18 Facts About Hasan al-Askari

Hasan al-Askari is regarded as the eleventh of the Twelve Imams, succeeding his father, Ali al-Hadi.

Hasan al-Askari's life is said to be miraculously prolonged until the day he manifests himself again by God's permission to fill the earth with justice.

Hasan al-Askari was born in Medina, though Donaldson has cast doubt on this, as he is uncertain between Medina and Samarra.

Hasan al-Askari's father was the tenth Shia Imam, Ali al-Hadi, and his mother was a freed slave, whose name is variously given as Hudayth, Susan, or Salil in different sources.

At the age of about two, Hasan al-Askari was brought to Samarra with his father in 233 or 234 AH, where the latter was held under close surveillance by the Abbasid caliphs until his death in 254, some twenty years later.

When Hasan al-Askari was about twenty-two, an agent of his father is said to have providentially bought a Byzantine concubine, named Narjis, who was given to Hasan al-Askari in marriage, and later bore him his only son.

In 254 AH, when al-Hadi died and Hasan al-Askari succeeded his father, Hasan al-Askari enjoyed relative freedom and lived in his own home, despite the restrictions imposed on his activities.

At the age of about twenty-eight, Hasan al-Askari died on 1 or 8 Rabi' al-Awwal 260 AH after a week-long illness.

However, considering that Hasan al-Askari did not have an obvious heir, Tabatabai maintains that the caliph intended to closely monitor the Imam and later continued to search for his offspring after his death.

The imamate of Hasan al-Askari began in 868 and lasted only about six years, overlapping with the caliphates of the Abbasid al-Mu'tazz, al-Muhtadi, and al-Mu'tamid.

Tabatabai and Sachedina write that Hasan al-Askari was not allowed any social contact with the general Shia population.

The representatives were responsible for administering Shia affairs and collecting religious funds, although agents such as Ibrahim ibn Hilal Abartai had deviated from the Imam's command, and for this reason, Hasan al-Askari had written a letter, disowning him, and cursing him.

Yet others accepted the imamate of Ja'far ibn Ali al-Hadi, another brother of Hasan al-Askari, who had earlier unsuccessfully claimed the imamate for himself after the death of their father, al-Hadi.

The group that went on to become the Twelvers largely held that Hasan al-Askari had a son, named Abu al-Qasim Muhammad, same name as the prophet.

Hasan al-Askari was not seen publicly afterwards and entered a state of occultation for the fear of persecution.

For example, in a hadith from Hasan al-Askari, emphasis has been placed on having good suspicion of God and in relation to fear, in another hadith, belittling sin has been severely criticized: "Among the sins that are not forgivable is that a person thinks about a sin and wishes that he were not held accountable except for it".

Hasan al-Askari says: "There is no calamity except that God has a blessing in it that encompasses that calamity".

Also Day and Night, a book by Al-Fadl ibn Shadhan, which was a jurisprudential text regarding religious practices day and night, is said to have reached the opinion of Hasan al-Askari and was approved by him.