Hassan ibn Thabit

Hassan bin Thabit Hassan bin Thabit bin Al-Mundhir bin Haram bin Amr bin Zaid Manat bin Adi bin Amr bin Malik bin Al-Najjar. His name is Taim Allah, ibn Tha`labah ibn Amr ibn al-Khazraj, Al-Ansari al-Khazraji, then from Banu Malik ibn al-Najjar. He was known by the kunya Abu al-Walid; according to another report, Abu Abd al-Rahman; in another account, Abu al-Hussam, for his struggle on behalf of the Messenger of Allah ﷺ, and for cutting off the honor of the polytheists, and his mother: Al-Fura'i'ah bint Khalid ibn Khans (1) ibn Luthan ibn Abd Wad ibn Zaid ibn Tha'labah ibn al-Khazraj. Ibn Ka'b Ibn Sa'idah Al-Ansariyya, he is called: The poet of the Messenger of Allah ﷺ. Aisha described the Messenger of Allah ﷺ, and said: By Allah, he was as Hassan said about him: (2) When his forehead appears in the brute of a wild beast... it shines like a burning lamp of darkness. Whoever he is or whoever is will be like Ahmad... an infliction of truth or punishment.

For atheists, the Messenger of Allah ﷺ, would set up a pulpit for him in the mosque. He would stand on it and brag about the Messenger of Allah ﷺ, and the Messenger of Allah ﷺ would say: Allah supports Hassan with the Holy Spirit, as long as he does not defend himself on behalf of the Messenger of Allah ﷺ. It was narrated that those who used to satirize the Messenger of Allah ﷺ, were among the polytheists of Quraysh: Abu Sufyan bin Al-Harith bin Abdul Muttalib, Abdullah bin Al-Zabari, Amr bin Al-Aas, and Dirar bin Al-Khattab. Someone said to Ali bin Abi Talib, peace be upon him, "I am against the people who are making fun of us." He said, "If the Messenger of Allah ﷺ, permits, I will do so." Then the Messenger of Allah ﷺ said, "Ali does not have anything to do with that." Then he said: What prevents the people who supported the Messenger of Allah ﷺ, with their swords, from supporting him with their tongues?.

Hassan said: I am hers. He took the tip of his tongue and said: By Allah, I am not pleased with a saying between Busra and Sana'a. The Messenger of Allah ﷺ, said: How do you satirize them when I am one of them? How do you satirize Abu Sufyan, who is my cousin? He said: O Messenger of Allah, I will draw you from them as a hair is drawn from dough. So he said: Go to Abu Bakr, for he is more knowledgeable about the people's genealogies than you are. So he would go to Abu Bakr, peace be upon him, to inform him about their lineages. He would say to him: Stop talking about so-and-so and so-and-so, and mention so-and-so and so-and-so. So he began to satirize them, and when the Quraysh heard Hassan's poetry, they said: This is poetry that Ibn Abi Quhafa had missed. From what Hassan said about Abu Sufyan bin Al-Harith (4): And the hump of glory is from the family of Hashim...

the sons of Bint Makhzum and your father Al-Abd, and from among them Zahra's children were born... honorable and he did not come close to your old women. You are not like Abbas nor like his mother's son... but a mean person whose pride will not be held accountable (5) and that a woman was His mother's sumaya… and Samra' Mughuz (6) If he reached the effort. When this poetry reached Abu Sufyan, he said: This is poetry that Ibn Abi Quhafa did not ignore.

By his saying, Bint Makhzum, he means: Fatima bint Amr bin Aidh bin Imran bin Makhzum. She is the mother of Abu Talib, Abdullah, and Al-Zubayr, the sons of Abdul Muttalib, and by his saying: And of whom Zahra bore children among them, he means Hamza and Safiya, their mother: Hala bint Wahib bin Abd Manaf bin Zahra, and by his saying: Abbas and his mother's son, who is Dirar bin Abdul Muttalib, their mother: Natila, a woman from Al-Nimr bin Qasit, Somaya was the mother of Abu Sufyan, and Samarra was the mother of his father Al-Harith. Ibn Sirin said: He was assigned to attack the Messenger of Allah ﷺ, from the polytheists from among us and others. Three of the Ansar were assigned to attack the polytheists: Hassan, Ka'b ibn Malik, and Abdullah ibn Rawaha.

Hassan and Ka'b would oppose them, as they said about incidents, days, and deeds, and mention their shortcomings, and Abdullah ibn Rawaha used to reproach them for disbelief and for worshiping what is not heard or useful. His statement is the easiest statement for them, and the statement of Hassan and Ka'b was the harshest statement for them, and when they converted to Islam and understood jurisprudence, the statement of Abdullah was the harshest statement for them. Omar bin Al-Khattab, peace be upon him, forbade singing anything that contradicted the Ansar and the polytheists of Quraysh. He said: This involves cursing the living and the dead, and renewing grudges. Allah destroyed the pre-Islamic era with what came from Islam.

Ibn Duraid said, on the authority of Abu Hatim, on the authority of Abu Ubaidah, he said: Hassan excelled among the poets in three ways: he was the poet of the Ansar in pre-Islamic times, the poet of the Prophet ﷺ in prophethood, and the poet of all of Yemen in Islam (1). Abu Ubaidah said: The Arabs agreed that I should appoint the people of Madar as the people of Yathrib, then Abd al-Qais, then Thaqif, and that I should appoint the people of Madar as Hassan. Al-Asma'i said: Poetry is distressing and strengthens in evil and becomes easy, but if it is included in news, it becomes weak (2). Because this Hassan was one of the most powerful poets in pre-Islamic times, and when Islam came his poetry fell. It was said to Hassan: Because your hair is old, Abu Al-Hussam, so he said to the questioner: O my nephew, Islam prohibits lying.

This means that proficiency in poetry means exaggeration in what one says, which is a lie that Islam forbids, so the poetry does not come out well. Abu al-Fadl al-Mansur ibn Abi al-Hasan ibn Abi Abdullah al-Tabari, the Shafi'i jurist, informed us with his chain of transmission to Ahmad ibn Ali ibn al-Muthanna, he said: Hawtharah told us, Hammad ibn Salamah informed us, on the authority of Hisham, on the authority of his father: The Messenger of Allah ﷺ, flogged those who said to Aisha what they did not say, eighty: Hassan ibn Thabit, Mustah ibn Athathah, and Hamnah bint A colt.

Hassan was among those who delved into the Ifk. He was flogged about it according to what some of them said, and some people denied that. They said: Aisha was in the circumambulation, and with her was Umm Hakim bint (3) Khaled bin Al-Aas, and Umm Hakim bint Abdullah bin Abi Rabia, so they mentioned Hassan bin Thabit and cursed him, and Aisha said: I hope that Allah will admit him to Paradise by telling him about the Prophet ﷺ with his tongue. Isn't it the one who said: