Biography of Hassan ibn Thabit, the poet of the Prophet

The two sheikhs concurred on nine hadiths; al-Bukhari is alone on four hadiths, and Muslim on nine.

No. 106: Hassan ibn Thabit ibn al-Mundhir ibn Haram al-Ansari, may Allah be pleased with him, ibn Amr ibn Zayd Manat ibn Adi ibn Amr ibn Malik ibn al-Najjar.

The master of the poets of the believers, supported by the Spirit of holiness.

Abu al-Walid, and it is said: Abu al-Husam, al-Ansari, al-Khazraji, al-Najjari, Medinan, son of al-Furay'a.

Poet of the Messenger of Allah, peace and the salutation of Allah be upon him, and his companion.

The narrators of Hassan ibn Thabit, the poet of the Prophet

Those who narrated from him: his son Abd al-Rahman; al-Bara ibn Azib; Sa'id ibn al-Musayyib; Abu Salama; and others.

And his hadiths are few.

Ibn Sa'd said: he lived sixty years in the jahiliyya and sixty in Islam.

Ibn Sa'd said, from al-Waqidi:

He witnessed no battle with the Prophet, peace and the salutation of Allah be upon him: he was a coward; his mother is al-Furay'a bint Khunays.

Muslim said: his kunya is Abu Abd al-Rahman.

And it is said: Abu al-Walid.

Ibn Mandah said: those who narrated from him: Umar, Aisha and Abu Hurayra.

Ibn Ishaq said: I asked Sa'id ibn Abd al-Rahman ibn Hassan: how old was Hassan at the time of the Hijra?

He said: sixty years, and the Messenger of Allah emigrated at fifty-three.

Al-Zuhri: from Ibn al-Musayyib, who said:

Hassan was in a circle in which Abu Hurayra was present, and said: "I adjure you by Allah, O Abu Hurayra: did you hear the Messenger of Allah, peace and the salutation of Allah be upon him, say: answer for me, may Allah fortify you with the Spirit of holiness?"

He said: "O Allah, yes."

And Adi ibn Thabit narrated, from al-Bara:

That the Messenger of Allah said to Hassan: "Satirize them, and Jibril is with you."

Sa'id ibn al-Musayyib said: Umar passed by Hassan while he was reciting poetry in the mosque, and glanced at him reproachfully.

Hassan said: "I used to recite in this place, and in this place stood one better than you."

He said: "You have spoken truly."

Ibn Abi al-Zinad: from his father, from Urwa, from Aisha, who said:

The Prophet, peace and the salutation of Allah be upon him, would set up for Hassan a minbar in the mosque; a man would stand upon it, defending the Messenger of Allah, peace and the salutation of Allah be upon him;

and the Messenger of Allah would say: "Allah supports Hassan with the Spirit of holiness as long as he defends the Messenger of Allah, peace and the salutation of Allah be upon him."

Abu Dawud and al-Tirmidhi reported it.

Mujalid: from Amir, from Jabir, who said:

On the day of the Confederates, the Prophet, peace and the salutation of Allah be upon him, said: "Who shall guard the honor of the Muslims?"

Ka'b ibn Malik said: I.

And Ibn Rawaha said: I.

And Hassan said: I.

He said: "Yes, you: satirize them, and the Spirit of holiness will aid you against them."

And from Urwa, who said: I rebuked the son of Furay'a before Aisha, and she said:

"O nephew, I had forbidden you to rebuke him: he defended the Messenger of Allah, peace and the salutation of Allah be upon him."

Umar ibn Hawshab: from Ata ibn Abi Rabah, whom he heard saying:

Hassan entered upon Aisha after he had become blind; she set a cushion for him; her brother Abd al-Rahman entered and said:

"You seat him on a cushion, after what he said?", meaning his words at the time of the affair of the lie.

She said: "He answered on behalf of the Messenger of Allah, peace and the salutation of Allah be upon him, and healed his breast of his enemies; he has become blind, and I hope he will not be punished in the hereafter."

It was narrated from Aisha, who said:

The Messenger of Allah came to Medina; Quraysh satirized him, and they satirized the Ansar with him.

The satire against Quraysh

He said to Hassan: "Satirize them; and I fear you will touch me with the satire of my paternal cousins."

He said: "I shall disengage you from them as one pulls a thread from dough; and I have a tongue that reaches further than the spearhead reaches."

Then he put out his tongue and struck his nose with it, as if the tip of a warrior's tongue bore a black mark, then struck his chin with it.

