The Final Prophet by Mohammad Elshinawy

Abū Bakrah al-Thaqafī  narrated that the Prophet Muhammad صلى الله عليه وسلم brought his grandson al-Ḥasan  out one day and ascended with him to the pulpit. Then, he صلى الله عليه وسلم said, “This son of mine is a chief, and perhaps Allah will use him to reconcile between two factions of Muslims.”301 In truth, al-Ḥasan singlehandedly mended a long and tragic split between the Muslims of Kufa and those of Shām upon becoming caliph, by abdicating his caliphate to Mu‘āwiyah ibn Abī Sufyān . In doing so, he unified two great factions of believers and allowed the progress of Islam to regain its momentum for decades. The Prophet صلى الله عليه وسلم also foretold that, at this precise point, the Muslim nation would transition from a caliphate to a monarchy. “The caliphate will be for thirty years, then there will be a monarchy after that.”302 Abū Bakr ruled for approximately two years, then ‘Umar for ten, then ‘Uthmān for twelve, then ‘Alī for five, before al-Ḥasan within months abdicated it to Mu‘āwiyah who founded the Omayyad dynasty. Ibn al-‘Arabī (d. 1148) says, “And the promise of the Truthful صلى الله عليه وسلم came to pass… [the period of the caliphate] neither exceeded nor fell short a day, so glory be to the All-Encompassing; there is no other Lord but He.”303