Peace Treaty

:Sheykh Radi al-Yasin

2012/07/29

1295

A group of the historians such as al-Tabari and b. al-Athir has narrated the following: "Indeed Mu'awiya had sent Al-Hasan a blank page. In the bottom of the page, there were his stamps." then Mu'awiya wrote Al-Hasan the following:"In this page, whose bottom I have stamped, stipulate whateve you want for that will be for you."1

Then the historians have not mentioned the tradition thoroughly, for they have not mentioned what Al-Hasan, peace be on Him, had wrtiten on Mu'awiya's page. We has studied that available reference books but we have not found the coplete stipulations of al-Hasasn, peace be on Him, except separation bits. The narrators have admitted that these bits are part of a complete subject. Only one writer has mentioned a text with a beginning and an end. He has said that the text is the complete Peace Treaty. However, other reports have refuted many items of this text. Worth mentioning, these reports are better in isnad (chain of narrators) and more in number than this reference.

To be acquinted with the contents of the Peace treaty, we have the right to be satisfied, if we wanted satisfaction, with the narration of the Blank Page (al-Sahifa al-Bayda), as the previous narrators did. That is because they have narrated it briefly. Thus they were satisfied with the summing up stead of the details. That is because carrying out reconciliation was according to the rule: "Stipulate whatever you want, for the will be for you." This means that al-Hassan, peace be on Him, filled the page, which was stamped in the bottom, with various stipulations which he wanted, namely with the conditions that were useful for Him or his family or his Shi'a (followers) or his objectives. So the page had nothing other than these conditions.

If it is impossible, today, for us to know those conditions in details, at least, we know that they they were in the interest of Al-Hasan. That was a certain reuslt, for Al-Hasan, peace be on Him, was free to make conditions.

Unfortunatly, we have not found what Al-Hasan had wrtiten on the Blank page. So it is neccessary for us to collect the separated items from various books to give the most correct and most import from of all reports concerning this Treaty. We have divided the form into items and added each phrase to the appropriate items to be nearer to the reality.

The form of the Peace Treaty the two parties signed is as follows:

Items One:

Handing over authortiy to Mu'awiya
Provided that he should act according to the
Book of Allah, the Sunna (practice) of
His Apostle, may Allah bless Him and his family,2 and the Sira (bahaviour) of the righteous Caliphs.3

Items Two:

Authortiy hould be for Al-Hasan after Him.4 If an accident happened to Him, authortiy should be for his brother al-Husayn.5 Mu'awiya has no right to entrust anybody to it.6

Items Three:

He (Mu'awiya) should abandon cursing the Commander of the faithful and the practice of using the personal prayer (qunut) in the ritual formal prayer (salat) (as prayer) against Him,7 and that he shoud not mention Ali except in a good manner.8

Items Four:

He (Mu'awiya) should excluded what is in the treasury of Kufa, that is five million (dirhams). So handing over authortiy does not include it (ie this sum of money). Mu'awya should send Al-Hasan Husayn one million dirhams a year, he hould prefer the banu (children) of HasHim in giving and gifts to the banu Abd Shams, and hould divide one million (dirhams) among the sons of those who were killed with the Commander of the faithful at Battle of the Camel and the Battle of Siffi, and should spend that from the taxes of Dar Abjard.9

Items Five:

"The people should be safe wherever they are in the earth of Allah; in sham (Syria), Iraq, Hijaz, the Yemen, etc. He should give security to the black and the red (one). He (Mu'awiya) should bear their slips, should not follow some of them for the by gone nor should he punish the Iraqis for hostility."10

"The companions of Ali should be given security wherever they are, that he (Mu'awiya) should not expose the Shi'a of Ali to any evil, that the companions and the Shi'a of Ali, should be given security over their lives, their properties, their women, and their children, nor should he pursue them for a certain thin, nor should he expose to any evil, and that he should give them their rights."11

"He (ie Mu'awiya) should not seed a calamtiy secretly or openly for Al-Hasan b. Ali, nor for his brother al-Husayn, nor for anyone from the family of the Apostle of Allah, nor should he frighten them in any country of the countries."12

