One of the baseless elements of character assassination that the enemies of the Holy Ahlul Bait (a.s.) use to attack them is the fantasy of multiple wives of Imam Hasan (a.s.)
They claim that Imam Hasan (a.s.) was a serial divorcer and due to this Imam Ali (a.s.) announced that ‘Do not marry Hasan, he divorces a lot.’
Reply
1. Why didn’t enemies counter?
2. Where are these mysterious wives…and children?
3. Allah likes marriage, dislikes divorce
4. How can Imam Hasan (a.s.) disobey his father’s instruction?
5. Excessive marriages not encouraged
6. Traditions on multiple marriages are unreliable
7. Why not ‘contract marriages’?
8. What about Adalat-e-Sahabah?
9. Defending Mughairah Ibn Shobah, why not Imam Hasan (a.s.)?
Clearly, this is an allegation concocted by the enemies like Banu Abbas to defame and attack the character of Imam Hasan (a.s.) in particular, and of the Ahle Bait (a.s.) in general. This way, they wanted to weaken the position of Ahle Bait (a.s.) and build a case for their own caliphate.
According to the opponents Imam Hasan (a.s.) had 700 / 400 / 300 / 250 / 150 / 90 / 70 wives and that his divorced wives participated barefoot in his funeral stating that they were the wives of Imam Hasan (a.s.).
The stories of Imam Hasan’s (a.s.) multiple marriages / divorces are baseless as evident from our arguments:
Back to Top 1. Why didn’t enemies counter?
Nothing about Imam Hasan’s (a.s.) multiple marriages / divorces is evident in the arguments of enemies like Muawiyah, against him. These were the enemies who were looking for the most trivial objections to counter Imam Hasan (a.s.). Had these allegations of Imam’s (a.s.) serial divorces been an established fact, they would have used it to challenge Imam (a.s.) in debates and arguments, many of which are documented in books like Behar al-Anwar and Al-Ehtejaj.
Back to Top 2. Where are these mysterious wives…and children?
The count of Imam’s (a.s.) children does not correspond to the large number of wives claimed by the sceptics. If Imam Hasan (a.s.) had as many wives as claimed, the number of his children would have been close to the number of his wives if not more.
Also, a famous and well-researched personality like Imam Hasan (a.s.) would not have passed through history without a detailed documenting of his 70 – 700 wives’ names, their tribes and genealogy – topics which are of great interest to Arabs. Like the many wives of Holy Prophet (s.a.w.a.) are well-known with names and genealogy, historians would have adopted the same approach for the grandson of the Prophet (s.a.w.a.). But apart from a couple of marriages, there is no recording of the serial marriages and divorces.
Back to Top 3. Allah likes marriage, dislikes divorce
As far as the statement of Imam Ali (a.s.) goes – Hasan (a.s.) is a serial divorcer, do not marry him or the like, these cannot be accepted due to various reasons:
Allah dislikes divorce and it is not accepted from a believer that he exceeds in an act which is disliked by Allah, let alone this being even imagined for a divine Imam and one of the two Chiefs of Youths of Paradise.
Imam Jafar Sadiq (a.s.) says that: Allah loves a house in which there is a marriage and hates the house in which there is divorce and there is nothing that Allah dislikes more than divorce.
He (a.s.) also says: There is nothing permissible which Allah hates other than divorce.
- Wasail al-Shia v 15 p 267
- Al-Kafi v 2 p 96
Back to Top 4. How can Imam Hasan (a.s.) disobey his father’s instruction?
It is strange that Imam Ali (a.s.) is announcing this matter in public and asking people not to give their daughters in marriage to Imam Hasan (a.s.)? Why is he not admonishing his own son against these multiple marriages / divorces in private, which is the correct way according to many traditions of Imam Ali (a.s.) himself? If despite Imam Ali’s (a.s.) exhortations, Imam Hasan (a.s.) still married / divorced multiple times, then surely he (a.s.) has disobeyed the Imam (a.s.) – Allah forbid, an impossibility for the Chiefs of youths of Paradise.
