Visions of the Beloved ﷺ Part 2: The resemblance of Imam al-Hasan

Kulayb narrates that he heard Abu Hurayra say that ‘The Messenger of Allah ﷺ said:

“Whoever sees me in a dream has truly seen me because Satan cannot impersonate me.” ‘

Kulayb then said ‘I related this to Ibn Abbas and I said to him, “I saw him (The Messenger of Allah ﷺ) in my dream and I remembered Hasan ibn Ali…He resembles him!”.

Ibn Abbas said ‘Indeed he does!’.

Sham’ail al-Tirmidhi (Hadith 409)

Abu Hurayra and Ibn Abbas were companions of the Messenger of Allah ﷺ however the one who saw the dream (Kulayb) was not a companion. He had not seen the Prophet ﷺ in person however he had seen Imam al-Hasan (the grandson of the Prophet ﷺ). From this Hadith and several others, we learn that Imam al-Hasan resembled the Prophet ﷺ in appearance.

In a famous narration, Imam Ali (the father of al-Hasan and al-Husayn) said:

Al-Hasan resembles The Messenger of Allah ﷺ from head to chest and al-Husayn resembles the Prophet ﷺ in what is below that.

Tirmidhi and Ibn Hibban

Sayiduna Anas bin Malik said:

There is nobody who resembles The Prophet ﷺ more than Hasan bin Ali.

Bukhari

There is also a wonderful incident where we see Sayiduna Abu Bakr and Sayiduna Ali sharing a light hearted moment regarding al-Hasan:

Uqba bin Al-Harith said that:

I saw Abu Bakr whilst he was carrying al-Hasan and he was saying:

“May my father be sacrificed for you; you resemble the Prophet and you don’t resemble Ali!”

And (upon hearing this) Ali was laughing.’

Bukhari

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