicting
on Islam.

By the beginning of the 2nd century of Hijra, Persia, Irak
and Hijaz, which had suffered most from the atrocities of the
Bani-Omeyya, were honeycombed by secret organisations for the
over-throw of the hated family. The Bani-Abbas were the most active
in the movement to subvert the Omeyyad rule, at first,.perhaps,
from a sincere desire to restore to the Fatimids their just rights,
but afterwards in their own interests. (Ibid, p.307.)

When Bani Hashim were planning to overthrow the Umayyad dynasty,
they first secretly called a meeting of all members of the clan.
They decided that, if they succeeded, they would make Muhammad,
Nafs al-Zikiyya (Pure Soul) Khalifa. Muhammad was son of
Abdallah son of Hasan Muthanna son of Imam Hasan. Among those
who made the bia'a were Abu'l-Abbas (Saffah) and Mansur.

Imam Ja'far al-Sadiq remained aloof from all these activities
and told Abdallah (father of Nafs al-Zakiyya) that his
son would not succeed; that Mansur would sit on the throne instead.
Abdullah did not like this frankness and accused Imam Ja'far al-Sadiq
of envy!

Anyhow the slogan of Rida aal-Muhammad (to please the Descendants
of the Prophet) proved a success and people gathered behind
the agents of Bani Hashim, thinking that they wanted to remove
Bani Umayya and install a descendant of the Prophet as Khalifa.
Bani Umayya were overthrown in 132 A.H.

But when the time came to install a Khalifa from Aal-Muhammad,
the Abbasids forgot all their pledges and their bay'a to Muhammad
Nafs al-Zakiyya. They put Abu'l-Abbas Saffah on the throne.

Abu'l-'Abbas died after four years, and his brother Mansur came
to power. Muhammad Nafs al-Zakiyya did not forget that Mansur
was under obligation to accept him as Khalifa; neither could Mansur
forget it. The solution, according to Muhammad Nafs al-Zakiyya,
was to rise against Mansur. The solution, according to Mansur,
was to annihilate all the descendants of Imam Hasan.

The same fierce jealousy with which the Bani-Omeyya had
pursued or persecuted the Bani-Fatima, characterised the conduct
of Bani-Abbas towards the descendants of Muhammad. They had no
claim to the Caliphate themselves; they made the affection of
the people for the children of Fatima the means for their own
elevation, and when they had attained the desired end they rewarded
the Fatimids with bitter persecution. (Ibid, p.304.)

Mansur came to Medina in 144 A.H. and in one sweeping operation
arrested all the family of Imam Hasan and took them to Baghdad.
It is not the place to enumerate the torture - physical and mental
- meted out to the descendants of Imam Hasan.

Now Mansur wanted to absolve himself from the legal,and moral
obligations of that oath of allegiance. It was not only the question
of his own conscience; he had to assure the public also that he
was the constitutional and rightful Khalifa.

For this purpose, he gave a public address after that mass arrest,
in which he shamelessly said:

By God, we left the descendants of Abu Talib and the Khilafat;
we did not interfere at all. Ali ibn Abi Talib became Khalifa.
After him Hasan ibn Ali became Khalifa. By God, he did not deserve
it. He was offered money, which he accepted; Mu'awiya sent him
a message that he would make him his successor. So, Hasan abdicated
the Khilafat and left the government and power. He left everything
to Mu'awiya, and turned his attention, to women, marrying one
woman today, divorcing another one tomorrow. He remained like
this till he died in his bed.

(AI-Mas'udi; in Muruj al-Dhahab, Vol.3, p.226)

The main theme of this address was that Muhammad Nafs al-Zakiyya
had no claim of Khilafat because his great-grand-father, Imam
Hasan, has relinquished this power.

Accordingly, he wrote a letter to Muhammad who was still at large
and was gathering an army to fight against Mansur:

The Khilatat of your ancestor (Ali) reached to Hasan;
he sold it to Mu'awiya in consideration of money and cloth Now,
if you had any right in the Khilafat, you had already sold it
and received its price.

But Mansur knew that this line of argument solved only the immediate
problem of the bay'a of Muhammad Nafs al-Zakiyya. It could not
prevent one of the descendants of Imam Husain from claim to the
Khilafat for himself. Therefore, he left no stone unturned to
prove that the Fatimids were not entitled to the inheritance of
the Holy Prophet at all; and that Bani' Abbas were the rightful
heirs of the Holy Prophet.

In Arabia, prior to Islam, inheritance was governed by the
rule of agnacy. It means that only those persons who were
connected with the deceased 'through males' were recognised as
entitled to take a share in his inheritance (they are called
'agnatic relatives'), and neither women nor persons connected
to the deceased through them had any right of succession, (they
are called 'uterine relatives').

Thus it was that whilst adopted sons and even slaves had
rights, the children of daughters and sisters had no place in
the customary rules which regulated succession.

(Ameer Ali in 'Mohammedan Law', Vol.2, p.75)

Islam put an end to such affront to human nature, and in the Qur'an
there are specific provisions for the succession of daughters,
mothers and sisters.

But Mansur, in rank defiance of the Qur'an, revived the old custom
of agnacy. Ameer Ali writes:

When the Abbasids succeeded in overthrowing the Omeyyads,
they found it necessary to legitimatise their title to the Caliphate,
for the eyes of the Moslem world were still turned to the descendants
of the Prophet as the rightful heirs to his temporal and spiritual
heritage and in effecting this they found their chief support
in the doctrine of agnacy. They claimed that as descendants of
the Prophet's uncle, Abbas, they were his 'agnates' and as such
had a better title than the descendants of his daughter Fatima.
And this was the keystone of the fabric built up by the ablest
monarch of the House of Abbas, Mansur, the real founder of the
Sunni Church.

(Ibid, p.76)

And as a result, the Sunni Law still retains largely the customary
rule of pre-Islamic Arabs. Ameer Ali says:

The rule of agnacy has thus remained, chiefly from dynastic
reasons, a part of Sunni system. In early times it was strongly
enforced as under the old Romans. If a person died without leaving
any 'agnatic' relations but a daughter's or sister's child, his
property did not go to the latter but escheated to the Caliph
(i.e. was taken over by the Caliph). In 896 A.D. the Caliph
Mutazid Billah abolished this cruel rule, and laid down that in
the absence of sharers and agnates (Asabah) the uterine
relations should succeed. And this has remained the law
ever since.

(Ibid)

But even after this half-hearted amendment, the uterine relations
are placed in the last category, and it is only in the absence
of sharers, agnates and (even) the emancipated that they
receive any share in the inheritance.

(Ibid, p.68)

Thus this ablest monarch of the House of 'Abbas contrived
to silence Muhammad Nafs al-Zakiyya by alleging that Imam Hasan
had sold his right of Khilafat; and then by an ingenious reversion
to pre-Islamic custom, disinherited all descendants of Fatima
for ever! But, as Ameer Ali has pointed out, descendants of Fatima
were also descendants of Ali who, as the son of Abu Talib, was
'agnate relative' of the Holy Prophet (connected to him by
male relation)!

This is not the place to explain why Imam Hasan entered into treaty
with Mu'awiya; nor do I want to comment upon the claim made by
Muhammad Nafs al-Zakiyya that he was entitled to Khilafat because
he was a descendant of Fatima.

The Imamate is based not on inheritance, but on Appointment
by Allah through the Holy Prophet or the preceding Imam.
Muhammad Nafs al-Zakiyya based his claim on falsity, and Mansur
tried to answer him with a bigger falsity.

But in this conflict, the real sufferer proved to be Imam Hasan
whose sacred name was made the object of the false propaganda
that he married a woman today and divorced another tomorrow.

Bani Umayya had established a full-fledged department to fabricate
ahadith to smear the names of AhI al-bayt.
But they were not as successful in their endeavours as Mansur
was.