Back to Top 5. Excessive marriages not encouraged
According to traditions, marrying excessively is avoidable and Imam Hasan (a.s.) knows this as well as anyone since his own father has narrated traditions like this:
One who marries many women is engulfed by embarrassment.
- Ghorar al-Hikam trad 10,207
How is it possible for Imam Hasan (a.s.) to ignore the sage advice of his father?
Back to Top 6. Traditions on multiple marriages are unreliable
There are two traditions reported in Shia narrations on Imam Hasan’s (a.s.) multiple divorces, both of which are weak / unreliable.
- Regarding the first tradition of Imam Sadiq (a.s.) – Ali (a.s.) mounted the pulpit of Kufa and said: O people of Kufa, do not marry (your women) with Hasan, he is man who divorces frequently…
There is a narrator in the chain – Muhammad Ibn Ziyad Ibn Isa who is not reliable according to scholars of Rijal like Ayatullah Sayyid Abul Qasim al-Khoi (r.a.) and hence this narration is weak /unreliable. Those who reported this narration mistook this narrator for Muhammad Ibn Abi Umair, who is a reliable person.
- Regarding the second tradition of Imam Sadiq (a.s.) – Hasan Ibn Ali (a.s.) married 50 women! Ali (a.s.) mounted the pulpit of Kufa and said: O people of Kufa, do not marry (your women) with Hasan, he is man who divorces frequently…
There is a narrator in the chain – Yahya Ibn Abil Al-Ola – who is unknown, which makes this narration weak / unreliable.
Back to Top 7. Why not ‘contract marriages’?
Those who allege that Imam Hasan (a.s.) was a serial divorcer are ignoring an important point. If Imam Hasan (a.s.) was really interested in marrying many women, he could have resorted to Muta (contract marriage), an established part of the Sunnah, which would have saved him from needless divorces.
Back to Top 8. What about Adalat-e-Sahabah?
According to Ahle Tasannun, Imam Hasan al-Mujtaba (a.s.) is from al-Khulafa al-Rashideen and for Muslims it is a moment of reflection if one of their caliphs can be a serial divorcer. When Muslims are so alert in defending regular companions like Abu Hurairah, Anas Ibn Malik and Muawiyah on the basis of ‘Adalat-e-Sahabah’, they ought to show even more vigour in defending one of the al-Khulafa al-Rashideen, especially if he also happens to be their Leader in Paradise along with his brother Imam Husain (a.s.).
For the unversed, al-Khulafa al-Rashideen include:
- Abu Bakr
- Umar
- Usman
- Ameerul Momineen, Imam Ali Ibn Abi Talib (a.s.)
- Imam Hasan al-Mujtaba (a.s.)
- Al-Bidayah wa al-Nihayah v 8 p 17
- Al-Ahkam al-Quran v 4 p 1,720 of Abu Bakr Ibn Arabi
- Sharh Sahih Muslim of Nawawi v 12 p 201
- Sharh al-Tahawiyyah p 545
- Faiz al-Qadeer v 2 p 409 of Manawi
Back to Top 9. Defending Mughairah Ibn Shobah, why not Imam Hasan (a.s.)?
It is narrated about Mughairah Ibn Shobah, Muawiyah’s close confidant and trouble-shooter that he married 70 women or even more as he himself admits:
I married 70 times or more than 70 times.
- Sunan al-Baihaqi v 7 p 136
- Silsilah al-Ahadeeth al-Sahihah v 1 p 198
Muslim scholars have advanced many arguments to defend ‘an illustrious companion’ like Mughairah. They claim Prophet Sulaiman (a.s.) also had many wives and to have many wives and children who defend Islam is an honour and so on.
Our question is – where is their defence of Imam Hasan’s (a.s.) ‘reported’ multiple marriages?
The fable of Imam Hasan al-Mujtaba’s (a.s.) multiple divorces must be ruled out based on intellect, weak chain of narrators, historical gaps in listing his wives and children and his stature in Islam as one of the caliphs of Muslims and their Leader in Paradise along with his brother Imam Husain (a.s.).