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 Al-Hassan |
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| Al-Hassan
was the eldest grandson of the Prophet Muhammad (p.b.u.h). The Prophet’s daughter
Fatima, gave birth to her son during the holy month of Ramadan, and with her father by her
side. Prophet Muhammad (p.b.u.h) named the new-born Al-Hassan which means, when translated
into English, ‘the beautiful’. After the assassination of his father ‘Ali ibn Abi Talib at the mosque of Kufa, Al-Hassan succeeded him to become the fifth Caliph and the second Imam. However his Caliphate lasted only six months due to the growing strength of Mu’awiyah, the Umayyad governor of Damascus. Al-Hassan died some eight years after his abdication, in the city of al-Medina al-Munawwara. The descendants of Al-Hassan are known as "Sharifs" and King Hussein bin Talal is the head of the Sharifian branch of the Hashemite lineage, representing the forty-second generation of direct male descents from the Prophet Muhammad (p.b.u.h). |
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