His rule of inheritance by agnates is still followed by the Sunni
schools of Law; and his propaganda against Imam Hasan has even
found its way into some Shi'a books.

Let us now look at these reports:

Some have reported 70 wives. Others have increased the number
to 90. Still others have said 250 wives! The highest number is
300!

The first report of 70 wives is given by Abu'l-Hasan Ali ibn
Abdullah Al-Basri Al-Mada'ini, who died in 225 A.H. This man was
a partisan of Bani Umayya - he was a freed slave of Sumra ibn
Habib, an Umayyad.

Ubn Adi has said of him: He is not strong in Hadith. (Mizan
al-I 'tidal, Vol.2, p.232, Lisan al-Mizan, Vol.4, p.253)

This Madaini does not say from where he got this number of 70.

The second report of 90 wives appears in Nur al-Absar of
Shablanji who died in 1298 AH.

Reports of 250 and 300 wives are found in Quwwat al-Qulub (Vol.
2, p.246) of Abu Talib Makki who died in 380 A.H. He writes:

Hasan ibn Ali married 250 wives; and it is said that 300
wives. Ali was very much annoyed and grieved by it, because when
Hasan divorced a woman, Ali felt embarrassment before her family.
Ali used to say that 'Hasan is habitual divorcer; you people
should not give your daughters to him. Then a man from the
tribe of Hamdan said:

'O amir al-Mu'minin, by God, we will give him our daughters; and
he may retain whomsoever he wishes and may divorce whomsoever
he dislikes.' Hearing it, Ali was very much pleased and recited
the following poem:

If I would be in-charge of any gate of Paradise I would
tell the tribe of Hamdan, 'Enter into Paradise with peace.

Imam Hasan had likeness of the Prophet in facial features
as well as in manners and character. The Holy Prophet told him,
'O Hasan, you are like me in features and character and manners.'
Also he said, 'Hasan is from me and Husain is from Ali.'

Hasan, often married 4 wives in one sitting and then divorced
4 wives in one sitting.

Now this man Abu Talib had become mad at the time of writing this
book Quwwat al-Qulub. He went to Baghdad and people came
to see him. When they heard his senseless talk, all went away,
and avoided him. One of his savings of that time is that None
is more harmful for the people than their Creator. The scolars
have frankly said that he has written many things in that book
which have no foundation at all.

These were the original reporters. All those who came after them
have blindly copied from their books.

The fact is that it was impossible for Imam Hasan to marry so
many wives even if he wanted to. All the narrations imply that
he started this alleged pursuit of pleasure during the Khilafat
of his father in Kufa. Ali came to Kufa in 37 Hijra. Imam Hasan
had at least three wives in Kufa.

Khawal Fazariya, who was the mother of Hasan Muthanna (the
grandfather of Muhammad Nafs al-Zakiyya). She survived Imam
Hasan. This marriage had taken place in Medina.

Umm Ishaq bint Talha. She was the mother of Husain Athram,
Talha and Fatima. This marriage also had taken place in Medina.
She survived Imam Hasan; and was later married to Imam Husain.

Ju'da bint Ash-ath. This marriage took place in Kufa and she
also survived Imam Hasan. (She poisoned him on instigation
of Mu'aviya.)

Islam allows a man to marry up to four women at any given time.
As Imam Hasan already had three wives, who were with him up to
the last day of his life, he could marry only one more woman at
any time.

Bearing in mind this limitation, one can only regard the statement
of Quwwat al-Qulub with amusement: Often he (Imam Hasan)
married 4 wives in one sitting and then divorced them in one
sitting. How could he marry 4 wives in one sitting when
he already had 3 wives?

Now suppose that he married a fourth wife, and then divorced her.
As long as that divorced wife was in 'idda (period of probation,
normally 3 months) she was counted legally his wife, and Imam
Hasan could not marry another wife before expiry of her 'idda.

