SECTION 4

 

AL-MUHASSAN IN TEXTS AND LEGACIES

 

 

Did al-Muhassan Die Young?!

 

It is obvious that the subject of killing al-Muhassan embarrasses the scholars and dignitaries of a huge proportion of the Muslims who hold allegiance to those who played a part to what al-Zahra’ (A.S.) had to go through. Yes, it will embarrass them and those who follow or support them. And it will embarrass them in the fields of debates and deduction with others.

For this reason, they felt they had to find a solution for this problem which they face. Some of them tried to deny the existence of al-Muhassan altogether. `Omer Aba al-Nasr has said, “Historians have disputed about his existence, as we have already stated, although al-Ya`qabi and al-Mas`adi and others emphasize his existence.”^[1]

He goes to add saying, “Some historians deny the existence of al-Muhassan, but others, such as al-Mas`adi and Abul Fida’, emphasize it.”^[2]

You may find few and rare allusions like this which we would not like to trace. Since this denial is considered as a serious risk, and it has no sufficient justifications to insist on it, also there is no room to deny that an attack was launched on the house of al-Zahra’ (A.S.) then the Commander of the Faithful Ali (A.S.) was taken out by force from that house, the eyes were directed to other attempts of a different nature aiming at distancing the ghost and means of violence from the reach of the mentality of ordinary people.

One of the manifestations of such a trend is that a group of people have preferred to remain silent with regard to mentioning the name of al-Muhassan with the ability to seek an excuse for such silence by saying that it touches upon discussing who from among Fatima’s offspring lived and who did not. But all of this was never sufficient to reap the anticipated results.

The existence of al-Muhassan among the offspring of al-Zahra’ (A.S.) is like the fire lit in a lighthouse or the sun at midday. It is not easy to ignore or deny it. Some people resorted to distancing the allegations from those who caused the killing of this oppressed fetus and dared to insult the Head of the Women of Mankind. They did so in a clever way which implies a denial and invalidates the story that a miscarriage took place by denying the subject altogether.

So they claimed that Muhassan was born during the lifetime of the Prophet (A.S.); therefore, the Prophet (A.S.) named him “Muhassan.” And they mention a way to support their claim which does not attach any insult to Ali (A.S.). Their narrative demonstrates the insistence of Ali (A.S.) three times to name the newborn “Harb,” but the Prophet (A.S.) insisted otherwise. This gives the impression that Ali (A.S.) used to live the mentality of a warrior who thinks of nothing else but war. The apparent unintentional result is that Ali (A.S.) used to kill people during the wars and he had such an urge to kill them.

The issue, then, was not the issue of a sacrifice, of a scapegoat, of the desire to serve the creed as prompted by the divine obligation, so people’s hatred towards Ali (A.S.) would become quite justified.

No matter what, Ibn Shahr ashab al-Mazandarani regarded the claim that al-Muhassan was born during the lifetime of the Prophet (A.S.) as a lowly claim put forth by bad people prompted by stubbornness. Says he, “A group of bad people were carried away by their own stubbornness to the extent that they said that Abu Bakr was more courageous than Ali (A.S.), and that Marhab was killed by Muhammed ibn Maslamah, and that Thu al-Thadya was killed Egypt, and that during the mission to convey Surat Bara’a, Abu Bakr was in charge over Ali (A.S.). Some may even say that it was Anas ibn Malik who conveyed it, and that Muhassan was born by Fatima (A.S.) during the lifetime of the Prophet (A.S.) in a miscarriage, and that the Prophet (A.S.)..., etc. Anyone who makes falsehood his conveyance will get his foot to slip from the Straight Path: “And Satan made their deeds fair-seeming to them, so he kept them back from the Path, though they were endowed with intelligence and skill” (Qur’an, 29:38). Some openly expressed their enmity to Ali (A.S.).^[3]

Thus, it becomes quite obvious that these folks who attempted to coordinate the miscarriage of al-Muhassan with the others (responsible for it) being above doubt, being too pious and too great to commit such a crime. They, therefore, decided that there was, undoubtedly, a miscarriage, but it took place during the lifetime of the Prophet (A.S.).

Then comes the narrative, which they label as authentic, to underscore such a conclusion by saying,