Yahya ibn Ayyub: Umar a ibn Ghaziyya narrated to us; Muhammad ibn Ibrahim al-Timi; from Abu Salama:

Hassan said: "By Him who sent you with the truth, I shall certainly satirize them with this tongue."

Then he showed his tongue, like a serpent's tongue.

The Messenger of Allah, peace and the salutation of Allah be upon him, said: "I have a kinship among them; go to Abu Bakr, for he is the most knowledgeable of Quraysh in their genealogies, and he will distinguish my genealogy for you."

He said: "By Him who sent you with the truth, I shall disengage you, you and your genealogy, as one pulls a thread from dough." He satirized them, and the Messenger of Allah, peace and the salutation of Allah be upon him, said to him: "You have healed, and you have healed."

Muhammad ibn al-Sa'ib ibn Baraka, from his mother:

That she made the circuits with Aisha, with women with her; they came upon Hassan, and she said:

"Do not insult him: he has received what Allah said: those shall have a painful punishment; he has become blind; and by Allah, I hope that Allah will admit him to Paradise for the words he addressed to Abu Sufyan ibn al-Harith:

You satirized Muhammad and I answered for him
And with Allah, in that, lies the recompense
My father, his father and my honor
Are, for the honor of Muhammad, from you, protection
You satirize him and you are no match for him
The worst of you two for the best of you two is the ransom

Umar a ibn Ghaziyya: from Muhammad ibn Ibrahim, from Abu Salama, from Aisha:

The Prophet, peace and the salutation of Allah be upon him, said: "Satirize Quraysh: it is harder upon them than the shower of arrows."

And I heard him say: "Hassan satirized them, and was healed."

Hassan said: "You satirized Muhammad [...]", and he mentioned his verses, among them:

I wept for my little girl, if you do not see her
Raising the dust-cloud: her tryst is as a malady
They vie for the water-skins, mounting
On her shoulders, the watered bamboo reeds
Her steeds remain beneath the rainfall
The women rub them with veils
If you turned away from us, we would make the umra
And the conquest would come, and the veil lifted
Else be patient, for the blows of a day
Wherein Allah honors whom He wills
And Allah said: I have sent a servant
Who speaks the truth: nothing of it is hidden
And Allah said: I have set an army marching
The Ansar: its display is the encounter
They face every day, from Ma'add
Insults, or fighting, or satire
Who of you satirizes the Messenger of Allah
And praises him and aids him: the same?
And Jibril, the messenger of Allah among us
And the Spirit of holiness: none is his match

Abu al-Duha: from Masruq, who said:

I was with Aisha; Hassan entered, after he had become blind, and said:

A blunt heir, what have you weighed of equivocation
And you become down of the flesh of the old men

She said: "But you, you are not such."

I said to her: "You permit him, while Allah has said: and whoever of them turns away in pride from him shall have a grievous punishment" (Surah al-Nur, verse 11)?

She said: "And what punishment is harder than blindness?"

She said: "He defended, or satirized on behalf of the Messenger of Allah, peace and the salutation of Allah be upon him."

And from Aisha, from the Prophet, peace and the salutation of Allah be upon him, concerning Hassan: "None loves him but a believer, and none hates him but a hypocrite."

This hadith is strange, from the Musnad of al-Ruyani, by the route of Abu Thumama, unknown, from Umar ibn Isma'il, unknown, from Hisham ibn Urwa.

It has a slight support: al-Waqidi narrated it, from Sa'id ibn Abi Zayd al-Ansari, from a man, from Abu Ubayda ibn Abd Allah ibn Zam'a: Hamza ibn Abd Allah ibn Umar heard Aisha say:

I heard the Messenger of Allah, peace and the salutation of Allah be upon him, say: "Hassan is a district between the believers and the hypocrites: no hypocrite loves him, and no believer hates him."

This wording is the closest.

There remains a third part, loving him, of which he was silent.

Hudayj ibn Mu'awiya: from Abu Ishaq, from Sa'id ibn Jubayr, who said:

Ibn Abbas was told: "Hassan the accursed has come!"

Ibn Abbas said: "He is not accursed: he strove with the Messenger of Allah, peace and the salutation of Allah be upon him, with his person and his tongue."

I say: that indicates he campaigned.