Let us, now, suppose that he married a woman. As divorce cannot
be given in a month in which co-habitation has taken place, the
earliest that that wife could be divorced was in next month; her
'idda continued for 3 months. Thus, four months passed before
Imam Hasan could be free to marry another wife. One wife in four
months gives us a maximum of 3 wives in a year. Supposing that
Imam Hasan had no other work except marrying and divorcing, as
Mansur said, and if we count from 37 A.H. up to his martyrdom
at the beginning of 51 A.H. to get a period of 14 years, this
will give us a maximum number of 42 possible marriages.

And the minimum alleged by these scholars is 70 wives!

After this clarification, there is no need for further comment
upon these reports. Yet it is worthwhile to examine these reports
a little more in order to show how absolutely unreliable they
are.

Abu Talib Makki says: Ali used to say that Hasan is a habitual
divorcer; do not give him your daughters. The question is,
why Ali told people in public not to give Hasan their daughters?
Had he, first, told Hasan not to divorce so much? If so, did Hasan
disobey him? Nobody says that Hasan was, God forbid, a disobedient
son. Even Abu Talib Makki admits that Hasan was like the Holy
Prophet in facial features and in manners and character. Can a
disobedient son be universally accepted as having the character
and manner of the Holy Prophet?

Or did Ali forbid people in public without first trying to restrain
Hasan from this alleged behaviour?

Can Ali be expected to do such a childish thing, degrading his
heir-apparent in public, without first advising him accordingly?
As both alternatives lead to absurdity, the only conclusion remains
that this report was forged by someone who wanted to discredit
both Ali and Hasan by one fabrication.

The most amusing is the report of aforementioned Abu'l-Hasan al-Mada'ini
who says: When Hasan died, all his former wives came out
in a group in his funeral procession, with open heads and bare
feet, and they were shouting We are the wives of Hasan!

Who has ever heard of such a procession in Islamic society? What
was the sense in shouting 'we are the wives of Hasan'? And how
did their husbands of that time allow them to form that comic
procession?

It will be interesting to see the gradual development of this
propaganda.

First comes Mansur, in 144 A.H., declaring that Imam Hasan was
'marrying one woman today, divorcing another tomorrow.'

Then comes al-Mada'ini (died 225 A.H.) who gives a specific number
of 70 and produces the procession of those divorced wives at the
funeral.

Then al-Kafi (compiled in 326 A.H.) gives two Ahadith' that Imam
Hasan divorced very much.

Then comes Abu Talib Makki (380 A.H.) who thought that 70 was
not consistent with 'marrying a woman one day and divorcing another
tomorrow'; so he increased the number to 250; still his mathematics
was not satisfied, so he quoted an unknown source and finally
said '300'.

Lastly comes the French historian, H. Lammens, who writes in 'Shorter
Encyclopaedia of Islam':

He (Imam Hasan) spent the best part of his youth
in making and unmaking marriages; about a hundred are enumerated.
(Remember that Mansur had alleged this to happen after the
treaty with Mu'awiya in the last ten years of Imam Hasan's life
But this 'historian' antidates it to his youth! And so far as
enumeration is concerned, only 14 are enumerated, not 100 as he
alleges.) These easy morals earned him the title mitlak 'the
divorcer' and involved Ali in severe enmities. (Now,
on what authority this 'historian' has made this fantastic assertion?
No evidence can be produced to support this allegation.)

In another place he writes: that Imam Hasan proved that he was
very extravagant. He built separate houses for all those wives;
each had her retinue of servants and attendants. Even during the
Khilafat of Ali when there was hardship and strict financial
control, he used to spend money in the same way.

Did Rev. H. Lammens produce even a fabricated Hadith or report
to show that Imam Hasan had built separate houses for all those
(100!) wives with all the paraphernalia which he so willingly
enumerates? The answer is 'NO'. It is just the product of his
fertile imagination. It is these people who take upon themselves
the task of producing 'authentic' history of Islam for the receptive
minds of Westerners!

Published by the Muhammadi Trust of Great Britain and Northern Ireland

Reproduced with permission by the Ahlul Bayt Digital Islamic Library Project
team