The End

Ibn Qutayba al-Daynwari said: "Then Abd Allah b. Amir (ie Mu'awiya's messenger to Al-Hasan, peace be on Him) wrote to Mu'awiya all the conditions which Al-Hasan dictated to Him. So Mu'awiya wrote all that with his own writting and stamped them with his own stamp, confirmed them with certain covenents and strong oath, and made all the leaders of the Syrians bear witness for that. Then he handed them (ie, the conditions) to Abd Allah b. Amir to send them to Al-Hasan."13

Historians other than b. Qutayba al-Daynwari have mentioned the form of the text which Mu'awiya wrote at the end of the Peace Treaty. In the meantime Mu'awiya made a covenents with Allah to fulfill Al-Hasan's conditions.

This form is as follows: "Concerning that, Mu'awiya b. Abu Sufyan is obliged to fulfill the covenents of Allah and His promise, what Allah obligated His creatures to fulfill, and what Allah had given of Himself.14

That was in the middle of the month of Jamadi al-Ula, in the year 41 A.H according to the most authentic reports.

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1 Al-Tabari, Tarikh, vol.6, p.93. Ibn al-Athir, al-Kamil fi al-Tarikh, vol.3, p.162.

2. Ibn Abu al-Haddid, Sharh Nahj alp Balagha, vol.4, p.6.

3. Ibn Aqil, al-Nasa'ih al-Kafiya, p.156. al-Majlisi, Bihar al-Anwar, vol.10, p.115.

4. Al-Sayuti, Tarikh al-Khulafa, p.194. Ibn Kuthayr, al-Bidaya wa al-Nihaya, vol.8, p.41. Ahmed Shaha, al-Din al-Asqalani, al-Isaba fi, Tamiiz al-Shahaba, vol.2, pp.12-13. Ibn Qutayba al-Daynwari, al-Imama wa al-Siyasa, p.150. Farid Wajdi, Da'rat Ma'arif al-Islamiya, vol.3, p.443.

5. Ibn al-Muhanna, Umdat al-Talib, p.52.

6.Ibn, Abu al-Haddid, Sharh Nahj al-Balagha, vol.4, p.8.

Al-Majlisi, Bihar al-Anwar, vol.10, p.115. Ibn al-Sabbbagh, al-fusul al-Munimma.

7. Muhsin al-Amin al-Amili, A,yan al-Shi'a, vol.4, p.43.

8. Abu al-faraj al-Asfahani, Maqatil al-Talibiyyin, p. 26. Ibn Abu al-Haddid, Sharh Nahj al-Balagha, vol.4, p.15.

Other than these two authors said: "Indeed, Al-Hasan asked Mu'awiya not to cure Ali. Howerver, Mu'awiya, disagreed with Him on refraining from curding Him, and agreed with Him on that Ali should not be sureed while he (ie Mu'awiya) hear that." Ibn al-Athir said: "Then Mu'awiya broke that, too."

9. Ibn Qtaya al-Daywari, al0 Imama wa Siyasa, p.200. Al-Tabari, Tarikh, vol.6, p.92. Ibn Babawayh, Ilal al-Sharaiya, p. 81. Ibn Kuthayr al-Bidaya wa al-Nihaya, vol.8, p.14.

Dar Abjard is a town on the borders of Ahwaz in Persia (Iran).

10. Abu al-Faraj al-Asfahani, Maqatil al-Talibiyyin, p. 26. Ibn Abu al-Haddid, Sharh Nahj al-Balagha, vol. 4, p. 15. al-Majlisi, Bihar al-Anwar, vol. 10, pp. 101 and 115. Ibn Qutayba al-Daynwari, al-Imama wa Siyasa, p. 200.
We have quoted each paragraph letter from tis source.

11. Al-Tabari, Tarikh, vol.6, p.97. Ibn al-Athir, al-kamil fi al-Tarikh, vol.3, p.166. Abu al-Faraj al-Asfahani, Maqatil al-Talibiyyin, Bihar al-Anwar, vol.10. p.115. Mohammed b. Ali b. Babawayh, Ilal al-Sharaiya, p.81. Mohammed b. Aqil, al-Nasa'ih al-Kafiya, p.115.