'Abda ibn Sulayman: from Abu Hayyan al-Timi, from Habib ibn Abi Thabit, who said: Hassan recited to the Prophet, peace and the salutation of Allah be upon him:

I bear witness, by the permission of Allah, that Muhammad
Is the messenger of Him who is above the heavens, the Most High
And that Abu Yahya and Yahya, both
Have with their Lord a deed accepted
And that the brother of the Ahqaf, when he rose among them
Spoke the word of Allah among them, and rendered justice

The Prophet, peace and the salutation of Allah be upon him, said: "And I."

This account is mursal.

And Abu Ghassan al-Nahdi narrated: Umar ibn Ziyad narrated to us, from Abd al-Malik ibn Ubayr:

Hassan recited to the Prophet, peace and the salutation of Allah be upon him [...] and he mentioned it, and added:

And that He whom the Jews hated, the son of Maryam
Is a prophet come from the Lord of the Throne, sent

Ibn Ishaq said, from Asim ibn Umar and Abd Allah ibn Hazm:

Hassan, when he recited these verses:

The cares denied you sleep at evening
And a shape, when the stars grow mutinous
Of a beloved from whom your heart received
A malady, inward, concealed
O people: can one kill a man like me
Weak of grip, and of bones ill-resolved?
Her lot: perfume, the bed, and high above
Little Lujayn, and pearls strung in necklace
Were the little one of al-Hawli's folk to slip toward her
Every vertebra would weep for her
The sun of day surpassed her in nothing
Save that youth does not endure

Some added:

Full many a clear sight has want beguiled
And much ignorance has ease of life veiled

He called out with the loudest of his voice from atop a high mound: "O sons of Qayla!"

When they gathered, they said: "What ails you, woe to you?"

He said: "I have composed a qasida none of the Arabs has matched."

Then he recited it to them; they said: "For this you gathered us?"

He said: "And can one be patient who has a burning in his breast?"

Al-Asma'i and others: from Ibn Abi al-Zinad, from his father, from Kharija ibn Zayd, who said:

Singing used to take place in the orchards, with none of today's frivolity present; at Banu Nubayt there was an elevated spot where Hassan ibn Thabit sat, his son, grown blind, and two young girls who sang:

Look, my two friends, at the gate of Jilliq: will any
One solace you there, short of the ground of Balqa
Shaggy camels, as they departed the prison
Between the sand-heaps and the trail

Hassan began to weep, and this is his poetry; and his son said to the girl: "Listen."

And in it:

They bear gazelles of eyes, sporting in the torrent-bed
Fair of face, like hailstones
Before them Busra, behind them the mountain of snow
Upon it the clouds, like tent-cloths
And the camels, when they are brought near their place of slaughter
A Yemenite ruminant, striving
I have not broken the pact since I knew you
Nor loved, of my love, anyone but you
I love the talk of companions in the clear morn
And the voice of the evening suitor, warbling

Hassan rejoiced and wept.

Ibn al-Kalbi said: Hassan was brave, valiant; then an illness brought cowardice upon him.

Sulayman ibn Yasar said: I saw Hassan with a forelock he let hang between his two eyes.

Ishaq al-Farwi and others: from Umm Urwa bint Ja'far ibn al-Zubayr ibn al-Awwam, from her father, from her grandfather, who said:

When the Messenger of Allah, peace and the salutation of Allah be upon him, left his wives on the day of Uhud, he left them in a high house, among them Safiyya bint Abd al-Muttalib, and he left Hassan among them; a man of the polytheists advanced to enter upon them.

Safiyya said to Hassan: "The man is your concern."

He cowered and refused her; she took the sword and struck the polytheist until she killed him; the Prophet was informed, and a mark was struck for her by an arrow.

And al-Farwi added that he said: "Had that been in me, I would have been with the Messenger of Allah."

She said: "I cut off his head, and said to Hassan: rise and throw it at the Jews who are below the fortress."

He said: "By Allah, that is not in me."

I took his head and cast it at them; they said: "We know, by Allah, that this one would not leave his people unprotected, with no one with them"; and they dispersed.

His words "on the day of Uhud" are an error.

Its like was narrated by Ibn Ishaq: Yahya ibn Abbad narrated to us, from his father, and in it:

She said to Hassan: "Rise and strip him: I am a woman and he is a man."

He said: "I have no need to strip him, O daughter of Abd al-Muttalib."

And Yunus ibn Bukayr narrated, from Hisham, from his father, from Safiyya: its like.

The death of Hassan ibn Thabit, the poet of the Prophet

Ibn Ishaq said: Hassan died in the year fifty-four.